Top 5 Reasons Why Salespeople Don’t Make Quota

I received the IDC Sales Advisor Newsletter in my email today and while it was about the importance of cross-selling, they said it is important because 50% of reps aren’t making quota.

Forget cross-selling!  If 50% of your reps aren’t making quota you have bigger problems than whether or not they are cross-selling!

There are only five possible reasons why reps are not making quota:

1. Their sales managers aren’t able to coach them up.  Develop or replace the sales managers.
2. They can’t be coached up because they aren’t right for the role. Evaluate and replace those who cannot be saved.
3. They need to be trained and developed.  Develop them.
4. Your product is over-priced, obsolete, inferior, or has no market.  Discontinue it.
5. Your quota is too high.  Raise it.  Yes, raise it!

Of course, there is more to it than that…

Number 3 alone has dozens of possible sub plots and number 2 is likely to cause a rerun if you don’t change your hiring, selection and on boarding process.  Numbers 1, 2 and 3 are all intertwined.  Chances are if you have a problem with number 1, you also have problems with numbers 2 and 3.

Back to the main point.  There is no excuse for 50% of reps not making quota.  Instead of wishing and hoping that something will change, change something!