Beyond Quantitative Performance: Sales Reviews Must Focus on the "How," Not Just the "What"

Companies can hit revenue targets for years and still erode their competitive position - because performance reviews reinforce the wrong behaviors.

The annual review for sales professionals is often a predictable affair: did the seller hit their revenue number? Did they exceed quota? While performance on financial metrics like sales dollars, margin, and revenue are crucial for compensation payouts, using them as the sole determinant for performance reviews is a strategic misstep that can undermine long-term business growth.

In order to get a holistic view of a seller’s contribution, sales reviews must shift focus from simply auditing production figures to evaluating non-sales performance and the critical "how" behind the numbers. This revised approach ensures that seller behavior aligns perfectly with the overarching go-to-market strategy.

The Flaw in the Financial-Only Funnel

Sales compensation is inherently designed to reinforce business strategy. However, legacy structures often reward sellers based purely on recurring revenue streams, sometimes leading to complacency or discouraging the pursuit of strategic new opportunities. When organizations seek transformation, such as pivoting to a new business development model or migrating customers to cloud solutions, relying solely on past production measures fails to account for the necessary behavioral changes required for success.

If a company's GTM strategy demands intricate team selling, consultative approaches, or developing new product pipelines, rewarding only the final revenue figure incentivizes shortcuts that can damage customer relationships or neglect strategic growth areas. Sales compensation shapes behavior, and therefore, performance management must evaluate how effectively those desired behaviors were executed.

It’s critical to distinguish what compensation is designed to do versus what performance reviews must accomplish. Compensation is a retrospective reward - it pays sellers for the outcomes they’ve already delivered. Performance reviews, however, are prospective tools. They exist to reinforce the behaviors, capabilities, and strategic focus the business needs going forward. Confusing the two is what causes organizations to over-value the “what” and under-invest in the “how.”

Aligning Performance with GTM Strategy

To make reviews strategic rather than transactional, they must map directly to the GTM plan.

The core purpose of a specialized sales review is to ensure a robust alignment between sales activities and the documented GTM strategy. This requires incorporating Strategic Measures and Qualitative Assessments into the annual evaluation.

A focused review should measure alignment in areas such as:

● Product/Service Mix: Did the seller prioritize strategically important revenue streams, like shifting focus toward new growth engines or high-margin products, even if core offerings were easier to sell?. Without purposeful incentives, sellers default to familiar products, leaving strategic areas underdeveloped.

For example, a seller who exceeds quota by discounting mature products isn’t driving the same strategic value as one who advances early adoption of a new offering. Both may look successful on paper, but only one is building the business the GTM strategy depends on.

● Customer Mix: Did the seller effectively target the specific customer segments defined in the GTM plan, or did they only call on the "easy accounts?". Strategic alignment involves understanding which market segments drive the most growth and prioritizing outreach accordingly.

In practice, this might look like reps repeatedly returning to legacy accounts because they’re easy wins - while high-potential segments remain untouched. A review should distinguish convenience-driven activity from strategically aligned territory penetration.

● Solution Selling and Positioning: The review should assess the quality of the sales process itself. This involves evaluating consultative skills, the ability to communicate the product's value proposition, and showcasing features and benefits that resonate with unique customer needs. Effective managers must coach to teach the "how," not just the "what".

A seller who rushes to a proposal after a single discovery call may close a quick deal but leave expansion opportunities on the table. Conversely, a rep who deeply diagnoses customer needs can produce smaller initial deals but dramatically stronger long-term value.

Non-Sales Performance: The New KPIs for Sellers

Volume alone can’t reveal whether a seller is building future revenue.

Moving beyond sales volume means integrating metrics that reinforce the activities and cultural shifts necessary for profitable, long-term success.

Activity and Input Measures: These metrics focus on the actions, events, and milestones a rep achieves throughout the sales cycle. They are especially critical when organizations have complex or long sales cycles.

Examples for review:

● Pipeline Health: Tracking the quantity and quality of leads generated, qualified, or moved through defined sales process stages (e.g., Identify, Propose, Close).

● Customer Engagement: Measuring the frequency and nature of meaningful customer interactions. This can include activity quotas like the number of meetings booked or demos conducted, which are key indicators of execution.

Collaboration and Teaming: As buying decisions become more complex and involve multiple stakeholders, teamwork is increasingly critical. Sales is now considered a team effort, from lead generation to technical support.

● The review must examine how effectively the seller partnered with other roles (e.g., Sales Engineers, Customer Success Managers, or Specialists).

● Scorecard bonuses or MBOs are excellent tools here, focusing on teamwork, driving collaboration, or adherence to established rules of engagement.

Qualitative & Developmental Measures (MBOs) Qualitative measures focus on hard-to-quantify goals like capability development or account development. Managers must consistently measure performance and provide feedback.

● Performance Management Tactics: The review should use data where possible to provide objective assessment but must also integrate subjective feedback on professional objectives.

● MBOs can be used to set individual goals tied to strategic or execution-based metrics, such as improving account servicing statistics or achieving specific adoption milestones within an account.

Institutionalizing the "How" in the Review Process

Performance management should not be a yearly surprise; it requires a structured, continuous approach. Sales leaders are positioned to drive and inspect desired behavioral changes.

The Review Cadence Should:

1. Be Data-Driven: Utilize real-time tracking and data analysis to coach effectively. Data should inform decisions, moving discussions away from gut feelings toward fact-based proof.

2. Focus on Coaching: High-performing sales managers spend significant time coaching, teaching the "how" rather than just the "what". The review is the formal moment to assess the effectiveness of this coaching.

3. Result in Actionable Plans: Every review must conclude with a clear, actionable plan for improvement and development. This plan should connect the employee’s efforts and rewards clearly.

By implementing a review process that deeply scrutinizes the "how" and strategic alignment, organizations can ensure that their sales force acts as a powerful lever for cultural transformation and sustained profitability. This shift turns the review from a simple scorecard audit into a crucial engine for driving competence and reinforcing the strategic behaviors necessary for long-term growth.

In short, this approach turns performance reviews into one of the most powerful levers for executing GTM strategy.

If you'd like support implementing a review model that truly drives strategic behavior, RevenueShift can help.