The "Player-Coach" Is a Myth: Why You Can't Manage and Sell
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.
The "Player-Coach" Is a Myth: Why You Can't Manage and Sell
In the world of growing businesses, the "Player-Coach" is an alluring fantasy.
Here’s the scene: A company's star salesperson is promoted to Sales Manager. But the executive team is nervous. "We can't lose their $2M in revenue," they reason. "So, let's make them a Player-Coach. They can manage the team of four and keep a 70% quota."
On paper, it looks like a win-win. In reality, it is a trap—and the single most effective way to guarantee your new manager fails.
This model fails because it creates a fundamental, unwinnable conflict of interest. A manager's job is to focus outward, on their team. A salesperson's job is to focus inward, on their deals.
No one can look in two directions at once.
The Inevitable Choice
Imagine it's Thursday afternoon. A B-player rep, "Mark," is struggling and desperately needs 30 minutes of coaching before a critical discovery call. At that exact moment, the "Player-Coach" manager gets an urgent text from her own largest prospect: "Our CFO just had a last-minute opening. Can you join in 5 minutes?"
What will that manager always choose?
She will choose her own hot deal. She will choose her personal quota. She will choose the fire that is burning in her world, not Mark's. The coaching session is postponed for the fifth time, and Mark "wings it" on his call—and loses the deal.
The manager’s most important job—developing her people—will always be a casualty of the "Player-Coach's" most urgent task.
The Manager as "Catalyst"
In their landmark book, First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (1999) make a powerful case: The world's greatest managers are not "Super-Reps." They are "catalysts."
Their primary function is not to produce more, but to leverage more. Their job is to turn their team's unique talents into high-level performance. A manager who is busy carrying their own bag has no time for this. They are not a catalyst for their team; they are just a competitor.
This model doesn't just hurt the team; it destroys the new manager. They are doing two full-time jobs, succeeding at neither. They're not a good manager (no time to coach), and they're not even a good rep anymore (their focus is split).
Actionable Takeaways: How to Break the Model
The "Player-Coach" model isn't a compromise; it's a structural failure.
Commit to the Role. If you are promoting a salesperson to manager, commit. Take away their individual quota. Their new quota is the team's quota. Their compensation must be tied to their team's success. This is the only way to align their focus with their new responsibility.
Redefine the Job. A manager's job is not to sell. It is to build the machine that sells. Their job is recruiting, coaching, managing performance, and clearing obstacles. This is a full-time leadership role, not a part-time sales gig.
Force the Choice (If You're a Player-Coach). If you are stuck in this role, you must force a conversation with leadership. Show them your calendar. "I can spend today saving my own deal, or I can spend it coaching my team to save their deals. I cannot do both. Which is the true priority?"
Stop asking one person to do two jobs. A sales manager who is focused 100% on their team will always create more leverage, more scalability, and more long-term revenue than a "Player-Coach" who is just trying to stay afloat.
References
Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (1999). First, break all the rules: What the world's greatest managers do differently. Simon & Schuster.
