Quota Diagnostic
Before you fire your reps or set new targets, answer five questions. The answers will tell you exactly what's broken — and what to fix first.
Answer these honestly. Every “No” answer is a root cause — not a symptom.
1.Do your reps have a documented Sales Playbook to sell from?
If No: Then every rep is improvising. You can't coach to a standard that doesn't exist. Build the playbook before you evaluate performance.
2.Are your pipeline stages based on prospect actions — not rep activities?
If No: Then your forecast is unreliable and your coaching is reactive. You can't tell where deals are actually dying. Rebuild the pipeline first.
3.Does each rep have activity-based KPIs (not just revenue targets)?
If No: Then you're managing outcomes instead of inputs. Revenue is a lagging indicator. By the time it's low, it's already 30–60 days too late. Set leading-indicator KPIs.
4.Are you running weekly 1:1s focused on specific deals and specific skills?
If No: Then your reps are operating without coaching. Quota misses compound invisibly until they're impossible to ignore. Start structured 1:1s immediately.
5.Is there daily or weekly sales training?
If No: Then skills are atrophying. Sales is a perishable skill. Reps who don't train don't improve. 15 minutes of focused practice per day makes a measurable difference in 30 days.
Once you know what's broken, here's the sequence to fix it:
Before changing anything, understand what's actually happening. Pipeline review, call recordings, rep interviews, win/loss analysis. Build from facts, not assumptions.
Document your ICP, discovery questions, objection handling, demo flow, and pricing conversation. Give every rep the same foundation to sell from.
Activity-based KPIs for every rep. Weekly 1:1s focused on specific deals and specific coaching moments. Pipeline reviews that force honesty about what's real.
15–33 minutes every day. Role plays, objection drills, call reviews. This isn't motivational content — it's deliberate practice of the specific skills your reps need.
“When Louie came on board he wrote and organized our outbound scripts and emails. We now had everyone working off the same playbook, and it gave us consistency. Results were much easier to measure.”
— Neal Reynolds, CEO, BankMarketingCenter.com
Assume it's the system until proven otherwise. In my experience across dozens of businesses, the most common cause of quota misses is the absence of infrastructure — no Sales Playbook, no real pipeline, no training, no meaningful KPIs. Fix those first. If the same reps still can't perform after 90 days in a real system, then it's a people problem.
Not immediately. First, make sure they've had the tools to succeed. A rep with no Sales Playbook, no training, and no real coaching cannot be fairly evaluated against a quota. Once you've provided the system, give it 90 days. If performance doesn't move, then you have real data to make a personnel decision.
Pipeline architecture and KPI changes can be implemented in 2–4 weeks and show results in the same period. A Sales Playbook takes 4–6 weeks to build properly. Daily training shows results in 30–45 days. Most well-run engagements see measurable improvement in pipeline quality and rep activity within 90 days.
Start with a Sales Audit to find the specific breakdown. But if I had to pick one universal lever: rebuild your pipeline stages around prospect actions, not rep activities. When you can see exactly where deals are dying — not just that they're dying — coaching and fixing becomes dramatically easier. Everything else follows.
30 minutes. We'll work through the diagnostic together and identify the root cause — so you're fixing the right thing, not just the most obvious thing.