In this episode of Coach2Scale, author, professor, and board advisor Rachel Pacheco joins host Matt Bonelli to unpack one of the most overlooked drivers of sales performance: meaning. Drawing from her research and experience working with fast-scaling startups and MBA students alike, Rachel challenges the myth that salespeople are only motivated by money or perks. Instead, she shows why helping reps find purpose in their day-to-day work leads to deeper engagement, higher productivity, and better retention, and why frontline managers have the greatest influence over that outcome.

You’ll hear practical ways to coach for meaning, how to deliver feedback that builds self-awareness and performance, and why micromanagement isn’t the real problem, meaninglessness is. Rachel shares coaching tactics for time-strapped managers, explains the risks of cookie-cutter motivation strategies, and outlines how structured 1:1s can become high-trust development conversations. Whether you're a CRO, frontline manager, or enablement leader, this episode will help you rethink how to build a culture where performance and purpose go hand-in-hand.

Key Takeaways

1. Meaning is a daily experience, not a grand purpose.
Most employees aren't searching for their “life’s purpose” at work; they’re looking for day-to-day meaning in their tasks, interactions, and progress.

2. Managers play a central role in helping reps find meaning.
It's a myth that meaning is personal and out of a manager’s scope; the way managers structure work, give feedback, and coach reps directly influences how meaningful their work feels.

3. Productivity increases when reps experience more meaning.
Research, including studies by Adam Grant, shows that employees who understand the why behind their work are not only more engaged but also more productive and resilient.

4. Motivation is personal and needs to be customized.
Not all reps are driven by competition or money; some value connection, stability, or mastery, and managers must learn what uniquely drives each individual.

5. Great coaching starts with structured autonomy.
Managers should set clear expectations and outcomes, then give reps the space to figure out the “how”; this autonomy fosters ownership, trust, and greater meaning.

6. Effective feedback is specific, timely, and impact-driven.
Generic praise (“Great job!”) is forgettable; meaningful feedback highlights what was done well, why it mattered, and how it helped the team or business.

7. Constructive feedback is a growth opportunity, not a threat.
Most employees want more feedback, even the tough kind, but managers often avoid it due to discomfort, missing critical chances to drive behavior change.

8. Curiosity is a manager’s superpower.
Asking thoughtful questions helps uncover what motivates each rep, what’s holding them back, and how to connect daily work to a more profound sense of purpose.

9. Coaching isn’t about giving answers; it’s about guiding reflection.
Coaching helps reps build self-awareness, clarify decisions, and reflect on their growth; it’s less about solving problems and more about building capability.

10. Don’t wait for better managers; teach your current ones how to coach.
Many frontline managers were promoted without training; they don’t lack intent, they lack tools. Organizations must invest in teaching them how to lead through coaching.

In this episode, Sean Harvey, CRO at RocketRez, shares a practical framework for building coaching cultures that actually stick. He explains why trust, not tactics, is the starting point for real performance, and how coaching must move beyond pipeline reviews and into intentional skill development. From his early Oracle training to leading teams through hypergrowth and private equity scale-ups, Sean outlines the lessons that shaped his belief in coaching as both a performance lever and a retention strategy.

If you’re still coaching “on the fly” or stuck playing super-rep, this conversation will challenge your assumptions. Sean covers the link between psychological safety and rep engagement, how vulnerability-based trust unlocks real development, and why sustainable growth demands coaching at every level from C-suite to the frontlines. You’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of what coaching is, what it’s not, and how to build a team that stays, grows, and performs.

Key Takeaways

1. Coaching must start at the top to stick long-term
If the C-suite doesn’t model and prioritize coaching, it gets deprioritized the moment short-term pressure hits.

2. Trust is the foundation of any real coaching culture
Reps won't grow unless they believe their manager has their long-term development, not just this quarter’s numbers, in mind.

3. Vulnerability-based trust drives engagement and learning.
Creating psychologically safe spaces where reps can fail and learn openly is what unlocks real skill development.

4. Great managers coach people, not just deals.
Coaching isn’t about saving deals; it’s about building reps who can consistently win without constant intervention.

5. Consistency matters more than intensity.
A lightweight but regular coaching rhythm beats sporadic “inspiration bursts” that vanish under pressure.

6. You can’t scale if you’re only hiring more reps.
Scalability means increasing productivity per rep, which only happens when you build coaching into the operating system.

7. Coaching drives retention, especially in high-talent environments
Reps stay where they feel invested in, especially when they’re being challenged to grow with structure and support.

8. Managers are overwhelmed and under-equipped to coach
Most FLMs were promoted as top reps but were never taught how to develop others; tools and frameworks help close this gap.

9. The best leaders have coaching “trees”
Just like in sports, great coaches produce other great coaches; mentoring others to lead is a force multiplier.

10. Success is compounding when coaching becomes culture
When coaching becomes normalized, teams get better, faster, improving not just results, but predictability.

In this special episode of Coach to Scale, host Matt Benelli takes on a bold challenge: a live cold-call role play with Hyperbound’s AI-powered prospecting bot one of the “rudest bots on the planet.” Joined by Hyperbound co-founder and CEO Sriharsha Guduguntla, Matt puts his skills to the test, showcasing how sales reps can practice real-world scenarios, handle objections, and refine their pitch with real-time coaching. The result? A raw, unfiltered look at what happens when the pressure is on and every word counts.

Listeners will walk away with insights into effective prospecting, the power of permission-based openers, handling resistance with confidence, and how instant AI feedback can accelerate coaching and skill development. Whether you’re a sales leader, manager, or rep looking to sharpen your edge, this episode delivers a front-row seat to practical techniques, lessons learned, and a clear takeaway: you don’t have to love cold calling you just need to practice, improve, and get better every time.

Key Takeaways

1. Practice under pressure matters – Putting yourself in tough role plays with AI bots helps reps simulate real-world challenges and improve faster than passive learning.

2. Instant feedback accelerates growth – AI delivers coaching in real time with detailed scoring criteria, so reps don’t have to wait for a manager’s one-on-one to learn what to improve.

3. Consistency beats comfort – You don’t need to love cold calling, but consistent practice builds confidence and competence over time

4. Three types of prospectors – Some salespeople thrive on cold calls, some avoid them but claim they do, and managers often love them because they don’t have to make them anymore, recognizing this helps leaders coach more effectively

5. Objection handling is a teachable skill – With structured practice and coaching, reps can learn to confidently navigate push back and still secure meetings

6. AI empowers both reps and managers – By offloading repetitive role plays and providing objective coaching, managers can spend more time on strategy while reps still get valuable development.

7. Anyone can try it – Hyperbound makes its prospecting bots publicly available so sales professionals can test themselves, practice as often as they want, and benchmark improvement