Are You Coaching Your 'Middles'? The 70% Problem
By Shawn Hamilton, M.S., DBA(c) Shawn Hamilton is a leading sales leadership advisor and doctoral researcher at the University of Houston, specializing in Sales Leadership.
Are You Coaching Your 'Middles'? The 70% Problem
At the start of Q4, where is your coaching time really going?
If you're like most sales leaders, your calendar is held hostage by two groups:
The C-Players: The "squeaky wheels" who are on a performance plan and consume 50% of your emotional energy.
The A-Players: Your high-flying "Superstars" who you love talking to because it feels like a victory lap.
This leaves the "Middles"—your core B-Players—utterly neglected. This 60-70% of your team, the group with the single greatest potential for growth, gets almost none of your proactive coaching time.
This isn't just a management oversight; it's a catastrophic strategic failure.
The Math That Exposes Most Sales Leaders
The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, is well-known in sales: 20% of your reps (your A-Players) likely drive 80% of your results.
But a sales leader's job is not just to manage the 80/20 rule; it's to break it.
Think about the leverage:
Coaching A-Players: A 5% performance lift from your top rep is fantastic, but it's incredibly hard to get. They are already highly optimized.
Coaching C-Players: A 5% performance lift from your bottom rep is, frankly, irrelevant. And it's exhausting to achieve.
Coaching B-Players: A 5% performance lift from a B-Player is very achievable. Now, what happens when you get that 5% lift from all of them?
A 5% improvement across the "neglected 70%" of your team will have a more profound impact on your final Q4 number than any other activity you can do.
This is the definition of leadership leverage. Your "Middles" are not your average performers; they are your single greatest untapped asset.
Why You're Getting This Wrong
You are neglecting this group because they are not "urgent."
The C-Player is a fire (Quadrant 1 & 3 from two weeks ago). The A-Player is a fun, easy win. The B-Player is quiet, competent, and hits 85-95% of their number without complaint. Because they aren't demanding your time, they don't get it.
As sales leadership expert Mike Weinberg (2015) argues, many managers fail to see that their primary role is to move this "middle" curve. They get distracted by the noise at the edges and miss the opportunity in the center.
Actionable Takeaways: How to Tap into the 70%
Quarantine Your C-Player Time. Make a rule: you will not spend more than 10% of your coaching time on your C-Players. Put them on a formal, non-negotiable performance plan and reclaim your calendar.
Apply the "Three Levers" (Week 38) to Your "Middles." B-Players are the perfect candidates for "Focus" and "Skill" coaching. They have the Activity (Lever 1) but often lack the strategic Focus (Lever 2) or the refined Skill (Lever 3) of your A-Players.
Use the "Career Lattice". Your B-Players are often your "High-Potentials" who are wondering, "What's next?" They are the most at risk of being poached. Show them the "Career Lattice" and build a development plan. It's the #1 way to turn a B-Player into a future A-Player.
Stop managing the exceptions. Your job as a leader is to move the average. This quarter, make a conscious, strategic decision to invest your best coaching energy where you have the most leverage: your B-Players.
References
Weinberg, M. (2015). Sales management. Simplified.: The straight truth about getting exceptional results from your sales team. AMACOM.
