High Performing Sales Organizations: 3 Things that Set Them Apart

High Performing Sales Organizations vs. Standard Sales Team Performance
A recent CSO research report paints a stark picture: only 46% of sales reps are hitting their quotas, and sales teams are underperforming on 94% of the activities most closely linked to high sales performance. How, then, are companies managing to grow when more than half of their sales force is missing targets and overall sales performance is so uneven?

The answer, according to sales leaders, has often been tactical. Many:

• Lean heavily on existing customers
• Rely on their top sales performers
• Expand sales headcount to have more feet on the street

Relying on current accounts makes strategic sense. Sales rep assessment data confirms that expanding business within existing clients is faster, more profitable, and less risky than pursuing new business. Similarly, leaning on star performers can provide short-term gains — if these individuals are recognized, rewarded, and supported appropriately.

Where the sales strategy starts to unravel is in adding more salespeople. With only a 46% success rate, more than half of new hires are likely to underperform. When factoring in the cost of attracting, hiring, onboarding, developing, and ultimately letting go of underperforming sales reps, the math becomes unsustainable. Beyond finances, over-reliance on top sales performers erodes culture, creating burnout and inequality that can ripple through the team.

High performing sales organizations take a different approach. They focus less on patchwork solutions and more on systemic performance levers — rigorous selection, targeted sales onboarding, ongoing sales coaching, and a sales culture that reinforces repeatable behaviors. Instead of hoping that quantity or star power will carry the day, they build repeatable processes that allow the broader sales team to perform at a high level consistently. This shift transforms sales from a fragile, high-variance operation into a reliable engine of revenue growth.

What High Performing Sales Organizations Do Differently

When comparing average sales teams with those that consistently lead the pack, project postmortem research highlights three key factors driving superior performance. Here’s our perspective on what makes these high performing sales teams stand out:

1. Customer Centricity
   Top-performing sales teams put customers at the heart of everything they do—a finding consistently reinforced by sales rep simulation assessment data. This aligns with our organizational alignment research, which shows that sales culture — how work actually gets done — accounts for 40% of the performance gap between high and low-performing teams. Sales teams that prioritize customer intimacy and measure their success by the impact they create for their clients consistently outperform their peers.

   To strengthen customer centricity, focus on deepening your understanding of your customers’ business, anticipating and adapting to their evolving needs, and cultivating a network of customer advocates who amplify your value. By embedding the customer perspective into every interaction, sales teams move from transactional selling to trusted partnership.

2. Sales Process Alignment
   High-performing sales teams excel at aligning their sales process with the buyer’s journey — a finding that reflects today’s reality: buyers are more sophisticated, data-driven, and in control than ever before. The days when salespeople dictated how deals should progress are long gone.

   Modern solution-selling training must equip sales reps to be customer-focused throughout the entire sales funnel. Top performers adapt their approach to match each customer’s buying path rather than forcing the customer to follow a rigid process. They understand who will make the final decision, how it will be reached, and what information is needed at each stage.

   Armed with this insight, high-performing reps guide buyers seamlessly through their internal decision-making process. They navigate misaligned systems and complex organizational politics — both within their own company and the client’s — without burdening the customer, ensuring the journey to a deal is as smooth and predictable as possible.

3. Adding Value
   Unsurprisingly, high-performing sales reps consistently deliver unique perspectives and actionable insights. Top salespeople function as trusted advisors, prioritizing their customers’ success over simply closing deals. They bring ideas, expertise, and foresight that elevate every interaction, creating tangible value for the client.

   Ask yourself: does your sales team add meaningful value at every touchpoint, helping target customers achieve their goals — or are they focused primarily on moving deals forward? High-performing sales teams know the difference, and their success reflects it.

The Bottom Line
To elevate your sales team to the level of high-performing organizations, your sales culture must genuinely put the customer first — and do so in alignment with your overall sales strategy. Misalignment with how your clients define success will slow the sales cycle, lower win rates, and overburden your top sales performers, undermining both short- and long-term results.

To learn more about better aligning your sales culture with your sales strategy, download How to Determine the Right Amount of Pressure to Get Results

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.