Sales Management lessons from the English Premier League!

“I would rather play an A team with B rated coach, than a C team with an A-class coach”.

English Premier League Football fans worldwide were treated to another fantastic year of Premier League football. At the top were the two standout teams, Manchester City, and Liverpool. At the bottom, the story of struggle and survival ended in Burnley, Watford, and Norwich being relegated.?

With the championship still undecided entering the last day, fans were treated to twists and turns, ups and downs that really are the stuff of movie writers. For the second time on the last day of the league, Manchester City came from two goals down, way into the 2nd half of the game, to seize the trophy. In the 2012/13 season, Sergio Aguero left it to 15 seconds before the whistle was blown to win it for the light Blues of Manchester.

For winning the league, Manchester City's prize money was ￡44 million, just ￡2.2 million more than Liverpool, but a huge ￡42 million more than bottom place Norwich. To say winning matters is an understatement. The story of the tape, though, is the story of leadership, and specifically, coaching.

Top class coaching makes all the difference. Yes, both sides have really skilled players, yet I assert that Pep & Jurgen would get far better results if they were in charge of any of the relegated teams. A lesser skilled coach given the Man City or Liverpool teams, could have lost the championship. Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp make the real difference. When you aggregate the points achieved by both these teams over the last four seasons, Manchester City was winning only by one point. It would be fair to say that there is no real difference between these two managers. In fact, some might say that the difference is a matter of luck. The difference however, between, Pep & Jurgen, and the rest of the league is vast, and one major source of that difference is the quality of their players’ management and their coaching.

There is a lot that Sales Managers can learn from Jurgen & Pep. These are my top 8 lessons from watching these men and their teams this season:

• Be clear and uncompromising about your success philosophy and your process;
• Get everyone better, even the genius level talent;
• Be relentless in attack;
• Turn out the team everyday in the condition to win;
• Pile 100% of the success on the team and take 100% responsibility for any failures;
• Always be recruiting for new talent that will raise the standard of everyone;
• Care for and celebrate your players every opportunity you get;
• Study your craft and competition unceasingly.

Building championship teams is an art and a science, whether in football or sales. The starting point for success is a burning desire to succeed, an unwavering commitment to do whatever it takes to win, owning 100% responsibility for the results, optimism that always sees a path to success, and being driven by a commitment, a WHY, much bigger than yourself. Once this inner game is won, the development of the technical and tactical skills of managing and coaching will take you and your team to many championships.

To win at managing and leading your sales team requires an unrelenting commitment to getting better. the championship you must step up your sales management , we can show you how!??