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15 Best Excuses for Not Hitting
Your Sales Quota
by Paul DiModica

Sales quotas and targets are business tools most salespeople are measured by. Professional sales is a difficult, complex employment position that most people do not understand and many underestimate the complexities of the job in order to perform well at it.

Your previous experience as portrayed on your resume will only get you as far as the first day of your new job.

After that, it is critical that you rise to the occasion and hit your assigned sales quota. Sales quotas are leading revenue drivers for many companies. Marketing, operations, engineering, and corporate general and administrative overhead usually are tied to corporate revenue forecasts. When sales quotas are missed, the entire company must realign budgets to manage the loss of revenue capture.

If your sales quota is incorrectly calculated and you accept the position, it is still your obligation to hit the assigned number.

Is that fair?

No, but due diligence before accepting a job is expected and asking how the sales quota is developed and why the firm feels it is accurate should be asked by every candidate before they take a job.

So after you get the job, you need to figure out how to hit your assigned target.

The general model for evaluating salespeople quota success is:

• If you hit 100% of more of your sales quota, your management doesn't care how difficult you are -- they will learn to deal with it.
  
  
• If you hit 90% of your sales quota, your management thinks you're a good person and they want you on the department's software ball team.
  
  
• If you hit 70% of your sales quota, they are talking about you in the back room and are going to put you on a 30-day workout program.
  
  
• If you hit 60% or less of your sales quota, save your money and get your resume ready -- it is time to say goodbye.

When a new salesperson is hired, it is often based on a hybrid of reasons including the communication skills they use during their interview, the strength of what they did in their prior or current employment, and the available pool of candidates at the time of the open job requisition.

Here are the top 15 excuses I have heard directly or indirectly from client's sales teams I consult with about why they cannot or will not hit their sales quotas.

Have you heard (or used) any of these comments?

Top 15 Best Excuses

1. My management team's sales quota is made up in the backroom so our sales quotas are a joke.
   
   
2. I get paid enough in base salary, so I don't need to hit my sales quota.
   
   
3. Don't tell my boss, but I hate sales. My real love is singing in a band and I'm just hanging out earning my salary and benefits until I get discovered by a record producer.
   
   
4. The guy in the next office hit his sales quota by holding on to one gravy account. Why should I work hard?
   
   
5. I made a lot of money in real estate (or during the dot com days) so I'm just hanging out to keep busy.
   
   
6. I'm dating the president's daughter -- I don't have to sell.
   
   
7. I have worked 30 years in sales and this is my last job. I'm tired and just want to coast.
   
   
8. I am planning to get a new job next year, so I'm just waiting to get two years of employment on my resume to make it look good.
   
   
9. Our product (or service) doesn't work -- it's not my fault no one wants to buy it.
   
   
10. My boss is a jerk. He gave the best territories to everyone else.
    
    
11. I would have hit my sales target but my boss messed up my biggest deal by interfering.
    
    
12. I'm the only salesperson in my company and my boss does not want to sell, so I don't have to hit my assigned sales quota.
    
    
13. Even though I have a sales quota, I am not really in sales. I am more of a support engineer and take care of customer service issues.
    
    
14. My spouse makes more money than me, so I don't really need to hit my numbers.
    
    
15. I have a great management team. They don't measure my performance so I don't have a sales quota.

In sales, it's not what you did yesterday -- only what you are going to do today!

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