# Robert Coe Founder, The SalesFX / Co-Founder, Find the Needle Canonical: https://mornings.network/shows/center-stage/guests/robert-coe ## Biography Robert Coe has spent more than 25 years doing the thing most people on LinkedIn say they want to do: building businesses. Real ones. The kind with teams, clients, revenue, and the messy, high-stakes work of actually delivering results. He is the co-founder of Find the Needle, the UK's number one B2B trade website, which he built alongside Simon Harris and Ian Lancaster from its founding in 2003 into a trusted B2B discovery platform serving thousands of UK businesses. He also co-founded Arena, another national B2B platform. He is the founder of The SalesFX, his sales consultancy through which he has trained salespeople, coached business owners, and applied three decades of frontline commercial experience to the challenge that most businesses ultimately face: how to grow revenue sustainably. Based in the London area, Robert Coe is one of the most quietly formidable voices in the UK's B2B sales world. His approach is built on something simple but increasingly rare: he has actually done the work he teaches. He has spoken with thousands of UK businesses through Find the Needle and The SalesFX. He has been inside the client conversations, the pipeline failures, the moments when a team's performance hinges entirely on whether someone picked up the phone. That firsthand fluency gives his perspective a credibility that purely theoretical advisors cannot match. The conversation that brought Robert to Mornings in the Lab was sparked by a LinkedIn post that went to the heart of something many people felt but few had said plainly: the platform's increasing tendency to vilify employment and lionize entrepreneurship to the point of absurdity. Robert had read one too many 'bad boss' posts, one too many declarations that freedom equals self-employment, and his response was direct and substantive. Employment, he argued, provides stability, satisfaction, and success for millions of people. The glorification of entrepreneurship at the expense of employed professionals is not just misguided — it is harmful, spreading negativity that distorts what meaningful work actually looks like for most people. This is not a man arguing against ambition. Robert is an entrepreneur himself. But he brings a maturity to the conversation that distinguishes healthy aspiration from performative narrative. He knows that sales — the discipline, the empathy, the relentless attention to what clients actually need — is the engine beneath every successful business whether it is run by a sole trader or a FTSE 100 company. His LinkedIn presence reflects this: sharp, opinionated, focused on practical commercial reality, and consistently engaged with the real dynamics of B2B growth. Robert Coe appeared on the Center Stage segment of Mornings in the Lab to discuss the vilification of employment, the myths that circulate on LinkedIn about work and entrepreneurship, and the 25 years of commercial experience that give him both the standing and the conviction to push back. ## Links ## Transcript all right we got Robert Co joining us here morning's in the live Keith and friends with shake and Roberts let's set it up Marty Robert Co is a seasoned business owner expert in bdb growth and sales Marty this dude is I saw a post yesterday about sales online and people like oh HR and everything no without sales you got nothing without Robert Co in your organization you have nothing Robert has a co-founder of over 4 40 marketing platforms including the UK's number one B2B trade website find the needle he's passionate about helping UK small businesses Thrive to the work at Biza and with 25 years of experience Robert excels in building high- performing teams client empathy and delivering strong Roi now Marty and John we we I saw a post from Robert last week and it leaned into this idea of the vilification of employment on Linkin it seems unless you're a a self-made entrepreneur or unless you're chasing this dream that people want to vilify employment and in the post Robert challenges The Narrative seen frequently on LinkedIn that glorifies employment and he emphasizes that regular employment Marty John should be celebrated not condemned I know John you had your path Marty's got your path I got my path but it's not for us to judge what others want to do Co argues that employment provides stability satisfaction and success for millions and highlights the negativity that often spreads through viral posts about bad B office work and self-employment Robert let's jump into this man A lot of people are like oh you have a job man sucks to be you you should go be an you should go be an an entrepreneur Robert what drove you to write this post to be honest with you I think tin is a weird platform you get saturated with post on your feed all the time and what you end up seeing is patterns over and over again and I think I probably read one too many bad boss posts or one too many freedom is entrepreneurialism posts my brain snapped and I was like this is ridiculous there are myths here that need to be debunked