Last week I spent a couple of days facilitating a leadership session on "Coaching the IMPAX Process". The session was in Singapore, and was attended by leaders from across Asia representing China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and of course, Singapore, among others. The leaders were impressive in their skills and generous in their hospitality!

One learning that was reinforced for me was that, around the world, we share common issues and opportunities when it comes to sales and relationship management. Of course, there are social and societal differences, but for the most part we are in very similar situations. Any of us who are trying to sell our value are fighting some killer trends: the rise of procurement, the challenging global economy and smarter, better educated customers...

Another commonality is the fact that one of the biggest determinants of individual sales/account management success is the frequency and quality of the coaching they receive. It cannot be overstated how important this coaching is. Interestingly, it is important for everyone. We talked about NOT making a mistake that so many organizations make - ignoring the top performers and only coaching people who "need help".