Improving Your Sales Performance
Why Small Improvements Drive Better Sales Performance
December is a natural time to reflect on 2025 and to look at 2026 in terms of what you must do to improve your sales results (or, if you had a good year, what you need to do to maintain those results). Even if you had a great year, you would be wise to remember that “what got you there won’t keep you there.”
Here at Anthony Cole Training Group, we have always subscribed to the Japanese business principle known as “kaizen,” meaning gradual self improvement over time. In short, kaizen suggests that very minor improvements can have a dramatic result when those changes are compounded over many years.
We know that salespeople fail for only two main reasons:
Lack of effort
Lack of skill
So, what would the kaizen impact look like in terms of making some improvements in your sales process? What might your sales results look like if you made some changes within your skill sets to improve sales performance?
Let’s start by acknowledging what I typically hear, which is a salesperson saying that they can’t possibly work any harder. They have grown tired of their leader beating the same drum of “you need to give us more effort.” While that can be true for some, for most salespeople the road to improving sales results is best traveled by taking a different route.
How Incremental Change Improves Performance
What if you committed to getting 10 percent better in just a few key areas moving forward? What would happen if, on a weekly basis, you made 10 percent more calls? Instead of making 20 calls per week, could you make 22 calls? I don’t think making 2 more calls would break you. What if you improved your discovery skills on a call just ever so slightly and went from finding 2 new opportunities each week to finding 3 new opportunities each week?
And what if you made a slight improvement in your closing skills? What if you took your closing percentage from 20 percent to 25 percent?
The reality is you might not need to work any harder than you are currently working. And I am not asking you to be a candidate for extreme home makeover. I doubt you need that. What you do need to do is find just a few areas in your sales process where you can make a slight improvement in 2026. Those changes might seem to you to be insignificant. But your results in 2026 will be far from that.
Author:
Mark Trinkle
Chief Growth Officer, Anthony Cole Training Group
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Frequently Asked Questions about Sales Performance
What is sales performance and why does it matter?
Sales performance refers to how effectively a salesperson or sales team achieves desired results, including pipeline growth, opportunity conversion, and revenue outcomes. Strong sales performance directly impacts personal success and organizational growth.
How does the kaizen approach improve sales performance?
Kaizen focuses on small, continuous improvements. In sales performance, this might mean improving discovery questions, increasing weekly calls, or making slight gains in closing ratios. Over time, these small changes compound into major results.
Do salespeople need to work harder to improve sales performance?
Not necessarily. In many cases, the biggest gains come from improving skill sets rather than increasing effort. A slight improvement in call quality, opportunity qualification, or closing skills can create meaningful results without dramatically changing workload.
What are the two main reasons salespeople struggle with sales performance?
According to ACTG’s experience, the primary reasons are lack of effort and lack of skill. Identifying which area needs improvement helps determine the best path forward.
What small changes can make the biggest difference in sales performance?
Examples include making a few more calls each week, improving discovery questions, identifying more qualified opportunities, and increasing closing percentage. Even a 10 percent improvement in key areas can produce strong year over year results.
