AIM 2026: Sales is a Sport: Barbara Corcoran on Building Sales Teams That Dominate

Sales is a Sport: Barbara Corcoran on Building Sales Teams That Dominate

Sebastian Jimenez, founder and CEO of Rilla, framed sales as a competitive sport: talented players need great coaches, continuous practice, feedback, and systems that help them improve. He was joined by Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and longtime Shark Tank investor, for a conversation about what separates exceptional salespeople and leaders.

For Corcoran, the defining characteristic of great salespeople isn't contacts, intelligence, or even how hard they work. It's how quickly they recover from rejection. Her highest performers experienced disappointment like everyone else, but they spent less time feeling sorry for themselves and got back into the game faster. 

Some sales instincts may be innate, but resilience can be developed. Corcoran encouraged salespeople to experience rejection repeatedly, recover, and keep trying. Over time, confidence comes not simply from winning but from knowing you will continue getting back up after losing.

Coaching was equally important. Corcoran discovered that even her top-producing salespeople struggled when asked to role-play listing presentations. Her solution was repeated practice with immediate feedback. Teams rehearsed objections and pitches until strong selling behaviors became repeatable rather than improvised.

Leadership required a different mindset. When Corcoran stopped personally selling apartments, she made a deliberate decision to serve her salespeople instead. Her role became removing obstacles, identifying individual strengths, and helping employees perform better. At the same time, she protected the culture—even firing a salesperson responsible for 70% of company revenue because that individual's negativity was damaging the team.

Finally, Corcoran emphasized fun and creativity as business advantages. A culture people enjoy can improve loyalty, recruiting, creativity, and ultimately performance.

Key Takeaways

• Hire for resilience. Look for people who recover quickly from rejection and failure.
• Practice creates performance. Use frequent role-playing and real feedback rather than relying solely on classroom training.
• Coach the conversation. Repeatedly practice objections and real customer scenarios until teams stop “winging it.”
• Leaders work for their teams. Remove friction, identify strengths, and create conditions where people can succeed.
• Protect the culture. A high performer who damages the team may ultimately cost more than they produce.
• Create opportunities to lead. Corcoran built confidence by putting promising employees into leadership roles before they believed they were ready.