Sales Team Development

3 months ago, a CEO called me: "Our sales team isn't hitting numbers. We need better salespeople." I asked to see their CRM data before they fired anyone. What I found shocked them: → Their top performers were closing at 22% → Their "underperformers" were at 7% Seems obvious who to keep, right? But then I looked at their sales ACTIVITIES: The "underperformers" were making - 3X more calls, - sending 2X more emails, - and booking 40% more meetings. The problem wasn't the salespeople. It was the sales PROCESS. The top performers had: - Better territories - Legacy accounts - Easier products - More support The company was about to fire their hungriest, most active salespeople because of how they'd structured their sales operation. Within 60 days of fixing their: - Territory design - Lead distribution - Product packaging - Sales enablement resources The "underperformers" increased close rates to 20% while maintaining their high activity levels. Revenue jumped 134%. As a sales growth consultant, I've seen this pattern repeatedly: Companies blame salespeople when the real problem is how the sales function is built. Your team can't outwork a broken sales system. Look at your bottom performers: If they're putting in the work but not getting results, don't fire them. Fix what's standing in their way. The fastest path to sales growth isn't hiring "better" people. It's removing the barriers preventing your current team from succeeding. P.S. If you need help with your sales, send me a message

What most sales managers get wrong about underperformers When a rep is struggling, the default response is: “Let’s coach them. Let’s build a plan.” Sounds reasonable. But it often misses what they really need. I had a seller - missed target two quarters in a row. Still showing up. Still trying. They weren’t lazy. Or clueless. Just anxious. Hesitant. The spark was gone. And in sales, that’s dangerous. Because sellers live on momentum. When they stop feeling the win in their hands, they spiral. I didn’t jump to frameworks or action plans. Instead, I did one thing first: We sat down. Pulled up the pipeline. Found one real opportunity. And we worked it. Together. They closed it. And it changed everything. They stood taller. Spoke with certainty. Booked more meetings. Took more risks. Because now the job felt possible again. Sometimes, belief isn’t enough. You have to help them feel like a winner again. Then coach. Then rebuild. But first, give them the win.

🛑 Stop Blaming Your Sales Team. (It’s Not Their Fault.) A sales leader recently told me, visibly frustrated, “Most of my salespeople just don’t perform!” If I had a dollar or Euro for every time I heard that, I could retire tomorrow. 😉 The truth is, salespeople aren't failing because they lack skills or motivation. They fail because leadership often hands them the steering wheel but forgets to give them a map, fuel, or driving lessons. The actual performance gap isn’t in the sales seats—it’s in the coaching box. The Unhelpful “Coaching” Checklist 📝 You cannot develop a professional sales team by merely instructing them to do these things: - Attract new customers. - "Pick up the phone and make appointments." - Begin mailing prospects. - "Do something..." That's the sales equivalent of telling a marathon runner, "Just run faster!" It’s management by wishful thinking, not strategy. The Shift: From Manager to Master Coach 🚀 The issue isn't malice; it's a lack of a clear, actionable system. As leaders, our role is to transition from being mere administrators to becoming Strategic Developers who equip others with the tools for consistent success. Here's what your sales team truly needs to transform into a high-performing engine: ✅ The Blueprint: a customised sales playbook and a consistent, measurable sales process. (Without a process, dependable results are unlikely.) ✅ The Edge: Training in successfully prospecting for new business and creating a competitive advantage against major rivals. ✅ The Drill: Well-organised, near-real-life role-play sessions designed to refine skills, improve attitude, and boost confidence under pressure. ✅ The "Why": Grasping and leveraging the genuine motivation of your salespeople to enhance both new business acquisition and customer growth. ✅ The Retention Strategy: Identifying what is essential for your existing customers so your team can keep them long-term and enhance their value. 🔥 The Urgency of Investment Neglecting sales development isn't "saving money." It's the most costly strategy you can choose. Every day you postpone investing in a strong sales structure is a day you leave high-value revenue on the table. Break the cycle of blame and start the cycle of growth. You have talented people. Provide them with a system that enables them to succeed. With 40 years in sales and management, I specialise in transforming vague goals into tangible, high-impact performance systems. If you're ready to stop blaming your team and start building a Killer Sales Engine that provides predictable, sustainable results, let's have a chat. Send me a DM and we'll meet and talk! P.S. What is the most common, unhelpful advice you've heard a sales leader give their team? Share your story below! 👇

You can’t scale what you can’t measure. Sales growth doesn’t start with hiring more reps or buying more tools. It starts with setting up the right sales process - from OKRs to the last call logged in your CRM. Most businesses track numbers, but few truly understand them. They set revenue goals but never connect those goals back to what’s required in the pipeline - how many leads, how many qualified leads, how many demos, and how many quotations you actually need to close those numbers. Without this clarity, every target is just a guess. In this video, I break down the foundations of a scalable sales process that every business can adopt: - How to set the right OKRs and monthly revenue targets that align teams around measurable outcomes - How to calculate your ideal pipeline size (leads → qualified → demos → deals) so your goals are backed by math, not assumptions - How to structure your sales team hierarchy - from presales to closures - with clear roles and accountability - How to define each sales agent’s daily process so every activity directly contributes to revenue outcomes When you put this structure in place, your CRM stops being a tracker, it becomes your growth engine. Because predictability in sales doesn’t come from hustle; it comes from process. #SalesOperations #SalesStrategy Kylas #RevenueGrowth #ProcessDrivenSales #SalesLeadership

Let’s kill the myth:  Growth isn’t a lucky break. It’s not viral.  It’s not magic. And it’s definitely not just “hustle harder.” The real reason most businesses stall? 👉 They try to scale chaos instead of building clarity. 👉 They chase volume before validating value. 👉 They skip the strategy���and then wonder why nothing sticks. Here’s what sustainable, intentional growth actually looks like: G.R.O.W.T.H. – The Strategy Behind Sustainable Scale G → Get Clear on Value ▸If your team can’t explain your value in 10 words, your customers won’t either. ▸Clarity isn’t optional—it’s the engine of momentum. R → Refine the Model ▸You don’t scale what’s broken. ▸You evolve your business model until it naturally fits the way people buy. O → Optimize for Learnings ▸Growth isn’t about winning every test. ▸It’s about learning faster than your competition. W → Win Small First ▸Don’t chase mass appeal. ▸Nail one use case. One market. One customer pain. Then scale that. T → Test and Tweak ▸Real strategy lives in iteration. ▸The best teams treat every outcome—win or fail—as feedback. H → Hold the Vision ▸Scaling is hard. ▸But the mission doesn’t change. Stay anchored. ▸Your vision is the one thing that should outlast every pivot. You don’t need to chase every trend. You need a repeatable system that turns signals into strategy. What part of G.R.O.W.T.H. hits home for you right now? Let’s start a conversation👇 What are you building toward? ♻️ Share this with your network if it resonates. ☝️ And follow Stuart Andrews for more insights like this.

I recently spoke with an early-stage AI app founder who was desperate to hire sales reps because he dreaded founder-led sales. This is one of the most common failure modes I see with technical founders—and it significantly impedes the path to product-market fit. Here's how to think about the right order of operations in early sales motions: Phase 1: Prototype & Validation In the earliest stage, the feedback loop between customer conversations and product roadmap must be extraordinarily tight—making founder-led sales absolutely non-negotiable. This phase is critical because you're identifying your true ideal customer profile (ICP) and learning how to effectively communicate your product story and address common objections. As you accumulate hundreds of demo repetitions (while refining your product based on feedback), you gradually assemble a winning process. Phase 2: Founder-led Sales Scale-Up Your mission here is to create the sales playbook that will guide future reps. You need sufficient pattern recognition to understand which messages resonate with which personas. I recall meeting Desmond Lim, CEO of Workstream, several years ago (not an Emergence portfolio company, but I deeply admire what they've built). He showed me the remarkable 60-page playbook he crafted documenting their entire sales process—before hiring a single AE. Every nuance. Every objection. Everything a new rep would need to succeed. While perhaps extreme, this perfectly illustrates the principle: scaling go-to-market requires mastering your ideal sales motion before delegating it. Phase 3: Hiring Initial Sales Reps Most founders default to sequential hiring—start with one rep, evaluate results, then proceed. However, we recommend hiring 2-3 sales reps with diverse backgrounds simultaneously, enabling you to effectively A/B test different profiles. Regardless of approach, ensure these early hires are "renaissance reps" with rapid iteration capabilities rather than purely "coin-operated" sellers. Mark Leslie has a great foundational article on the Sales Learning Curve provides excellent guidance. I'll link it below. So embrace the early sales work, even when it feels uncomfortable. It's fundamental to building a foundation for lasting success.

Your sales team missed quota again last quarter. Your first instinct? Blame the reps. Fire the underperformers. Hire "better" salespeople. I've seen this cycle destroy hundreds of sales organizations. After analyzing 100+ revenue teams and helping clients generate $950M+ in additional revenue, here's what I've learned: 87% of sales problems aren't people problems. They're system problems. Here are 3 revenue leaks that are killing your numbers 👇 #1 Discovery theater Your reps are asking questions, but they're the wrong ones. They're focused on pain points instead of business impact. They're not quantifying problems or connecting features to financial outcomes. Result: Buyers stay unconvinced because they can't justify the investment. #2 Process chaos Every rep has their own "method." There's no repeatable playbook. Your top performer closes deals through sheer force of personality, but you can't scale that. When they leave, their numbers leave with them. #3 Coaching theater You're having weekly "check-ins" but they're just status updates. No systematic skill development. No data-driven improvement plans. You're managing activities instead of developing capabilities. The real solution is Revenue Intelligence Stop guessing what's broken. Start diagnosing systematically: → Map your actual conversion rates by stage (not your CRM fiction) → Audit what your reps really do vs. what they should do → Identify the specific skills gaps causing deal loss → Fix the systems before you blame the people A company that was a client of mine used this approach to go from $10K average deal size to $250K in 6 months. Same reps. Different system. The millions you're looking for aren't hiding in new hires. They're hiding in your current processes. P.S. Want to identify exactly where your deals are dying? Book a call here to get help: https://lnkd.in/ghh8VCaf

"Improve your discovery" isn't coaching. It's lazy leadership. 'Generate more pipeline' is absolutely worthless advice. And it's why your rep is still struggling. Sales isn't about big moves. It's about tiny adjustments. Aim small. Miss small. Yet most leaders give advice so broad you could drive a truck through it: "More revenue" "Better discovery" "Handle objections" "Close more deals" Cool. HOW? I had a rep scoring 95% on their call reviews. Crushing discovery. Building rapport. Creating urgency. Still couldn't close a deal to save their life. Why? They scored 0% on the close. Zero. Everything else was perfect. But they'd get to the end and freeze up. Stumble. Rush through it. One tiny miss. Entire deal dead. That's sales. A game of inches. You can nail 47 minutes of a call and blow it in the last 3. The fix wasn't "improve your closing." The fix was specific: - Stop rushing when you sense hesitation - Ask "What questions haven't I answered yet?" before ANY close - Use silence after pricing (count to 5 in your head) - Never end with "Does that make sense?" Four tiny adjustments. Close rate went from 12% to 31% in 6 weeks. Here's what real coaching sounds like: ❌ "Improve discovery" ✅ "Ask a second-layer question after every pain point" ❌ "Handle objections better" ✅ "When they say 'too expensive,' respond with 'compared to what?'" ❌ "Build more pipeline" ✅ "Add 10 connects on LinkedIn before your first call block" ❌ "Be more confident" ✅ "Stand up during your cold calls and smile when you dial" Specificity wins. Your rep doesn't need motivation. They need a microscope. Because in sales, millimeters matter. Miss the small things? You'll miss everything. Aim small. Miss small.

The biggest lie in sales is that every proposal needs to be completely custom Sales leaders are burning out their teams with this myth. I've analyzed hundreds of losing proposals, and sellers who try to customize everything end up customizing nothing well. Here's what actually works ⬇️ The best proposals aren't built from scratch, they're assembled from proven components. Think about it like LEGO blocks. You have a finite set of pieces (your solution capabilities), but you can build infinite combinations based on what the customer actually needs. Most sellers think customization means writing new content for every deal. Wrong. Real customization means strategic omission. When you focus only on the 2-3 challenges your prospect actually cares about, you create laser-focused proposals that feel tailor-made. Meanwhile, your competitors are drowning prospects in 47-slide decks covering every possible use case. The psychology is SO simple … when everything seems important, nothing feels important. Smart sellers build modular proposal systems: 👉 Component A: How we solve workflow automation 👉 Component B: How we solve data accuracy 👉 Component C: How we solve reporting delays For each deal, they select only the relevant components. That way proposals feel completely custom while taking 70% less time to create. Your buyers don't want to see everything you can do. They want to see exactly how you solve their specific priorities. I dive deeper into this modular approach and share my complete 5-step proposal framework in the latest Innovative Seller episode. Tune in to learn how to scale proposal creation without sacrificing impact.

Most GTM teams bleed revenue in the handoffs. Marketing drives leads → sales closes deals → CS handles the fallout. But what if all of that worked as one system? At AppFolio, CRO Marcy Campbell owns the entire customer journey – from first touch to long-term retention. She built “stream teams” that pull in marketing, sales, onboarding, CS, and support to run big initiatives together, end to end. The result: fewer silos, faster execution, and better outcomes for the business and the customer. Marcy (ex-PayPal, Boomi) came on the podcast to share how to build a truly unified GTM motion. Key takeaways any operator or founder can swipe: 1️⃣ Map the customer journey before you touch the org chart. Every CRO’s first job is to understand how customers discover, evaluate, buy, and use the product. Without this map, your GTM motions will misfire and misalign. 2️⃣ You can’t scale revenue with siloed execution. AppFolio built “stream teams” to run cross-functional initiatives end-to-end. Marketing, sales, onboarding, CS, and product move as one unit across the full journey. 3️⃣ Campaign performance = revenue + retention + LTV. Don’t stop at pipeline metrics. Track onboarding velocity, CS touch requirements, and downstream churn to understand the true ROI of your GTM motions. 4️⃣ Great CROs speak in customer verbs, not sales stages. Your process should mirror how the customer thinks – evaluating, comparing, adopting – not how your CRM is set up. Messaging and journey design should reflect their language. 5️⃣ Show your customer a single company, not your org chart. Buyers don’t care about internal handoffs. A unified experience means marketing ops, sales ops, and CS ops must operate from the same data and workflow foundation. 6️⃣ CRO success depends on the CMO relationship. AppFolio’s unified customer experience initiative started because of trust between CRO and CMO. Without mutual respect and shared metrics, sales and marketing stay misaligned. 7️⃣ Your best GTM asset might be your sales engineer. In one early startup, it was an engineer (not a seller) who gave the sharpest ICP filters based on what the product could actually deliver. Bring your builders into discovery. 8️⃣ Founders are de facto PMs until a repeatable motion exists. Early GTM is product management disguised as selling. Your job is to surface sharp use cases, value thresholds, and repeatable customer needs. 9️⃣ High-performing teams win because of process, not heroics. Individuals can brute-force short-term results. But consistent revenue growth comes from teams that operate with shared rituals, clear priorities, and metrics that matter. You'll also learn invaluable leadership lessons. More from Marcy in the full episode, available on the GTMnow website or wherever you get your podcasts by searching "The GTM Podcast" 🎧