Sales is back on the agenda. A third of U.S. business leaders now rank growth as a top concern, and most have already placed their bet on artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver it. While most sales teams are utilizing AI tools, only 21% report the results they expected, while 69% of sales reps are still missing quota.

For learning and development (L&D) leaders, that raises an important question: If technology is becoming increasingly accessible across organizations, what separates the teams that consistently perform from those that don’t?

The research points to manager capability. After analyzing more than 2,200 managers across eight countries, Mindtools Kineo found that the behaviors managers demonstrate every day, from how they build trust and coach their teams to how they delegate responsibility, have a measurable influence on sales performance, employee progression and retention. These aren’t qualities that some managers simply possess while others don’t. They are behaviors that can be developed, reinforced and measured, making manager capability one of the biggest opportunities L&D teams have to influence commercial performance.

Trust Drives Performance and Progression

There is a clear relationship between manager capability and business results. Trust stands out as one of the most influential factors: For every one-point increase in a manager’s ability to build trust, sales target achievement increased by 22%.

Trust doesn’t just influence sales targets. Employees are 23% less likely to be promoted when their managers have low levels of trust in them. Over a two-year period, promotion rates reach 27% in high-trust environments, compared with 21% in low-trust teams.

These differences are shaped through everyday decisions. Managers determine who is given the most challenging work, who is trusted to represent the team and who is given development opportunities. Trust accounts for 27% of those delegation decisions, making it the single biggest driver of how work is distributed.

Alongside trust, three other skills have a strong relationship with sales outcomes:

• Active listening (+20%)
• Coaching (+16%)
• Delegation (+14%)

Each one influences a different part of the sales cycle. Active listening affects how managers interpret what they are being told, reducing the risk of overconfidence in forecasts and helping identify where deals need intervention. Coaching determines whether teams improve over time. Without it, deals can be lost for the same reasons quarter after quarter. With it, teams can build better judgment and stronger execution.

Finally, delegation sits at the center of how both performance and progression take shape. When trust is high, managers are more likely to pass on work that builds capability and experience. Development-focused tasks are delegated 11% more often. In lower-trust environments, those opportunities are held back, limiting exposure and slowing development.

This has a direct effect on how teams operate. When responsibility is shared, teams can move work forward more consistently and build capability across the group. When it isn’t, managers carry more of the workload themselves, reducing their ability to focus on direction and decision-making.

Together, these skills influence how clearly managers understand their teams, how effectively they support development and how work is prioritized across the pipeline.

Manager Capability Is Built Through Practice

Trust does not operate in isolation. The same managers who build trusting relationships also tend to listen more carefully, coach more effectively and feel more confident handing responsibility to others.

Skills such as trust, active listening and delegation are closely connected because managers use them together throughout the working day. A sales pipeline review, for example, is an opportunity to do more than review projected numbers. Managers can also understand how a salesperson is thinking, ask questions that surface issues, decide whether someone is ready to take ownership of the next stage of a deal and judge when support is needed or when stepping back would encourage greater independence.

L&D can make a real difference here. Managers can strengthen these skills by practicing conversations repeatedly, reflecting on the decisions they make and receiving feedback over time. Coaching practice, scenario-based learning and opportunities to learn alongside peers can help managers build confidence before those situations arise with their own teams.

That practice works best when it mirrors the situations managers deal with every week. A role-play about giving feedback has limited value if managers never revisit it. Revisiting real pipeline conversations, reflecting on delegation decisions after customer meetings or discussing how a coaching conversation unfolded in a peer group helps managers connect learning directly to the decisions they make every day. Repetition builds confidence and makes it easier to apply these behaviors consistently when the pressure is on.

What This Means for L&D and HR Leaders

Improving sales performance requires more than refining strategy or adding new tools. Businesses also need to focus on how managers lead their teams.

For L&D teams, this means developing and measuring manager capability in the context of everyday work. Rather than treating trust, coaching or delegation as isolated competencies, L&D can reinforce these behaviors through the situations managers already face. Managers can practice coaching techniques before sales reviews, reflect on decisions after customer meetings or use structured discussion guides during one-on-one meetings to develop stronger listening habits. Those moments create opportunities for feedback while the experience is still fresh, making it easier to reinforce new behaviors over time.

Measurement deserves the same level of attention as delivery. Participation rates or course completion tell L&D teams very little about whether managers are leading differently six months later. Instead, look at team performance, retention, internal progression and the quality of delegation. These measures provide a much stronger indication of whether development is changing behavior in ways that benefit both employees and the business.

Commercial performance will always be influenced by market conditions, customer demand and technology. The quality of management sits alongside those factors. Every conversation that builds trust, every coaching discussion that develops confidence and every stretch opportunity delegated thoughtfully contributes to stronger teams over time. Developing those capabilities gives L&D leaders a clear opportunity to influence sales performance while strengthening the organization’s future leadership pipeline.