$35M Tech Company Breakdown: Back on Quota in 90 Days

Why is my experienced sales team missing quota?

Often the team can't see the number. Targets only exist for the year, nobody tracks the work that leads to a sale, and nobody runs one-on-ones. This $35M company fixed visibility and a weekly rhythm first, skipped training, and the same seven reps hit 100% of target by month three.

Want the shorter version of this story? Read the original $35M tech company case study.

The situation

This client asked to stay anonymous. They're a $35 million tech company that sells hardware through dealers across the US. Seven regional sales managers each ran a territory of several states, and their VP of Sales still had a territory of his own. These were experienced reps who knew their market.

The president was the one feeling the pressure. Sales had slipped about $1.6 million from the year before, and the team finished the year more than $3.7 million short of target. The board wanted answers.

The challenge

Everyone had a reason for the miss. The market was tough, the quotas had jumped, and the reps said they needed to know the product better.

Each one felt true. They did have outside headwinds, and some quotas did go up a lot. When experienced reps tell you they need training, you tend to believe them.

What they were about to try

Sales training. The plan was the one most owners reach for, and it came from the reps themselves. When we interviewed each rep one on one, most of them asked for more product training.

What we found

Before we changed anything, we talked to every rep and every leader, went through two years of sales reports, and scored how the team was being run. We found four gaps:

• Targets only existed for the year. Nobody broke them into months, so a rep could fall behind for half the year and not feel it. Reps got a daily sales report, but nothing showed where they stood against their number. One rep told me he had no way to track his progress toward quota.

• Nobody tracked the work that leads to a sale. Nobody counted dealer visits, trainings or new deals in the pipe.

• No accountability. There were no regular one-on-ones and no scoreboard. One rep told me the team got called out as a group but never individually.

• Territory ran itself. Some reps planned their trips around which dealers called them. One didn't know how many dealers he had.

None of this showed from the top, because the reports looked busy. A few reps were even growing year over year, so it was easy to believe the misses were about the market.

What we changed

Three things, in this order.

Month 1: visibility. You can't manage what you can't see. We broke every yearly target into months and ranked every rep by percent to target each month. Every rep also tracked the numbers that come before a sale: dealer visits, trainings and new deals over $30,000. The whole team saw the scoreboard every week.

Month 1: a weekly management rhythm. Every rep fills out a form before a weekly one-on-one, and the weekly team meeting was rebuilt around the scoreboard. The VP started riding along with a set plan of five dealer meetings plus backups, and sends a short recap after each trip. Reps have a floor of six dealer visits and six trainings a month, and send their travel plan before the month starts.

Months 2 and 3: the playbook, built with the team. It shows what a good travel week looks like, how to rank your dealers, how to run a dealer meeting and how to train a dealer's sales team.

What we deliberately skipped was the sales training, even though the reps asked for one. These were experienced people, and training would have sat on top of a system that couldn't see anything.

Is your team working hard and still missing the number? Book a Revenue Strategy Call.

What the team put in

The president backed the change and joined the key sessions. The VP and their HR lead met with us for about an hour a week to build each piece. Rolling it out took the VP about two more hours a week.

The bigger lift was one-on-ones. The VP was already running the team meeting, but he wasn't doing one-on-ones with his reps. That added about four hours to his week, and he had nobody to hand it off to.

For the reps, the new rhythm was the weekly form, the one-on-one, the team meeting and a travel plan each month.

The first few weeks were uncomfortable. Reps who'd been left alone for years were suddenly being measured. The VP told me they'd been pretty soft on accountability, and now he had to have the hard conversations.

The results

Within a few weeks, the VP saw reps knowing their territories better and owning their numbers. By the third month, reps were watching the scoreboard, challenging each other, and pushing hard through the last ten days of the half.

The Monday meeting changed too. It went from a few people talking to the whole team jumping in, sharing what was working and coaching each other. One rep who'd been near the bottom for months won the weekly award five times in a row.

For a company this size, a $3.7 million miss is more than a tenth of the business. Getting back on quota meant the president could walk into the next board meeting with a forecast he could stand behind.

How do we know the system did this? Nothing else changed. Same seven reps, same territories, same products, and the market didn't get any easier.

The honest part

The hard part was the people side. Once everything was visible, one rep stood out. He logged the most dealer visits on the whole team and sat at 17% of his target. The company had to manage him out with a written process.

What I'd do differently is build hiring and onboarding sooner. They had to fill that territory, and the new hiring and onboarding came months after the turnaround.

It also didn't make them immune to the market. Later that year, tariffs and supply chain costs hit their whole industry, and they finished the year short of plan. Even then, most reps were between 79 and 90% of target. They held the prior year's sales while some competitors stuffed dealers with orders to prop up their numbers.

This would have failed if the VP hadn't run the weekly rhythm himself. A scorecard nobody looks at is one more report.

Is this your team?

• Annual-only targets. If nobody can tell you mid-month who's on track, you're managing blind.

• Your busiest rep isn't your best rep. If activity and results don't line up, you're measuring the wrong things.

• Everyone wants training. If your reps all ask for more training but nobody can show you where deals are dying, the system is the problem.

• Reps plan around whoever calls. If that's how travel gets decided, your best accounts aren't getting the time they need.

Frequently Asked Questions

My reps are experienced. Won't they resent being measured?
The first few weeks were uncomfortable. Within a month, the reps were watching the scoreboard and challenging each other, and the Monday meeting turned into the team coaching itself.

Isn't our miss really about the market?
This company had real headwinds too. Nothing else changed, and the same seven reps were back on quota within 90 days.

My sales leader is already stretched. How much time does this take?
Here, the VP spent about an hour a week building with us and about two more rolling it out. Weekly one-on-ones added about four hours, and that's where the change first showed up.

Do we need sales training at all?
Sometimes, later. Training on top of a system that can't see anything rarely sticks, so this team got visibility and a weekly rhythm first.

Will this work in my industry?
Everything we build comes from your own calls and your own data, so it fits the way your buyers buy. We've run the same system in hardware sold through dealers, cybersecurity, K-12 education, enterprise services, energy and commercial pest control.

What if it isn't a fit?
Your first 30 days are built so your downside stays small. If by day 30 it doesn't feel like a 9 out of 10 to you, you stop there and keep all the work we've done.

Who is this for?
Owners with between 3 and 20 reps, whose leaders and reps will show up to the weekly sessions. If you're an individual rep looking for coaching, or you want a one-day motivational training, we're the wrong people.

If your team is working hard and still missing, book a Revenue Strategy Call below. We'll look at what your leaders can and can't see, and what we'd fix first.

Marcus Chan is the founder and CEO of Venli Consulting Group. Venli helps founder-led B2B companies build a sales system their team can run without the founder on every deal. Before Venli, Marcus led a 110-rep, $195M sales org at a Fortune 500 company. He is the author of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller Six-Figure Sales Secrets, a 5x Salesforce Top Sales Advisor and a 6x LinkedIn Top Voice. Venli has served 700+ clients.