Sales Leadership - Player Coach

A simple poll and request for comment.

Can you be a successful Sales Manager and carry a personal quota (Player/Coach)..

Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
🧢 Sales Management
4
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
5
Sales
No. You’re pulled in too many directions and cannot focus on coaching your team + bringing in business. If you give up your selling time to coach and help your team close you’ll miss your number. If you focus on yourself and crush your number while your team misses theirs, everyone will grumble about you taking leads or clients for yourself etc. 

In my experience handling this role for 4 years, it’s a lose/lose. 


JC10X
Politicker
0
Senior Sales Manager
Totally agree, they are 2 different things - this comes from someone who does not know how to manage people therefore there is no trust, so everyone must be an individual contributor somehow to minimize risk. 
TheJoker
Fire Starter
2
VP of Sales
I would love to hear from the people who vote yes.
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
2
Sales
If you vote yes, I’d have to think you are absorbing a high achieving team that doesn’t really need much coaching and can go out and accomplish their goals without much help. I think it’s very rare. 
TheJoker
Fire Starter
1
VP of Sales
Then maybe you are really a team member with a nice title 😋😜
TheJoker
Fire Starter
1
VP of Sales
It's an interesting topic, though.  Maybe I should have put sales leadership instead of sales management.  Leadership is needed beyond just having your team hit their goals.  Building culture, setting strategy, inspiring the team,  reporting up the chain, running team meetings, running 1-1s, doing admin (expenses, approving leave, reporting) then the crucial stuff for team members like creating a career path, enabling career progression, and giving them what they need to be successful.  And if you are a manager of managers,  running leadership meetings, cross-functional management, building HQ support for your region, etc., etc.

Trying to do all that and carry a quota, something has to give, which leads to compromises, and that, in the end, leads to underperformance and eventually failure somewhere.
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
2
Sales
Yeah, there’s no chance you’re carrying a quota and doing sales leadership. The only way I can see that working is in a true start up where you kind of drag the team along with your book and can start to shed as they ramp up. 
TheJoker
Fire Starter
1
VP of Sales
Nail on the head there.  This is my lot.  I am usually always first on the ground or get a small team and get dirty on the front lines.  There's some benefit because you are starting from scratch, building the playbooks, and executing - you get to ramp your team fast, knowing what they need to know.  It's never sustainable long-term, and I always advise 6-9months, 12 months max.
softwaresails
Politicker
2
Sales Manager
No this definitely does not work. 

You cannot successfully lead the team and compete with the team at the same time by carrying a personal quota. 
34fifty
Valued Contributor
1
Team Lead
As a sales coach, you have to available for your team constantly. Not only when you have time after chasing your quota. Learning happens throughout.
Smithy
Politicker
1
Director of Sales
It’s a role that’s set up to fail mid-long term. 

there is no way that you can do both well and as soon as you focus on one element the other drops off and things get squirrely pronto. 

I’ve been in that position a few times and I’d never take a player/coach role now. Ever 
BlueJays2591
Politicker
1
Federal Business Dev Director
Not a chance. Very different roles, one is selfish and one is team focused. Biggest downfall of new sales managers is still trying to be a player/coach. 
TheJoker
Fire Starter
1
VP of Sales
And the biggest downfall of sales manager-of-managers and/or founders is expecting the sales manager to be a player-coach.
cifu
Opinionated
1
SDR
https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/should-sales-managers-be-responsible-for-their-own-quota

I was checking a similar post; my input: Hell no; Managers manage, coach-player, team lead, hands-on leader and all those euphemisms are bs. That's just a fancy way to burnout the managers. @Jackywaky 
Mr.Pickles
Arsonist
0
Sr. Customer Success Manager
Thank you for the tag
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
This is a shitty way to not pay you what you are worth.
Mr.Pickles
Arsonist
0
Sr. Customer Success Manager
I'm experiencing - if not suffering - the same atm. I made a post lately asking for the same, especially because the company I work with is transitioning to that model. What's worst about it is the into speech: "if you feel you don't like these changes you might not be a good fit for our company". I see this is the way to foster disloyalty and accelerate burnout within the organization. It's just juggling too many balls at a time IMO. 
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