What’s up, everyone! 👋🏻

I’ve been hearing a recurring theme in The Leese 100 group: unrealistic sales goals. Founders and leadership teams, backed into a corner by promises made to investors or boards, are setting quotas that have zero chance of being met. And worse? They’re expecting sales leaders to (somehow) pull off a miracle.

Here’s a recent example: One of our group members, a new VP of Sales, said that over the last three years, the company had grim results. Two of fourteen reps hit quota one year, zero of twenty-six the next, and zero of fourteen the following year. Now she’s been told to raise quotas despite those numbers. Insane, right?!

• The founders are committed to growth forecasts for 2025, and instead of reevaluating what’s realistic, they’re doubling down on a strategy that clearly isn’t working.
• She’s inheriting a demoralized team and a situation that’s unsustainable. Frankly, most people in the group told her to leave. And I told her something she might not have wanted to hear—but needed to.

This is the kind of stuff you ask before taking the job.

So, what's the best approach?

If you find yourself in a similar situation, I’ve got a piece of advice: lower your quotas. Yes, lower them. Even if it means missing your top-line goals for now. You need to build momentum, get some wins on the board, and retain your talent.

The truth is: Unrealistic quotas don’t push teams to perform better; they break them. And a broken team doesn’t hit any goals, no matter how high or low they are. It just demotivates them to work harder for you.

As a sales leader, you need to get real about where your team is and what they can realistically achieve in the short-term. Long-term growth only happens when you’ve got people who believe they can win. If you’re setting everyone up to fail? You’re going to fail. Then those high quotas you’ve been chasing will be the least of your worries.

Hold the line. Push for realistic goals. And if leadership won’t budge? Maybe it’s time to think about your next move before it gets made for you.

Until next time,

— SL