Your 2026 Sales Plan Is Already Dead. And your sales team already knows it.
The phone rings at 4:47 PM on a Friday in December. “If you sign by end of Tuesday, I’ll throw in another 8% off.” I’ve heard this call a thousand times. Hell, I’ve made this call. Here’s what nobody says out loud: 90% of these deals would close in March anyway. At full price. The only difference? We’re panic-discounting to hit a number that was bullshit from day one. That’s not strategy. That’s December desperation with an Excel wrapper.
Stop Raising Targets. Start Raising Conditions.
Here’s how most sales planning sessions go: Open the spreadsheet. Copy last year’s targets. Add 15-20%. “Market’s growing.” “Gotta show ambition.” “Sales just needs to push harder.” Fantastic.
Except there’s one problem: your reps always pay the bill for your optimism. First with pressure. Then with unnecessary discounts. Eventually, with their resignation letter. Think about it. If targets automatically increase every year, the math is brutal: eventually, every rep is set up to fail. Three years they’re crushing quota. Year four, the targets finally catch up. And that’s when the excuses start.
Fix the Conditions Before You Touch Quota
Here’s the move almost nobody makes: Before you raise targets, fix what sales is actually working with. Don’t ask how much more you can squeeze out. Ask what you’ve actually done to earn the right to expect more. In practice: if you want 15-20% more revenue in 2026, move at least these five levers first.
Stop raising targets. Start raising conditions.
1. Did you give them anything new to sell?At FrodX, we don’t raise targets until we’ve upgraded the arsenal. Three years ago, our reps walked into meetings with one story: HubSpot Service Hub. Omnichennel ticketing, support portal, standard customer service setup. Today, they walk in with two plays:
- To existing customers:
“You’re on Service Hub? What if an AI agent handled 60% of your inbound calls? Kinetara.ai-24/7, no vacation, no burnout.” - To new prospects:
“Not ready for the full HubSpot stack? Let’s start with a voice agent. When it works, we’ll both have the business case for the next step.”
Result: More entry points. More opportunities. More products in play. Higher deal values. That’s when I have the moral authority to say: “I need 15% more from you this year.” Because I gave them 40% more ammunition.
Outside the tech world:
Construction materials distributor. Eight years selling the same stuff: cement, brick, insulation. Then they add a “green line”-recycled materials, sustainable solutions, subsidy guidance. Suddenly the rep has:
- A reason to call existing customers (ESG requirements, lower carbon footprint, grant opportunities)
- Access to buyers who weren’t relevant before (public sector, certified green projects)
Targets went up. Not because the market grew - because the product line got smarter. That’s what it means to raise conditions before you raise targets.
2. Did you raise deal value, not just deal count?
HubSpot launched Customer Agent - an AI that processes support tickets autonomously. Every interaction burns credits. 100 credits ≈ 0.90 EUR for every solved ticket. Before this, humans did the same work. Slower. More expensive. Never 24/7. For sales:
- Customers get better service (faster responses, lower cost per ticket)
- Reps sell more value into existing accounts - an add-on module, not just the base license
Now you’ve earned the right to raise quota. Stop raising targets. Start raising conditions.
3. Did you give them tools that make them 2x faster?
Five years ago: 10-15 quality touches per day. Today with AI and automation: 30-50. They’re not working more. They’re working smarter. Modern CRM isn’t just “better Excel.” It’s infrastructure that lets your reps:
- Rank leads by likelihood to close
- See who’s actively reading proposals right now
- Generate personalized email drafts in seconds
- Automate follow-up sequences
- Surface company intel and decision-maker details instantly
In HubSpot Sales Hub and Marketing Hub, this isn’t a demo slide anymore. It’s Tuesday. If your reps are still:
- Clicking 47 times to log a single lead
- Writing every email from scratch
- Guessing which leads are actually hot
…then your +15% plan lives in PowerPoint, not in your forecast. You don’t need more pressure. You need better conditions.
4. Did you stop sending them in cold?
McKinsey, HBR, and everyone else keep saying it: companies with aligned sales and marketing convert significantly better and grow more predictably. This isn’t soft stuff. It’s math: Tighter ICP. More targeted content. Smarter campaigns = warmer leads.
If your reps are talking to prospects who:
- Attended a webinar
- Read 2-3 pieces of content
- Submitted a demo request
…they’re playing a completely different game than pure cold calling. Raise targets without raising lead quality and volume? You’re not driving growth. You’re just adding pressure. Stop raising targets. Start raising conditions.
In B2B, referrals, partnerships, affiliate models, and ecosystem plays should be standard. Every additional channel that delivers a qualified contact means:
- Less time chasing dead ends
- More time talking to real buyers
If your answer to bigger targets is “sales needs to make more dials,” what you’re really saying is: we don’t have a strategy, we have a timer. Quota isn’t the problem. Your go-to-market conditions are.
The Three Excuses You’ll Hear in December 2026
Raise targets without fixing conditions? Here’s what you’ll hear at year-end:- Excuse #1: “The market dropped, macro headwinds…”
Translation: Our product isn’t differentiated enough to survive a downturn. - Excuse #2: “Customers froze budgets…”
Translation: We didn’t build a strong enough business case to stay on their priority list. - Excuse #3: “Competition slashed prices…”
Translation: We have no differentiation. Price is all we’ve got left.
Reality check:
Even in a recession, companies still buy. They just don’t buy “nice to haves.” They buy “we can’t operate without this.” If you’re reading this in December 2026 and hearing these lines, it proves one thing: you raised the targets without fixing the conditions. There’s a grain of truth in every excuse. But the real question isn’t whether your reps are right. The real question is: did you plan for these scenarios and actually do something about them?
The Only Checklist That Matters
Next time you sit down to plan 2026, put this on the table:
- New products/bundles in the rep’s bag?
- Higher value per customer, not just more customers?
- Tools that save reps 30%+ of their time vs. two years ago?
- More warmed-up leads from marketing than last year?
- New channels (partners, referrals, ecosystem) feeding the pipeline?
At FrodX, we could honestly check these boxes only after we added Kinetara and the Growth-as-a-Service partnerships to the portfolio and after HubSpot got serious AI under the hood. Only then was it fair to raise the numbers.
If you can check three or more boxes: you’ve earned the right to raise targets. If most answers are “no”: you’re not raising targets. You’re raising frustration. Stop raising targets. Start raising conditions.
Make 2026 the Year You Stop Lying to Your Team
Next time you open that planning spreadsheet, do this: Print these five questions. Put them on the table. If three or more answers are “no,” don’t raise targets. Raise your standards instead.
Because that line from the intro isn’t just rhetoric: If you want salespeople with no excuses, start by giving them no reason to make excuses. Build conditions that make success realistic—then set the targets. Build a plan that isn’t a lie.
Still planning to raise targets without fixing conditions?
Good luck with that. Or - DM me and I’ll show you what we changed at FrodX before we touched quota. What’s working. What isn’t. What you can steal. Stop raising targets. Start raising conditions.
Stop raising targets. Start raising conditions.
P.S. If you would like to extend (or sign) your contract for your CX platform early and take advantage of a discount, my partners are running promotions over the next two weeks. Feel free to give me a call.
