Article originally published on LinkedIn Pulse
All season, I assumed the Cinderella story of the 2025-26 Indiana Hoosiers football team would fizzle out. There was no way they could come so far, so fast.
Then I started watching them play. I started listening to how the commentators talked about the team and the coaches.
I realized how special they are and also started to understand the reasons why.
Comparisons between sports and business are frequent, and occasionally overdone, but I can’t help it in this instance. The Hoosiers’ rise provides too many lessons for sales leaders and company executives to ignore.
Here are three ways I believe companies can borrow from Indiana’s recipe to drive better sales performance.
Execution vs. Talent
The first thing most pundits say about the Hoosiers is how well they “execute.” What they mean is that the players do what they are supposed to a very high percentage of the time. They don’t miss blocks, they don’t forget plays, they don’t commit penalties.
They are clear on their job and they do it.
My experience is that companies have a lot of room for improvement around execution. It starts with clarity from their leaders. What needs to be done? Where do people need to be? What does success look like?
Too often in sales organizations these questions are not answered clearly. When we share this feedback with leaders, the response we get 90% of the time is “we hire people who are experienced so we don’t have to tell them how to do their jobs.”
Having good talent does not guarantee execution.
Ask the stacked rosters that Indiana obliterated during the College Playoffs their thoughts on this. Companies cannot be successful if their only guidance to their salespeople is “hit your numbers.” That would be like a football telling his players to use their talents to put points on the scoreboard.
Obviously. They know the objective, but they often lack the right plan to get there.
Paint a very clear picture of what everyone needs to do if the company is going to be successful. People can’t execute if they don’t know what is expected of them. No detail is too small. You’re better off with too much clarity than not enough.
Practice What Matters
It has been well documented that Indiana’s coach, Curt Cignetti, does not believe in endless practices or all-night strategy sessions with his coaches.
Their approach is a little different. They pick out the scenarios that they believe matter most during the game and they practice those repeatedly. They don’t want their players or their coaches burned out. They want them fresh and focused. Sales leaders would be wise to borrow this approach.
Talk to any sales manager and they will tell you that there are 2-3 things that salespeople on their team struggle with consistently. Those 2-3 things give you your practice blueprint. You don’t need more.
The tendency is to try to “fix” too many things at once and you never really get better at any of them. This becomes even tougher as sales teams introduce new AI analytics tools that break down every detail of your sales conversation. Sure, it’s great to have pointed feedback. However, many of these tools are so packed with insights that salespeople often don’t know where to start.
The goal is to build confidence. Focus on the selling behaviors that matter most and practice those until people feel like it is second nature. Even if you have all the data, you run the risk of burning them out if you try to tackle too many things at one.
Choose Leaders Wisely…Then Trust Them
Effective sales managers are the cornerstone of a good sales culture. However, many sales organizations struggle to get the most out of their frontline leaders. The main challenges we see are:
- Companies “promote good reps” to be sales managers rather than matching skills to the needs of the role.
- Leadership throws too many priorities at their sales managers, and they struggle to stay focused.
This is another area where Indiana excels. Cignetti has had to get creative to fill staffs across his various coaching stops. But, he has shown a willingness to make bold hires that are more about fit than they are about convenience.
Once he has them in place, Cignetti does not micromanage them or expect their lives to be solely about football. He creates a culture where his people are “efficient and organized.” If they do can do that, they get to enjoy life outside of work. Cignetti’s approach eliminates the two challenges outlined above.
The advice for executives is to be more rigorous with who your hire to run sales teams. It starts with an honest evaluation of what you need them to do. Promoting a top seller with little or no skills in coaching or people development probably won’t bring create efficiency and organization.
Simple, Yet Hard
Clarity and trust are the core of the Indiana system.
Are those two words that described your sales organization? If they are not, it might be time to adapt the Hoosier way. Do the “blocking” and “tackling” better than other companies around you.
It might not be the sexiest approach, but it wins.
Congratulations to Indiana University Bloomington and their fans. This team earned everything they achieved.
