The invisible ceiling in B2B sales
Every founder or sales leader who has built a team from scratch eventually reaches a moment where growth stalls. The KPIs don’t look bad — activity is up, forecasts are “realistic,” and most reps are hovering near quota. Yet somehow, the revenue curve flattens.
It’s tempting to point fingers: maybe marketing isn’t delivering enough leads, or the product lacks a new killer feature. But more often than not, the issue lies within sales itself.
This is what I call the “glass ceiling of predictable performance.”
It happens when the sales team is trained to perform for the quarter — but has no mental, structural, or strategic concept of what it means to double revenue in three years.
If you want to build a scalable, high-performing sales engine, you need to stop managing only for the short term.
Sales is not a sprint — it’s a dual track race
It’s not that salespeople lack ambition. It’s that they operate within the systems you give them.
When you only present quarterly targets and compensation models aligned to short-term wins, the behavior follows: reps focus on low-hanging fruit, prioritize speed over strategic value, and chase deals that might close instead of building relationships that will grow.
This is not a motivational issue. It’s a structural one.
The fix? Introduce two time horizons into your sales leadership approach:
- Short-term: operational sales excellence
- Quotas, velocity, and pipeline hygiene
- Managed weekly or monthly
- Tied to commissions and immediate growth
- Long-term: strategic sales ambition
- Market expansion, average deal size growth, and account development
- Managed quarterly or biannually
- Tied to bonuses, promotions, or future organizational structure
Once you do this, your team can evolve from closers to builders.
Setting the right targets: short-term & long-term
Short-term sales targets (0–12 months)
Short-term targets keep the lights on. They ensure focus, clarity, and revenue stability.
- Pipeline ratio: aim for 3–4x coverage of your quarterly target
- Activities: opportunity stages, qualification rates, conversion time
- Management cadence: weekly pipeline reviews, forecast updates, deal coaching
The role of management here is tactical: remove roadblocks, spot forecast risk, and coach per deal.
Long-term sales ambitions (1–3 years)
This is where teams become market leaders — or stagnate.
- Pipeline ratio: aim for 8–10x coverage of your quarterly target — with deals that may take 6–12+ months to close
- Activities: penetrating enterprise accounts, building relationships with unknown buying centers, influencing budgets and reframing strategic priorities
- Management cadence: bi-monthly strategy reviews, annual territory planning
What changes here is the quality of the pipeline — not just quantity. These are your €250K+ ACV deals, your Land-And-Expand entry points, your multi-year contracts. The ones that don’t show up unless you invest today.
The productivity multiplier: it’s not just about bigger — it’s about more
Here’s where most sales leaders get it wrong: they think breaking through plateaus is only about landing bigger deals. But the real breakthrough comes from productivity multiplication.
Your team needs to get better at doing more of the right activities, not just chasing larger ACVs.
The productivity framework:
1. Velocity optimization
- Reduce sales cycle length through better qualification (MEDDICC)
- Streamline proposal and contracting processes
- Eliminate internal friction that slows deals down
2. Capacity expansion
- Increase each rep’s ability to handle more qualified opportunities simultaneously
- Build systems that support 50% more pipeline without burning out
- Use technology to automate non-selling activities
3. Conversion rate improvement
- Focus on win rates, not just activity metrics
- Get better at qualifying out bad-fit prospects earlier
- Improve Demo-To-Close ratios through better discovery
The math is simple: a rep who closes 20% more deals at 15% higher ACV while reducing cycle time by 10% doesn’t just grow incrementally — they double their impact.
This means your path to growth isn’t just “get bigger clients.” It’s also “get more efficient at everything you do.”
How sales behavior shifts with a long-term view
Most reps unconsciously operate under the assumption: “What matters most is this quarter.”
Now imagine you tell your team:
“We’re here to double revenue in three years. That means your €1M annual quota will be €2M by 2028. You’ll need larger deals, better positioning, and longer-term client impact. Let’s start planning now.”
That changes how they prioritize leads, ask questions, build relationships, and structure deals. They stop wasting time on low-quality inbound and start thinking about long-term value, not just discounts to close fast.
It also changes how they view coaching, methodology, and learning.
Your best tools: MEDDICC + Challenger sales
These two methodologies, when used together, transform not just deals — but your team’s mindset.
MEDDICC: the qualification engine
MEDDICC gives reps a framework to assess and navigate complexity. Instead of vague optimism, reps ask:
- Do I understand their real pain?
- Do I know who the economic buyer is?
- What’s the decision criteria — and do we meet it?
- What’s the process — and who can block us?
This helps build pipeline quality, not just quantity. It’s essential for both short-term pipeline discipline and long-term pipeline structure.
Challenger: the value engine
Challenger is how you win bigger, better deals by teaching your prospects something new — and tying it to your unique strength.
It arms reps with insight (helping buyers see what they’ve missed), tailoring (personalizing the message per stakeholder), and control (guiding the buying process with confidence).
For long-term deals especially, this is gold. Without a fresh perspective, why should a buyer change anything?
Together, MEDDICC qualifies, Challenger convinces.
What management needs to do differently
To break the sales plateau, you can’t just ask reps to think differently. You need to lead differently.
1. Pipeline reviews need two tracks
- Track 1: short-term commit deals — are we going to hit this quarter?
- Track 2: long-term strategic bets — are we building the future?
Don’t mix them. Different cadence. Different mindset.
2. Incentives should reward future-building
Consider bonuses for adding qualified long-cycle opportunities. Celebrate wins that lay groundwork, like getting power to reply or securing a budget cycle entry point.
3. Resourcing must support strategic time
Reps need time to research, build, and influence. If their calendar is 100% filled with demos, they’ll never build a €500K deal.
4. Forecast with multiple lenses
Your weekly forecast is not your growth strategy. Develop a rolling 3-year view of segment opportunity, account potential, and pipeline maturation.
5. Coach to the next level
Most coaching is reactive: “Why didn’t this close?” Instead: “How do we position to win 3x more next year?”
Break out of the quarter. Build the future.
The bottom line: break the ceiling before it breaks you
If your team has stopped growing, the solution isn’t always more leads, better CRM hygiene, or a restructured comp plan. Those are tactics.
What you need is a dual-lens strategy: one lens focused on this quarter, the other focused on year 3.
Embed this thinking into your hiring, onboarding, pipeline reviews, and forecasting. Equip your team with MEDDICC to qualify smart and Challenger to sell bold. Build a sales engine that doesn’t just hit targets — it exceeds ambition.
Remember: growth comes from bigger deals and more deals. Focus on productivity multiplication, not just ACV expansion.
Let’s talk growth
Are you stuck in short-term cycles? Are your reps selling small when they should be building big?
I’ve helped dozens of B2B tech companies and private equity-backed portfolio firms break through the plateau with smart structuring, clear metrics, and focused coaching.
👉 Drop a comment: What’s your pipeline coverage target for long-term deals?
Or DM me if you want to explore how to realign your sales org to grow faster — and smarter.