Sales Management: 5 Lessons from Football to Motivate your Teams

Friday, June 10th will mark the beginning of an international event eagerly awaited by all football lovers: Euro 2016. And we all know that this year you will be following the event that our dear country has the honor of hosting.

Why are we talking about “football” on our blog? Well, know that you can draw lessons from this sport to motivate and manage your teams. What do a football match and the daily life of a company have in common?

Firstly, a team, and secondly, a common goal: to win and aim for performance. Didn’t you make the connection? Here are 5 lessons drawn from football to coach, motivate your teams, and acquire dynamic sales management, like a true coach during this championship season.

Surround Yourself with Supportive and Complementary Profiles

HR Manager and selector, same battle. Their goal is first and foremost to find individuals, and the best ones if possible, who are vital to the functioning of their teams. But recruitment isn’t just about individual skills and experience. Even if it seems simpler at first glance to succeed with a team of stars and experienced players, surrounding yourself with individual and non-complementary profiles will lead to your downfall.

The primary sources of value for your teams will be their ability to appreciate each other, complement each other, and build together. If the profiles initially selected do not possess this spirit of collective solidarity and do not meet the team’s human expectations, a feeling of misunderstanding and frustration will quickly be felt. That’s why it’s essential, for your teams to perform, to orient your recruitment towards a collective and supportive spirit, in addition to each individual’s skills.

We all remember Greece’s surprise victory against Portugal in 2004 during the European Championship. No stars in the Greek team, but as Sofoot quotes, “it brought together a group of friends, supportive and experienced.”

Implement a Strategy Based on Collective Values

In the workplace as on the field, there are different types of profiles, each evolving towards a personal goal. Salary, recognition, self-development, career springboard, or even popularity are personal goals that vary depending on your staff. A new member will play to prove their worth, while a veteran, already having some recognition, will tend towards different and more individual goals.

The common task of a coach and a manager is to provide a source of motivation and a general spirit that will push everyone to give their all, regardless of individual personal goals, towards a common objective. This spirit is found during international championships.

Whether it’s the Euro or the World Cup, players from a country set aside their club-related goals for the season to return to a common and supportive objective: to make their country win. And what cements such a mindset and this desire for solidarity is the manager’s ability to respectively propose and instill in their team a common strategy and values.

In a company, whether you are an intern or in top management, you must be able to know and understand your company’s values.

PSG or OL, the 2 teams are rivals, and players from each of them meet in the French national team to achieve a common goal.

Know when to Show the Cards

Managers or coaches are an integral part of the team, yes. But we must not forget that in any organization, there must be a conductor to direct, correct, and adjust everyone’s behavior and practices. Managerial authority plays a decisive role in execution, and if well-mastered, you will have a team that believes in you and recognizes your expertise and experience. Being a good manager means knowing how to recognize your team’s mistakes, communicate them, and rectify them.

Sometimes, flaws are difficult to identify, but you must know how to overcome them to benefit from them. Without authority and without a leader, a collective will be left to itself and thus destabilized. To prevent your authority from being weakened and your decisions from being questioned, know how to firmly reframe, if necessary, your staff who deviate from the set objectives and given instructions.

We all remember the Anelka scandal during the 2010 World Cup, whom Raymond Domenech had excluded from the team following an incident. Subsequently, the majority of the team boycotted training sessions. Some of the causes of this incident: Misunderstanding, poorly managed authority, and the emergence of individual behaviors that impacted the collective.

Be Versatile and Adapt in your Sales Management

A strategy and management are never static or set in stone. Knowing how to adapt to the market, to encountered problems, and to new competitors is essential for a positive evolution of your performance. Always have several development scenarios on hand to avoid wasting time creating them when a problem arises.

There’s a time for everything: clarifying objectives, listening to your teams, communicating with them, and finally making decisions. But sometimes, you need to know how to adapt to the situation quickly. That’s why a manager must know how to be “agile”. Agility is a skill that will allow you to manage both your daily routine (job or mission rotation, adaptation) and your strategy (new positioning, new angle of attack) and will give you an advantage in managing your teams.

Making the right change at the right time is an essential point to master for both coaches and managers. The secret to this management lies in anticipation, foresight, and analysis to never be caught off guard.

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Use your Failures as a Source of Improvement

A failure is not a fault and should not be considered as such. How many great clubs have already lost matches, finals, cups… And yet, teams bounce back and become stronger because, as John Calvin Maxwell, an American author specializing in leadership, says: “a man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to learn from them, and strong enough to correct them.”

Failure is a one-time event that should not tarnish your teams’ morale. A good manager must use their team’s past successes, future objectives, and improvement challenges to restore their confidence and allow them to overcome this failure.

On July 9, 2006, in Berlin, we lost against Italy in the World Cup final on penalties. Two months later, on September 6, 2006, we won 3-1 against the same team for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Here’s an example of a failure that quickly turned into a victory.

Bonus: 5 Classic Football Quotes.

“Individual performances are not the most important thing. We win and lose as a team.” – Zinedine Zidane – former player, currently coach of Real Madrid.

“Players who are not true leaders, but try to be, always blame others when they make a mistake. True leaders on the field already take responsibility for the mistakes of those who will make them.” – Johan Cruyff – former player and coach.

“To fail, perhaps; to resign, never.” – Luis Fernandez – former player and coach.

And to conclude, 2 humorous quotes…

“There is only one possibility: win, lose, or draw.” – Franz Beckenbauer – former player and coach.

“The English invented football, the French organized it, the Italians staged it.” – Eric Cantona – former player and coach.

Have a great Euro 2016 everyone and “allez les blues !”

And since we at Incenteev love giving gifts, here’s for you, the Euro 2016 anthem.

Create an Over-Motivated Team in the Digital Age