Is industry experience needed?

Strangely no, in many ways it is better if they don’t. Industry experience brings with it a limiting perspective rather than being open minded to explore all possibilities. For example if you believe telemarketing doesn’t work in your industry because you have had poor experience of it, and as your coach I have also run a company in your industry with similar experience then telemarketing is obviously "a complete waste of time!"

A vital role your coach plays is to be able to ask questions like “what do we need to do, to make telemarketing work for us?” When you start asking the right questions, better ideas that stand a chance of delivering often appear.