If your sales team fell short last year - you might not be the only one. In fact, the majority of salespeople failed to hit target in 2018 according to Salesforce's State of Sales Report.

That number (57%) sits as a more conservative, revised statistic. The original figure was 77%!

I can't recall ever using an exclamation mark in a Passle post but both of those figures blew me away. If you had a team in any part of a business where between 1/2 and 3/4 of the members were failing to perform - you'd have a serious problem. Let alone in sales - the team right at the forefront of revenue and growth for the company.

But this isn't the first time that sales have failed to achieve quota, the reality is that... 

B2B sales performance has been declining since 2012

CSO Insights found in 2018 that sales performance has experienced 5 consecutive years of decline. When combined with the data from Salesforce (a less than scientific endeavour I know) we start to see what sales leaders have been feeling for some time now.

Sales is getting harder.

source: CSO Insights World Class Sales Practices Report (2018 data from Salesforce)