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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
In HubSpot Sales Hub and Marketing Hub, this isn’t a demo slide anymore. It’s Tuesday. If your reps are still:
…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:
…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.
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.
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?
Next time you sit down to plan 2026, put this on the table:
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.
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.
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.