It’s one of the most challenging questions you’ll ever have to ask as a business leader – “why isn’t my sales team delivering the results we need?”
Putting a microscope on your team sometimes yields some unpleasant truths, but this exercise is critical when revenue numbers are lacking and the sales pipeline is drying up. Changes need to be made. But before addressing the problem, you need to identify the root causes.
There may be several reasons why your sales team could be performing better. To get to the heart of the issue, you must examine factors at every level—from the overall sales culture to the nitty-gritty of individual execution.
Sales Funnel
Is the problem stemming from the top, middle, or bottom of the sales funnel? A top-of-funnel issue could indicate a misalignment between marketing and sales on lead generation efforts. If it's a middle-of-funnel problem, your sales process or deal evaluation may need overhauling. If opportunities are stalling at the bottom funnel, it could point to poor closing skills or negotiations.
Sales Leadership & Culture
What does it feel like to be part of your sales team? Do team members feel supported, valued, and part of a high-performance, results-driven culture? Factors like unclear goals, lack of accountability, low morale, and ineffective coaching can severely impact performance. Compensation plans, team meetings, and work-life balance also shape the culture.
Talent Management
Do you have the right people in the right roles? Top performers must be retained and rewarded, while underperformers may require additional coaching (or staffing changes). Your recruitment and hiring practices also directly impact your team's talent levels.
Sales Execution
Even with the right people and culture, executing fundamental sales activities poorly can torpedo results. Key areas to assess include the sales plan and process, pipeline management, deal evaluation, and meeting execution skills. If any of these core areas are lacking, it can undermine the team's efforts.
Sales-Marketing Synergy
In many organizations, sales and marketing are divided in terms of shared metrics, accountability, and feedback loops. Has this crucial partnership become misaligned, causing a bottleneck in the lead generation and conversion process?
Remember that, as a leader, you set the right example through your actions and presence.
Once you identify the key factors behind your team's lack of delivery and underperformance, you can start implementing targeted solutions and setting the team up for success. Using the Top 10 Sales Drivers as a framework, here are targeted actions you can take to get your sales team firing on all cylinders again:
Establish Sales Leadership & the Right Culture
This is perhaps the most important element to consider before you tackle anything else. It is foundational, and poor results generally follow if organizations don’t get this right. While sales leadership is important, it really begins with the CEO and leadership team. This is where many companies are challenged and go astray.
First, you must look honestly at the sales culture you've been fostering and renew your commitment to instilling a high-performance, results-driven culture where team members feel supported and valued. Clarify the team's vision, goals, and successful behaviors. Increase accountability through consistent coaching and reinforcement. Also, don't forget to celebrate wins—recognizing and rewarding achievements goes a long way in motivating. Sales leadership—especially the CEO’s leadership—is vital to setting the right example through their actions and presence.
Put the Right People in the Right Seats
Evaluate whether your team has the right mix of talent in the appropriate roles. Top performers should be cultivated as future leaders. Underperformers may need individual performance plans or coaching. And chronic underachievers may need to be transitioned off the team through proper performance management practices. Stay proactive in recruiting top sales talent as well.
Review Your Sales Plan
Revisit your sales plan and revalidate the target market, ideal customer profile, buyer personas, and value proposition. Ensure a solid go-to-market strategy with a quantified sales process that everyone understands and follows. Calculate the sales math and activity metrics required to hit goals.
Revisit Your Compensation Plan
Does your current compensation plan effectively incentivize the behaviors and results you desire? Review and adjust Plan components like base pay, commission rates, accelerators, SPIFFs, contests, and claw-back provisions to optimize motivation and performance.
Refine Your Sales Process
Document and reinforce a consistent, repeatable sales process that guides reps through each stage - from prospecting to closing and retention. Define exit criteria to advance deals and enable reps to articulate your unique value proposition.
Pay Attention to Sales Metrics
Implement a sales dashboard to track leading KPIs like calls, appointments, opportunities, pipeline values, and closed-won revenue. Determine acceptable ratios and conversion rates at each funnel stage and coach to those benchmarks.
Have Weekly One-on-Ones
Sales’ primary purpose is to deliver results. Consequently, it is critical to conduct weekly one-on-one meetings with each sales rep to review individual results, pipelines, and activities to drive performance. These frequent touchpoints are vital to ensure reps remain on track and are supported.
Use Pipeline & Forecasting Tools
Implement a robust CRM system with pipeline management and forecasting capabilities. Stop using spreadsheets and get reps to update pipelines, score opportunities consistently, and provide forward-looking forecasts.
Improve Coaching & Training
Develop and deliver an ongoing sales training curriculum that addresses selling skills from prospecting to negotiations. Incorporate reinforcement through role-playing, call monitoring, and deal reviews. Don’t forget to provide one-on-one coaching to accelerate development.
Conduct Annual Performance Reviews
Ensure you give annual performance evaluations to review goals, provide feedback, develop action plans, and make forward compensation adjustments. Use this process to ensure accountability and identify development needs.
One of the most impactful CEOs I worked with had a terrific philosophy regarding sales: When in doubt, err on the side of having a sales-friendly culture that incorporates the sales drivers listed above. Too many leadership teams miss these critical elements and are concerned about salespeople making more than them. Top-performing sales talent is hard to come by, so establish a culture that supports sales and work hard to retain top performers.
By working methodically through these sales drivers, identifying gaps, and implementing improvements, you can quickly reverse underperformance and optimize your sales engine for peak delivery.