Claim
Generic sales training rarely moves revenue. Training that moves revenue identifies the specific decision friction blocking the rep's current deals and addresses that friction directly. The unit of work is the deal-level blocker, not the curriculum module.
Mechanism
Generic curriculum is averaged across reps and across deals; the friction blocking a particular rep's particular deal sits below that average. Targeted intervention closes that specific gap rather than rehearsing skills the rep already has.
Conditions
Holds when: the org can observe individual deals (call recordings, deal notes) and identify the friction.
Fails when: deal-level visibility is missing — generic training is the only feasible default.
Evidence
"Revenue rarely improves from generic sales training, it improves when training targets the exact decision friction blocking deals."
— Rohit Shah, quoted in Chris Orlob's competency analytics piece, 2026-04-17
Signals
- Coaching plans name the specific deal and the specific friction.
- Curriculum modules tagged by friction type, not topic.
- Training assignment routed individually rather than cohort-wide.
Counter-evidence
For new-hire onboarding, generic foundational training is still the right default — friction-specific work starts after baseline competence.
Cross-references
- (none in current corpus)