We Asked LinkedIn Users Why Many Salespeople Don’t Hit Their Targets

When salespeople don’t hit their targets, who is to blame? Should there even be a reason, or should there just be a new approach? We wanted to know more about how LinkedIn users felt about those missed targets and what they felt was the main contributing factor. So we asked…This is what we learned. 

Low Activity

13% of users voted for Low activity. This means they feel like the salespeople aren’t putting themselves out there enough to bring in the leads. Or there is little marketing activity for the teams themselves to chase the interest. This was the lowest of the options, but still tells a story of those who feel their team isn’t putting enough effort into their outbound chasing strategies. 

Ridiculous Targets

This option may have been swayed by those salespeople themselves who struggle with hitting their targets, but it can be a real problem for companies. Failing to hit targets can be demoralising. No targets at all can lead to complacent actions. Simply going through the motions to the next payday and bringing in enough sales to get by unnoticed. Targets that cannot be achieved no matter how hard the salesperson tries will lead to high employee turnover. 33% of Linkedin users attributed ridiculous targets as the reason salespeople don’t hit their targets. 

No Strategy

You can’t deny having a sales strategy is better than not having one at all. A strategy allows your salespeople to see each step of the process and what to do next. Otherwise, it’s chaos, chasing random leads, prospects falling through the cracks and inconsistent revenue. This is why No Strategy was voted the number one reason salespeople don’t hit their targets. With 47% of users agreeing no strategy is not the way to go if you want to hit targets. 

Without a strategy, you’re looking at sales chaos.

Other Reasons Salespeople Don’t Hit Their Targets

What about the other 7%? We left this open for LinkedIn users to fill in their reasons and we had some great results. Here are our favourites: 

• The Strategy is Old
• A misunderstanding of the business
• No communication between the leaders and the team
• The Product itself
• Lack of Motivation 
• A Non-flexible target for new members of the team

At the end of the day, those targets are set so the company can grow its revenue and act as a performance indicator. Those targets can also work as motivation to push forwards. If they aren’t properly designed with the team in mind these targets can become a big hindrance and demotivator. So what have we learned? You need a strategy, don’t set ridiculous targets and always inspire your team to take action.