How Live CxO Coaching Improved Skill Gap Closure by 71 Points
A global technology company needed more than 32,000 customer-facing employees to engage more confidently with C-suite executives after internal assessments revealed executive relationships as their largest skill gap. The company partnered with GP Strategies® and SGA C-Suite to build a program in which sellers practice live customer simulations with real former CxOs and get feedback in the moment. Learners reported a 71-point improvement in skill gap closure, a 22-point rise in confidence, and satisfaction strong enough that the program is now required for all account sellers.
The Challenge: Earning a Seat at the Executive Table
Customer and Partner Experience (CPE) scores related to executive engagement were flat or declining, signaling a gap in an area critical to how the company builds customer relationships. A pilot combining self-assessment with manager assessment pointed to the same problem: of all the professional skills measured, executive relationships showed the largest gap between importance and proficiency. Together, these findings confirmed a critical need for the company’s customer-facing roles to develop relevant insights, drive deep conversations, and build trust with C-suite executives.
The stakes were commercial as much as developmental. The company had determined that more confident sellers would open up greater sales opportunities and establish a more predictable sales pipeline by enabling trusted partnerships with clients. And the gap was wide: three audiences needed upskilling, from over 5,000 learners involved in end-to-end executive engagement, to over 13,000 who needed to excel in executive conversations, to nearly 14,000 who needed to establish executive presence. In total, more than 32,000 people needed to connect more confidently with the C-suite, and popular demand from across segments confirmed a strong appetite for more advanced training.
The obvious answer, more training of the kind that already existed, would not close the gap. Foundational skilling was already in place and had proven insufficient, because what sellers lacked was not knowledge about the C-suite but practice influencing it. Closing a confidence gap of this size would take a different kind of learning experience entirely.
Key Constraints
Scale: more than 32,000 learners needed upskilling, spanning three audiences with different needs, from end-to-end executive engagement to conversation skills to executive presence.
Global delivery: sessions had to be staffed and delivered across a robust global schedule, reaching sellers in every region.
Format: the team’s norm of content-rich, self-paced online courses could not provide the live practice sellers needed, requiring a completely new instructional model.
Consistency: any external partner’s content and approach had to align with the company’s sales methodology, culture, and standards.
Solution: Live Practice with Real CxOs, Not Another Self-Paced Course
The company partnered with GP Strategies and SGA C-Suite, a firm with over 30 years of experience and a global faculty network of C-level executives, to create the executive engagement program.
What makes the program different is who does the teaching. Experienced external CxOs, people who have held the roles sellers need to influence, lead highly interactive sessions in which participants run customer meeting simulations, discuss current customer situations, practice new approaches, and receive immediate feedback in a safe environment. Because the program is aligned with the company’s customer engagement methodology, the skills apply at every stage of the customer relationship and support engagement across all rooms of the house, the business areas beyond IT.
Keeping the experience authentic to the company was a design decision, not an afterthought. The content was co-developed rather than handed over, and the partners built a Train-the-Trainer program and added the company’s own facilitators to the facilitator pool, aligning the external faculty with the company’s sales methodology, culture, and standards while staffing a robust global schedule. Delivery combines live virtual sessions with job aids and bite-sized videos that extend learning after class, through three offerings that deepen from group practice to personal coaching to live deal support.
Phase One | Advanced Practice: The 4.5-Hour Workshop
Participants arrive prepared to discuss their current customer situations, open with two short discussions on the Leader's Mindset and Earning CxO Trust, then move into a Q&A with the CxO coaches and two customer meeting simulations with immediate feedback. The first simulation uses a simple fictitious scenario so everyone can build confidence in a controlled setting; for the second, participants present real customer situations and vote on the one to simulate. More than 130 sessions were delivered globally over 1.5 years, reaching 2,830 sellers.
Phase Two | Mentoring: Personalized Small-Group Coaching
Ninety-minute sessions bring a maximum of six participants together with former CxOs, who give personalized feedback on handling challenges in each participant’s current customer opportunities. Every participant leaves with an action plan template to track actions, feedback, and development areas. A newer offering, mentoring has recorded more than 90 completions so far.
Phase Three | Opportunity Mentoring: Help for a Live Deal
When a specific opportunity needs help, an account team or v-team of five to eight participants can request a 60-minute session, submitting the customer opportunity and its challenges in advance. The CxO coaches provide targeted feedback and strategies for that exact scenario.
“The time with the CxOs was probably one of the best training experiences that I’ve had in 22 years“
–Program participant
Impact: Closed Skill Gaps, Higher Confidence, & Results Strong Enough to Make the Program Mandatory
Program surveys, which received 618 responses, show a program that learners rate highly and credit with changing how they work.
The value extends beyond the survey numbers. On the strength of learner feedback, the executive engagement program is now required training for all account sellers, turning a voluntary offering into a standard part of how the company develops its sales force. The company is also implementing new strategies to measure the program’s future business impact more deeply, including engagement in business areas beyond IT.
The design itself has proven durable. The program’s principal lesson, that real-life customer scenarios make learning relevant and actionable, has been carried forward into subsequent learning experiences.
improvement in skill gap closure as a result of the training
increase in learner confidence
of learners agreed the experience built skills that improve how they do their job
rated the course 4/5 or higher, and 70% gave it a perfect 5/5
learners actively recommend the program to their peers
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