What 10 Years as a Professional Drummer Taught Me About Running a Business

 

I was 21, sitting behind a drum kit in a smoky jazz club in Johannesburg, absolutely butchering a Miles Davis number. Our guitarist was brilliant. Our bassist was locked in. Our saxophonist was magic.

And I was rushing the tempo. Just slightly. Enough that the whole thing felt... off.

After the set, our band leader—a 60-year-old keyboard player (Werner Krupski) who'd forgotten more about music than I'd ever know—pulled me aside. "Frank," he said quietly, "you're playing for yourself, not for the band. And when you're out of sync, it doesn't matter how good everyone else is. The whole thing sounds wrong."

                                                      

That conversation changed everything. Not just about drumming, but about how I've approached business for the past 25 years.

I spent a decade playing drums—jazz mostly, some funk and rock, a bit of country when rent was due.

I learned more about leadership, teamwork, and performance in those smoke-filled venues than I ever learned in a classroom.

Here's what the music taught me about business. Because the parallels (and paradiddles) aren't just interesting, they're transformational.

1) One Person Out of Tune Ruins Everything (And Everyone Knows It)

If one person is out of tune, the entire performance suffers. Doesn't matter if four band members are playing brilliantly—that one slightly flat saxophone makes everything sound wrong.

The audience might not know what's wrong. They just know something doesn't sound right.

Business is identical.

One team member who's "out of tune"—delivering poor quality, missing deadlines, treating customers badly—affects the entire organization. Your customers feel it.

Your other employees feel it. The whole operation sounds off.

In a band, you can't hide weak performers.

In business, your customers experience them. Your best people become frustrated carrying the load.

Eventually, they leave for companies where everyone's in tune.

Your move: Don't tolerate chronic underperformance. It's not just about that one person—it's about the impact on everyone else. Address it quickly, compassionately, but decisively.

2) You Have to Actually Listen (Not Just Wait for Your Turn)

The best drummers? They're the best listeners in the band.

You're responding to the bassist. Supporting the soloist. Creating space for quiet moments and energy for crescendos. You're in constant dialogue, even when you're not playing.

The bands that sounded magical? We listened to each other.

The guitarist would throw in a lick, the bassist would respond, I'd accentuate it, and suddenly we'd created something none of us planned but all of us felt.

The bands that sounded mechanical?

We were each playing our parts correctly but not actually listening. Just waiting for our turn.

I see this constantly. Sales isn't listening to marketing. Product isn't listening to support. Leadership isn't listening to front-line employees.

Your move: Build genuine listening into your operations. Create feedback loops between departments. Actually act on what you hear. The best strategies emerge from real-time collaboration, not from silos executing predetermined parts.

3) Your Audience Is Everything (And They Know When You're Phoning It In)

Your audience is the most important person in the room. Not you. Not your ego. Not your clever technique.

I learned this at a gig in Cape Town playing at the Crazy Horse. We played sophisticated, complex jazz. Very clever.

The audience looked bored. Half left before the second set.

The band leader was furious—with us. "We're entertainers," he said. "Our job is to give them an experience they'll remember. If they're bored, we've failed."

Your customers are your audience.

And they know—they always know—when you're phoning it in.

When you're going through the motions. When you care more about impressing colleagues than serving them.

Your move: Every interaction is a performance. Not fake—genuine. But intentional. Present. Focused entirely on giving them an experience worth remembering.

4) Rhythm Is Everything (And It's Created Through Coordination, Not Control)

As a drummer, I was the "timekeeper." But that's misleading. The entire band was creating rhythm together.

The best rhythm sections felt like one organism. The bassist and I were so locked in you couldn't tell who was leading. That synchronization let everyone else fly.

Business needs rhythm too. Not rigid "this is how we've always done it" rhythm. The organic, responsive, synchronized kind.

Marketing launches Monday. Sales is ready with talking points. Support knows what to expect. Finance knows projections. Everyone's playing the same tempo.

Your move: Create rhythm through coordination, not control. Regular communication cadences. Clear handoffs. Shared understanding of priorities and timing. You're not micromanaging—you're ensuring everyone's playing the same groove.

5) There Are No Stars—Only Teams (And Ego Kills Performance)

I played with a guitarist who was genuinely brilliant. Technically gifted. And he knew it.

Every song became a showcase for his abilities. He'd play over other people's solos. Turn up his amp mid-set. Take bows like he'd performed alone.

That band lasted three months. Not because he wasn't talented—because nobody wanted to work with him.

The bands that lasted years had no stars. We were all stars. Or none of us were. We were a team, and we succeeded or failed together.

I see businesses make this mistake constantly. The "rock star" developer who's arrogant. The "superstar" salesperson who won't share techniques. The executive who takes credit for team successes.

Your move: Build a team culture, not a star culture. Celebrate collective wins. The moment you allow one person to believe they're more important than the team, you've started dismantling it.

6) Don't Play Louder—Play Better (Volume Isn't Impact)

Young drummers think louder equals better. If the crowd isn't responding, hit harder. It never works. You just sound like noise.

The drummers I admired had dynamics. They knew when to play quietly, building tension. They knew when to explode. They understood that the softest moment could have more impact than the loudest crash.

In business, people make the same mistake. More emails. More meetings. More presentations. Louder voices. It's exhausting. And ineffective.

The most impactful professionals aren't the loudest. They're the most thoughtful. They speak less but make every word count.

Your move: Impact isn't about volume—it's about precision. Say less, make it matter more. Do fewer things, do them brilliantly. Stop confusing activity with achievement.

The Bottom Line

I stopped drumming professionally years ago (but still jam everywhere I travel now), but those lessons show up in my business every single day.

When I'm training a sales team and they're not synchronized, I hear a band out of time.

When I see ego destroying collaboration, I remember that guitarist nobody wanted to work with. When a business leader tells me their team isn't performing, I ask, "Are you listening to each other, or just waiting for your turn?"

The skills that make a great band make a great business: Listening. Synchronization. Humility. Consistent practice. Audience focus. Leadership that gels people together. Full energy in every performance.

After 25 years training teams across 70+ countries, I can tell you with absolute certainty: The businesses that sound like jazz ensembles—everyone listening, responding, building on each other's contributions—consistently outperform the ones that sound like five people playing different songs in the same room.

Your business is a band. The question is: Are you creating music, or just noise?

 

Want to build a team that works together like a world-class band?

I've spent 25 years helping organizations in 70+ countries develop the rhythm, communication, and cohesion that transforms good teams into unstoppable ones.

Visit frankfurness.com—because your customers deserve a performance worth remembering.

The New World of Sales: 7 Trends Reshaping How Buyers Buy

 

I had a conversation last month in Amsterdam with a sales director who'd been in the industry for 20 years.

"Frank," he said, looking genuinely bewildered, "I used to know exactly how to close a deal. Now I don't even know when the bloody deal starts."

I laughed. Then I realised he wasn't joking.

Welcome to the new world of sales, where everything you learned in 2015 is about as useful as a Rolodex. (Yes, I'm old enough to remember those.)

Look, the fundamentals haven't changed—people still buy from people they trust, relationships still matter, value still wins. I've been training sales teams across 70+ countries for a quarter-century, and those truths are eternal.

But how those fundamentals play out? That's shifting faster than a politician's promises.

The sales professionals absolutely crushing it right now aren't the ones with the slickest pitch decks or the biggest LinkedIn networks. They're the ones who've adapted to how buyers actually behave in 2026—not how sellers wish they behaved.

Let me show you what's really happening out there.

1) The Silent Research Phase (And You're Definitely Not Invited)

Here's what keeps sales leaders awake at night: By the time a prospect actually contacts you, they've already completed 70-80% of their buying journey.

They've researched your competitors. Read your reviews. Watched that interview your CEO gave three years ago where he stumbled over the revenue figures. Stalked your LinkedIn profile. Joined a Slack community or Reddit thread where people in their industry compare notes on vendors like yours.

And you had absolutely no idea they existed.

A SaaS company in Miami showed me their analytics: prospects consumed an average of 23 pieces of content before requesting a demo. Twenty-three! These buyers are doing more homework than I did for my entire university degree.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: You can't rely on being the first call anymore. You need to be present in the research phase even when you don't know who's looking. That means content, thought leadership, actual customer stories, and genuine expertise that shows up when people are searching—not just when they're ready to talk.

The winning move isn't interruption. It's being genuinely helpful when buyers are in learning mode.

2) The Committee Has Entered the Chat (And Brought Seven Friends)

Remember when you could close deals by convincing one or two key decision-makers? Ah, simpler times. I miss them.

Today's B2B purchases involve an average of 6-10 stakeholders. Finance wants ROI models in triplicate. IT needs security documentation. The end-users want proof it won't make their lives harder. Legal needs to rewrite your contract. And someone from procurement you've never heard of has strong opinions about your pricing structure.

I watched a deal in Singapore that should have closed in 6 weeks drag on for 6 months because new stakeholders kept emerging like surprise guests at a wedding. Each one had different priorities, different concerns, and completely different definitions of success.

The sales professionals winning in this environment aren't trying to manage around the committee—they're actively mapping it early, understanding each stakeholder's priorities, and creating content tailored to each person's specific concerns.

Frank's Quick Tip: In your first meaningful conversation, ask: "Who else in your organisation will be involved in evaluating this decision?" Then actually ask to speak with them. The worst deals are the ones where you meet half the stakeholders for the first time at the final decision meeting. That's not selling—that's ambush.

3) "Trust Me, It Works" Doesn't Work Anymore

The era of "just believe me" is dead. Buyers today expect to test drive your product, see proof of concept results, talk to similar customers, or engage in some kind of low-risk trial before committing actual budget.

This is happening even in industries where trials were never standard. I know—it's annoying. But it's reality.

I worked with a professional services firm in Melbourne who resisted this trend like a cat resists a bath. "We can't give away our intellectual property for free!" they protested.

Fair concern. But their win rate was dropping faster than my enthusiasm for LinkedIn algorithm changes, whilst competitors offering paid discovery projects were cleaning up.

They finally adapted with a structured "diagnostic phase" that let buyers experience their methodology and see preliminary value before committing to full engagements. Win rate jumped 40% in two quarters.

The new reality: Your sales process needs legitimate proof points that happen before the contract is signed, not just promises about what will happen after.

4) The Trust Economy Has Replaced the Attention Economy

Here's something I've noticed speaking at conferences from Dubai to Dublin: The salespeople getting the best results aren't the loudest or the most persistent. They're the most trusted.

In a world where buyers can verify literally everything you say—your company's financial health, your customer satisfaction rates, what your employees say about you on Glassdoor—authenticity isn't optional anymore. It's your competitive advantage.

I've seen deals lost because a salesperson exaggerated capabilities that prospects later fact-checked. (Pro tip: Don't claim your software does something it doesn't. They will find out.)

I've also seen deals won because a salesperson was brutally honest about limitations upfront and helped prospects understand if they were actually the right fit.

Buyers tell me consistently they're exhausted by aggressive sales tactics and desperate for genuine consultative partnerships. They want sellers who tell them what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.

This is both harder and easier than traditional selling. Harder because you can't fake expertise or make promises you can't keep. Easier because when you genuinely prioritise buyer success over commission, the path forward becomes remarkably clear.

5) Speed Wins (Just Not Where You Think)

Everyone's obsessed with faster sales cycles. But here's what I've learned: The speed that matters isn't how quickly you close deals—it's how quickly you respond to buyer signals.

A prospect downloads your whitepaper at 2pm on Tuesday. Do they hear from you within an hour, within a day, within a week, or never?

A potential client asks a thoughtful question on your LinkedIn post. Do you respond within hours or ignore it entirely because "that's marketing's job"?

A B2B company in London implemented one simple rule: Every inbound signal gets a human response within 2 hours during business hours. Not automated emails. Not chatbots. Actual human contact.

Their conversion rate from inquiry to qualified opportunity increased 85%.

Why? Because whilst they responded in 2 hours, their competitors were still routing leads through systems and waiting 24-48 hours for someone to reach out.

Buyers today expect immediate access to information and surprisingly fast responses. The companies treating inquiries with urgency are winning deals from competitors still operating on 2015 response times.

6) Personalised Video Is the New Superpower

I know what you're thinking: "Not another person telling me to do video."

Stay with me.

It's not just that buyers expect video content (though they do). It's that personalised video is becoming the differentiator in competitive deals.

The top sellers I'm working with send personalised video messages instead of text emails at key moments. "Hi Sarah, thanks for our conversation yesterday. I wanted to quickly walk you through how three companies in your industry approached this exact challenge..." Two minutes. Recorded on a phone. Speaking directly to that buyer's situation.

Open rates through the roof. Response rates 3-5x higher than text emails. And the personal connection is genuinely different.

In a world of automated sequences, AI-generated emails, and templated outreach, authentic personalised video stands out like someone wearing a tuxedo to a beach party. You can't help but notice.

7) Your Current Customers Are Your Best Sales Force

This one's a bit philosophical, but it's critical: Your current customers are your best sales asset—not testimonials you extract from them, but the actual experience of working with you.

Buyers today talk to each other constantly. They're in Slack groups, LinkedIn communities, industry forums. When someone's evaluating vendors, they're not just looking at your marketing materials—they're asking existing customers directly about their experience.

I watched this play out with a consultancy in Berlin. They lost a competitive deal because during the prospect's reference calls, one customer mentioned a rocky implementation phase. Nothing terrible—just honest feedback. The prospect chose a competitor.

Six months later, that same competitor's customer was complaining in an industry forum about poor service. The original prospect came back, apologised, and signed.

Your reputation isn't built in pitch meetings. It's built in delivery. And in today's transparent market, that reputation spreads faster than office gossip.

The Bottom Line

The new world of sales isn't about abandoning everything that's worked. It's about adapting proven principles to how buyers actually behave today.

They research silently, decide collectively, demand proof, value authenticity, expect responsiveness, appreciate personalisation, and verify everything through peer networks.

The sales professionals thriving aren't fighting these trends—they're embracing them.

Is it more complex than the sales world of 2005? Absolutely. But here's what I've learned training teams from Bangkok to Boston: Complexity creates opportunity for those willing to adapt.

Your competitors are still cold calling from outdated lists and sending generic email sequences written in 2018. If you understand how buyers actually buy in 2026, you have an unfair advantage.

The question is: Will you use it?

 

Want to transform your sales approach for the new reality? I work with sales teams globally to modernise their strategies whilst keeping the human relationships that still drive every deal. Visit frankfurness.com or email frank@frankfurness.com | +44 7711 672888