Sales Strategy Implementation Problems: What to Do

Sales Strategy Implementation Problems Getting In The Way of Where You Need to Go?
You’re not alone. Sales leaders often tell us that after a strategic planning retreat or sales kickoff, their teams are energized and motivated — but just a few quarters later, that momentum fades. Behaviors don’t change, sales targets are missed, and the carefully crafted strategy begins to feel more like an aspiration than a practical roadmap for results.

This is a common reality. Designing a winning sales strategy is only half the battle; getting your sales team to execute it consistently is where the real challenge lies. Without disciplined execution, even the most brilliant sales plan will fall short of delivering the expected outcomes.

Sales teams must translate strategies into daily actions. Success doesn’t hinge solely on what your team knows — it depends on what they do and how they think. Understanding whether your sales strategy is actually being implemented requires a structured, deliberate approach.

6 Strategic Clarity Components to Set The Context for Consistent Sales Execution
When it comes to implementing your sales strategy, our organizational alignment research found strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing sales teams.  Hopefully you have invested the time and effort to distill your sales strategy into a clear plan that includes the six sales strategy contextual components that matter most:

• Sales Alignment
  Your direct link to the overall business strategy and marketplace.
• Target Clients
  Your ideal target market where you should win the majority of the time.
• Unique Value Proposition
  How you clearly differentiate yourself from the competition in the eyes of your target clients.
• Optimizing Sales Strategies
  Your top 2-4 big strategic bets and strategic priorities over the next twelve months.
• Sales Success Metrics
  How sales success and failure will be measured at the individual, team, and organizational levels.
• Sales Roles and Responsibilities
  Who is responsible for what and how will the most important sales-related interdependencies be handled.

Four Ways to Test If Your Sales Strategy Is On Track
Too often, organizations assume that knowledge alone drives execution. But our experience in organizational culture assessments, change management consulting, and project postmortems shows that understanding does not automatically translate into action.

Leaders must dig deeper, moving beyond surface-level awareness to observe how team members behave in sales scenarios and whether their actions align with strategic objectives.  One of the easiest and most efficient ways to find out if your sales strategy is on track is to speak to your team.  We recommend getting diverse opinions by speaking with a mix of high-, average-, and under-performers along with an influential sales manager in order to test the potency of your sales strategy:

1. Test for Sales Strategy Understanding, and Acceptance
   Misunderstood or unaccepted plans will not drive results. Ask your people to explain the sales strategy in their own words, describe how they interpret the plan for success, and why they think it makes sense (or does not make sense) for them and their clients.

   You will soon learn if there is strategic misalignment or confusion in the ranks and, if so, be able to create a plan to close the gaps.  Keep the conversations going until your sales team understands the strategy, believes in it, and feels that your sales strategy can work in your unique culture and marketplace.

   In terms of sales strategy execution, these three contextual areas matter most.

   • Buy-In
     Does your sales team really buy-into the plan?
   • Clarity
     Is your sales strategy clear enough — both its rationale and the plan for implementation?
   • Believability
     Is the strategy believable enough?
2. Test for Sales Processes Alignment
   Research by LinkedIn found that companies with cross-functional GTM teams see 36% faster deal velocity. Understanding and implementing team and sales process alignment is crucial to creating predictable, repeatable, and scalable sales performance. To drive deal velocity and sales conversion rates, each step in the process — from prospecting and qualification to closing and post-sale follow-up — should help (not hinder) sales efforts.

   When sales processes are misaligned with your overarching strategy or ways of working, salespeople may focus on the wrong activities, prioritize low-value prospects, or adopt inconsistent approaches.  Probe to see if your sales process provides a structured framework that:

   • Creates predictable and professional client interactions.
   • Builds trust and accelerates sales cycles.
   • Enhances decision making.
   • Supports measurement and continuous improvement.
   • Simplifies business sales training.
   • Enables new sales hires to ramp up more quickly.
3. Test for The Right Sales Actions and Behaviors
   We know from sales leader simulation assessment data that organizations with clear action-oriented sales strategies outperform their peers by a significant margin.  Why? Because, translating a sales strategy into results requires more than well-crafted plans and ambitious targets.

   The real test lies in whether your sales team is taking the right actions and exhibiting the necessary behaviors that align with your strategy. Without this alignment, even the most promising plans can falter.

   To assess alignment, ask salespeople directly how their daily behaviors and actions have shifted to support the strategy. Encourage them to provide specific examples of what has worked — and what hasn’t. These conversations reveal whether your team truly understands both the “what” and the “how” of executing the plan.

4. Test for Other Barriers to Success
   Barriers to effective sales behaviors can emerge anywhere — insufficient tools, unclear priorities, or organizational silos. Identifying these obstacles early and often is essential. Engage your team in discussions about challenges they encounter in implementing the strategy.

   Once identified, create actionable plans to remove these barriers immediately. This might involve streamlining approval processes, enhancing CRM tools, or reallocating resources to high-priority accounts.

A Note About Taking Action
Action planning ensures (and requires) accountability. Once you have uncovered what’s in the way, each barrier should have a clear owner, a timeline for resolution, and measurable outcomes. When barriers are addressed proactively, sales teams can focus on productive behaviors rather than navigating organizational friction.

The Bottom Line
Sales strategy implementation problems are frustrating.  Knowing why your team is not implementing your sales strategy the way you would like requires more than monitoring results; it demands careful observation of actions, specific feedback, process tracking, and consistent sales coaching. By systematically assessing sales strategy implementation at multiple levels, you can ensure that your growth plans  translate into measurable performance improvements.

If sales strategy implementation problems are getting in your way, download 15 Sales Warning Signs Your Sales Team is Headed in the Wrong Direction