You’ve probably heard the saying: “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”
I think about that line a lot when I look at how we’re using AI and data in sales these days. Every organization today is buried in “knowledge.” You’ve got your CRM showing activity metrics. You’ve got call intelligence breaking down sentiment and talk time. You’ve got dashboards on dashboards telling you where deals sit, where reps are stuck, and what’s trending down.
However, most sales leaders I talk to are still frustrated. Quota attainment is flat. Turnover is high. Frontline managers are burned out and inconsistent. Despite all the insights we’re getting, performance isn’t moving the way it should. Why?
Because knowledge isn’t enough.
AI Can Identify What’s Wrong with Your Deal, But It Doesn’t Have the Contextual Wisdom about Your People That Your Frontline Mangers Do.
AI can tell you that a rep is discounting too early. It can tell you their qualification skills are weak. It can even give you a tidy report on how they stack up against top performers.
What it can’t do is build trust with that rep. It can’t decide whether you lean in with direct feedback or take a step back because they’re burning out. It can’t figure out if their problem is skill-based or motivation-based, or if they just need a different role entirely.
That’s wisdom, and that’s still on your managers as the leaders or people.
The Problem With Just Sending Reps “Insights”
One of the worst trends I see right now is companies pushing AI insights directly to reps, thinking they’ll self-correct.
They won’t.
Here’s what we see over and over again:
- Everyone is doing more, but improving less
- Reps get insights, but they don’t get coaching
- Managers get dashboards, but not clarity
Reps don’t need more metrics. They need managers who can help them interpret those metrics and connect them to habits and behaviors. Reps aren’t ignoring feedback because they’re lazy; they’re overwhelmed, confused, or unsure how to act on it. They lack the wisdom to make these self-adjustments otherwise they would have made them already.
What Great Managers Do Differently
The best frontline managers I’ve worked with know how to listen between the numbers. They don’t just say, “Your win rate is low.” They say, “Based on your conversion drop between stage 2 and 3, I think there’s a gap in how you’re identifying true decision makers. Let’s work on that this week.”
They don’t coach from a spreadsheet. They coach from clarity, consistency, and credibility. The problem is most managers don’t have time to connect those dots every week. So they default to deal reviews, fire drills, or just “winging it” in their 1:1s.
When Knowledge and Wisdom Work Together
That’s where CoachEm’s Causal AI comes in. CoachEm doesn’t pretend to replace the manager. We give them something they’ve never had before: causal clarity. Our AI finds the root causes behind performance issues. Not just the what, but the why. It tells the manager which rep to focus on, what skill to address, and how that’s impacting quota. Then we prompt the manager with clear coaching actions, accountability follow-up, and an ongoing rhythm that reinforces development.
It’s a coaching system built around the real job of a sales leader: turning potential into performance.
Here’s the outcome we’re seeing:
- Teams using CoachEm consistently are doubling pipeline
- Reps walk into 1:1s knowing what they’re working on and why
- FLMs stop guessing and start leading
Most importantly, you create a culture of development, not just a factory of updates.
You don’t need more dashboards. You need your managers to become multipliers of wisdom. They need to be more effective coaches, and they need better tools, frameworks, and a manager operating system to do that. In the ideal future…
AI provides knowledge.
Managers apply wisdom.
CoachEm makes that connection actionable.
If you’re tired of knowing what’s wrong but not knowing how to fix it, we should talk.
