Your Sales Team Isn’t Underperforming, It’s Undertrained.
- finance3356
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
In every boardroom discussion about missed revenue targets, the same question echoes:
“Do we need to hire better salespeople?”
But before you rush to update your JD or call your recruiter, pause.
Most companies don’t have a sales talent problem, they have a sales capability problem.
What looks like underperformance is often just undertraining. What seems like a recruitment issue is usually a skills and systems issue. The good news? That’s fixable if you know where to look.
The Real Issue: Training That Misses the Mark
Let’s be honest! A lot of sales training today is:
Generic (everyone gets the same playbook, regardless of industry or experience)
Theoretical (more concepts, less application)
Short-lived (a workshop high that fades after a week)
If your sales team is still being taught how to sell products, not problems, then no wonder they struggle with:
Differentiating your value
Building buyer trust
Closing confidently in tough market
At Yusudi, we’ve worked with teams across industries, and here’s the common thread we see: They don’t lack motivation.
They don’t lack product knowledge.
They lack structure, guidance, and role-specific skills to actually succeed in today's buying environment.
How Do You Know If Your Team Needs Real Training?
Before you throw budget at another quick fix, assess your team against these 5 red flags:
1. You’ve got leads, but no conversions.
Your pipeline looks healthy but the close rates say otherwise. This usually points to issues in qualification, objection handling, or proposal framing.
2. Reps default to discounts instead of value.
When sellers can’t articulate value, they resort to price cuts. That’s not a pricing issue, it’s a positioning and communication gap.
3. Only 1 or 2 people are consistently performing.
Your top sellers have “it”, but no one can define what “it” is. And without a replicable system, you’re dependent on a few rockstars instead of building a rock-solid team.
4. Ramp-up takes forever or fails completely.
New hires take months to get up to speed, or worse, churn early. That’s a training design problem, not a talent one.
5. Coaching feels like guesswork.
Your managers are trying their best, but without a clear framework or benchmarks, coaching turns into motivational talks, not skill development.
If any of these hit home, your team doesn’t need a motivational workshop.They need a diagnosis, and a training system that’s customized, consistent, and built for results.
So What Should You Do Instead?
Start with a Sales Skills Audit.
Just like you wouldn’t prescribe treatment without a diagnosis, don’t start training without knowing what to train.
At Yusudi, this is where we begin. We assess your team’s current capabilities across conversations, mindset, systems use, and role-specific selling skills. Then we co-design a custom training program that doesn’t just teach, but transforms:
From transactional to consultative selling
From activity-focused to value-focused
From guessing to systemized performance
This is how teams like TATC moved from product-pitching to buyer-centric selling and saw improved client engagement, better conversations, and a second-year training renewal.
The Mindset Shift: From Hiring to Building
You can’t hire your way out of a capability gap.
But you can train your way into consistent, scalable performance.
The most effective sales teams aren’t just made up of top performers , they’re built through structured, intentional development.
They’re supported by systems, not reliant on luck.
And they improve because their leaders invest in training that works.
Final Thought
Sales is a skill. Not a trait. Not a fluke. Not a gamble.
And skills can be audited, trained, measured, and improved.
Your team already has potential.
Let’s unlock it and build the kind of sales force that doesn't just hit targets… but raises them.
Curious where your team stands?
Let’s start with a Sales Skills Audit — no fluff, just clarity.
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