The six business lessons from this Barça

Many will say that it is not always possible to draw parallels between business and football, but we will always be talking about organizations, teams, people, and challenges. The original formula of the Guardiola-Tito Vilanova tandem (2008-2014), based on La Masía, gradually faded in a progressive —though initially imperceptible— degradation until today, when a cycle closes with an uncertain future.

What lessons can companies learn from this Barça for their business teams? These are some of the main risks that directors and commercial teams must take into account if they do not want to see their trail of successes vanish:

1. Loss of competitiveness

In Formula 1, on many occasions, we have seen Lewis Hamilton say, after winning a Grand Prix comfortably: "Now we are not going to celebrate anything. We are going to think about how the Mercedes team and I can maintain that advantage with hard work."

That is the morale that Barça has been losing and that the sales team has to know how to maintain year after year. To achieve this, it is necessary to have proactive teams, with initiative, detectors of opportunities in current clients and capturers of new clients. And it is here where the commercial director must place the indicators to anticipate sales drops. Comments like "We already know all the clients" or "We are in an unbeatable position" can be precursors to a debacle.

2. Lack of humility

The truly great know that learn, strive, work and innovateare always his preferred words. Believing that we will always be the best throughout life is a ticking time bomb. It is necessary, therefore, to set aside these thoughts. At Barça, many coaches used that language, but only Guardiola and Tito made an effort to dilute the enthusiasm when success was more than evident.

In the business world, the lack of humility becomes evident when it is not possible to confront or correct certain salespeople, and both director and salesperson move to the comfort zone: "As sales manager, I don't make the effort to correct him, and as a salesperson, he rests on his laurels."

3. Excessive complacency and self-complacency

Complacency is excessive tolerance towards certain behaviors or individual or collective errors. It is a measuring stick set at a low level. Too many coaches have justified individual and collective errors, above all, to protect themselves and avoidto face the stars.

As managers, we must exercise tolerance in its proper measure. An excess of intolerance towards error can lead the salesperson to not dare to undertake new projects, if there are possibilities of failure. But too much tolerance makes the salesperson live with error and inaccuracy, something that the client, or the partner, ultimately does not admit.

It is essential, therefore, that the manager dedicates part of their time to identifying errors in the commercial process, in the discourse and in the arguments; to highlighting them assertively and with good manners, and to activating the appropriate measures to correct the situation.

4. Avoid the kingdoms of taifas

The only recipe against cliques is strong leaderships that know how to set an example. And it is that fragmented teams are especially pernicious for companies. Above all, because a salesperson is someone who works with full autonomy of play and often with a wide margin of freedom. Therefore, a salesperson aligned by a single common objective is fundamental.

5. Squeezing a success formula has a limit

The magic potion of Barça's success ---based on La Masía, on young and talented players, and on the method of thetiquitacahas been blurring. In eight years, no project has appeared, no improved way of proceeding from that one, that would create anothergapcompetitive with the rest of the elite teams.

With organizations, the same thing happens. A company must innovate in product, in service, in marketing, but also in sales, because there are many ways to sell and many fields of innovation in sales. Thus, organizations know that they have to spend money on marketing (between 5% and 20% of their sales), but they are rarely aware of the need to invest, also, in efficiency and in commercial organization.

6. Manage the best talent well

Knowing that every Barcelona fan has an ideal lineup, many will agree that those who shouldn't have left Barça, players who didn't add value have been signed, and some players who, perhaps, no longer fit have stayed too long. It is painful to realize all this now.

In a sales team, the emotional compass is fundamental if talent is to be retained. The sales manager must know how the different people in the team are doing and what worries them, and build a framework where they feel comfortable in terms of challenges, career plan, training, promotions, and remuneration. If that future plan is not drawn up, the best tend to leave.

These are difficult times, also for companies and their business teams. But if we learn from cycles and know how to use culture to our advantage, we will be doing a lot for the future of the sales team and the company's sales.

Because, as Cruyff said, in football and in sales management, "quality without results is useless, but results without quality are very boring."

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