Good morning!
When the plan stops working, does your team see calm or panic on your face?
Week One trained the fighter. This week trains the corner, and it closes the camp.
As you know, the Revenue Fight Camp is a two-part series on what fighters know about performing when the pressure is real.
Fighting, or at least my weak attempts over the years at Judo, Karate, Aikido, Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, and Boxing, have always provided great lessons for me. Usually painful ones :-)
But… These lessons have always clanked around in my head about their applications to sales, leadership, and business ownership. Hopefully you enjoyed this non-typical approach to what can go into a newsletter like this.
Week One covered the five skills that keep a seller effective when the conversation turns uncomfortable: study the opponent, control the distance, absorb the first hit, change the combination, and keep working between rounds.
The opponent is never the buyer. It is pressure, poor preparation, emotional reaction, and the failure to adapt.
That same opponent shows up when you lead. It just lands in a different seat. Leadership is not tested when the team is winning. It shows up in the round where confidence drops, the plan stops working, and everyone turns to you for the read.
Managers drive at least 70 percent of the variance in team engagement (Gallup). One in two employees has left a job to get away from a manager (Gallup).
Starting next week, we will begin a three-part series on Art, Music, and Design, and how they each impact sales, leadership, and business ownership.
“There is no finish line. When you reach one goal, find a new one.” - Chuck Norris, six-time world karate champion |
70% At least this share of the variance in team engagement traces to the manager, not the company. Source: Gallup, State of the American Manager. |
For Sellers Your manager cannot take the call for you, so the first person you have to lead is yourself. Learn to steady your own corner between rounds and you recover from a slump in days instead of quarters. |
For Managers Your team reads your face before it reads the numbers, and panic spreads faster than any pep talk can fix. Stay composed and diagnose the one thing that matters, and you turn a losing stretch around without burning out the people in it. |
For Owners A company that needs you in every hard moment cannot grow past your calendar. Build leaders who think, decide, and recover on their own, and the business keeps performing when you step back. |
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This week’s fight camp trains five leadership skills: stay calm in the corner, diagnose before coaching, protect the fighter without removing the fight, know when to change the plan, and prepare people to continue without you. The three modules below put them to work.
KEY TERMS
The corner | Where the leader works. Not fighting for the person, but steadying and adjusting them between rounds. |
Diagnosing first | Finding the one thing that matters most right now instead of listing ten fixes. |
Protecting the fight | Supporting a person through pressure without removing the pressure that grows them. |
DO'S AND DON'TS
DO | DON'T |
Give one clear adjustment when the pressure is highest. | Deliver ten instructions and call it coaching. |
Let people own hard moments while you steady them. | Rescue people from every discomfort and stall their growth. |
THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE
Identify one person you lead who is struggling, separate the problem into skill, preparation, confidence, effort, or clarity, then choose one coaching adjustment instead of a general motivational speech.
THE WORKSHOP
MODULE 1 · FOR SELLERS
Lead yourself when the plan stops working.
Step 1 - Stay calm in your own corner. When a stretch goes cold, control the reaction before you change the activity.
Step 2 - Diagnose before you grind. Separate the real problem into skill, preparation, confidence, effort, or clarity before you add more hours.
Q. When you are in a slump, what is your first move?
A. Most sellers add activity and hope. The move is to name the one thing that is actually broken, then fix that.
EXAMPLE An account executive at a trade publisher hits three straight lost deals and starts doubling her call volume out of fear. She stops, reviews the calls, and sees the problem is discovery, not effort. She rebuilds her opening questions, and her next two proposals land because they finally match what the buyers needed.
Do This Today: Name the single thing breaking your last three deals, and fix that one thing before adding activity. Share It: More activity does not fix the wrong problem. Diagnose first. |
MODULE 2 · FOR MANAGERS
Steady the team and coach the one thing that matters.
Step 1 - Stay calm in the corner. Your team takes its emotional cue from you, so composure is the first thing you coach.
Step 2 - Protect the fighter without removing the fight. Support people through pressure, but let them own the outcome and the recovery.
Q. When a rep is struggling, do you give one adjustment or a list?
A. A list overwhelms. Identify the single change that matters most right now, and coach only that.
EXAMPLE A sales manager at a regional publisher watches a strong rep spiral after losing a flagship account. Instead of a motivational speech or a rescue, she names one adjustment, tighter qualification on the next three deals, and lets the rep run them. The rep steadies, closes two, and rebuilds confidence through the work rather than through reassurance.
Do This Today: Pick one struggling person, name the single adjustment that matters most, and coach only that. Share It: A good corner gives one instruction, not ten. |
MODULE 3 · FOR OWNERS
Prepare people to perform when you cannot step in.
Step 1 - Know when to change the plan. Commitment is a strength, but blind commitment to a plan that stopped working is a cost.
Step 2 - Prepare people to continue without you. Build judgment in your leaders so they think, decide, and respond on their own.
Q. If you stepped back for a month, would the team hold?
A. If the honest answer is no, you have built dependence, not leadership. The job is to make yourself removable.
EXAMPLE The owner of a media company runs every major deal through his own inbox and wonders why growth has stalled. He hands three deals fully to his sales lead, coaches the decisions instead of making them, and resists stepping in. Two of the three close, and the lead starts handling pressure calls without him, which frees the owner to open a new revenue line.
Do This Today: Hand one decision you normally make to someone you lead, and coach the choice instead of making it. Share It: The real job is preparing people to perform when you cannot step in. |
RECOMMENDED READING
BOOK 01 Extreme Ownership Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Leading under pressure by owning the problem and the adjustment. |
BOOK 02 The Coaching Habit Michael Bungay Stanier Say less, ask more, and coach the one thing that matters. |
BOOK 03 Revenue vs. Sales Mort Greenberg The operating discipline behind a team that performs without heroics. |
That closes the Fight Camp. Week One trained the fighter. Week Two trained the corner.
Read them together, and the pairs line up:
The seller who studies the opponent needs the manager who diagnoses before coaching.
The seller who absorbs the first hit needs the leader who stays calm in the corner.
The seller who changes the combination needs the owner who knows when to change the plan.
And the seller who keeps working between rounds eventually becomes the person the next fighter turns to.
Pressure does not disappear as you move up. It changes seats. The rep feels it in the room, the manager feels it in the forecast, the owner feels it in the payroll.
Same opponent every time: pressure, poor preparation, emotional reaction, and the failure to adapt. Never the buyer. Never your team.
That is the whole camp. Train the fighter, train the corner, and the result stops depending on who happened to stay composed that week.
Leadership is not standing outside the ring shouting instructions. It is preparing people to perform when you cannot step in for them.
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The Revenue Workshop isn’t theory. It’s a field-tested system used by real leaders, in real markets, under real pressure.
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Have a good week ahead,
Mort