MANAGEMENT How to Track Sales for Maximum Results


SINDRE HAALAND


When Q1 results are bad, most managers sit down with their team the day before the leadership meeting to triage the numbers, come up with explanations, and justify how Q2 will be better. This process happens in sales teams across the globe, every quarter. To put it bluntly: It’s a complete waste of everyone’s time.


Looking back is important, but these last-minute explanations and knee- jerk changes for Q2 are a reporting function, not an actual solution. In a sales team, the quarter is the season, the manager is the coach, and reps are the players. At the end of each season, the league table reflects the season’s revenue perfor-


mance – and expectations are set for the next. This is why diagnosing a bad Q1 trend after three losses in January is the key to a strong finish. Here’s why:


When managers don’t understand which daily actions lead to their team’s weak performance, they end up having to do a post-mortem


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rather than a course adjustment. Most teams track outcomes – closed deals, revenue, average deal size, pipeline value – but these are lag- ging indicators. They tell you what happened, not what to change. Looking at the league table without addressing the playbook opens the door to hope-based leadership and the death of Q2.


By hope-based leadership, I’m


referring to the familiar feeling of hoping a bad January will be offset by a great February. The pipeline looks strong, so next month should be bet- ter. This hope does not produce any changes, one-on-one coaching ses- sions, or shifts in approach, and it usu- ally results in complete panic mode in the last few weeks of March. To solve these issues, sales lead- ers need to shift focus from the


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