Salesforce now requires 3x pipeline coverage instead of 2x.

A lot of companies are sleeping on what this means. 

Industry average quota attainment is down below 40%. 

Many SaaS companies are choosing to reduce quota. 

They acknowledge that firing and hiring salespeople doesn't equal growth. 

They realize cycling in new sales leaders doesn't change much. 

It actually slows growth and costs a lot of time and money.

They realize how costly it is having a miserable sales team.

Which leads to the notion that the sales team needs to be replaced. 

But what if there's another way?

There is and that's what Salesforce is doing. 

Instead of lowering quota, they're increasing pipeline coverage from 2x to 3x. 

They accepted that:
-deal cycles are now longer
-deal sizes are now smaller
-win rates are now lower

Instead of reducing expectations for the salespeople they're aiming for providing more pipeline to adapt to the change in deal cycles, sizes, and win rates. 

They're also adding more enablement, training, and AI resources. 

This means even the largest of SaaS companies are accepting that former trends and cookie-cutter growth projections no longer apply. 

Many companies will remain in denial about these changes. 

But those who plan to survive long-term are accepting reality. 

If you can afford to increase pipeline coverage, do it. 

Otherwise a reduction in quota might be the wisest investment you make. 

The only alternative is spending a fortune to hire more salespeople and hoping for different results. 

There's only one guarantee with that play, it'll cost more time and money.

Most companies should just lower quota. 

But if you can spend more to create more pipeline, this is a viable option.

Whatever you do, good luck.

That said, it's important that we see the smoke signals being sent by big players in the space.

They can afford to acknowledge problems sooner than the rest.

They have the leverage to make abrupt changes with long-term visions. 

This means it's more difficult for smaller companies to make such pivots but arguably significantly more important for smaller companies to be agile and adapt because they have less runway to survive. 

If you're nervous to confront your investors on these subjects, trust me it'll be more nerve wracking to confront the issues after they're too late to solve.

It's your job to bring problems to the table.

Lower quota (or) exponentially increase pipeline coverage. 

Those are really the only two options.

Happy Selling,