You should use all the resources at your disposal. That includes any other community you can find.

The difference here is that you can have private conversations with your coach. They are confidential, and speak your mind, ask all your questions and not worry about who’s going to see the message, and who your coach is going to talk to?  No one!

The coach is there to guide you

Here’s an observation of mine. People within the same organization tend to the same mistakes. Teammates are great. They provide insight into customers and products that are unparalleled. That being said, their primary job is supposed to be out there selling to customers. Mentoring and helping others, as much as they would love to do it, is secondary to selling and supporting the sales team.

I’ve run We The SEs for almost 4 years now for the love of Sales Engineering, and the love of helping others improve as Sales Engineers. I’ve also been coaching for several years, and that is my priority. Seeing changes happen to my clients, seeing them improve, get praised, raises and promotions is the best feeling in the world. That’s what I love to do, and what I will continue to do.

People have been doing this for many years. Can you do this on your own? 100%. I did. It then took me almost 2 years to realize I was not good at my job.

I’ve seen SEs who have been doing the same thing for 10 years, and because they are in their bubble, they do the same mistakes. This means they never improve, not increase their circle of influence, and never get a raise so they can better take care of their family.