Why the usual fixes don't work
The team is behind. You call a meeting, remind everyone of the target, launch a contest and ask for more energy. Two weeks later, the numbers look the same.
That's because "the team is behind" isn't a diagnosis. Behind can mean the reps aren't making enough calls. It can mean they make the calls but don't convert. It can mean there's nothing in the pipeline to convert. Or it can mean the target was never realistic.
Each has a different fix. A contest helps with the first and does nothing for the other three.
The four problems
| Problem | What it looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Effort | Too few calls, meetings or proposals | Clear activity targets, a weekly check, remove what eats selling time |
| Skill | Enough activity, poor conversion at one step | Coaching on that step, call reviews, role-play |
| Pipeline | Good conversion, but too few deals entering | More prospecting, better lead sources, faster follow-up |
| Target | Everything looks healthy and the number is still missed | Rebuild the target from real capacity and conversion |
The order matters. Check effort first, because it's the easiest to see and fix. Check the target last, because it's the one you'll be most tempted to blame.
Run the diagnostic, rep by rep
Pull four numbers for each rep for the last 8 to 12 weeks. If they aren't logged anywhere yet, start logging now and run this in a month.
- Activity: calls or conversations, meetings, proposals per week.
- Conversion: meetings per 10 calls, proposals per meeting, wins per proposal.
- Pipeline: new deals entering each week, and open pipeline against their target.
- Result: what they closed against their target.
Then read each rep's row:
- Low activity, normal conversion: an effort problem. Find out why. It's sometimes motivation, and more often admin, too many meetings or no list ready to call.
- Normal activity, one step that converts badly: a skill problem at that step. Someone who books plenty of meetings but rarely gets to a proposal needs help inside the meeting itself.
- Normal activity and conversion, not enough new deals: a pipeline problem. They're working what they have well and running out.
- All three healthy, target still missed: the target is too high for the time and conversion rates they have.
Sales activity metrics covers which counts predict revenue and how to work back from a target.
The underperforming rep
For one rep who's behind, the diagnostic changes the conversation. "You're behind target" leads to a defensive talk. "Your meetings are fine, but only one in six becomes a proposal, and the team's average is one in three" leads to a useful one.
Ask what they think is happening at that step before you tell them. Then agree one thing to change, with a date to check. Sales coaching techniques has eight ways to work on that one step.
If a rep has low activity for weeks, doesn't engage with coaching and nothing outside work explains it, that's a different conversation. The sales performance review covers how to have it from the record.
The diagnostic starts with seeing each rep's week. With ActivityTracker your reps log calls in one tap, and you see who's gone quiet, read their Friday check-ins and prep each 1:1, for a team of 5 or 30.
Run it for the team
Add the reps' numbers together and look at the team's row the same way. You're looking for patterns:
- Everyone low on activity: something is eating the team's time. Too many internal meetings, a new tool, admin that grew. Ask them what.
- Everyone weak at the same step: a team skill gap, or a problem with the offer at that step, like price or a proposal that takes too long to send.
- Pipeline thin for everyone: a lead source dried up, or prospecting stopped while everyone was busy closing last quarter.
- Healthy numbers everywhere and a missed target: the target.
People sometimes call the space between the plan and what happens the execution gap. Most of it sits in the first two rows: the plan assumed activity and conversion that the week never delivered.
Why is my sales team failing?
If you're asking that, run the diagnostic before you change anything. Most "failing" teams have one of the four problems, and often for a reason you can fix: a manager who stopped running 1:1s, a lead source that dried up, a new product the team doesn't understand yet, or a target set from last year's best month.
What to fix first
Fix in this order, and only one at a time:
- Effort, if it's low. It's the quickest to see and the fastest to change, and everything else depends on it.
- The weakest conversion step, team-wide. One step, one skill, for a month.
- Pipeline, if it's thin. Prospecting takes weeks to show in results, so start early.
- The target, if all three are healthy and you're still missing. How to set sales targets covers building one from capacity and conversion.
Changing three things at once means you won't know which one worked.
A 90-day plan
| Days | Focus | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 14 | Measure | Get activity and conversion logged for every rep; run the diagnostic; share the findings with the team |
| 15 to 45 | First fix | Work on the biggest problem only: an activity target with a Wednesday check, or one skill in every 1:1 |
| 46 to 75 | Second fix | Keep the first habit going; add the next problem, often pipeline |
| 76 to 90 | Review | Rerun the diagnostic; compare with day 1; reset targets if needed |
Keep the weekly rhythm going all the way through. The plan is only as good as the weekly check that shows whether it's working.
Made-up example: Grace manages 6 reps selling payroll software to small businesses. The team has hit 70% of target for two quarters.
Days 1 to 14: she pulls 10 weeks of numbers. Activity is fine for 5 of 6 reps at about 60 calls a week, and meetings per call look normal, as does the pipeline entering each week. But proposals per meeting sit at 1 in 4 across the team, against 1 in 2 last year. So it's a skill problem, team-wide, inside the first meeting.
Days 15 to 45: every 1:1 covers one thing, the questions asked in the first meeting. After listening to two recorded calls per rep, she can see the pattern: reps demo the product in the first ten minutes and never find out what the owner needs.
Days 46 to 75: reps now open meetings with three questions before any demo. Proposals per meeting climb to 1 in 3. The sixth rep's activity is still low; she finds he's spending two hours a day on onboarding work for new clients and moves it to the support team.
Days 76 to 90: the team is at 88% of target. Grace notes the target itself looks right, since the healthy reps now hit it. She keeps the meeting questions in every 1:1.
What high-performing small teams do every week
A high-performing sales team isn't usually full of stars. It's a team that does a few ordinary things every single week:
- A short weekly meeting run from the numbers, where nobody reads their pipeline aloud. The weekly sales meeting agenda has one to copy.
- A 1:1 with every rep, every week or two, on one skill at a time.
- Activity logged as it happens, so nobody reconstructs the week on Friday.
- A Wednesday check: who's behind on the week, and what help they need.
- Friday: a look back and one change for next week.
- Wins and what worked shared in the team chat, so the good ideas spread.
Efficiency comes from the same habits. A team gets more done when selling time is protected and the admin is batched, and longer hours rarely add much.
What to do first
- Pull 8 to 12 weeks of activity, conversion, pipeline and results for each rep.
- Put each rep in one of the four boxes, then look at the team's row.
- Pick the single biggest problem, and write down what you'll do about it for the next 30 days.
- Tell the team what you found, in numbers, and what's changing.
- Put a Wednesday check in the calendar for the next 12 weeks.