By Chad Levitt, New Sales Economy

Here is a reality I’m going to be exploring in detail — 50% of all reps are missing their sales quota. I want to know why and explore all sides of the conversation. The truth is that something is wrong, misaligned, or to be curt, just plain screwed up. Here are some of your answers why.

From Umberto Miletti:

“I think the biggest challenge to quota achievement is not internal, but external: the prospective customer. The buying process is being dramatically impacted by access to social networks and information (i.e. the Internet), and that raises the bar on sales performance.”

From Kelley Robertson:

Top level executives seldom involve the sales team when determining quotas and objectives. They (the executive) may ‘think” they can achieve a certain level of sales but without buy-in from the people who actually generate those sales, they are destined for failure.”

From John Cousineau:

“Today’s data used to manage sales teams to quota achievement are activity-based (how hard are you trying?), and effort-inducing. Not making quota? Try harder. What’s needed are data based on Return-on-Effort (how much buyer impact are your efforts having?), and improvement triggering. Until then, the future’s not pretty.”

“We are lazy and our hiring decisions are based on gut as opposed to repeatable success and then we don’t invest in an effective on boarding process….we let reps sink or swim”

From Brian Jeffrey:

“I believe that it’s management’s mess to clean up. Sometimes that may mean cleaning house at both the management and sales levels. Get some people who know what needs to be done and who have the ability to get it done.”

From Chris Snell:

“I’ve seen countless numbers of inside folks stick around WAY longer than they should have, simply because replacing them was going to take too long. Or because they fit the culture. Or because they were really nice. Or because (you fill in the blank).”

From Marci Reynolds:

“The quotas: Were not set accurately or appropriately. Could be a top down issue- could be set with poor data, staff members who calculate them could make errors, etc.”

From Darion Miller:

“Sales managers, experienced and non-experienced, have a hard time understanding urgent and important- they are two completely different mind-sets. I am not manager, and will never want to be one so I can understand their struggle. However, I think this comes down to timing. At the end of the month/quarter/year managers think everything is Urgent and Important at the same time.”

These are some interesting answers to why 50% of sales reps are missing quota and thanks to everyone that took the time to make their voice heard.

Now for my answer: Sales reps are wasting their time on non-revenue producing activities instead of actively selling. When sales and marketing organizations unite and sales ready leads are passed off to sales reps with chops, you will see more reps hitting quota.

There will be much more on sales and marketing alignment in future posts — stay tuned.