Should I Hire a Sales Manager, a Coach, or an Operating Partner?

Q: Do I need a sales manager or an Operating Partner first?

If you can define the role, the standard, and the comp plan today, hire the sales manager. If you cannot, an Operating Partner builds that first, then hires the manager into a seat that is already working. The order matters, because a manager hired into an undefined role usually leaves within a year and takes 90 days of momentum with them.

A hiring decision guide for owners and real estate team leaders: when to hire a sales manager, a coach, a consultant, a fractional COO, or an Operating Partner, with 2026 market costs and the symptom each seat fixes.

The hiring decision guide

Hire a sales manager when the play is written and needs running daily. Hire a coach when the play works and your people need skill reps. Hire an Operating Partner when the decisions are stuck with you, revenue is flat, and nobody owns the numbers. Most owners hire a coach for a structural problem, then pay twice.

Written by Michael Schuerman, Operating Partner in Atlanta. Twenty years building and running revenue teams, including the original Zillow Go-To-Market team that brought Flex, now Preferred, to market. Updated September 2026.

What each hire actually fixes

Three questions that pick the seat

Can you name the standard?

Response time, appointment count, weekly activity. If no one can state it, you need an owner, not a manager.

Do your best people hit it and your others do not?

That is a skill and accountability gap. A coach or a manager fits.

Does nobody hit it consistently?

That is structure: routing, capacity, comp, or hiring. That is the seat I take.

why Zillow Preferred (Flex) leads stop converting

Zillow: $0 to $300M on a new business line in three years.

: 10 producers to 90 in fifteen months, five markets, three states.

: two agents to thirty, on the way to Atlanta's largest Zillow Preferred team.

Built the sales team at a fitness company that reached $20M in revenue and was acquired by L.A. Fitness.

Bring the bottleneck and your last 90 days. I will tell you which hire it calls for, even when it is not me.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Zillow Group, Inc.

Should I hire a sales manager or a coach?

Hire a sales manager when the play is written and it just needs running every day. Hire a coach when the play works and your people need reps and skill. If neither is true, meaning nobody can say what the standard is, what the number is, or who owns it, you do not have a manager problem or a coaching problem. You have an operating problem, and hiring either one will not fix it.

Who should I hire to help my agents perform better?

Start with the diagnosis, not the title. If response time and appointment discipline are inconsistent, you need someone to own the funnel and the weekly rhythm. If the funnel is tight and conversion is still low, you need skill coaching. If your top producers are carrying everyone, you need a hiring and ramp system. Most teams hire a coach for a structural problem and pay for both.

I know I need help with my team but I do not know who to look for. Where do I start?

Write down the three decisions that only you can make right now. If they are people decisions, you need a leader in the seat. If they are process decisions, you need an operator. If they are skill decisions, you need a coach. That list, plus your last 90 days of numbers, is exactly what a 90-Day Scorecard is built on. Two weeks, $5,000, yours to keep.

Should I hire a Zillow Flex or Zillow Preferred coach?

A coach helps if your agents hold appointments and simply need better conversations. Most Preferred teams losing allocation do not have that problem. They have a speed to first contact problem, a routing problem, or a capacity problem, and those are owned, not coached. I was one of 15 people on the original Zillow Go-To-Market team that brought Flex to market and spent two and a half years advising partner teams.

What is the difference between a Zillow coach and an Operating Partner?

A coach advises your people and leaves the results with you. An Operating Partner takes the seat: the targets, the routing, the hiring calls, and the weekly meeting where the numbers get read out loud. Coaching is $500 to $5,000 a month for advice. The seat starts at $10,000 a month for ownership. Pick based on whether your problem is skill or structure.

Do I need a sales manager or an Operating Partner first?

How much does each option cost?

A full-time sales manager runs $90K to $160K base plus variable. A coach runs $500 to $5,000 a month. A consulting project runs $10K to $75K. A fractional COO runs $8K to $25K a month in the 2026 market. My seat starts at $10,000 a month, month to month with 30 days notice, and begins with a $5,000 90-Day Scorecard that credits toward month one.

Is this only for real estate teams?

No. Real estate is where the receipts are densest because of the Zillow years, but the seat is industry-neutral. The work is the same for a $12M home services company, a distributor, or a services firm: revenue targets, priorities, hiring calls, and the decisions currently stuck on the owner's calendar.

What results back this up?

Zillow: $0 to $300M on a new business line in three years. ChuckTown Homes: 10 producers to 90 across five markets and three states in fifteen months. Dwelli: two agents to thirty on the way to Atlanta's largest Zillow Preferred team. Earlier, I built the sales team at a fitness company that reached $20M in revenue and was acquired by L.A. Fitness.

What happens on the first call?

Thirty minutes. You bring the bottleneck and your last 90 days of numbers. I tell you which seat your problem actually calls for, including when the honest answer is a $70K coordinator instead of me. If the seat fits, the next step is the 90-Day Scorecard: two weeks, $5,000, a written plan with three moves, an owner for each, and what has to stop.