Productivity Centre

(And the 7 Traits That Actually Matter)

I was working with a software company in Amsterdam three years ago when the CEO pulled me aside with a problem.

"Frank," he said, "we just promoted our top salesperson to sales manager. She crushed her quota every single quarter. Absolute legend."

"How's she doing?" I asked.

He grimaced. "Three months in, and the team's falling apart. Two reps have quit. Revenue's down 22%. She's micromanaging everyone and still trying to close her own deals instead of coaching her team."

"Let me guess," I said. "You promoted her because she was your best seller?"

He nodded.

"That's your problem right there."

This story isn't unique.

I've seen it play out in boardrooms from Boston to Bangkok, Dubai to Dublin.

A company's top salesperson gets promoted to manager, and within months, everything goes sideways.

The team underperforms. The former star becomes frustrated. Everyone wonders what went wrong.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Being brilliant at ...

(And How to Fix It Before Your Best People Leave)

I was sitting in a hotel conference room in Brussels watching a sales trainer deliver what he clearly thought was brilliant content.

PowerPoint slides from what looked like 2012.

Generic techniques that could apply to selling anything from software to sandwiches.

Role-plays that made everyone squirm.

The sales team sat there politely, checking their phones under the table, probably wondering if the coffee break would ever arrive.

At the break, one of the sales managers pulled me aside. "We paid £10,000 for this," he said quietly. "Three months from now, nobody will remember a single thing."

He was absolutely right. And he's not remotely alone.

Here's a statistic that should terrify every business owner: 84% of sales training content is forgotten within three months.

Even worse, approximately 70% of salespeople lack formal training entirely.

So businesses either don't train their people at all, or they waste money on training...