How to Improve Sales Performance in a Tough Market

A tough market doesn't change who's accountable for the number.

Cycles are longer, buying committees are bigger, and closing a deal takes more work than it did two years ago. If market conditions alone explained a soft quarter, every rep in the same territory, working the same accounts, would post similar results, and they don't. That gap is where the actual answer lives, not in the market headlines.

Here's how to improve sales performance without waiting for the market to turn around: find out exactly what's broken, and fix the specific version of the problem you actually have.

Key Takeaways

• A tough market doesn't change who's accountable for the number: Sellers are more confident than ever and still admit they need a better approach, which points to execution, not effort.
• Where a deal dies tells you what's usually wrong: Early, mid-conversation, and late-stage losses tend to come from different causes, and each one needs a different fix.
• Outreach that leads with your product gets filtered out before it's read: Buyers respond to messages built around their own problem, not yours.
• Deals may stall early because of a handful of specific, named behaviors: Buyers themselves report what makes them disengage in the first few minutes.
• Generic recommendations tend to lose to specific ones: Buyers rank a seller's unique understanding of their business above reputation and referrals.

Why Is Your Sales Team Underperforming?

Sellers today are more confident than ever, and a lot of them are still missing their number. ASLAN's 2026 Buyer & Seller Insight Report, a survey of 940 buyers and sellers, found that 97% of sellers expect to hit quota this year, and 65% say their confidence is higher than it was last year. In that same survey, 95% admitted they need a better approach to actually get there.

Confidence is high. Readiness isn't. That gap, not effort or belief, is what's actually costing quarters.

A team that's active and self-assured but still missing the number doesn't need a pep talk. It needs a diagnosis.

Where Are Your Deals Actually Falling Apart?

Where a deal dies tells you what's actually broken. There are three places it happens, and each one points to a different problem:

• Before you get a real conversation, which could point to a problem with your outreach.
• Early in the conversation, once it's underway, which usually points to how the conversation is run.
• Late, after the buyer seemed genuinely engaged, which points to the recommendation, or sometimes something outside the conversation entirely.

Each one gets its own breakdown below: what it looks like, why it happens, and what to do about it.

Problem 1: Deals Are Dying Before You Get a Real Conversation

A deal that dies before you ever get a real conversation often means the breakdown is happening somewhere in outreach itself, not in how a rep runs a meeting once they get one.

That shows up as reps prospecting, outreach going out, and meetings not happening, while activity still looks fine on a dashboard and the pipeline isn't filling.

That's useful on its own. It means looking at what reps are actually sending and to whom, instead of coaching meeting skills that were never the problem.

Three things live in this bucket, worth checking in this order:

• The message: A decision maker scanning an inbox is filtering for their own priorities. A message built around product features doesn't register as relevant, and it gets deleted before it's really considered.
• The targeting: Wrong titles or wrong accounts will sink even a good message.
• The timing: Outreach that lands with no active trigger behind it gets ignored regardless of how it's written.

Sometimes none of these are actually the issue. An account that genuinely isn't evaluating anything right now won't respond no matter how the message is written, and no rewrite fixes that. But message, targeting, and timing are the three variables a rep actually controls, which is why they're worth checking before writing an account off as uninterested.

The message is the fastest of the three to check, since it's visible in every piece of outreach a rep sends. Pushing reps to close harder does nothing here. The deal never had a real chance to start.

The Fix: Build the Message Around Their Problem, Not Your Product

If deals are dying before a real conversation starts, the message is the first thing to check. Every piece of outreach should answer one question before anything else: why should this specific person care, right now?

Build it around three plain elements:

• Their whiteboard: What's actually on this buyer's list of priorities right now.
• A disruptive truth: One thing about their situation they probably don't already know.
• The proprietary benefit: The specific advantage only your team can offer.

Keep it short. It's an invitation to a real conversation, not a pitch.

The difference shows up fast when you put two versions side by side:

"We'd love to show you our platform."

versus

"Most teams I talk to are trying to cut material costs without sacrificing scale. Here's something most people miss about how to do that."

The first is about the seller. The second is about a problem the buyer already has. Only one of them earns a reply.

Problem 2: Deals Are Dying Early in the Conversation

When a deal stalls right after a conversation starts, it's often because of something specific happening in the first few minutes, not a lack of rapport or a difficult buyer.

In practice: reps get the meeting, the calendar's full, activity's strong, and deals still fall apart right after they open.

The same research asked buyers directly what makes them disengage early. The top four reported behaviors:

• Asking product-centric questions before understanding their situation: 39%
• Interrupting or redirecting their concerns: 39%
• Pressuring them to commit too early: 38%
• Talking more than listening: 31%

This is what happens by default when someone walks into a conversation focused on their own agenda instead of the buyer's, especially under quota pressure.

People default to serving themselves first absent a conscious decision not to. It's the starting condition every seller has to override, every time.

This is the version most confident, well-intentioned teams actually have, which is why motivating them harder doesn't fix it. They're running the wrong opening by default, not lacking motivation.

Some buyers walk in resistant for reasons that have nothing to do with the rep, a bad week internally, no real authority to decide, genuinely not ready. That's real, and no opening question overrides it. But the four behaviors above are what's actually in a rep's control in that window, which is why they're worth coaching before writing the buyer off as not a fit.

The Fix: Reset the Rep, Then Coach the Specific Behavior

Two moves, one for the rep and one for the manager.

• What the rep does: before a call: name out loud or in writing what the buyer is actually trying to solve, before saying anything about the product. Small, concrete, and doable today, not a mindset lecture.
• What the manager checks: pull a recent call from a rep whose deals are dying early, and listen for one thing, did the rep ask about the buyer's situation before mentioning the product.

The difference between a coachable observation and a vague one comes down to specificity:

"Rep opened by asking what triggered the evaluation."

That's coachable. A manager can point to it, reinforce it, and check for it again next week.

"Rep needs to lead with the buyer more."

That's not specific enough to coach against. It's a general impression, not something a manager can point to on the next call or confirm actually changed.

Problem 3: Deals Are Dying Late, After the Buyer Seemed Engaged

A deal that stalls after the buyer seemed genuinely engaged got further than the other two, which narrows what's actually wrong. Whatever's broken, it usually isn't how the rep earned the conversation or ran it, since both worked well enough to get this far.

The pattern is familiar: real conversations happen, the buyer asks good questions, seems genuinely interested, and then it goes quiet or stalls right before close.

A few things outside the conversation are worth ruling out first, since none of them are fixed by a better recommendation:

• A budget freeze
• A champion who leaves
• Procurement friction

If none of those explain it, the recommendation itself is the most likely place to look. The same report found buyers rank a seller's unique understanding of their business as the number one reason they choose a solution, ahead of reputation and ahead of referrals. 84% say a customized solution is required to earn their business.

A generic recommendation, even one delivered well, reads as replaceable. If the buyer can't tell why this solution is different for them specifically, they have no real reason to commit.

The Fix: Make the Recommendation Specific, Not Generic

Once budget, champion, and procurement issues are ruled out, work the recommendation in three steps:

• Connect: Tie the solution to something specific and true about this buyer's business, not a generic capability that applies to anyone.
• Contrast: Show it against what they're doing now or what else they're considering.
• Frame the outcome: Make the case around what actually changes for them, not just what the product includes.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

"Here's what our platform includes."

versus

"Given what you told me about [specific priority], here's what changes for your team if this works the way we think it will."

The first describes a product. The second describes an outcome this buyer specifically asked for.

 Put the Buyer First to Improve Sales Performance 

The fix in all three problems is the same: make the buyer the priority before the message goes out, before the call starts, and before the recommendation gets built. It's a decision made before each one, not a personality overhaul.

Run the diagnosis first, so you know exactly where that decision is breaking down. Then bring the fix to that specific stage instead of a general push to work harder.

Other-Centered® Selling is built around exactly this shift, from a seller-centered default to a buyer-first one, at every stage of the conversation.