Here are 5 people who can help you advance your career.

Let’s look at each one, why they can help you and how to get started.

1️⃣ Sponsors

You can also call them advocates or champions. 

And if you’re looking to make your next career move within the company, this is a fantastic way to progress your career. 

Sponsors are people who advocate for you when you’re not in the room. They’re the people who completely believe in your capabilities and skills. They actively promote you internally.

Sponsors who are on executive level can advocate for you in executive meetings you don’t attend. And they also have influence over cross-functional and cross-divisional career opportunities.

❌ A myth is that sponsors need to be senior executives or senior leaders. 

They can also be high-performing peers or non-executive employees. The opinions of rising stars carry weight. Their executive-level bosses value their opinions. 

💡 To build sponsors simply deliver exceptional results and quality that they can see.

💡 Choose your sponsors well. They need to be credible. You don’t want someone advocating for you who is not respected in the company. 

💡 And have 2 – 3 sponsors. Because when your one champion leaves the company, well, then they’re gone.

2️⃣ Mentors

I’ll start off by saying that this is my least favourite way. 

Not because having a mentor is not valuable but because in my experience, there are other ways that’ll bring you quicker results.

A mentor is an experienced person who can give you advice on how to progress your career.

They walked the path before and can give you excellent strategic guidance. They’ve had career success and they know what they’re talking about.

But what worked for them might not work for you. And the advice they’ll share with you is based on their experience, their background, the environment they worked in. And so on.

Again, I’m not saying it’s not valuable. My belief is that you make quicker steps when career advancement has YOU at the centre of it.

3️⃣ Certified coach within the organisation (Internal)

There are many ways to define and describe a coach. Here’s how I see it:

A coach is someone who has the training and skill to get you from YOUR point A to YOUR point B. They’re a guide.

It’s less about their own career success and more about what you need to do to make your next successful career move.

An excellent coach is someone:

⚡️ who has the skill to notice patterns in your behaviour. 

⚡️ who sees your limiting beliefs. 

⚡️ who brings your attention to your strengths. 

Someone who helps create a career advancement plan that fits you, your experience and your life.

💡 Look at the people in the Sales Development, Sales Training and Sales Enablement teams who has a coaching certification. People in these departments have a strong value to support others.

💡 Many multinationals have dedicated coaching teams. Reach-out to them to find an internal coach who can work with you on your career advancement.

4️⃣ Certified Coach outside of the organisation (external)

Everything mentioned for internal coaches and:

A big benefit is that external coaches are independent and neutral. Not influenced by organisational bias and politics. So, you get clean creativity when working on your career advancement.

Also confidentiality is high. With an external coach, you can openly discuss challenges and opportunities without worry that the information will be shared internally. 

External coaches also have a broad perspective. They work with clients in different industries, countries, career levels and they can offer many different ways to look at your career development.

💡 One of the career trends I saw for 2025, was that because it’s challenging to find skilled and suitable candidates for vacancies, companies are more willing to invest in the development of their sales leaders to keep them.

💡 You could negotiate with your employer to get external coaching. 

5️⃣ Ex-Bosses and Colleagues

If you’d like your next career move to be external, previous colleagues and bosses are a fantastic way to progress your career.

They worked closely with you. Understand your strengths. And you have credibility with them.

They may now be the hiring managers and senior leaders looking for excellent sales leaders to grow the business.

Worst case, if they don’t have a suitable role for you, you’re still expanding your network naturally.

💡 Simple list of 10 – 15 people who you can reach out to. And then a short call, email or LinkedIn message.

There you go, 5 people who can support you to progress your career!

Jeanette 💛

ps.I have two resources that can support you:

The 2025 Career Trends Guide that’ll give you 5 emerging trends + 8 strategies how you can progress your career.

and/or

The Career Advancement Checklist that’ll show you how to advance from Director to Executive level in 6 simple steps.