Want Better Sales Results in 2027? Start With These 3 Questions

Most sales leaders want better results in 2027.

But is their team equipped to deliver them?

As 2026 draws to a close, businesses are reviewing performance, setting targets and planning for the year ahead.

But higher targets, more activity and new technology won't necessarily deliver better results. If underlying sales challenges remain unresolved, the same problems can follow your team into another year.

Before committing to next year's targets and development priorities, it's worth examining what's working, what needs improving and where to focus.

Here are three questions every sales leader should consider before 2027.

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1. Are You Measuring the Right Things?

Revenue matters, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

A team might achieve its sales target while conversion rates decline, sales cycles lengthen or margins come under pressure.

Equally, a team falling short of target may be making improvements that haven't yet translated into revenue.

Understanding what's happening behind the numbers is essential.

A. Look Beyond Revenue and Targets

Review the measures that influence sales performance:

• Conversion rates: How many qualified opportunities become confirmed business?
• Sales cycle length: How long does it take customers to make purchasing decisions?
• Pipeline quality: Are opportunities properly qualified and progressing?
• Lost opportunities: Where are potential sales being lost?
• Margins: How often are discounts needed to secure business?

These indicators help reveal where performance is strong and where improvements may be needed.

The objective is to understand what's driving your results, not simply whether targets were achieved.

B. Identify the Patterns Behind the Numbers

Look for recurring issues across the team.

Are proposals regularly stalling? Are customers increasingly focused on price? Do some salespeople consistently outperform others?

Discuss these patterns with your team. Their experiences can provide insights that CRM reports alone may miss.

As explored in our previous article, Shortening B2B Sales Cycles, better customer engagement can help keep opportunities moving.

Scenario – Measuring Performance

A B2B sales team achieves its annual revenue target through several large existing-customer contracts. However, new business conversion rates are declining and the pipeline is weakening. The headline results look positive, but future sales performance may be at risk.

Ask yourself: Are we measuring the activities and behaviours that influence results, or simply reporting the outcomes?

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2. Does Your Team Have the Capability to Deliver?

Once you've identified performance gaps, consider whether your team has the skills, confidence and support to address them.

This becomes particularly important when businesses are targeting growth, entering new markets or responding to more demanding customers.

Higher expectations don't automatically create greater capability.

A. Identify the Skills That Need Strengthening

Consider how consistently your salespeople demonstrate the skills required throughout the sales process.

• Are they asking effective questions to understand customer requirements?
• Can they communicate value beyond features and price?
• Are they confident handling objections and negotiating?
• Do they understand how customers make purchasing decisions?
• Are they securing commitments that move opportunities forward?

Look at your strongest performers. What are they doing differently? Which skills and behaviours could be developed across the wider team?

These observations can help identify specific development needs rather than relying on generic training solutions.

A structured Sales Health Check can also help identify where skills, behaviours and processes may be limiting performance.

B. Match the Solution to the Problem

Not every performance challenge requires the same solution.

Sales training develops skills, strengthens customer conversations and builds a more consistent approach across the team.

Sales coaching helps people apply those skills to live opportunities, overcome challenges and improve execution.

Sales processes and tools support efficiency, pipeline visibility and consistent reporting.

But technology alone won't resolve weak qualification, ineffective discovery conversations or poor negotiation.

Often, the strongest results come from combining structured training with practical, ongoing coaching.

Before committing your development budget, determine whether the problem involves knowledge, execution or process.

Scenario – Applying Sales Skills

A salesperson understands the importance of qualifying opportunities but struggles to ask effective questions during customer meetings. Targeted coaching helps them practise these conversations and apply their skills more confidently to live opportunities.

Ask yourself: Are we investing in solutions that address the causes of underperformance?

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3. What Needs to Change Before 2027 Begins?

Recognising performance gaps is valuable. Acting on them is what makes the difference.

November and early December provide an opportunity to establish priorities before the summer holiday period changes business routines.

You don't need to implement every improvement immediately. But you can decide what needs to happen and when.

A. Choose Two or Three Commercial Priorities

Trying to improve everything at once can dilute effort and make progress difficult to measure.

Instead, focus on a small number of improvements with the greatest potential impact.

• Improve opportunity qualification to reduce time spent pursuing unlikely deals.
• Strengthen value-based selling to improve conversions and protect margins.
• Introduce regular coaching to reinforce effective sales behaviours.

Connect each priority to a measurable business outcome.

If improving conversion rates is the objective, establish your current performance, set a realistic improvement target and identify the behaviours that will support it.

This creates a clearer connection between development activities and commercial results.

B. Commit to a Practical Development Plan

Turn your priorities into a manageable plan.

Decide what needs to happen, who is responsible and when activities should begin.

That might involve reviewing sales capabilities, scheduling targeted training, introducing coaching sessions or improving pipeline management.

Build these activities into normal business operations rather than treating development as an occasional event.

And establish regular checkpoints to monitor progress.

Training builds capability. Coaching helps embed new behaviours. Consistent management review keeps improvements on track.

For Australian businesses, January and February can bring staggered returns from leave and competing operational priorities.

Waiting until everyone returns can mean development discussions are pushed aside by immediate customer demands, outstanding proposals and operational pressures.

Scenario – Preparing for 2027

A business identifies inconsistent value communication as a recurring sales challenge. Rather than waiting until February, management agrees on a development priority before the summer break and schedules targeted training and follow-up coaching for early 2027.

Ask yourself: What decisions could we make now that would strengthen our sales performance next year?

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Key Takeaway

Higher sales targets don't automatically create greater sales capability.

Review what your results are telling you, identify the capabilities that need strengthening and commit to a practical improvement plan before the year ends.

Final Thoughts – Better Results Start With Better Decisions

You don't need to resolve every sales performance challenge before the summer break.

But you can make informed decisions about what needs improving, where to invest and how to prepare your team for 2027.

Stronger sales performance doesn't begin with higher targets. It begins with understanding what needs improving – and committing to action.

At Touchstone Training & Coaching, we help B2B teams strengthen sales capability through practical training and live-deal coaching. Explore our Services to learn more, or visit our Sales Insights Library for additional practical sales development ideas.

Structured Sales. Human Delivery.

2027 Sales Training – Early Booking Offer

Planning sales development for next year?

Touchstone is offering 20% off our Industry Sales Training Day for the first 12 confirmed bookings made by 31 December 2026, with training delivered by 30 June 2027.

Explore our Industry Sales Training Day to learn more.

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