There's a key characteristic that top performing salespeople share: a constant drive to improve.

Hit quota? Great, how far past it can I go?

Beat a personal record? Great, how do I set another one?

Had a fantastic conversation? Great, how do I have more of these?

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This is a great mindset to have, but it needs structure.

Traditional coaches can help provide some of that structure, but in truth - it's not enough.

External feedback only goes so far.

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True top performers also need to internalize a learning process based on their actions.

In other words, they need to learn to self-coach.

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At Vouris, we encourage self-coaching by teaching a process originally developed to train military fighter pilots, called “OODA” loops. It stands for:

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​OBSERVE: What just happened?

ORIENT: What does it mean?

DECIDE: What am I going to do next, based on this?

ACT: Do it.

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Then, rinse & repeat.

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By committing to this type of structure, you’ll turn every action into a learning experience that can improve your performance.
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– SDRs/AEs: Every call becomes a chance to improve your communication/sales skills.

– Leaders: Every meeting becomes a chance to improve as a coach/manager.

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Sales is a performance skill, like sports/music/comedy/acting/etc.

Every performance skill is also a chance-to-learn skill. Your job is based on how well you perform over thousands of repetitions - for us, those repetitions are conversations.

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So, what if you could improve with every conversation?

What if you could get 1% better with every call/demo/etc?

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OODA loops are just a way to turn your repeated actions into data-driven, mini improvements - sort of like watching game tape (with structure).

We believe in this concept deeply:

→ Our coaching is based on specific, data-driven decisions.

→ We also created a physical journal based on it (SDR Mastery Journal).
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Here's an OODA loop example: I’ve filled this out below with something that happened with one of the SDRs in our community:

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​OBSERVE: What just happened?​

​My last call started off strong, but there was a clear negative shift when we started talking about migrating from the competitor’s platform to ours.

ORIENT: What does it mean?

The prospect was looking for a clear outline of the migration process. I should have used specific numbers like “it takes less than an hour” instead of big/vague terms like “it’s easy and seamless”.

DECIDE: What am I going to do next, based on this?

I’m going to ask my team to prep a 1-page doc that clearly outlines the process. This will give me a chance to recover the conversation with a follow up email AND have a strong reference asset for future calls.

ACT: Do it.

Next time a prospect asks about migration, I’ll use specific time-based numbers and immediately follow up with the 1-pager.

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Try writing out an OODA loop after your next conversation. Make it quick and spend a few minutes on it - no longer.

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If you want to go next level, though…you can even use this framework to take notes on your call recordings.
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Here’s an example of Kyle listening back to one of his old calls:
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​Click here to watch​

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OODA loops are my favorite form of self-coaching because they force you to be specific and take small steps.

They’re also a habit that’ll stick with you forever, whether you’re making calls, running demos, or managing teams - this is a framework you can use to look at your repeated activities objectively and make bite-sized improvements...forever!