How naive was I?

4 December 2025

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗻𝗮𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗜? 𝘔𝘦, 30 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘰 - 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩-𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.

I’d worked my way up.
Started as a software developer.
Then pre-sales.
Then carried a bag myself as an Account Exec.
Then - promotion! Sales Manager.

I was thrilled.
And wildly unprepared.

This was a small software house that taught me how to sell.
But when it came to 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 salespeople?
No training. No playbook. Just… a title.

So what did I do?
In my first few sales meetings, I 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳.
Hijacked the conversation.
Talked straight to the customer.
Ignored my sales guy and his plan.
Completely undermined them - without even realising it.

Worse still, I walked out of those meetings with 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 how my guy had performed… because they barely spoke.

That’s when it hit me:
I didn’t need to get better at selling.
I needed to get better at 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨.

So I sought help. I got trained.
And I learned one of the most important lessons in sales leadership:

👉 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲.

That might be:

• To help elevate the conversation - by virtue of your title & experience helping your seller getting a level higher - to the CIO or CEO.
• To observe and coach - meaning you mostly 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯, and your real work happens 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳.
• Or to navigate a tricky situation - where your presence is part of the message.

But 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 is it to take over.
Never is it to say: “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘴…...”

Even now, I see sales managers fall into this trap - with the best intentions. But it chips away.

🎯 Your job is to develop 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦. To scale yourself.
🎯 You can’t do that if you don’t see them in action.
🎯 And they can’t grow if you’re always speaking for them.

💬 𝗜’𝗺 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄:
What do 𝘺𝘰𝘶 see as the purpose of a sales manager joining a customer meeting with one of their team?
Have you seen it done well - or badly?