// GuidesHow-to
My sales team is underperforming: how a CEO diagnoses it before changing people (2026)
Short answer
Check five levels in order and stop at the first the evidence points to: the market and the plan, pipeline creation, the sales process, the first-line manager, and only then individual reps. Each level has evidence your managers can hand you inside two weeks (win rate and deal size by quarter, pipeline created per rep, deals gone quiet, 1:1s held, attainment spread), and most "rep problems" sit a level or two up. One missed quarter is a question; two in a row is a system finding. Give any fix one sales cycle, watch the leading numbers from week two, and change people only after the levels above them are cleared.
What do you do when your sales team is not performing?
Get the numbers before you get people in a room. Write down what "not performing" means (target, actual, how many quarters, which teams, which reps), then work down the five levels below with evidence at each. Do this before any conversation about effort, the explanation that needs the least evidence and is usually wrong.
The pages that rank for this question agree: The Sales Experts write that "underperformance in sales teams rarely comes down to effort alone." Mahdlo (August 2026), writing to executives, adds that "Quota attainment is an output" of positioning, lead quality, deal strategy, capacity, process discipline and executive decisions; when one breaks, the reps’ number is where you see it first.
Watch out
The mistake that costs a second quarter
Changing people first. A team that missed because pipeline coverage was short on day one will miss again with new reps and a new manager, after a quarter of ramp time. Replace a person only when the levels above them are cleared and the evidence about the person is specific: this rep, these numbers, this coaching, this outcome. Before any formal step, check with HR or an employment lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Is it the market, the pipeline, the process, the manager or the reps? The order to check
Check from the widest cause to the narrowest. Each level explains the ones below it: a short pipeline makes every rep look slow, and a broken qualification stage makes every manager look like a poor coach. Go the other way and you will find a guilty rep at every level; there is always one. The Sales Experts name the level that hides under most "rep problems": "Without a steady flow of opportunities, even the most skilled salesperson cannot close deals."
| Symptom | Which level | Evidence to ask for | Who brings it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone below target, including reps who hit it last year, on every team | Market or plan | Win rate, deal size, cycle length and inbound volume for 4–6 quarters; quota against last year’s actual | Your VP, with finance or RevOps |
| Deals close at the usual rate, there are just fewer | Pipeline creation | Pipeline created per rep per month, by source, for two quarters; coverage on day one of the quarter | Each manager, per rep |
| Plenty of pipeline, low win rate, long cycle | Process | Stage conversion; time in stage; open deals past the no-activity line; deals with no next step | RevOps; each manager annotates their reps’ deals |
| One team far below the others, or a wide spread inside one team | Manager | 1:1s held last month against reps managed; reps flagged and what was done; regretted attrition | Each manager; your VP inspects |
| One or two reps far below, the rest fine | Reps | That rep’s pipeline created, activity, stage conversion, ramp status, tenure, and coaching received | The rep’s manager, from the rep’s file |
The "no-activity line" is one rule company-wide: 7 days without logged activity on a sales cycle under 30 days, 14 for 30–90 days, 21 for over 90, adjusted to your data after a quarter. How to identify at-risk deals covers the signals that go with it.
How do you run the diagnosis? A two-week procedure with a time box
Two weeks for the diagnosis, then one sales cycle for the fix. Two weeks is enough because the evidence already sits in the CRM, the calendar and your managers’ heads. Longer, and the diagnosis becomes the fire drill you were avoiding.
- Day 1: define the miss in numbers. One page: target and actual for four quarters by team and rep, ramp and tenure of every rep below target.
- Days 1–2: level 1, the market and the plan. Pull the level-1 evidence for all teams. If win rate and deal size fell for tenured reps everywhere at once, the plan or the market moved. Fix that before you look at anyone.
- Days 3–5: level 2, pipeline creation. Each manager brings pipeline created per rep, by month and source, with their read on why. Most misses live here.
- Days 6–8: level 3, process. RevOps pulls the stage numbers; managers annotate their reps’ deals. A stage where deals die on every team is a process finding.
- Days 9–10: level 4, the manager. 1:1s held, reps flagged and what was done, the spread inside the team. Start the 30-day test below where the evidence points.
- Days 11–12: level 5, the reps. Only reps whose numbers still stand out. The manager brings the rep’s file. Managing an underperforming rep covers what comes next.
- Days 13–14: decide and write the fix. One level, one fix, one leading number and the date you expect it to move by. Tell the sales leader which evidence made the call and which would reverse it.
Tip
A worked example (all numbers illustrative)
Manager B runs eight reps who closed at 71% and 68% of target in the last two quarters. Win rate and deal size held on the other teams, so level 1 is clear. Pipeline created per rep on this team ran 40% below the others both quarters while inbound held, three of eight reps had a 1:1 last month, and 38% of open deals are past the 14-day line with no owner. That is a manager-level finding on top of a pipeline one. The fix goes to Manager B with a 30-day test, and the reps are asked nothing about effort until it has run.
Why does a team miss quota two quarters running, and what is the first question to the sales leader?
A team misses twice for one of three reasons: the same pipeline gap was there on day one of both quarters and nobody acted, the process leaks at the same stage each quarter, or a decision about a person was left unmade. One bad quarter is a question. Two in a row is a system finding, so start at level 1 and ask the sales leader for the day-one picture of both quarters.
Missing is common; the timing of a miss tells you more. QuotaPath reports from its own 2024 Compensation Trends report (450+ finance, RevOps and sales leaders, surveyed in the first half of 2023) that "91% of companies fail to achieve 80% or more of their quota targets." Mahdlo (August 2026) puts the timing first: "A missed quarter rarely begins in the final two weeks of the quarter. It starts much earlier, when leadership accepts an unclear pipeline…" So the first question is about when: "On which day of last quarter did you know we would miss, and what did you change that week?"
A leader who answers with a date and an action had a visibility problem, which cadence fixes. One who says "the last two weeks" had the same information you did, so the managers under them were not looking per rep, or were never asked.
Questions for the sales leader, each answerable with evidence
- What was pipeline coverage on day one of the quarter, per team, and when did you know it was short?
- How much pipeline did each rep create last month, against what a ramped rep should?
- Which three reps did each manager flag this quarter, and what did they do about each?
- Which reps were below target both quarters, and what changed for them between the two?
- What is the one fix, which leading number moves first, and by what date?
- What do you need from me (pricing, product, territory, hiring) that you have not asked for?
When is it the manager and not the reps?
It is the manager when the whole team sits below comparable teams and the per-rep evidence a manager should hold does not exist: 1:1s not held, flagged reps not acted on, deals gone quiet and unowned. It is the reps when the spread is wide and the manager can show what they did with the low reps. It is the level above when every team shows the same pattern, or the manager was handed more reps than anyone can coach.
| What you see | Points to the reps | Points to the manager | Points above the manager |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment spread | Two reps far below, the rest on target | The whole team 20 points under comparable teams | Every team under, tenured reps included |
| 1:1s and coaching | Held with every rep; the low reps have notes and a plan | Fewer than half the reps had a 1:1 last month | Managers carry 12 or more reps and no coaching hours |
| Who is leaving | One departure, with a specific reason | Top reps leaving one team | Top reps leaving every team |
Alexander Group reports from its own benchmark (first published 2013, updated 2024, per the page’s metadata) that first-line sales managers average 8½ direct reports, range 2 to 38, and spend "an average of 16% of their time coaching." Best practice is 28%. In a 40-hour week, 16% is 6.4 hours, about 45 minutes per rep per week across 8½ reps (our arithmetic). Sales Assembly (2026): "If you can’t carve out four hours of coaching per week, your span of control is wrong." A manager with 14 reps who coaches nobody may have the wrong span (how many reps per sales manager has the arithmetic).
Before deciding anything about a manager, run a 30-day test with a written ask.
- The ask. A 1:1 with every rep this month, with a note on each; the three reps the manager is most concerned about, with evidence and what was done; every committed deal past the no-activity line re-engaged or out of the forecast.
- What you check at day 30. The 1:1s are on the calendar. Each flagged rep had a specific action. The share of deals past the line fell. Pipeline created per rep moved, or the manager can say why not.
- What it tells you. A manager who produces this had a cadence problem, which is cheap to fix. One who cannot is a decision for you and your VP, with the evidence in hand and HR involved. How to evaluate a sales manager has the scorecard.
How do you manage or motivate an underperforming team without a fire drill?
Change the weekly rhythm and leave the mood alone. Motivation on a missing team follows evidence that the problem is understood and one thing is being fixed.
- Ask every manager the same three questions every week. What changed on your team this week? Who needs attention, and what is the evidence? What did you do about it? Same day, in writing or in ten minutes. After four weeks the managers look per rep before you ask.
- Protect the managers’ coaching hours. If the diagnosis pointed at level 4, the fix is usually time per rep; take reporting off the managers before you add anything. Sales Captain (April 2025): "The best managers give feedback weekly, not yearly."
- Make one number visible. Pick one leading number from the fix and show it to the team every week. Sales Captain again: "Momentum is everything. Once one deal lands, energy shifts."
Leave the comp plan, the territories and the org chart alone for one sales cycle. Each resets the numbers you are trying to read. If the diagnosis said the plan is wrong, change it once, at a quarter boundary, and say why.
How diffi helps
A CEO cannot fix a team from the top. What fixes it is each first-line manager seeing every rep’s week and acting early, which is what diffi is for. It keeps a living file per rep from Salesforce or HubSpot (read-only; it does not write to your CRM), the Slack public channels the manager picks, the Gmail labels or Outlook folders they select (or the whole inbox if none is selected), the calendar and recorded meetings. Use only calls recorded under your company’s recording policy and the consent rules where your reps and buyers are. The manager sees a summary, a cross-source timeline, active signals with the evidence behind each (deal and pipeline risk, disengagement, coaching gaps, performance risk), open actions and 1:1 prep, and can ask in plain language who needs attention and what changed this week. You then ask each manager the three weekly questions above, from what they saw rather than what they feel. Which level is broken, and any decision about a person, stays your judgment and your VP’s. Book a demo to see what one of your managers would see on Monday morning.
See it on your own teamHow fast should a turnaround show?
One full sales cycle for closed revenue, and two to four weeks for the first leading numbers. SaaStr (2013) set the rule for a new sales leader and it holds for any fix: "The answer is always: One Sales Cycle. One." With a 90-day cycle you know in 90 days whether the fix reached revenue, with more demos and proposals visible by the halfway point.
| What should move | When | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1s held per rep | Week 1 | The managers’ calendars |
| Open deals past the no-activity line | Weeks 1–2 | The CRM, per team and per rep |
| Pipeline created per rep | Weeks 2–4 | The CRM, per rep, against what you expect |
| Conversion at the stage that leaked | Weeks 4–6 | The stage report, per team |
| Closed revenue | One full cycle (about week 13) | Bookings against target |
If no leading number has moved by week four, the diagnosis was wrong; go back one level with the same evidence. A second fix stacked on the first hides which one worked and hands the reps three new instructions in a quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What do you do when your sales team is not performing?
Define the miss in numbers, then check five levels in order with evidence at each: the market and the plan, pipeline creation, the sales process, the first-line manager, and last the individual reps. Ask each manager for per-rep evidence (pipeline created, deals past the no-activity line, 1:1s held) instead of a read on effort. Decide the level in two weeks, make one fix, and give it one sales cycle.
How do you turn around an underperforming sales team?
Find the level that is broken before you change anything, then change one thing and measure a leading number weekly. Most turnarounds that hold started at pipeline or process, with every manager asked the same three questions each week: what changed, who needs attention and why, what did you do. Expect leading numbers to move in two to four weeks and closed revenue after one full sales cycle.
Why is my sales team not hitting targets?
Most often because pipeline coverage was short on day one of the quarter and nobody acted on it in time, or because deals leak at one stage of the process on every team. Effort alone is rarely the cause. Check pipeline created per rep and stage conversion before you look at any individual, and check the plan itself if win rate and deal size fell for tenured reps on every team.
Why does a sales team miss quota two quarters in a row?
Because the cause was never diagnosed after the first miss: the same pipeline gap was there on day one of both quarters, the same stage leaked, or a decision about a person was left unmade. Treat two misses as a system finding, start at the plan, and ask the sales leader on which day of each quarter they knew and what they changed that week. Missing is common (QuotaPath’s own 2024 report of 450+ leaders found 91% of companies fail to reach 80% or more of quota targets); missing late is the problem.
When is it the sales manager and not the reps?
When the whole team sits below comparable teams and the per-rep evidence a manager should hold does not exist: 1:1s not held, flagged reps not acted on, deals gone quiet with no owner. Run a 30-day test with a written ask before deciding: a 1:1 with every rep, three flagged reps with actions, committed deals past the no-activity line cleared. A manager who produces that evidence had a cadence problem; one who cannot is a decision for you and your VP, with HR involved.
How do you motivate an underperforming sales team?
Show the team that the cause is understood and one thing is being fixed, then make one leading number visible every week and mark movement in it. Keep feedback weekly and specific. Leave the comp plan, territories and org chart alone for a full sales cycle; changing them mid-fix tells reps the plan is being improvised.
How long should a sales team turnaround take?
Two weeks to diagnose, then one full sales cycle for the fix to show in closed revenue, with leading numbers (1:1s held, deals past the no-activity line, pipeline created per rep) moving within two to four weeks. If nothing leading has moved by week four, the diagnosis was wrong; go back one level instead of adding a second fix.