Quotas set for a different market reality

A slow Q1 isn’t random. There are patterns behind why many sellers miss their targets early in the year. I’m walking through ten of those challenges and how you can turn things around.

1. Tariff Uncertainty Is Freezing Decisions

• A lot of companies are hitting pause right now because of tariff uncertainty. When businesses don’t know what’s coming next, they delay decisions.
• In fact, 82% of U.S. firms reported declining sales after tariffs took effect, which is leading to a lot more hesitation.

2. Buyers Are Cutting Costs

• Prospects are being more cautious than ever. Budgets are tighter, spending is under more scrutiny, and even existing contracts are getting reduced.
• Around 78% of business buyers say they’re being more careful with spending, and it’s starting to show in lower win rates.

3. The Global Economy Is Slowing Things Down

• There’s a broader slowdown happening, and it’s affecting how businesses spend. B2B spending is contracting, and global GDP growth is cooling, which is stretching out buying cycles across the board.

4. Sales Reps Aren’t Spending Enough Time Selling

• A big chunk of a rep’s day is going toward admin work, internal tasks, and switching between tools.
• On average, reps are only spending about 28% of their time actually selling, which makes hitting targets a lot tougher.

5. Buyers Are Doing Their Homework Without You

• By the time a sales rep gets involved, buyers have often already done most of their research.
• Around 67% of the buyer’s journey is completed independently, meaning prospects are forming opinions long before sales has a chance to step in.

6. Deals Are Getting Stuck in Committees

• More deals now involve multiple stakeholders, sometimes seven or more people. That naturally slows things down and makes it harder to build alignment and move decisions forward.

7. Prospecting Is Taking Too Long

• Reps are spending a huge portion of their time just trying to find the right people to talk to. Roughly 40% of their time goes into prospecting, and even after events or outreach, follow-up rates can still fall short.

8. Quotas Don’t Match Today’s Reality

• Many quotas were set based on a completely different market environment. Right now, average attainment is sitting around 43%, which shows just how far expectations are from reality and why burnout is becoming more common.

9. The AI Gap Is Turning Into a Performance Gap

• Teams that are using AI are moving faster and seeing better results. About 89% of revenue organizations are now using AI, and those teams are consistently hitting quota at higher rates than those who aren’t.

10. Turnover Is Slowing Everything Down

• Sales teams are dealing with high turnover, with around 25% of reps leaving each year.
• On top of that, new hires take time to ramp up, which can slow productivity if teams don’t have the right support in place.

“Sales reps are burning out and leaving because they’re chasing quotas built for a market that no longer exists.” - Donald C. Kelly

Resources

• Keep track of your sales activity and boost your results with the Prospect Pro sales tool.
• Step up your sales game with Sales Mastermind. Get accountability, stay motivated, and tackle the blockers keeping you from hitting your goals.
• Visit Blue Mango Studios for help in creating podcast production content.

Sponsorship Offers

1. This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.

With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.

1. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.

Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.

1. This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.

Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.

Credits

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and produced by Brightseed and Hill.