Whether you love them, hate them, or simply tolerate them, quotas are synonymous with sales. They set expectations, structure compensation, and give revenue leaders a number to chase.
But lately, many sales teams find that quota attainment has become harder than ever. Fewer reps are hitting their numbers, account slippage makes forecasting unpredictable, and territory planning often feels misaligned with actual sales opportunities.
The trend is especially pronounced in tech and SaaS: according to a 2024 Compensation Trends Report by QuotaPath, 91% of sales teams failed to hit quota expectations last year.
Clearly, something is not working here. But that doesn’t mean the quota is “dead” — instead, your quota strategy could probably use a major shake-up.
Here’s how to rethink performance management for modern sales teams.
Why Quotas Are Harder to Hit
There are a few key reasons why quota attainment is on the decline:
1. The “Do More with Less” Problem
The biggest reason we’re seeing a shift in quota attainment across companies is simply a change in the overall economic environment. Many companies are forced to hit their growth expectations, even as headcount goes down.
As Sago Health EVP Ashley Wade puts it: “‘More with less’ seems to be the mantra of everyone at this point.” The result is fewer resources, fewer sellers, and often higher quotas to make up the difference.
2. Account Slippage and Pipeline Volatility
Every quarter, accounts that seemed solid end up slipping. Budget freezes, longer sales cycles, and shifting priorities make it harder to predict where teams will land. That uncertainty creates massive forecasting challenges for leadership.
3. Bad Territory Planning and Lead Quality
A lot of sales teams still operate under outdated territory models and lead distribution methods. Too often, sellers are chasing the wrong deals — low-value, high-churn business that barely moves the needle. When quotas are set without considering deal quality and close rates, it becomes a losing game.
4. Misaligned Incentives
Quota design matters. If reps feel like their targets are unattainable, motivation tanks and sellers check out. Why make that extra call or chase that deal if you know you won’t hit the number anyway? A rep who thinks they have no shot won’t push that little bit harder, and that’s how revenue gets left on the table.
These problems aren’t theoretical — they’re what sales leaders like Wade face in the real world.
“I think we all know the adage ‘hope is not a strategy,’” Wade says. And for her sales team, the goal is ultimately how to “put revenue growth and potential into their own hands, rather than leaving it to the mercy of the market.”
Why We Still Need Quotas
Without quotas, you risk losing accountability, not just at the rep level, but across leadership.
But simply understanding the value of quotas isn’t enough. Because when you don’t design sales quotas thoughtfully, the impact can ripple far beyond the sales team.
When done right, quotas offer clarity, focus, and a shared goal across departments.
How Sales Leaders Should Adapt
Sales leaders who want to improve quota attainment should rethink how they assign targets, structure compensation, and support their teams. It’s all about prioritizing the best path to hitting revenue targets.
Here’s what works:
1. Set Realistic, Attainable Quotas
When I think about the right way to approach quotas, I’m leaning on our experience here at ZoomInfo. There were times when we prioritized taking every deal we could, but that strategy doesn’t always scale for good outcomes over the long run. And so now, when we think about setting quotas, we think about setting them segment-specific.
Recently, we actually lowered quotas, and shifted leads with lower lifetime value (LTV) to product-led growth (PLG) and explored third-party resellers. That allowed us to add to the business without increasing headcounts or quotas. So, even though I’m sending less to the team, we’re winning more. We knew that by shifting upmarket, eliminating low LTV leads, and optimizing our pipeline mix, we could increase ASP and win rates.
This approach freed up reps to focus on higher-quality deals. They weren’t bogged down chasing every lead, which allowed them to sell smarter and more efficiently.
2. Align Compensation With Business Value
Compensation plans should push reps toward the right kind of deals rather than incentivizing hitting quota at any cost. That means adjusting accelerators and payout structures based on the type of revenue, not just the amount.
For example:
- Down-market sellers might enter accelerators earlier but at lower rates.
- Enterprise sellers (who drive more valuable revenue) might have higher accelerator rates and shorter gates to encourage them to push harder.
- Commission tiers can be adjusted to pay more for deals further upmarket and less for business that churns or underperforms.
- SPIFs and bonuses can be used to drive focus on high-value accounts.
One of the biggest risks of outdated quota structures is that they can drive bad behavior. When reps feel desperate to hit unattainable numbers, they’ll chase any deal — even ones that hurt the business long-term. This structure makes hitting quota feel attainable, which keeps reps engaged and motivated.
Sales teams that optimize incentives get better revenue outcomes. Not just more deals, but better deals.
3. Shift Focus From Volume to Results
Wade’s team moved away from a volume-first approach and toward more efficient, precise outreach, a key shift that’s made quota more achievable.
“We’re bringing in more highly targeted, higher propensity leads, which our reps are then converting at a higher rate,” she says. “We’re starting to shift our KPIs and metrics. Last year was a volume play; it was about numbers and cadences and how much you were reaching out.
“This year, it’s not about volume necessarily, but effective production. It’s really pointing toward working smarter and more efficiently.”
Here’s what that looks like in action:
Wade previously coached her executive leadership team to look at volume as an early indicator of pipeline growth and deals closed. But one of the reps focused on new business development has had a significant drop in outreach volume since Sago Health started using ZoomInfo Copilot, which keeps reps focused on higher-impact outreach to accounts with the highest propensity and best fit.
Despite the drop in volume, his conversion to meetings booked and deals added to the pipeline has increased.
“It’s not that volume isn’t important anymore,” Wade says. “It’s just less important when we’re able to have more specific, tailored outreach to our prospects. I would rather have him more focused on doing what quickly leads to business than on just sending emails because someone needs to hit a 2,000 emails a week metric.”
4. Fix Territory and Lead Distribution
Bad territory planning can sabotage even the best teams. You can fix it with smarter segmentation and prioritization. Instead of flooding reps with every available lead, we focus on routing only the right ones. If a lead isn’t high-value, it doesn’t go to a rep, but instead to self-service.
Reps also need to be empowered to self-source. A rep who lands just one or two self-sourced deals per month puts themselves in a much better position to hit accelerators and maximize earnings. A simple way to drive this: compensate differently for self-sourced deals, especially if your reps self-source in the segments that drive the most value for the business.
This can retire more quota and earn more for the rep, all while driving more business value — win, win, win.
5. Lean Into Cross-Departmental Partnerships
Quotas are not created in a vacuum. These revenue targets are often set by your finance team and your go-to-market operations or RevOps team, not just within sales.
Creating a strategic, attainable quota framework comes with really good alignment in your partnership with these other teams. You need to be really vocal about the best path to revenue for your reps and build the case for what you need. Maybe that’s a higher headcount that you need to negotiate with reduced budget elsewhere.
The Bottom Line: Quotas Need to Evolve
Quotas aren’t going away, but the way we think about them has to change. The old approach of “just raise quota” doesn’t work. It demoralizes teams, drives bad behavior, and hurts long-term revenue.
Instead, sales leaders need to focus on:
- Setting quotas that feel attainable and realistic
- Optimizing compensation models to drive the right behaviors
- Fixing lead routing and territory planning
- Prioritizing high-value deals over volume
- Creating a quota system that motivates reps to push harder, not check out
It can be hard to know where to start, but Wade has some advice: “Any sales process transformation can be a herculean task. But we start with the outcomes we’re looking to achieve and break that down in a meaningful way.”
That’s where quota evolution should begin: with clarity around the outcomes you want to achieve, and a plan to get there.