BEHIND EVERY SALES NUMBER
IS A PERSON.
Sales organisations measure almost everything: pipeline, conversion rates, activity, forecast accuracy, revenue. What's often overlooked is the impact of sustained pressure on the person responsible for delivering those numbers.
Sales Is Tough exists to change that. We help sales organisations understand and address the human and commercial consequences of sustained sales pressure: recognising the warning signs, supporting their people and protecting performance.
THE FIRST SIGNS RARELY APPEAR IN A WELLBEING REPORT.
THEY APPEAR IN HOW SOMEONE SELLS.
The difficult call that gets postponed. The prospect who doesn't get a follow-up. The confidence that disappears from a customer conversation. The experienced salesperson who starts playing safe rather than pursuing opportunities.
Sales Is Tough began with that observation, formed over more than 25 years in sales and commercial leadership. Individually, these changes are easy to dismiss. Collectively, they can have a significant impact on performance, and behind them is often someone who's struggling.
SUPPORT BUILT SPECIFICALLY FOR SALES PROFESSIONALS.
Something that understood the pressures of targets, rejection, uncertainty, difficult customers and constant measurement.
That idea became Sales Is Tough.
BETTER AT SELLING ISN'T THE SAME AS
BETTER AT COPING.
Sales organisations invest heavily in training, technology, enablement and performance management. Many also offer employee assistance programmes and wider wellbeing initiatives. All of these have their place.
But there's a gap between improving someone's ability to sell and supporting their ability to cope with the pressures of selling. Salespeople don't always feel comfortable raising difficulties with the manager responsible for their performance, and general workplace support doesn't always understand the demands of commercial roles.
SALESPEOPLE NEED SOMEWHERE INDEPENDENT TO TURN. LEADERS NEED TO SEE PRESSURE EARLIER.
Sales Is Tough was created to address both.
MEET THE FOUNDER.
Rob Allen
Founder, Sales Is Tough
- 25+ years in sales and commercial leadership
- Responsible for more than £100 million in sales
- Senior leadership roles, including international teams
- Degree in Strategic Sales Management, with coaching as a core component
- Mental Health First Aid qualified
- NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Managing Stress at Work
- Primary Certificate in Stress Management, Centre for Stress Management
- Founding Fellow, Institute of Sales Professionals
I understand what it takes to deliver a number. I also understand that the people expected to deliver it aren't machines.
I've spent more than 25 years working in sales: building and leading commercial teams, managing demanding targets and helping businesses grow.
Sales Is Tough came from recognising a problem the industry has become very good at accepting. Pressure is treated as an unavoidable part of the job. Some pressure can be motivating, but sustained pressure can gradually undermine the very behaviours and qualities that make someone successful.
I believe we can do better. Not by removing accountability or pretending targets don't matter, but by recognising when pressure stops being productive and starts becoming destructive.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ‘SALESPERSON’
IS ‘PERSON’.
Businesses shouldn't have to choose between looking after their people and achieving their commercial objectives. The two are closely connected.
Our approach combines sales-specific assessment, confidential individual support and anonymised organisational insight. It's not another sales training programme, a substitute for clinical support, or a promise that every problem can be fixed with more resilience.
How our approach worksSALES IS TOUGH.
YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO MAKE IT TOUGHER.
Our ambition is to help create sales organisations where people perform at their best without sacrificing their wellbeing: where warning signs are recognised earlier, and asking for support isn't mistaken for weakness.