How building materials sales managers can plan a useful ride-along

Plan a sales ride-along around a real account opportunity and one selling skill you need to observe. Review the customer's purchase history, current quotes and recent conversations with the rep before choosing the calls. During the visit, watch how the rep uses that information to uncover a buying need and agree a next step. Afterward, coach what you actually saw and check whether the rep applies it on another suitable opportunity.

For a building materials dealer, that might mean helping an outside rep ask a framing customer about an unquoted window package. For a hardware store with pro accounts, it might mean learning how the rep turns an occasional counter purchase into a conversation about a recurring product need. The account data gives the meeting a commercial purpose. Observation shows whether the rep can turn that preparation into a useful sales conversation.

A ride-along should answer a question a dashboard cannot settle on its own. Does the rep investigate a category gap, or assume the buyer wants a price? Do they establish what is holding up a quote, or leave with another vague promise to call?

Choose a sales question before choosing the route

Start with the rep's account and opportunity records. Look for a pattern worth understanding, such as established customers buying a narrow part of your catalog, or live quotes with repeated contacts but no clear buying decision.

Do not immediately call the pattern a skills problem. An apparent category gap may reflect incomplete records or a customer who does not buy that product. A stalled quote may be waiting on your specialist rather than on the rep. Check the available facts and ask the rep what they believe is happening.

SalesJack's analytics maps product classes and special-order items into categories and provides role-based views. Use the account history available through your connection alongside current quotes and buyer conversations. Confirm that the records describe the right customer and job before choosing a coaching objective.

Write down the question you want the visit to answer. For example, "Can the rep establish who buys windows on this builder's next project before offering a quote?" is observable. "Get better at cross-selling" is too broad to guide either the meeting or the feedback.

Rick Davis's column on field coaching recommends observing salespeople directly rather than judging their performance only by results. Use the sales pattern to decide where to look, not as a verdict about the person.

Select calls where the rep can practice the skill

Choose accounts with a genuine reason for a conversation. If the objective is qualifying an additional category, look for a customer whose buying history and upcoming work make that question relevant. If the objective is progressing a quote, choose a live proposal with a customer-confirmed decision still ahead.

Check the existing relationship and contact history. Another department may already be working the package. The customer may have ordered through inside sales since the rep last checked. A coaching visit should not restart a completed pursuit or create a competing conversation.

Give the rep time to prepare and arrange the meetings. Davis recommends advance notice and calls with secondary customers and prospects, rather than making the day a tour of the manager's favorite large accounts. The purpose is to see the rep lead useful selling work.

Tell the customer that the manager will join the conversation. Keep the commercial reason for the visit clear. Do not ask a buyer to attend a meeting solely so your team can practice on them, or turn a routine sales call into an unannounced performance test.

This approach also applies to hardware pro-sales teams. In Hardware Retailing's report on outside sales, consultant Bill Baldwin describes reviewing sales reports and traveling with reps to help them better serve customers. That is a reported management practice, not a required visit schedule for every dealer.

Prepare the account, then agree what you will watch

Before the first call, ask the rep to explain what the records establish and what remains unknown. Keep preparation focused on the buying opportunity rather than reading the entire account history aloud.

For an additional-category conversation, the relevant facts might be the categories already purchased, an upcoming project and any quote another specialist has prepared. The unknown is whether this contact chooses the missing category and whether that buying decision is still open.

For a quote conversation, establish which proposal is current, what the buyer last asked and whether your team has supplied the promised answer. The quote follow-up guide covers that preparation in more detail.

Agree on a narrow observation. You might watch whether the rep asks about buying responsibility before presenting an offer, or whether they turn a customer's objection into a specific unanswered question. Decide what a useful next step would look like without scripting the customer's response.

Keep the roles explicit. The rep leads the conversation and owns the follow-up. The manager observes unless the customer needs an answer only the manager can provide or an inaccurate commitment needs correction. If you expect to negotiate or handle an escalation yourself, acknowledge that the visit has a different purpose from observing the rep's usual selling skill.

Let the rep lead, and record evidence rather than impressions

During the meeting, pay attention to how the rep connects preparation to the customer's actual situation. Did they use the purchase history to ask a relevant question? Did they listen when the buyer explained something the records could not show? Did the next action follow from that answer?

Avoid taking over as soon as a pause feels uncomfortable. In The lost art of sales coaching, Davis describes the problem with managers who become the hero of the sales call. A manager winning the conversation does not show that the rep can repeat the skill alone.

Keep brief notes about observable behavior. "Asked who selects the window supplier, then confirmed whether the decision was open" is useful evidence. "Strong relationship skills" is an impression that gives the rep little to repeat.

Record the buyer's answer separately from your interpretation. A contractor saying the homeowner chooses windows establishes a different buying route. It does not prove the account has no window potential or that the rep failed. The useful sales action may be an agreed introduction, provided the buyer wants one.

Do not make the meeting a test of how many products the rep mentions. A relevant category question can uncover a quote opportunity. An indiscriminate catalog pitch can leave you with more talking and no clearer buying decision.

Debrief one behavior against the account opportunity

After the meeting, ask the rep what they learned and how it changes the pursuit. Start with what worked, then discuss the specific moment that needs improvement. Davis's field-coaching guidance emphasizes supportive feedback tied to observed behavior.

Consider an illustrative dealer example. The account history shows regular framing purchases and no recorded window orders. Before the call, the rep checks with the window specialist and finds no active quote for the new job. During the meeting, the builder explains that the homeowner selects the windows.

The rep then offers to send a general brochure but does not ask whether a showroom conversation would be useful. The manager's feedback should concern that missed buying question, not demand an immediate window order. Practice asking how the homeowner will choose a supplier and whether the builder would welcome an introduction. Any actual follow-up still needs to respect what the customer agreed.

A hardware example might start with a pro account buying small quantities of consumables at the counter. The rep assumes the business wants bulk pricing, but the buyer says different crews purchase independently. The coaching point is to clarify who can consider a broader supply arrangement before preparing a proposal. Purchase history suggested the conversation; the buyer's explanation changed the next step.

Both examples are illustrative, not SalesJack customer results. They show why a useful debrief needs the transaction pattern, the rep's behavior and the buyer's answer together.

Keep customer follow-up separate from the coaching assignment

First complete the sales commitment. If the customer requested a specialist introduction or a revised proposal, give that action an owner and an agreed date. Make sure the inside team understands what was requested and what remains unconfirmed.

SalesJack's CRM brings supported quote and project information together with customer conversations, assignments and reminders. Use that shared account context for the customer-facing work. It does not replace the manager's judgment about what the rep needs to practice.

Set a separate coaching assignment in your normal management process. For the window example, the rep could apply the buying-authority question on the next relevant category conversation and bring back the customer's answer. Keep personnel feedback in the appropriate internal channel rather than mixing it into customer-facing communication.

Do not turn the assignment into a requirement to invent an opportunity. Learning that the buyer has already chosen a supplier can be a useful result. It lets the rep stop pursuing that package and focus on work that remains open.

Check the next application, then review the sales result

Return to the skill before introducing another one. Davis's coaching column recommends validating application after feedback. Ask the rep to show how they used the question or approach on a later suitable account. Observe another call when necessary rather than relying only on a completed-task count.

Then follow the commercial outcome using the available records. Did the buyer request a quote? Did the specialist conversation happen? Did the relevant package become an order, remain undecided or go elsewhere? Keep those outcomes distinct.

An order after a ride-along does not prove the coaching caused it. Likewise, a well-qualified conversation that reveals no current opening is not automatically poor performance. Look for evidence that the rep makes better-informed sales decisions and completes the commitments that give an opportunity a chance to progress.

For multi-category building materials dealers, connected account history and project quotes make that review more specific. Choose the next coaching topic from what the rep still needs to learn, rather than repeat the same revenue discussion or add more calls without a reason.

Sources

• Rick Davis, Coaching in the sales field, LBM Journal, October 7, 2019. Expert guidance on planning visits, observing reps and giving behavior-specific feedback.
• Rick Davis, The lost art of sales coaching, LBM Journal, October 6, 2020. Expert guidance on avoiding manager takeover and validating learning.
• Jesse Carleton, An Inside Look at Outside Sales, Hardware Retailing, January 1, 2022. Named retailer and consultant practices in managing outside sales.

Header photograph by Markus Winkler / Pexels. Illustrative building-materials setting, not a SalesJack customer location or a sales visit described in this article.