Working in sales for over 20 years, I was staggered at the number of sales managers and teams that would frown upon failure – to the point where sales people would do whatever they could to avoid making mistakes.

And in working as a coach & mentor to sales leaders and their teams for the last 7 years, unfortunately nothing much has changed. The pressure to hit the number is all consuming and within the sales environment, the expectation is to convert every opportunity because the forensic investigation if we ‘fail’ is more about apportioning blame, not learning so as to improve. Not a recipe for exceptional performance. Failure is a necessary ingredient to sales success.