Wanted: More Coaches

What’s the sales department equivalent of a football coach?

The obvious answer is the boss, the CSO, the sales manager.

Yet on further thought, it is more typically someone else on the sidelines. Not necessarily owning top-line responsibility, even small sales outfits can often have an informal role filled by a pivotal personality that consults, cajoles and coaches those in the field.

Then there are those that support the quota carriers. From ‘sales ops managers’ to pre-sales consultants there’s a long list of possibles.

Is there a coach supporting you?

One of many reasons put forward for England’s hapless World cup campaign is the lack of UEFA-qualified coaches. According to one journalist, here are the numbers of such UEFA badge holders among five nations.

Germany 34,970

Italy 29,420

Spain 23,995

France 17,588

England 2,769

So the Germans have over ten-times the coaches in England. It goes without saying that the success each of the four countries listed first here can boast is wildly greater than England’s.

Is the same true in sales? Does an effective coaching resource deliver greater success? I believe the answer is a firm yes. So why can’t more sales teams call on such expertise?