The Sales System You Have Probably Isn't What You Need

Set Goals That Aren’t Just Aspirational Stickers

Annual revenue targets are fine,  but they’re not enough.
You need to:

• Break them down by quarter, by month, by account, by product line.
• Tie them to real capacity and required volume metrics, as well as conversion rates.
• Assign accountability at the individual level: Quotas and a weekly scorecard.

Get Specific About Who You’re Selling To

“Mid-size businesses” is not a target market. 

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) should read like a dossier — industry, headcount, annual revenue, buying triggers, key roles involved (The buyer's committee).

Pair that with the personas of the buyer's committee, which explain how decisions are made.

Deep customer understanding is required to equip your sales team with what matters to your prospects.  

Without this clarity, your sales team is pitching in the dark and wasting your budget in the process. They need talking tracks that speak to the buyer's pain points to drive rational and emotional triggers and get results.

Track Fewer Metrics — but Obsess Over Them

There are a million things you can measure. But five will tell you almost everything:

• Lead Volume (top-of-funnel activity)
• Conversion Rates (how deals flow)
• Average Deal Size (are you upselling or discounting?)
• Sales Cycle Length (speed = capacity)
• Win Rate (because nothing else matters if this tanks)

Track these relentlessly. Adjust weekly. Your dashboard should show you where the machine is stalling, not just what happened last quarter.

Build a Sales Process That’s Not Optional

If your sales reps all have their own “style,” congratulations — you’re running an art class, not a business.

A real sales process:

• Has defined stages.
• Includes a description, entry and exit criteria, plus requirements for each stage.
• Aligns with how buyers actually buy (so buyer-centric, not seller-centric).
• Is built into your CRM, not stored in someone's head.
• Is inspected and rigorously adhered to.
• Includes continuous optimization.

Choose a Methodology — and Stick to It

SPIN, Challenger, Value-Based, Consultative — pick what works for your team and customers and apply it to your process where it makes sense.

Train everyone. Build your questions, decks, playbooks, talking tracks, sequences and sales collateral to support and add force to your process. 

Design a Team That Plays Together

A “great salesperson” is fine. A system of aligned roles is better.

You need:

• Sales Development Reps (SDRs) to qualify.
• Account Executives (AEs) to close.
• Account Managers to expand.
• Marketing to drive demand.
• RevOps to keep the data clean and the handoffs tight.

Note that you may have a full-cycle sales team, but these roles need to be resourced. 

Resourcing the process and roles is what turns a sales team into a revenue team. Silos kill growth. Alignment scales it.

No, You Don’t Need a New Tech Stack. You Need a System.

If your team is underperforming, it’s probably not because of a missing tool. It’s because you haven’t designed a sales system that can support your goals.

Build the system first and find the tools that will amplify it.

So here’s the checklist:

✅ Set clear, grounded revenue targets 
✅ Tighten up your ICPs and buyer personas 
✅ Trim your metrics down to the vital few 
✅ Document and operationalize your sales process 
✅ Align your team with the right methodology and roles

That’s how you scale without chaos.

Need help building a system that actually works? Let's Talk.