The REAL Reason Tech Sellers Fail (And What To Do About It)

Everyone loves to blame territory, timing, or talent for why they’re not hitting quota.

But here’s the truth: Those things aren’t the reason tech sellers fail.

I know because I lived it.

I went from missing quota three years in a row to becoming the #1 enterprise AE globally at Salesforce, then making President’s Club four years straight.

That transformation didn’t happen because I suddenly learned new sales skills. It happened because I changed who I was – how I operated, how I focused, and how I showed up every single day.

After coaching over thousands of sellers across Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and beyond, I’ve found that the ones who consistently win year after year, no matter the territory or timing, master these five fundamentals that most reps ignore.

1. Lack of Discipline

Most sellers want to be disciplined, but they’re not disciplined around the right things.

The truth: there are only two revenue-generating activities (RGAs) in sales:

Creating pipeline
Advancing pipeline

Everything else is noise.

Why sellers fail here:

They confuse activity with productivity (busy work vs. RGAs)
They avoid the hard work like prospecting, research, and personalized outreach
They’re inconsistent, strong Monday through Wednesday, coasting by Friday

💡 Top performers build their day around 4 to 6 hours of RGAs every day, all year long.

2. Lack of Focus

We live in a world designed to distract you.

Your company wants you to join campaigns, update CRMs, and attend meetings. Your phone pings every 60 seconds. Your brain is wired for dopamine, not deep work.

Why sellers fail here:

They say yes to everything and end up making progress on nothing
They chase every opportunity instead of prioritizing the few that matter
They lack a weekly and daily plan to stay on track

💡 Top performers master the art of saying no.
They time-block, follow a 12-week plan, and focus on the 20 percent of accounts that drive 80 percent of their revenue.

3. Self-Centered Selling

This one’s uncomfortable, but it’s the truth.

Most sellers are so focused on hitting quota that they stop focusing on helping customers win.
They try to sell instead of serve.

Why sellers fail here:

They pressure clients instead of guiding them
They talk about their products and services instead of asking about their customer’s goals and challenges
They show up with commission breath instead of curiosity

💡 Top performers shift from inward to outward focus.
They show up to serve, not to sell. They detach from the outcome and focus on creating value.
hat’s when clients start chasing them, not the other way around.

4. No Proven Plan

If you don’t have a plan, you’re reacting instead of executing.

Why sellers fail here:

They don’t know which accounts to prioritize
They haven’t mapped their path to their income goal
They “wing it” instead of working from a structured plan

💡 Top performers plan their income, their pipeline, and their activity backwards from their goals. They know exactly where every dollar is coming from and what actions it will take to get there.

5. No Ongoing Support

Most sellers are on an island.

Their manager is buried in pipeline reviews. Enablement ends after onboarding.
And there’s no community, coach, or mentor to hold them accountable.

Why sellers fail here:

They try to do it alone
They don’t have people who see their potential and push them higher
They don’t have peers who believe in them and support their growth.

💡 Top performers invest in community and coaching. They surround themselves with mentors, peers, and accountability partners who challenge them to grow. Because if you could do it alone, you already would have.

Bottom Line

Skills matter. But skills without discipline, focus, service, planning, and support will never take you to the top.

When I worked on these areas, my results skyrocketed. And I’ve seen that same transformation happen over and over again in my clients.

👉 Steve Milton was the kind of seller who always did well, hitting around 250K to 300K a year. Then, after working on how he approached his accounts, he went from “good” to elite, back-to-back years averaging 720K as the #1 performer on his team. The difference? He focused. He narrowed his territory, went high, wide, and deep with executives, and stopped trying to boil the ocean.

👉 Katie Pierce at Adobe had always hovered around 100% of plan. She was solid, dependable, but not breaking through. Once she changed her discipline and consistency, her entire trajectory shifted. She doubled her income to over $500K, finishing near the top of her company.

These are talented people who didn’t need more sales tactics. They needed to change who they were in these five core areas, and once they did, the results followed.

That’s why so many sellers in my coaching program consistently break through to $500K to $1M plus W2 earnings, not because they’re smarter or luckier, but because they’ve learned to master these five fundamentals.

🚀 Need help implementing these fundamentals?

Join my free live webinar in early November: How to Make Q4 Your Best Quarter Ever
Or book a free strategy call with my team to identify your biggest gaps and get a custom plan to make Q4 your best ever!

You don’t need more talent or better timing. You just need to start executing the right things consistently.

Let’s make it happen.
Ian