Before you can fix a problem, you have to know what it is. It’s tempting to jump straight to solutions when sales are down—a new training program, a spiff, a different incentive plan. But without a clear diagnosis, you’re just throwing things at the wall, wasting time and money while frustrating your team.

A real solution starts with a deep dive to uncover what's actually holding your team back.

Find the Real Reason Your Sales Team Is Underperforming

Think of yourself as a detective. Your job is to move past assumptions and gather concrete evidence. Is the issue low activity, poor qualification, or weak closing skills? Are certain reps falling behind the pack? Is one specific stage of your sales funnel a total bottleneck? Answering these questions means getting your hands dirty with both hard data and real-world observation.

You need to see the whole picture, not just a snapshot.

Start with the Data Funnel

Your CRM is the first place to look for clues. Start by walking through your sales funnel, stage by stage, and scrutinizing the conversion rates. A ton of new leads but very few discovery calls isn't always a lead gen problem; more often than not, it points to a weakness in qualification or initial outreach.

Pinpoint the specific drop-off points:

But don't stop at the team-level view. Segment this data by individual rep, by territory, or even by lead source. You might find that one team crushes inbound leads but can’t make headway with outbound, or that two reps are dragging down the entire team’s average. These patterns are your roadmap, pointing you directly to the problem.

This infographic lays out a simple decision tree to help you figure out if the root cause is metric-based or behavior-based.

It's a great visual reminder that bad numbers often point to broken processes, while inconsistent behaviors usually call for direct, one-on-one coaching.

Dig Deeper Than Just Numbers

Before you can truly diagnose what's happening, you need a clear set of vital signs to monitor. These are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that give you a pulse on the health of your sales funnel, from top to bottom.

Go Beyond Numbers with Qualitative Analysis

This is where the real insights come from. Listening to call recordings or jumping on live sales calls is invaluable. You get to hear firsthand how your reps handle objections, explain your product's value, and guide the conversation. This provides the kind of context that no dashboard can.

This approach also throws a spotlight on just how critical proper skill development is. The payoff for good training is massive—companies that invest in it see a return of $4.53 for every dollar spent.

And yet, there’s a major disconnect. Only 18% of buyers feel that salespeople are actually well-prepared for their conversations. That gap shows that too many organizations treat training as a one-and-done event instead of a core part of their strategy. If you want to dig deeper, these sales training statistics paint a very clear picture of the opportunity you're missing.

Build a Coaching Program That Actually Works

Once you've pinpointed the performance gaps holding your team back, the real work begins. Let's be honest: those generic, one-size-fits-all training seminars rarely stick. They don't address the unique hurdles each rep faces day in and day out. To see real, lasting improvement, you have to move away from broad-stroke training and get into targeted, one-on-one coaching.

This is about turning your managers into true performance coaches who empower reps, not just oversee them. It’s a fundamental shift from lecturing a group to developing an individual.

From Manager to Performance Multiplier

A manager's most important job isn't just watching a dashboard; it's developing their people. Great coaching zeros in on specific behaviors and skills that need work, then partners with the rep to build them up over time. For these conversations to be productive, you need a bit of structure.

Many of the best teams I've seen use a simple framework to keep these talks focused and forward-looking. One of the most effective is the GROW model.

Using a framework like this transforms a vague, unhelpful "you need to get better at discovery" into a concrete plan that the rep actually owns. It’s a conversation, not a directive.

Leverage Call Recordings for Pinpoint Feedback

The single most powerful tool in any sales coach’s kit is the call recording. Abstract feedback is easy to forget, but hearing a specific moment in a call provides undeniable context. You can stop saying, "You need to handle objections better," and start saying, "Let's listen to that Acme Corp call at the 14:20 mark. When they brought up budget, what else could we have asked to dig into the real issue?"

This data-driven approach takes the emotion and subjectivity out of it. It’s like watching game tape together. You can analyze precise moments and find tangible opportunities for improvement. This is where modern tools are a game-changer. For instance, using AI for sales coaching can automatically flag keywords, spot long monologues, or highlight common objections, saving managers hours of sifting through calls.

This tight feedback loop is how you turn B-players into A-players and give your top performers that extra edge.

Create Individual Development Plans

Every rep is different. Your star closer might be terrible at prospecting, while a fantastic relationship-builder struggles to create urgency. A generic plan just won't cut it. Your coaching conversations should lead to a simple, documented Individual Development Plan (IDP).

An effective IDP isn't some complex HR document. It's a living guide with a clear purpose.

The IDP creates accountability for everyone involved. It ensures coaching isn't just a series of random chats but a focused journey toward real, measurable improvement.

Practice in a Safe Environment

You wouldn't send a pilot into a storm without time in a flight simulator, yet we throw reps into high-stakes calls with barely any practice. Role-playing and deal simulations are critical for building muscle memory in a low-risk setting.

These exercises build confidence and give reps a space to fail, learn, and sharpen their approach without losing a real opportunity. It’s this consistent, practical application that makes new skills stick and drives better performance across the board.

Let’s be honest: even your top sales reps will flounder if they’re fighting a clunky, inefficient system. A convoluted sales process or a poorly configured CRM is like running through mud—it slows everyone down and buries your team in admin work when they should be selling.

The goal here isn't to add more steps or fields. It’s to strip away everything that doesn't directly help close deals. Your process and tools should be a secret weapon, not a daily headache. If your reps spend more time updating Salesforce than talking to prospects, something is seriously wrong.

Audit and Simplify Your Sales Stages

First things first, you need to get ruthless with your current sales process. Get your team in a room (virtual or physical) and map out every single step a deal takes, from the first touch to a signed contract.

Start asking the hard questions: Why do we have this stage? Does this step actually add value? Is this CRM field essential, or just a "nice-to-have" that someone requested three years ago?

I’ve seen this happen time and time again. Sales processes bloat over the years, collecting stages that seemed like a good idea at the time but now just create bottlenecks. I once worked with a company that had a dizzying 12-stage process. Deals would get stuck for weeks in vague purgatories like "Nurturing" or "Technical Review," which made forecasting a complete guessing game.

After a serious audit, we slashed it down to a lean, 5-stage model:

The impact was immediate. Deal velocity jumped by 20% because reps had a clear path forward. Forecasting accuracy skyrocketed because there was no ambiguity about where an opportunity really stood.

Turn Your CRM Into an Action Hub

Your CRM should feel more like a pilot’s cockpit than an endless spreadsheet. It needs to serve up the right information at the right time so your reps can take immediate, intelligent action. A cluttered interface with dozens of unused fields just creates noise and gives reps a great excuse to stop using it.

Focus on building dashboards that highlight critical metrics and, most importantly, next steps. A healthy pipeline starts with quality leads, so embedding proven strategies to generate business leads right into your process is a must. From there, automate everything you possibly can. Call logging, email tracking, follow-up reminders—every manual task you eliminate is another minute your rep can spend talking to a customer.

Think about it. A simple automation that creates a follow-up task five days after a proposal is sent can be a game-changer. Why? Because research shows 80% of sales require at least five follow-ups, yet a staggering 44% of reps give up after just one. By building these best practices directly into your CRM workflow, you systematically lift the performance of your entire team.

Integrate Your Tools to Eliminate Friction

Today's sales teams juggle a whole suite of tools. But when that tech stack is disconnected, it just creates more work. Reps lose focus and waste precious time toggling between their inbox, calendar, calling software, and CRM. The real magic happens when these tools talk to each other.

Imagine your meeting transcription tool automatically logging call notes and summaries directly into the correct opportunity in your CRM. That’s not a futuristic dream; it’s a massive time-saver for every single person on your team. This is why exploring https://summarizemeeting.com/feature/integrations becomes such a powerful move for boosting efficiency.

By connecting your systems, you create a single source of truth and kill the dreaded "double data entry" that reps universally despise. This doesn't just improve your data accuracy—it also boosts team morale and drives adoption of the tools you've already invested in.

Align Your Goals and Compensation to Drive Motivation

Let’s be honest: motivation is the engine of any sales team. But if your only tool is a commission check, you're not just leaving money on the table—you're missing the point entirely. A truly fired-up team runs on a mix of clear goals, fair pay, and a culture that celebrates the right behaviors, not just the final number.

This isn't about finding one secret lever. It's about building an entire system where a rep's personal drive lines up perfectly with the company's big-picture objectives. When you nail this alignment, you create an environment where people genuinely want to win.

Set Quotas That Are Tough but Fair

Nothing kills morale faster than a poorly set quota. Make it too easy, and your A-players will hit it by the second week of the month and coast. Make it impossible, and your entire team will feel defeated from day one. The magic is in that sweet spot: challenging, but absolutely achievable.

This is where the classic SMART framework is your best friend. A good quota is:

Using this approach turns a vague target into a clear roadmap. It gives your reps a finish line they can actually see and believe they can cross.

Design a Comp Plan That Drives the Right Actions

Your compensation plan is the loudest message you send about what you really value. It has to do more than just pay out on closed deals; it needs to reward the specific behaviors that lead to long-term, sustainable success.

There's no one-size-fits-all model here. The right structure depends entirely on what you're trying to accomplish as a business.

For instance, a startup trying to crack a new market might use an aggressive plan with huge accelerators for the first ten deals in that territory. On the other hand, an established company focused on retention might offer bonuses for multi-year contracts or cross-selling new products. The plan has to serve the strategy.

Look Beyond the Paycheck for Real Motivation

Money is a great motivator, but it's rarely what keeps your top performers around for the long haul. The best sales cultures are built on non-monetary rewards that make reps feel valued and recognized as part of a winning team.

These are simple, low-cost ways to build that kind of culture: