1. If You hired a Football Coach to Run your Channel Sales Team
By Mike Pagliuca
Imagine that you are a new head football coach. You just spent months and millions to
sign your 1st
round draft choice. You think he can play an integral role in building Super
Bowl wining team. Do you just leave him alone, let him be “a professional” and play his
own way? Hell no! You figure out how to maximize his potential within your team’s
system and you strive to get the best individual contribution within the overall team
structure. Ideally, you want this1st round draft choice to help you WIN, work well with
others, represent the team in a professional manner and yes, be coachable. If you are
lucky this highly sought after and expensive recruit will develop to be a leader who
communicates well with other members of the organization and the team.
Imagine you are the new leader of a Channel Sales team. You desire to drive your team
to WIN. You are full of ideas, willing to work long hours and dripping with the passion
to WIN. You look at this room which is filled with highly sought after CAM recruits.
Do you say here is your list of partners and your Salesforce.com login now go out and
“be professionals” and do what we hired you to do. Again, Hell no! As the coach and
leader you need to build a system, properly prepare these professionals and execute a
game plan.
I would expect this newly hired channel sales leader to exhibit head football coach
characteristics. A new football coach would demonstrate the following leadership traits.
A quality channel sales leader will apply the compareable concepts as they prepare their
channel team to execute a winning game plan. Such concepts should include:
1. Mentally energize his team and convince them that if they do commit to him and
they follow the program, they will WIN with him.
2. Build a leadership team of assist coaches who have specific expertise and can
prepare the players to execute their roles as part of the teams overall goal to WIN.
3. Condition the players to be strong under pressure – both mentally and physically
strong.
4. Drill, Drill, Drill. Players must do their best to anticipate and predict real life
situations. Coaches need to do their best to prepare themselves and the team for
game situations. During the game coaches want their players to execute without
having to think in real time. If players do not bring “their game” to the field, the
players will not learn it during the game.
5. Preparation prior Execution – a coach will do his best to prepare his players
because he knows that all the basics skills should be internalized prior to game
time execution. The game time execution may not always look like it does in
practice but the results are what the coach is after.
6. Coaches prepare themselves by collecting data, studying the other teams, knowing
their players strengths/ weaknesses so they can provide the proper guidance to
their players. Exploit the team’s strengths and compensate for the weaknesses.
Anticipate what will happen before it happens.
7. Define expectations to all those who support the team and delegate specific
responsibilities to the support team personnel.
This document was created Mike Pagliuca. All information is Mike Pagliuca personal and confidential.
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2. 8. Effectively manage up and down. Players need management but so the personnel
who are not players. If everyone has the same end goal, to WIN the Super bowl,
this is an effective management characteristic. Everyone is important and
everyone contributes. Do you think the person who has the responsibility to pack
the shoulder pads is important? If your starting offense is worried about their
equipment, then they are not 100% focused on their game time execution.
Everyone contributes to the team’s execution.
9. Build a game plan for the team. In advance, yet they think about potential “on the
field”, game time adjustments.
10. Know when a player needs help completing their responsibility. Determine the
best way to help our players accomplish their assignment. No one person can do
it all.
11. Be able to breakdown the performance of the individual as well as the team. The
players’ individual execution when all combined defines the team’s execution.
Know how the components all work together.
12. Empower the players to WIN. When they are on the field they have to apply their
training and skills in real time to function as a team.
13. Coaches need to be consistent in their execution and communication to the
players.
14. Every now and then a coach will give his team a “light practice day”. Do not
burn out their players or run them into the ground.
15. Coaches have to be tough and they have to hate to lose. Tough should never be
insensitive or condescending.
16. Coaches need a support network too. They need access to people with similar
expertise with whom they can speak. Preferably the people in this support
network have had similar responsibilities and have faced similar situations. They
cannot show weakness or doubt with their players and staff.
17. Coaches make quick, intelligent decisions and reverse them slowly. Mistakes
will occur. Indecision leads to a failure of execution.
Head football coaches have many other responsibilities and fundamental obligations.
Their role is challenging. They need to know how to get high powered professionals to
combine their individual efforts so he team can collectively WIN. They need to build a
system that empowers and enables these individuals to maximize their individual efforts
so that when combined with other players, the team will WIN. The head coach strives to
leave little to chance. Conditioning and preparation are essential. Athleticism and
individual capabilities will determine a player’s ability to execute their responsibility.
The coach must prepare the player. The coach must build a foundation for the player,
train the player, ensure the player knows that they are part of system and finally, provide
ongoing coaching to keep the player mentally and physically fit.
I argue that building a Channel Sales team and Professional football team share many of
the same coaching fundamentals.
This document was created Mike Pagliuca. All information is Mike Pagliuca personal and confidential.
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