Why invest in sales managers
New tools, incentives and products all help, but the sales leader multiplies performance more than any of them. Research from Gartner, McKinsey and the Corporate Executive Board consistently shows that effective sales coaching can improve performance by 19–26%, before technology is added.
Most sales managers were promoted because they sold well. Few were taught how to coach. Our programmes close that gap.
Our leadership programmes are designed and delivered by consultants who have led sales teams themselves, across sectors from financial services and technology to manufacturing and health and life sciences. They understand the pressures managers face, from forecasting to recruiting and retaining good salespeople.
The Double Pivot
We describe the sales manager's role as the Double Pivot. Pivoting up means aligning with business strategy and customer value. Pivoting down means coaching, enabling and energising every salesperson. Good managers balance strategy and execution, performance and people, and human judgement with AI insight.
What managers practise
- Plan strategically: translate company goals into territory, account and team priorities.
- Coach effectively: use data and behavioural insight to coach the skills that matter for each person.
- Execute consistently: run one-to-ones, pipeline reviews and team sessions that drive action.
- Use AI insight: apply information from tools such as Skeells to focus coaching time.
Sessions use real cases from participants' own teams, and managers leave with coaching plans for their people.
Leading sales teams across countries
Many of the managers we work with lead teams spread across several countries, or sit in regional structures with global reporting lines. We run international cohorts so managers share practice across markets, and our resident consultants support local coaching in the local language. A common coaching model means a salesperson in one country gets the same quality of support as a colleague in another.
Leadership development often sits alongside a wider programme, such as value selling or key account management, so managers coach the same method their teams are learning.
How the programme runs
We usually begin by understanding what managers do today: how they spend their time, how they run one-to-ones and pipeline reviews, and what their teams say about the support they receive. This gives a baseline and lets us focus the programme on the gaps that matter.
Managers then work through a series of practical sessions, in person or virtual, each followed by work in their own team. They practise coaching conversations with peers and trainers, receive feedback and try the approach with their salespeople before the next session. Coaching supervision helps them reflect on what worked.
Where teams are also using Skeells, managers learn to read the insight it provides and turn it into specific coaching goals. Senior sales leaders are involved throughout, so the coaching culture is supported from the top and managers have the time and expectation to coach.