When I took over as Head of Sales at ReferralHero, monthly recurring revenue grew 48% in six months, and monthly sales went from $21,500 to $89,000 within a year. People ask what the secret was. There was not one. There were three unglamorous changes.
The first was quota structure. The team had a single blended quota that rewarded closing any deal, which meant reps chased the easiest deals instead of the right ones. Splitting quota by segment made it possible to reward the deals that actually retained.
The second was pipeline hygiene. Every deal that had not moved stages in two weeks got a hard conversation, not a soft check-in. Most pipelines are full of deals everyone already knows are dead. Removing them does not lose revenue, it reveals the real number and frees up attention for deals that are actually live.
The third was the simplest and the one people resist most: a defined process for the first conversation. Reps who improvised their pitch closed inconsistently. Reps who followed a structure, the same TRUST framework I still use and teach today (Tune In, Reflect and Understand, Uncover the Solution, Secure Commitment, Take Action) closed predictably, because the process forces a real problem to get named before a solution gets pitched.
None of this required new headcount or a new tool. It required being honest about which parts of the existing process were being skipped.