03 July 2025
When Paul Devlin stepped into a new sales leadership role, he faced a sceptical market, an underconfident team, and an unsupportive organisation. At the same time, he began an MSc in Leading Sales Transformation, an experience that challenged his assumptions and introduced him to coaching as a leadership philosophy.
What started as a commercial challenge became a turning point. Paul discovered a new way to lead — one focused not on pressure and performance, but on people and potential.
When Paul Devlin stepped into a new sales leadership role in a global organisation, he inherited a challenge that would test everything he knew about performance, culture and leadership. The task was to launch a new solution in a market where appetite was low and scepticism was high. The product was priced at a premium, and in a region where discounting was the norm, this created friction from the outset. Internally, confidence was lacking. The wider organisation was reluctant to support the new initiative. Even his own team were uncertain about its value.
From the outside, it was a familiar commercial challenge. One that might be solved through sharper messaging, stronger pipeline management or a renewed sales push. But for Paul, something deeper was beginning to take shape.
At the time alongside this assignment, Paul had recently embarked on an MSc in Leading Sales Transformation. The course offered more than academic rigour. It gave him space to reflect on the experiences that had shaped his career. It also introduced new frameworks that challenged how he thought about leadership in sales.
And it was within this academic environment that Paul discovered something unexpected. A genuine passion for coaching. Not as a performance tactic, but as a leadership philosophy. A way of bringing out the best in people. A way of creating a team culture where success was not reserved for a few at the top, but made possible for everyone.
As Paul progressed through the MSc, one question began to take shape. The more he explored it, the more urgent it felt.
Why is it considered acceptable for sales leaders to hit their numbers while half their team consistently fails to hit theirs?
It was a pattern he had seen many times before. Leaders being celebrated for achieving targets, while large parts of their teams were left behind. The assumption seemed to be that this was simply the nature of sales. But Paul no longer accepted that.
His MSc research gave him the opportunity to explore the issue in depth. He conducted a global study, speaking with over 70 sales professionals from across industries and regions. He asked one clear question. Outside of opportunity reviews, how much coaching do you receive from your manager?
The response was striking. Almost everyone said the same thing. None.
What followed were stories of frustration and disconnection. Salespeople described their leaders as reactive, distant or focused solely on reporting upwards. Coaching was not just underused. In most cases, it was completely absent. As one participant put it, “My manager cares more about the forecast than about me.”
The pattern was clear. Coaching was missing. And in its absence, trust was missing too.
For Paul, this realisation was a turning point. It confirmed what he had long sensed. That the problem was not simply capability. It was culture. And that the real lever for performance was not pressure, but support.
Paul made a decision. He would lead differently.
He stepped away from the traditional rhythm of sales management. Instead of beginning every conversation with numbers, he turned his attention to what came before the numbers. The behaviours. The decisions. The patterns.
He introduced a simple yet powerful shift in focus. He asked his team to start tracking leading indicators rather than lagging ones. Rather than measuring revenue after the fact, they began reflecting on the actions that created it.
Every week, salespeople shared what they had done. Who they had met. What had been discussed. What had changed as a result.
This was not about micromanagement. It was about building visibility. Not for the manager, but for the salesperson. It was about helping people see the story behind their performance. Coaching conversations became grounded in that story.
Instead of telling people what to do, Paul and his managers began asking questions. Coaching became a space for exploration. It became a space where confidence could grow.
At first, there was resistance. Some team members were unsure what to expect. Others worried it would become another layer of reporting. But over time, the coaching culture began to take root. As trust was built, people opened up. They began to engage with the process. They started to reflect more deeply. And they began to see coaching not as a performance review, but as a support system.
What mattered most was not what was being measured. It was the mindset shift behind it. Salespeople stopped waiting to be managed. They started to manage their own development.
The transformation that followed was not just anecdotal. It was measurable. And it was consistent.
One team member, who had been ready to resign during Paul’s first week, went on to deliver over three million euros in revenue within a year. The following year, he more than tripled that. He became one of the organisation’s highest-performing salespeople. His journey from frustration to confidence became a visible symbol of what coaching could unlock.
But this was not a story about one person. It was a story about the team.
Ten out of twelve salespeople exceeded their targets. Seven qualified for the organisation’s highest performance awards. What had once been considered a difficult region became the most successful team globally by both results and recognition.
Paul did not stop there. He carried the same coaching model into his next assignment. A new region. A new product portfolio. A fresh set of challenges.
Once again, the focus was on leading indicators. Once again, coaching was at the centre. And once again, the results followed.
In a legacy business unit that had seen minimal growth for years, Paul’s team delivered a 67 percent increase in revenue year on year. The highest growth the business had ever seen. Even the organisation’s leadership performance framework began to evolve. Paul introduced a new baseline for what success looked like in management. It was no longer enough for a manager to hit their number. They had to enable others to do the same. Every leader was expected to ensure that at least half of their team hit target, and that at least one in five exceeded it significantly. Coaching was no longer just a leadership behaviour. It became a leadership standard.
Looking back, Paul sees his MSc in Leading Sales Transformation not just as a career milestone, but as a turning point. It gave him the evidence to challenge what he had long suspected. It gave him the frameworks to build something new. And it helped him uncover a purpose that had always been there, waiting to be named.
Coaching became more than a tool. It became the heartbeat of his leadership style.
“Pipeline and revenue are nothing more than your ability to execute,” he reflects. “But if all you ever talk about is the number, people start to believe that’s all you care about. Coaching changes that. It puts people first. And when people grow, everything else follows.”
This was never just a story about results. It was a story about responsibility. About what happens when leaders stop accepting that only some people will succeed. About what becomes possible when you build a culture where success is shared, not siloed.
That, perhaps, is what defines a true leader. Not how many targets they hit. But how many people they take with them.