Why 78% of salespeople miss their sales targets & what to do about it

I recently joined Stefan Boyle on the Tell Them What You Know podcast for an hour-long conversation about what's actually happening in sales right now. We covered a lot of ground - LinkedIn, AI, resilience, how personal posts win business, and why so many salespeople are struggling.

You can watch the full episode below.

Here are some of the things we got into.

Why most salespeople are missing their targets

78% of salespeople missed their targets in 2025. That number is on course to hit 80% in 2026.

Here is what I think is driving it. Instead of investing in sales skills, businesses are investing in AI and automation tools, hoping that technology will fix a people problem. It will not. I use AI myself - for research, for finding contact details, for specific tasks where it genuinely helps. But AI cannot listen to a prospect. It cannot read the room. It cannot hold a salesperson accountable for following up, or call you at six in the evening when you have had a terrible day and need to think things through.

Right now, a lot of people are spending £20 a month on a tool like Claude instead of investing in proper training. Some of them will look back at the end of this year and wish they had made different decisions.

The biggest mistake salespeople make before they even start

Most people in sales talk to everyone the same way. Same email. Same pitch. Same opening line. It does not work.

Before you say anything to a prospect, you need to understand the language of the person you are speaking to. A financial director cares about cost reduction and profit. A CEO cares about market share and legacy. A marketing director is focused on specific ROI and the targets they have to hit. An HR director cares about staff wellbeing and welfare. The same offer, the same product, the same training programme - but four completely different conversations.

Getting this right before you open your mouth is one of the most valuable things you can do in sales, and most people skip it entirely.

Why LinkedIn is a trust platform, not a broadcast tool

Stefan put it well during our conversation. LinkedIn is not a broadcast platform. It is a trust platform.

Every post you put out is not going to make the phone ring. What it does, over time, is build enough of a picture of who you are and how you think that when someone is ready to buy, you are already the person they trust. I have clients who followed me for two or three years before getting in touch. They had read my posts, watched my videos, seen how I showed up consistently, and by the time they reached out, the decision was already mostly made.

This is also why personal posts matter more than most people want to admit. A post I wrote on my minimoon - one line, four words and a heart emoji - reactivated a prospect who had been following me for eight months and never made contact. She had seen everything I had shared over that time, and that one post was what made her reach out.

I hear from CEOs regularly that they hate personal posts. I understand the instinct. But your feelings about it are not the point. What matters is what your future client thinks of it.

Selling on LinkedIn without annoying people

I post four or five times a week on LinkedIn. At least three of those posts give value with no ask attached. One has a call to action. And roughly once a week, I sell directly - because I am running a business and people need to know what I do and how I can help.

If you sell every day, people switch off. If you never sell, nobody knows what to buy. Once a week, done well, is the right balance.

I also run a weekly newsletter, speak at high-ticket events three or four times a year, go to conferences, ask for referrals from clients, and stay active in a coaching programme. That is eight things, working together. If I only did one of them, I would not be where I am. The salespeople who are struggling right now are often relying on a single channel and wondering why it is not enough.

How to stay resilient when business dries up

There have been months where nothing came in. If you run your own business or work on commission, you will know that feeling.

What got me through those periods was not a sales tactic. It was walking without my phone, watching what I ate, and investing in a coach - which felt strange when I was the one trying to get people to pay me for coaching. But if you are not willing to invest in yourself, why would anyone invest in you?

I also kept helping people even when I had nothing to gain from it. People came to me who could not afford my services and I gave them a document, an article, a follow-up call after their free session. Some of them came back as clients six months later. Some of them referred people who did. Kindness in business is not soft. It is a long-term strategy, and it works.

Watch the full conversation

If any of this is useful, the full episode is well worth your time. We went further on storytelling, the gap between what people post on LinkedIn and what is actually happening in their business, and what I think the next few years look like for anyone trying to sell in a world increasingly distracted by AI.

If you want to talk about what any of this means for your business or your team, you can find out more about group sales training, LinkedIn training, and one-to-one coaching programmes.

My books go deeper on a lot of these ideas - you can find all three here.