Stop Coaching the Wrong People

I grew up in Ebernoe, a tiny hamlet in West Sussex, England that had a cricket pitch with a road running through it. On Sundays we would watch the matches. Every so often, someone would shout “Car!” and play would stop while a driver passed through the pitch. Then everyone reset, and the game carried on.

It was a strange setup, but it worked — people adapted.

It’s a lot like sales management. You rarely have a perfect team. You take the players you have, turn them into top producers and improve sales. 

The trouble is, most sales managers were never taught how to train. They can sell, do admin, attend meetings, review numbers and manage pipelines, but developing people is a whole different skill.

When results aren’t going well most managers work on the underperformers. They are the ones missing the mark. But in my experience, trying to coach underperformers is like pushing string uphill.

If your team is underperforming, look at your top producers. What are they doing that works? How are they getting meetings? How do they prepare? What are they saying in meetings? 

Don’t ask them — watch them. Observing is much better than asking. Most sellers can’t explain what they are really doing. They just do it. The success you want is already happening on your team, they’d just not enough of it.

Once you see what excellence looks like, teach everyone else to do more of that. Build your process around what’s already working. 

That’s how you create progress that lasts — not by rescuing stragglers, but by turning your bright spots into blueprints.