Lessons from a racing driver
Sep 25, 2026
"Just drive faster dickhead"
Not an approach the coach took
(Actually it was a version of "slow down to speed up")
I had the opportunity to watch a racing driver being coached recently
Really interesting
Not least because the driver was already pretty handy
The coach used everything available
Observation
Data
Direction
Questions
Sometimes challenging
Sometimes confirming
Sometimes just getting the driver to think about what had happened
It was a pleasure watching a pro at work
Not trying to completely change what the driver was doing
Looking for the small things
A little better here. A slightly different approach there
Marginal gains
I found myself thinking that good sales coaching isn't that different
Your salespeople probably aren't broken either
Most are capable people doing a decent job
The opportunity is often in helping them think about what they're already doing
- What happened in that conversation?
- Why did you ask that?
- What did the customer actually say?
- What might you do differently next time?
- What does the data tell us?
Sometimes coach
Sometimes challenge
Sometimes direct
But don't automatically jump in with the answer
High performance rarely comes from constantly telling capable people what to do
Sometimes it's helping them see the small shift they couldn't see for themselves
Funny where you spot hashtagOrangeHatThinking
(I looked at a new orange hat but decided to leave that for McClaren fans)
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