Your Sales Reps Are Not Stalling Growth
- Mike Latch
- Aug 8
- 4 min read
Scaling Sales Feels Like a Talent Problem. It Usually Isn’t.
When you’re trying to scale, the frustration builds in layers.
You hire more people.
The numbers go up — until they don’t.
You hear excuses. You see uneven performance. Your A players are pulling the weight while everyone else feels like an expensive hobby.
And the diagnosis? Always the same:
“We just need more A players.”
It’s neat. It’s simple. It’s wrong.
What you’re really seeing isn’t a shortage of talent — it’s the predictable chaos that happens when you add headcount without tightening the way you enable and support performance.
But because talent is visible (you can point to it, interview it, fire it), it becomes the scapegoat.
What A, B, and C Players Really Look Like
A Player — The top 10%. They can sell anything, anywhere, to anyone. They are a big driver of sales volume.
B Player — Your solid performers. They will hit quota — sometimes exceed — but still may require structure and coaching to stay on track. The biggest part of your team.
C Player — Your inconsistent reps. Often new hires still trying to get their footing — or seasoned reps who may not be a strong fit. They need help.
Here’s the kicker:
In most companies trying to scale, those C players aren’t bad hires — they’re casualties of growing pains. And those B players? They’re where your fastest growth is hiding, if you’d stop treating them like placeholders until an A player comes along.
The Real Growth Lever: The Middle
Most leaders obsess over the top 10%, but the fastest way to grow isn’t by turning A players into A+ players — it’s by unlocking your C and B player potential.
So imagine if you can get just one or two extra sales a month from your C and B players. No really, grab a piece of paper and do the math. What does that do for your company’s growth?
How Leaders Misdiagnose the Problem
When performance slips, talent is the easy culprit. It’s visible, it’s personal, and it’s replaceable. But firing and rehiring your way to success is like fixing a leaky roof by moving into a different room every time it rains.
The real drivers of underperformance are usually structural — the way expectations are set, the way feedback is given, and the way tools are (or aren’t) working. Those three things quietly shape results more than raw talent does.
Which brings us to…
3 Things That Make Good Reps Look Bad — And How to Fix Them
❌ 1. Inconsistent Expectations
What it sounds like: “Each of our top reps has a different pitch and they all close.”
Translation: You’ve outsourced your sales process to Darwinism. Whoever survives, survives.
Why this matters: If you expect every hire to fill in the gaps like your veterans do, you’re not scaling — you’re gambling. And the house always wins.
How you fix it: The fix isn’t a 97-slide deck or Tolstoy novel. It’s a standardized, scalable sales flow your top reps actually follow — because it works.
Document the entire “happy path” — the questions, the transitions, the moments to shut up and listen — not just product facts.
Train for adaptability inside the structure. Guardrails, not straightjackets.
Have the systems in place to react to the market and configure your happy path flow rapidly (and in a way your B and C players can adapt quickly).
❌ 2. No Real Feedback
What it sounds like: “I don’t know why this person’s close rate is low.”
If your “coaching” is a quarterly one-on-one where you praise the As, encourage the Bs, and quietly regret hiring the Cs, that’s not coaching — that’s HR.
How you fix it: Real coaching happens in the field, not in conference rooms or by replaying the same “perfect close” from your top rep.
Ride along or review at least 1–2 calls per rep every week.
Debrief immediately, after every call.
Capture real sales data and recordings so you’re coaching what happened, not what was remembered.
Why this matters: You can’t improve what you don’t see. If you don’t see it, you’re managing a fantasy league, not a sales team.
❌ 3. Clunky, Disconnected Tools
What it sounds like: “They’re not using the system right.”
If your reps need four logins, two spreadsheets, and a minor in data entry just to send a quote, your “system” is the problem.
How you fix it: Good tools disappear into the process.
Integrate into a single, guided flow so reps stay in selling mode.
Automate everything. Quotes, pre-fill forms, navigation. Handle the grunt work so reps’ brains are free for the hard part: earning trust and closing.
Why this matters: Every click between “hello” and “yes” costs momentum. And momentum is the currency of closing.
“Sounds Great in Theory… But We Don’t Have the Bandwidth”
You may be thinking: All of that sounds great in practice, but there’s no way in hell we can do all of it. Our management team is stretched thin. We can’t listen to every call.
You’re not alone. That’s where better sales enablement tools come in — not just to lighten the load, but to make these fixes possible without adding layers of management.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re serious about fixing your growth problems. Here’s what to do next:
Grab the first chapter of Sales Sucks for free.
See the full framework and the lessons we learned scaling a $1B sales org.
Or if you’re really, really serious and need more than just a book…
Reach out to us
We’ve been in the trenches. If you want a sales system that actually works — without duct tape, doubt, or drama — Reach out to us and let’s talk. No signing on the dotted line; we just want to see how we can help.
Comments