CARLSBAD, Calif., Sept. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ValueSelling Associates, Inc., a global leader in sales training and coaching, today announced it has been named to Selling Power’s Top AI Sales Coaching Solutions for 2026 for its ValueCoach AI™ solution and its agentic AI coaches, Val and Bryce, marking the company’s third consecutive year of recognition. Selling Power published this list to help sales leaders identify and select AI-based coaching solutions that produce tangible ROI while delivering effective sales coaching.
Since last year’s recognition, ValueCoach AI has evolved from a single rep-facing avatar into a two-agent coaching system. Val, the rep-facing coach, is a certified ValueSelling Framework® expert that coaches sellers against their live pipeline with real-time feedback, dynamic buyer-persona role-plays and analysis grounded in real call transcripts. Bryce, the manager-facing coach, surfaces team-level trends and coaching opportunities so leaders can see where coaching will move the needle without adding meetings. Together they extend consistent, behavior-based coaching to every seller, 24/7. That addresses a persistent coaching gap: 73% of reps report receiving no consistent coaching, and 76% say they want more. Val and Bryce meet sellers inside the tools they already use, with integrations across Salesforce, Slack, Salesloft, Gong, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook, and access through Claude and ChatGPT via ValueSelling’s own MCP server and a public API. The platform is SOC 2 certified and GDPR compliant, and no customer data is used to train the model.
“Sales leaders are still being asked to drive higher performance with leaner resources, and the reality is that most reps receive little to no consistent coaching,” said Julie Thomas, president and CEO of ValueSelling Associates. “Being recognized by Selling Power a third year running confirms that AI, applied the right way, can close that gap: Val coaches reps against their live pipeline while Bryce gives managers a team-level view, so coaching becomes a daily habit tied to real outcomes rather than a quarterly event. Ultimately, this is about helping sellers lead sharper, more human conversations and win on value, not price — and that’s a testament to our clients and our global network of Associates.”
Research from ValueSelling Associates and Aberdeen Strategy & Research found that infusing AI into sales coaching increased sales productivity by 95% and improved employee engagement by 30%.
All companies on the list submitted a comprehensive application with details about their AI sales coaching solution. Key areas of evaluation included:
- Solution capability and use cases — what the coach does and the outcomes it drives: live-deal coaching, persona roleplay, and methodology reinforcement.
- Differentiation and evolution — how it stands apart from practice simulators and how it grew into an agentic coaching manager.
- Personalization and adaptivity — persistent per-rep memory, calibrated difficulty, and coaching across languages and regions.
- Measurement and impact — the frameworks and rubrics it scores against, how it tracks behavior change over time, and client results.
- Technology, integration, and responsible AI — the interaction and feedback model, tech-stack integrations, the Val/Bryce architecture, security, and scale.
See Selling Power’s full Top AI Sales Coaching Solutions 2026 list: https://bit.ly/3T58ZVi
About Selling Power
In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well as a five-minute video series featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference. www.sellingpower.com
About ValueSelling Associates, Inc.
ValueSelling Associates, Inc. is the creator of the ValueSelling Framework®: the sales methodology, training and toolset that aligns your revenue engine with a common language and enables sales professionals to compete on value, not price. Since 1991, ValueSelling has helped hundreds of thousands of sales professionals realize immediate revenue growth and achieve results they never thought possible.
ValueSelling offers bespoke training to FORTUNE 1000, mid-sized, and start-up companies that includes eLearning courses, instructor-led workshops (virtual and in-person), microlearning and on-demand reinforcement in over 17 languages. ValueSelling programs provide globally scalable and sustainable tools, skills, and processes for sales teams, executives, and all customer-facing professionals to effectively engage, qualify, advance, and close more sales with higher margins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does AI sales coaching actually work?
When it's consistent and tied to real deals, the evidence says yes. A ValueSelling Associates and Aberdeen Strategy & Research study found that infusing AI into sales coaching raised sales productivity by 95% and employee engagement by 30%. Most of that gain comes from frequency. An always-available coach works a rep's live pipeline every day, closing the gap left when 73% of reps get no consistent coaching.
Will AI replace human sales managers?
No. Val takes on the daily repetition managers rarely have time for — pipeline practice, real-time feedback, methodology reinforcement — while Bryce surfaces team-level trends that show leaders exactly where to step in. That gives managers more capacity to coach where their judgment and relationships matter most.
Why does an AI coach need to be grounded in a sales methodology?
Because context is what makes coaching stick. A general-purpose AI can answer questions, but it can't hold a rep accountable to how their organization actually sells. Val is a certified ValueSelling Framework® expert, so every session reinforces the language, process, and discipline reps were trained on, driving methodology adoption and lasting behavior change rather than running parallel to the training.
Connect with ValueSelling Associates:
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Media Contact:
Maria Doyle
Doyle Strategic Communications
+1-781-964-3536
maria@doylestratcomm.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/545f8db1-df1a-419d-815a-c2d6c755dee8
