You were promoted because you could sell. Nobody told you that the job you were good at just ended. Your number is not your number any more — your team’s number is — and you cannot manage a scoreboard. You can only manage the activities that produce the score. Here is how to spend the first 90 days.
Days 1–30: learn before you change anything
- Get one definition for every pipeline stage. If two reps would define “qualified” differently, your pipeline is a guess. Pipeline management →
- Sit in on calls. Say nothing. You are learning each rep’s ratios, not fixing them yet.
- Build one KPI sheet per rep: calls, conversations, appointments, presentations, proposals, closes — with the team average beside each.
Days 31–60: coach to one ratio
- For each rep, find the single stage where their ratio sits below the team average. That is the coaching conversation — one specific part of the process, not “performance”. How to coach a sales rep →
- Set goals as floors, not ceilings. A rep who hits quota and stops has underperformed. The difference between a goal and a floor →
- Forecast on evidence — stage movement and activity — not on optimism. Why most pipelines lie →
Days 61–90: build the structure
- Run the weekly meeting with one structure every time. How to run a sales meeting → The week that plants the quarter is the first one.
- Start a hiring pipeline before you need it. Dependency on one exceptional rep is not a sales operation.
- Have the underperformer conversation early, with the numbers, and with a plan.
Work out what your team’s targets actually require with the free sales activity calculator. Chapter 3 of Sales Leadership Made Simple — the activity equation — is free to read; coaching is Chapter 4, Coaching Over Control.