Initiatives user guide: Measuring coaching impact with real sales calls

This guide walks through how to create, launch, and manage Initiatives, and how both leaders and reps should use them in practice. You will also learn about best practices to help you get the most value from each Initiative.              

What is an Initiative?

Instead of relying on ad-hoc feedback or manual call reviews, Initiatives allow you to define what good looks like, evaluate real sales conversations against that standard, and track whether coaching is actually changing behavior over time.

An Initiative is a structured coaching program that evaluates real sales calls against a defined set of objectives.

Each Initiative:

• Focuses on a specific behavior or outcome you want to improve

• Applies the same criteria and model to every rep

• Scores performance consistently on a 0–10 scale

• Tracks adoption and improvement over time using real customer conversations

Initiatives are designed to be active, ongoing coaching mechanisms, not one-off reviews.

When to use an Initiative

You might create an Initiative when you want to:

• Improve execution in a specific deal stage (for example, Discovery or Demo)

• Reinforce new messaging or positioning

• Address recurring issues identified in pipeline reviews

• Roll out a new coaching focus and measure adoption over time

Initiatives work best when reviewed weekly and used as part of a regular coaching cadence.

Creating and launching an Initiative

Initiatives are created and managed by sales leaders.

Step 1: Create a new Initiative

After navigating to the Initiatives tab on the sidebar, click Create Initiative.

You’ll be asked to define:

• Initiative title
  A clear, outcome-focused name (for example, “Discovery Excellence”)

• Initiative description
  A short explanation of what this Initiative is designed to improve

• Start and end date
  The Initiative begins scoring as soon as it is published. Calls outside this timeframe are not included.

• Email notifications
  Enable email updates to receive weekly summaries and performance insights

Step 2: Define scope

Next, define where the Initiative applies:

• Pipeline and deal stages
  Only calls associated with selected deal stages are evaluated

• Sales representatives
  Only selected reps are included in the Initiative

Internal calls are excluded automatically. Reps will appear in results once they have at least one qualifying call.

Step 3: Add optional custom context

Select the 'Custom Context' tickbox for an additional input field.



Custom Context allows you to provide additional background to help Hive Perform evaluate calls more accurately.

Useful context may include:

• Your ICP and target customer profile

• How your product is positioned

• The type of problems you typically solve

• Terminology or messaging specific to your business

Best practices:

• Keep context focused and relevant

• Avoid overloading the model with unnecessary detail

• Aim to stay under approximately 500 words

Step 4: Define objectives

Objectives describe the behaviors, signals, or outcomes you want evaluated in each call.

Be specific and observable. For example:

• Did the rep uncover prospect pain points?

• Were decision makers identified?

• Did the rep demonstrate active listening?

• Were budget or timeline discussed?

Each call is scored from 0–10, based on how closely your call matched the objectives and criteria defined for this Initiative. How you write your objectives directly determines how calls are evaluated and how feedback is delivered.

When defining objectives, think in terms of observable behavior, not intent. A strong objective makes it clear what good execution looks like in a real conversation.

How calls are evaluated

Each qualifying call is assessed against the Initiative’s objectives using the same criteria for every rep. Scores reflect how closely the rep’s behavior matched what the objective is designed to measure.

As a general rule:

• Strong execution (7–10)
  The rep clearly demonstrates the behavior, explores it in depth, and connects it to the buyer’s context, priorities, or decision process.

• Partial execution (4–6)
  The rep touches on the behavior but does not go deep enough, misses follow-up opportunities, or moves on too quickly.

• Weak or missing execution (0–3)
  The behavior is absent, rushed, or handled superficially without meaningful insight.

Being explicit about this upfront ensures scoring is consistent, transparent, and easy for reps to understand.

Step 5: Define evaluation criteria

Evaluation criteria describe what success looks like by the end of the Initiative.

This might include:

• A target average score

• Improvement trends over time

• Consistent demonstration of specific behaviors

Scores are averaged across all qualifying calls for the duration of the Initiative.

Objectives and evaluation criteria cannot be edited once the Initiative is live, ensuring consistency in measurement.

Step 6: Publish the Initiative

Once published:

• Scoring begins immediately

• Only new calls are evaluated

• The selected reps are notified that a new Initiative is active

Initiatives move from draft to in progress, and are marked complete once the defined timeframe ends.

Reviewing Initiative performance

Each Initiative includes three main views designed to support ongoing coaching.

Overview

The Overview provides a high-level snapshot of performance, including:

• Total calls evaluated

• Overall average score

• Rep score trends over time

• Top performer indicators

• Scorecard breakdown by objective

This view is designed for weekly manager review, helping leaders understand progress at a glance.

Calls

The Calls tab shows a log of all evaluated calls, including:

• Call name

• Associated deal

• Rep

• Date

• Score

Leaders can use this view to connect scores directly to real conversations and ground coaching in specific examples.

Details

The Details tab shows:

• Selected pipeline and deal stages

• Participating reps

• Context used for evaluation

• Objectives and evaluation criteria

This helps ensure the Initiative remains aligned with its original intent.

Call feedback emails: Immediate coaching after every call

Each active Initiative sends an automatic feedback email to the sales rep after every call that qualifies for that Initiative.

These emails are designed to deliver timely, actionable coaching while the conversation is still fresh. Instead of waiting for a weekly review, reps receive direct feedback tied to the exact call that was evaluated.

What the feedback email Includes

Each email typically contains:

Overall call score
A clear grade (0–10) showing how the call performed against the Initiative’s evaluation criteria.

Score breakdown by objective
Individual scores for each behavior being coached, such as discovery quality, active listening, or qualification rigor.

What worked well
Specific moments where the rep demonstrated strong execution aligned with the Initiative’s goals.

Missed opportunities
Clear call-outs of moments where the rep could have gone deeper, asked a better question, or handled an objection more effectively.

Practical next-step guidance
Concrete suggestions the rep can apply on their very next call.

Each email links back to Hive Perform, allowing reps to review the call, see their full scorecard, and track progress over time.

How reps should use feedback emails

Feedback emails are designed to support continuous improvement, not one-off evaluation.

Best practices include:

• Reviewing the feedback shortly after each call while the conversation is still fresh

• Comparing your score breakdown against the Initiative’s objectives to understand what “good” looks like

• Noting one or two specific behaviors to apply on your very next call

• Using the feedback to prepare for 1:1 coaching conversations with your manager

• Tracking trends over time rather than focusing on a single score

Rather than acting as a report card, feedback emails help reps build repeatable habits and improve execution call by call.

Best practices for running effective Initiatives

• Focus on one clear behavior or outcome per Initiative

• Write objectives that are specific and observable

• Keep Custom Context concise and relevant

• Review performance weekly, not daily

• Initiatives should be short bursts of coaching, roughly one month long

• Use scores as a coaching input, not a performance hammer

Multiple Initiatives can run at the same time. Leaders of multiple initiatives will receive separate weekly emails for each active Initiative.

Summary

Initiatives give sales leaders a repeatable way to turn coaching priorities into execution.

By evaluating real calls against consistent criteria and reinforcing insights through weekly summaries, leaders can move beyond anecdotal feedback and see whether coaching is actually changing behavior.

Used well, Initiatives make coaching measurable, scalable, and embedded in how sales teams operate week to week.