Should Sales Leaders Reset Quotas at Midyear
Kevin Lawson and Sean O'Shaughnessy discuss whether sales leaders should reset quotas at midyear, arguing that quotas should rarely be adjusted downward unless executive leadership failed to deliver on a strategic assumption built into the original plan. They emphasize that teams behind on goals have a pipeline or prospecting problem that must be solved through qualification, prioritization, and time management rather than goal reduction.
Summary
In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, hosts Kevin Lawson and Sean O'Shaughnessy address the common midyear temptation to reset sales quotas for teams falling behind. They establish their foundational principle: never adjust goals downward simply because a team is underperforming. Instead, sales leaders must diagnose the real problems—whether teams lack pipeline coverage, are pursuing misaligned deals, or are failing to protect prospecting time.
The hosts acknowledge that some companies failed to set proper goals and compensation plans at the beginning of 2026, and recommend these organizations establish clear, documented goals immediately rather than continuing without them. They reject the notion that midyear is too late, suggesting completion by July 10th is achievable.
On quota adjustment, Kevin presents an absolute position: quotas should not move regardless of market conditions, industry challenges, or underperformance. He argues that salespeople are accountable for hitting targets, and if they lack a trend line to reach the goal, that is a problem to solve, not a goal to reduce. He recommends planning for 120% of quota to create a buffer for missing 5-15% while still exceeding targets.
Sean introduces the only legitimate exception: when executive leadership built the original plan around a strategic assumption (new product launch, acquisition, merger) that failed to materialize through no fault of the sales team. In such cases, the CEO should acknowledge the planning error and adjust the revenue target accordingly—but this is distinct from sales execution failure. He uses sports analogies (football goal posts, soccer nets) to emphasize that the game's rules should not change mid-season.
The hosts then pivot to actionable tactics for teams behind or ahead of quota. For those behind: conduct an intellectually honest pipeline audit to identify misaligned deals that consume disproportionate resources, qualify deals rigorously to eliminate those without clear next steps, reconnect with prospects who selected competitors six months prior, and protect prospecting and networking time by auditing calendar activities.
For teams ahead of quota: they warn against the common mistake of depleting pipeline through aggressive closing while neglecting prospecting, which creates a "rollercoaster effect." Both situations require allocating appropriate time across all phases of the sales process—from prospecting to discovery to scoping to closing—rather than frontloading effort only on closing activities.
They address the common objection "I don't have time to prospect" by recommending salespeople track time allocation across customer work, retention work, and development work, then identify low-value activities (excessive status update requests, break room conversations) that can be eliminated or delegated. They emphasize the importance of delegation skills so salespeople don't attempt to execute every project step, which prevents them from focusing on revenue-generating activities.
About this episode
<p dir="ltr">Midyear exposes the truth in every sales organization. In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, Kevin Lawson and Sean O'Shaughnessey tackle a problem many business owners, sales leaders, and salespeople quietly face at the halfway point of the year: unclear goals, weak commission plans, soft pipeline discipline, and the temptation to reset expectations instead of fixing the sales processes that created the gap. This is a practical conversation about B2B sales management, quota accountability, revenue generation, pipeline prioritization, and the uncomfortable but necessary work required to improve sales success in the second half of the year.</p> <h2 dir="ltr">Key Topics Discussed</h2> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Midyear goal setting when the original plan was missing or unclear — 00:00<br /> Sean explains why some companies reach July without properly documented sales goals or commission plans. The corrective action is not complicated, but it is often avoided: write the plan down, align compensation with company priorities, and make sure salespeople know exactly how they are being measured.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Why sales leaders should not casually reset the goal — 02:14<br /> Kevin argues that adjusting the target downward can create a dangerous management precedent. If the number was the right number, the job is to solve the gap through better sales strategies, qualification, activity, referrals, and pipeline focus—not move the scoreboard.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">The rare exception to keeping the original quota — 06:34<br /> Sean adds an important leadership caveat. If the CEO or executive team built the number around a product launch, acquisition, market event, or business assumption that never materialized, that is not a salesperson's problem. That is an executive planning problem, and it should be handled honestly.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Pipeline rationalization and better qualification — 09:57<br /> Kevin walks through the discipline of deciding which deals deserve time and which ones do not. Complex deals, unclear next steps, bad-fit opportunities, and stalled prospects all consume selling capacity. Better qualification improves pipeline velocity by giving salespeople time back to pursue better opportunities.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Time management, delegation, and protecting prospecting time — 13:43<br /> Sean warns against the classic sales rollercoaster: closing current business while starving future pipeline. Whether a company uses SDRs, AEs, business development resources, or full-cycle salespeople, every stage of the sales process needs dedicated time. Revenue management requires knowing where the week actually went.</p> </li> </ul> <h2 dir="ltr">Key Quotes</h2> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Sean O'Shaughnessey — 01:14<br /> "You didn't get it done at the first of the year. That doesn't mean you can't do it now."</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Kevin Lawson — 03:40<br /> "You never adjust the goal. Your job as a salesperson is to hit the goal or your quota."</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Sean O'Shaughnessey — 08:34<br /> "Salespeople can't make their goals for things that are outside of their control."</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Kevin Lawson — 10:22<br /> "You've got to figure out which deals are aligned and which ones are not aligned to what you do."</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Sean O'Shaughnessey — 14:03<br /> "We were so busy selling that we forgot to sell."</p> </li> </ul> <h2 dir="ltr">Additional Resources</h2> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">EOS implementers — referenced as part of the broader business coaching and planning conversations happening at midyear.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">FocalPoint and ActionCOACH — mentioned as examples of coaching organizations business owners may turn to when trying to catch up or plan ahead.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Microsoft PTAP — referenced by Kevin as "plan to exceed plan," a useful framing for quota planning and sales performance management.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">MEDDPICCC, BANT, and SPICED-style qualification methodologies — referenced as examples of structured approaches to qualification, deal inspection, and sales process discipline.</p> </li> <li dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr">Marketing-generated digital assets — discussed as one practical source of conversation creation when salespeople are behind and need to rebuild pipeline coverage.</p> </li> </ul> <h2 dir="ltr">A Significant Actionable Item from this Podcast</h2> <p dir="ltr">Audit your pipeline and calendar before changing the goal. Identify every active opportunity, mark which deals have clear next steps, remove or deprioritize poor-fit opportunities, and block time this week for prospecting, referral requests, outreach to past customers, and networking. Do not rely on optimism. If an opportunity does not match your ideal customer profile, lacks buyer commitment, or requires too much customization to win, it is likely stealing time from better revenue-generating work.</p> <h2 dir="ltr">Summary</h2> <p dir="ltr">This episode is a timely midyear inspection for any B2B salesperson, VP of Sales, business owner, or sales management leader who is trying to protect the second half of the year. Kevin and Sean make a clear argument: missed goals are not solved by pretending the number changed. They are solved by stronger qualifications, clearer commission plans, better time allocation, disciplined sales processes, and more honest pipeline review. If you are behind, ahead, or unsure where you really stand, this conversation will help you decide whether you have a quota problem, a planning problem, a pipeline problem, or a leadership problem—and what to do next.</p> <p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-58f20385-7fff-f9d7-fa16-1be2d756474b"><br /> <br /></strong></p>
Key Insights
- Kevin and Sean argue that quotas should never be reset downward in response to underperformance because salespeople's accountability depends on a fixed target; if the trend line doesn't reach the goal, that signals a pipeline, qualification, or prospecting problem that must be solved separately from the goal itself.
- Sean establishes that the only legitimate reason to adjust revenue targets midyear is when executive leadership built the plan on a strategic assumption (product launch, acquisition) that failed to materialize through no fault of the sales team—distinguishing this from typical sales execution failure.
- Kevin claims that teams behind on goals universally have either a leads problem (insufficient pipeline) or a leads prioritization problem (pursuing misaligned deals), regardless of industry or economic conditions, and therefore should address root causes rather than reduce targets.
- The hosts argue that salespeople who claim they lack time to prospect are actually spending time on low-value activities that should be eliminated, delegated, or consolidated—and that tracking time allocation across customer work, retention work, and development work reveals where time can be reclaimed.
- Sean contends that salespeople who exceed quota often make the critical mistake of abandoning prospecting while aggressively closing deals, which exhausts the pipeline and creates future underperformance—a pattern he calls the "rollercoaster effect."
Topics
Transcript
Mid-year is when sales goals stop being theoretical and start exposing the strength or weakness of the sales organization. In this episode of Two Tall Guys Talking Sales, Kevin Lawson and Sean O'Shaughnessy challenge the temptation to reset quotas simply because the team is behind. Instead they focus on the harder questions. Is the pipeline real? Are the right deals getting attention? And is prospecting being protected before the second half slips away? Listen in for a practical conversation on quota discipline, pipeline prioritization, and the sales management decisions that determine whether the year can still be won. What's going on in the world of setting goals for all of the second half of 2026? We're right here at the…
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