Stop Coaching From Memory
Your caller made 150 dials yesterday. How many did anyone listen to? In most operations the honest answer is zero.
So managers coach from vibes: the one call they overheard, the caller who complains loudest. The three coach skills replace that with evidence. Every real conversation gets pulled, transcribed, and graded against a rubric trained on about 300 real calls.
The loop costs almost nothing. Recordings already sit in SmrtPhone. Gemini Flash transcribes them with tonality notes at about $0.002 per audio minute. An hour of talk time costs roughly 12 cents to transcribe.
Grade from the transcript, keep the recording one click away. When a score surprises you, play that call. The report points you to the minute that matters.
One loop runs the phone team. Record, grade, coach or replace.
Five steps, one cycle. Click a step for what happens, what it costs, and what comes out.
Per audio minute
Gemini Flash transcription, with real tonality notes.
Calls behind the rubric
Real graded calls calibrate every anchor score.
Anchor scores
Every rubric dimension scores out of 5 against fixed anchors.
Calls pulled
Default pull: every conversation over a minute, last 7 days.
Steps run clockwise and repeat weekly. The red step is the one only a manager can do.
Record
SmrtPhone already records every outbound call, so there is nothing new to set up. The coach skill pulls the call log and recordings straight from your account.
- Default pull: every call 60 seconds and longer from the last 7 days.
- Closer calls are rarer: widen that pull to 30 days when the queue is empty.
- Calls triage into cold call, lead management, or closing before grading starts.
Transcribe
Gemini Flash transcribes each recording with tonality notes: pace, tone, talk balance. Grading reads how it was said, not only what was said.
- About $0.002 per audio minute, so an hour of talk time runs roughly 12 cents.
- Every transcript carries a delivery summary the grader cites as evidence.
Grade
Claude grades every gradeable conversation against the seat's rubric. Each dimension scores on 0/3/5 anchors, out of 5, calibrated on about 300 real graded calls.
- A verify pass checks every score: verbatim quotes, evidence per line, math that foots.
- Short calls (seller declined inside about 30 seconds) get a short-call report, no score.
- Auto-fails exist: ignored opt-outs, misrepresentation, compliance breaches.
Scorecard
Each run rolls per-call coaching reports into a per-caller scorecard and one styled Excel workbook. It lands in Slack on a schedule, so the manager never has to ask.
- Per-call reports quote the exact lines that earned or lost points.
- The workbook tracks every caller by dimension, run over run.
Decide
The only step software cannot do. Read the trend, not one score: climbing numbers get coached, flat numbers on the same coached dimension trigger the replace conversation.
- Pick one dimension per caller per week and coach that.
- The decision rules live two sections down.
| Pull | Call log plus recordings from SmrtPhone |
| Transcribe | Tonality-noted transcripts, about $0.002 per minute |
| Grade | Per-call coaching report, scores out of 5 |
| Roll up | Per-caller scorecard, one Excel workbook |
| Deliver | Slack, on a schedule |
Three Coaches, Three Seats
Same engine, different rubric. Each coach grades the calls its seat takes, on the skills that seat gets paid for.
Cold Caller Coach: the first touch
Grades first-touch conversations. The governing frame: on a first touch your callers are "correct-number-gatherers, not deal-closers." The rubric scores accordingly.
| Dimension | Weight | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Opener and decision-maker confirmation | 15% | Right person confirmed fast, without sounding like a script |
| Four Pillars discovery | 30% | Condition, timeline, motivation, price probed naturally |
| Objection handling and list sensitivity | 20% | Rebuttals used, care shown on sensitive lists |
| Tonality and call control | 15% | Pace, tone, and who steers the conversation |
| Close and next step | 20% | A concrete next action locked before hangup |
Declines inside about 30 seconds get a short-call report with no score. Run it for weekly caller scorecards or "how did the callers sound today."
Lead Manager Coach: qualification and follow-up
Grades follow-up, qualification, and nurture calls. Qualification centers on the four questions that price a deal: condition, timeline, motivation, price.
| Dimension | Weight | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Opening and continuity | 10% | Picks up where the last touch ended |
| Four Pillars qualification | 30% | Condition, timeline, motivation, price nailed down |
| Roadblocks and logistics | 20% | Title, occupancy, and who signs surfaced early |
| Rapport, tonality, and call control | 20% | Trust built while the call stays on course |
| Next action and handoff | 20% | Every call ends with a dated next step |
Call quality only. CRM hygiene is not scored here; pipeline discipline lives in the lead management system.
Closer Coach: the money conversation
Grades acquisitions calls: offer presentation, price negotiation, contract talk. Two extras per call: a negotiation timeline (every number mentioned, who moved, why) and "the moment it was won or lost," quoting the pivotal exchange.
| Dimension | Weight | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Handoff open and discovery deepening | 15% | Builds on intake instead of re-asking it |
| Money conversation and offer presentation | 25% | The number delivered with a reason, not an apology |
| Objection handling and negotiation | 20% | Price pushback worked, concessions traded not given |
| Commitment locking and next steps | 25% | Agreement turned into a signed next step |
| Tonality and human delivery | 10% | Sounds like a person the seller trusts |
| ABL discipline and offer gating | 5% | No offer before the deal is qualified to receive one |
Closing calls are rarer and longer, so widen the pull window to 30 days. Run it post-mortem on a lost deal or pre-game before a big offer call.
The Scorecard Is a Meeting Agenda
A scorecard nobody acts on is a spreadsheet. Here is what a manager does the day it lands in Slack.
Read by dimension, not by average
Open the workbook and scan each caller's lowest dimension. The average hides the fix. A 4.0 caller with a 2 on openers has one clear coaching target.
Pick one fix per caller
One dimension, one week. A caller working openers, objections, and closes at once improves at none of them.
Run the huddle
Daily 30-minute huddle while scores are moving, or a weekly best-call worst-call review. Play both recordings and let the team hear the gap. The reports hand you the timestamps.
Log it, then re-check
Note the coached dimension. The next scorecard answers one question: did that number move.
Play the call, do not describe it. A caller will argue with your summary. Nobody argues with their own recording.
Coach or Replace: Where the Line Sits
Separate effort from skill. Effort has floors you can count. Skill has scores you can trend. The decision falls out of both.
Dials per day
The effort floor per caller. Target is 200.
Warm-up
Script reps and tonality drills before the first live dial.
Dials per number
Rotate outbound numbers about every 25 dials to protect answer rates.
Reputation watch
The free Call Reputation Monitor skill reads your own answer rates for spam flags.
Coach when
- Scores climb between scorecards, even slowly.
- The gap sits in one or two dimensions, not all of them.
- Effort floors are met: dials, warm-up, rotation.
- The hire is inside the 90-day ramp the SOP expects before revenue.
Replace when
- The same coached dimension flatlines, scorecard after scorecard.
- Effort floors keep getting missed. Effort is a choice; skill is trainable.
- Auto-fails appear: ignored opt-outs, misrepresentation, compliance breaches.
Never move a struggling hire across roles. A caller who cannot open does not become a lead manager. Hire into the seat you need, and coach the seat they hold.
You can only coach a job you have done. The hiring SOP's rule stands: close about $100K yourself, roughly 10 wholesale deals, before you hire anyone. That experience is your coaching curriculum.
Cost the decision honestly. A caller runs $750-1K per month, and a replacement restarts the 90-day ramp. When the trend is up, coaching is the cheaper play. When it is flat, waiting is the expensive one.
Where to Go From Here
The loop grades the calls. These pages build the skills the rubrics measure.
4-Week Deal Flow Workshop
Live Tuesdays, October 6, 13, 20 and 27, 1 to 4 PM ET
4 live Tuesdays with Ty and Tyler plus 4 Thursday Q&As, free, for investors who have already closed a deal. Join any week. Already in? Use this page to prep between sessions.
Claude Skills for REI
Install the skill library the three coaches ship in.
Cold Call Playbook
The opener and Four Pillars the cold caller rubric grades.
Ultimate Call Playbook
The money conversation and commitment locking the closer rubric grades.
Hiring Guide
When the answer is replace: channels, geographies, and pay bands.
Phase 3: The Manager
Where call coaching sits in the manager's weekly operating rhythm.