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Episode 29 | Brett James
Callum Mackay moved into sales management early in his career, building and leading teams through startup and scale-up environments. In this episode of I Used to be Crap at Sales, he and Mark Ackers get into what the first-time sales manager role is actually like - the shift from selling to leading, the imposter syndrome, and the year of pressure that ended with him being signed off work with stress. If you've recently stepped into management, or you're thinking about it, this one is honest in a way most conversations aren't.
What we cover in this episode
- The moment a top-performing sales director found out that managing people and coaching people are two completely different jobs
- Why he puts 50 to 60% of his team's number down to coaching, and why he loses sleep in any week he has to cancel a session
- What hero managing is, why it's so hard to stop, and Brett's honest answer on whether he'd let a deal go south to protect the coaching
- Two tips for running sales role play that reps don't dread, including why you should stop role playing whole calls
- Why your mentor has to work outside your business to be any use to you
- Being open about the fact that people have left his team because of how intensely he led them, and the diagnosis that changed how he leads
About I Used to be Crap at Sales
I Used to be Crap at Sales is hosted by Mark Ackers, Co-Founder of MySalesCoach. Each episode is a direct conversation with someone who has been in the sales seat - covering the specific challenges that sales leaders, AEs, and SDRs actually face: first-time management, SDR coaching, quota pressure, difficult conversations, burnout, and the parts of the job nobody puts in the job description.
New episodes every month.
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MySalesCoach
MySalesCoach matches sales teams with expert 1:1 coaches - people who've done the job, not just studied it. Book a call to see how we can support your internal coaching to drive better outcomes.
About Brett James
Brett James is General Manager at Leadoo Marketing Technologies, leading 70+ people across several markets. He started as a junior account manager at an automotive marketing agency in Wakefield, cold-calling motor groups out of the Yellow Pages, then became Sales Director at Force 24 through a Series A, and VP Sales then Global VP Sales at Leadoo through its acquisition by SALESmanago. He calls himself a sales coach first, and he is unusually honest about both what that has delivered and what it has cost.
