How to Turbocharge Your Sales Team to Achieve Ambitious Revenue Goals

So, you want to turbocharge your sales team? Maybe you’ve set ambitious revenue goals, but here’s the truth: big goals alone don’t get results. If you’re just barking numbers, the team will likely tune out or push for short-term wins that fizzle out. Instead, let’s talk about building an innovative, purpose-driven culture where your sales team isn’t just trying to close deals—they’re genuinely engaged, hitting targets because they’re sold on the mission, not just the metrics.

It’s crucial to build a high-performance culture in your sales team to improve sales performance. Yet too many businesses fail to meet their growth targets. As they get later into the year, they start to cut back. Salespeople get more and more desperate to sell. They win unprofitable deals that are a terrible fit. These get poorly delivered – they’re an ongoing headache for support, and the customer is unhappy, too. Referrals dry up, and you’re stuck in a miserable spiral to the bottom.

Contrast this with organisations with high-performing sales teams. It looks effortless. They target a smaller number of profitable, high-value customers. New accounts are well-resourced, and customer satisfaction levels are high. Referrals pour in, and business spirals upwards.

So, which one is your business? You need a severe re-think if you have more in common with the first scenario. Recognise the importance of improving your sales function. Here are some core strategies to reshape your sales team into a powerhouse that doesn’t burn out or settle for mediocrity.

Understanding Sales Performance Management

Sales performance management (SPM) is a critical component of any sales organisation’s success. It involves the use of technology, data analytics, and process improvements to drive sales growth and revenue. Effective SPM helps organisations optimise their sales performance by aligning sales strategies with business objectives, managing sales performance, and improving sales productivity. By understanding the importance of SPM, organisations can identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to enhance their sales team’s performance.

Make Sales Team About Purpose, Not Just Quotas

This is first on the list as it can have the most profound impact. Great sales teams have a clearly defined sense of their purpose. They know why they’re doing what they’re doing. Sales leaders need to live and breathe this. Scratch their skin, and it’s there, just under the surface.

Passionate sales teams don’t just know their product—they believe in it. And here’s where most companies stumble: they think a good sales pitch equals a good purpose. But the purpose isn’t a pitch; it’s the real, tangible difference your product makes for clients. If your team doesn’t know or care about that difference, they’re basically actors in a commercial. So, revisit the “why” behind your product. Share the impact stories. And don’t be afraid to tie your goals to real-world outcomes that matter to the team. A clear purpose is essential for good sales performance, as it aligns the team’s efforts with meaningful objectives.

Most of our clients are purpose-led. Smartsourcing is a great example. I was with them in September and did a session with their leadership team. I asked everyone to tell their origin story; by the end, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Their purpose as an organisation is to change the lives of 5000 Filipinos. Judging by the stories we heard that night, they’re well on the way to achieving it.

Bottom line? People need more than a target; they need a cause.

Get Obsessed with Your Core Customer

Let’s say you have this vague idea of an ideal customer, but it’s still too broad: “any company needing CRM.” If that’s your targeting, you’re asking for trouble. Cast too wide a net, and you’ll end up with clients who look good on paper but don’t stick around. Instead, define your “core” customer with razor-sharp clarity. Maybe your ideal buyer is a midsize company with a remote sales team struggling to coordinate across time zones. Or maybe it’s “Pam, the overwhelmed HR manager who’s drowning in spreadsheets.”

When you know who your real customer is, you can help your team tune their radar to find and win them over. Ask yourself, “Who’s our ideal customer on a bad day?” and then make sure your solution is there to make that day better. Then, make sure your sales team understands this implicitly. Setting realistic sales targets can further enhance performance by aligning incentives and guiding sales activities towards the right customers.

Challenge the “Commission = Motivation” Myth for Sales Reps

‘What?’ I hear you cry. ‘Really? Surely salespeople are only motivated by money.’ I know this is controversial, but hear me out. When it comes to motivation, we’re all the same. Whether you work in IT, Finance or Sales, you want a sense of self-worth. And that self-worth should come from your purpose, not from money.

If the rest of your employees aren’t paid commission, don’t pay your salespeople this way. Assuming that good salespeople are coin-operated is a mistake. Most people don’t do piecework. You don’t pay software developers per line of code. If you did that, they might write shorter lines or rubbish code.

Alright, here’s a hot take: commissions can sometimes do more harm than good. The assumption is that paying for performance always means better results, but think about it. With commission-based motivation, your team is focused on closing the deal today rather than building a client relationship that lasts. Ultimately, you get quick wins, but you can also get lots of churn and mismatched clients.

Instead, focus on hiring people who get real satisfaction from helping customers and problem-solving—who are in it for the mission, not the paycheck. Then, reward them on overall success, both individual and team-based. When you cultivate a team that genuinely cares about what they do, they won’t need commissions to be motivated. Sales managers play a crucial role in motivating their teams by guiding them and fostering a sense of purpose.

Factors That Affect a Sales Team’s Performance

Several factors can impact a sales team’s performance, including industry disruptions, poor processes, and lack of skills. Additionally, sales reps often spend a significant amount of time on non-selling tasks, such as administrative work and meetings, which can detract from their ability to focus on selling. Furthermore, a weak customer experience can also hurt sales performance, as sales reps must communicate clearly and ensure seamless handoffs between teams. Business processes, pricing and budget, and company culture also play a significant role in a sales team’s performance.

Streamline and Cut the Admin Fluff

Ask any seasoned salesperson what their biggest frustration is, and they’ll probably mention the endless “non-sales” work: updating CRMs, reporting, and following up on admin tasks. Sales aren’t just about customer interaction any more; half of it is busy work. So, take a good, hard look at what you’re asking them to do outside of actual selling and ask yourself if it’s really adding value. If it’s not, streamline it. To effectively measure sales performance, regularly track specific sales metrics and use sales enablement software to gain insights into team performance and resource utilisation.

Automate what you can. Simplify CRM processes. And maybe even think about hiring dedicated support staff to handle the operational load so your salespeople can do what they do best: sell.

Sales Performance Management Software

Sales performance management software is a crucial tool for organisations looking to optimise their sales performance. This software provides a range of features, including incentive compensation, smooth communications, territory management, analysis, and quota management. By using SPM software, organisations can streamline their sales processes, automate analytics, and collaborate on workflows. This enables sales teams to focus on selling and leadership to focus on improving business strategies. When selecting SPM software, organisations should look for features that support sales planning, sales compensation and incentives, sales training and coaching, and sales insights and strategies.

Set (and Stick to) High Standards

I’ve never been in a sales team that’s hitting its number without putting in the hard yards. And conversely, it’s rare to see salespeople putting in the activity and not getting results. Activity will lead to winning deals if you’ve clarified your purpose, core customer and value proposition. No question.

Now, on to something that might feel obvious but is often overlooked—setting high standards for performance. Activity breeds results, but only if the team is following a clear, repeatable, and quality-driven process. And no, this isn’t just about filling in CRM logs or sending out proposals. It’s about how they’re filling them out and how they’re approaching each client interaction. Measuring performance using sales performance metrics, including both quantitative data and qualitative aspects, is crucial to understanding and improving sales efforts.

Create guidelines around what an ideal sales process looks like, from initial contact to follow-up. And don’t just give them templates; give them tools to understand what “good” looks like at every stage. Hold them accountable for it. A team that’s held to a high standard becomes a team that delivers high-quality outcomes.

Build a Culture of Constant Support and Learning in Sales Performance Management

Too often, salespeople feel they need to be beaten into submission. Their working environment becomes combative, and there’s little or no support.

A high-pressure sales environment with monthly target “pep talks” and endless call reviews doesn’t create winners; it creates stress cases. Instead of turning call reviews into judgment sessions, turn them into growth sessions. Have managers highlight the strengths they see and offer tips for improvements. Make learning a constant, and give your team access to the right resources to improve their game without feeling they’re under a microscope.

When your salespeople feel supported, they’re far more likely to innovate, improve, and collaborate. And that translates to bigger wins for everyone involved. Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) can help monitor progress and performance, ensuring that your team stays motivated and effective.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is essential for sales teams to stay ahead of the curve and achieve their goals. To cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, sales teams should focus on three key things: tracking, analyzing, and standardising what’s working. Sales leaders should routinely reflect on how to consistently improve their team’s and individual reps’ sales performance. This involves tracking specific metrics at regular intervals over a long period, analyzing data to identify areas for improvement, and standardising processes that are working. By doing so, sales teams can refine their skills, optimise their sales strategies, and drive revenue growth.

The Wrap-Up

What’s the definition of a team? A group of people working towards a common goal. Does your sales team meet that description? High-performing sales teams will help each other, share things and leg each other up.

Turbocharging your sales team isn’t about piling on goals and waiting for a miracle. It’s about giving them the clarity, purpose, and support to do their jobs exceptionally well. When you align everyone around a meaningful mission, clear targets, and a system that values quality over quantity, you’ll find that ambitious revenue goals stop feeling so ambitious—they’re just part of the plan. So, take the time to focus on these fundamentals, and let your sales team do what they’re best at making real connections and driving sustainable growth. Enhancing your sales team’s performance through effective leadership, peer-to-peer coaching, and reducing non-selling tasks is crucial for achieving these goals.

Written by business growth coach Dominic Monkhouse. Read his new book, ‘Mind Your F**king Business’ here.