How to Motivate an Underperforming Sales Team and Turn Bottom Performers Around

Sales is competitive by nature. Every team has a few reps who crush quotas month after month, and others who struggle to keep up with activity targets. For managers, the tough question comes fast: Do I fire my bottom performers, or do I invest in them?

Replacing the current workforce may feel like the quick fix, but it’s rarely the smartest move. Studies show that replacing a single sales rep can cost up to 200% of their annual salary, not to mention the average 12–13 months it takes for a new hire to ramp up to profitability (The Bridge Group, 2024). That’s a heavy price to pay when many struggling reps can be turned around with the right leadership, coaching, and motivation programs.

The truth is, middle and bottom performers represent the biggest untapped growth lever in most sales organizations. Top reps will always deliver. The question is how you elevate the rest of the team. In this guide, we’ll explore the strategies that help managers motivate underperforming sales reps, fix sales team underperformance, and create an environment where even bottom performers can thrive.

The Hidden Cost of Replacing Underperformers

Replacing underperforming sales reps can deliver a short-term sense of relief. You cut the “dead weight” and move on. But the downsides pile up quickly:

• Morale impact: Remaining reps begin to fear for their jobs, which reduces risk-taking, innovation, and overall sales team motivation.
• Cultural damage: Teams lose trust and psychological safety when they see colleagues disappear instead of being supported or coached.
• Financial cost: Between recruiting fees, lost pipeline, onboarding expenses, and manager training time, turnover drains budgets and productivity fast.
• Lost ramp-up time: With the average ramp exceeding a year, sales organizations bleed momentum, pipeline growth, and consistent quota attainment.

Sometimes replacing talent is unavoidable. But in most cases, it’s better to look at sales team underperformance solutions that strengthen morale and skills, instead of cycling through endless waves of new hires.

Why Sales Teams Underperform

Before you can fix the sales team underperformance, you need to understand the root causes. Many managers assume bottom performers are simply lazy, but in most cases, the problem is structural, not personal. Underperformance often comes from a mix of motivation gaps, coaching misalignment, skill deficiencies, and poor technology adoption. Let’s break these down.

1. Motivation and Recognition Gaps

Sales is fueled by energy and recognition. When reps feel invisible, their drive quickly fades. A lack of regular shoutouts, team-wide visibility, or incentives makes underperforming reps disengage faster. This is especially dangerous for middle and bottom performers, who often need more encouragement to stay consistent. Without recognition systems in place, managers risk losing productivity, morale, and retention.

2. Misaligned Coaching

Coaching is meant to unlock potential, but many managers rely on pressure instead of guidance. Bottom performers often receive more criticism than constructive support, which further erodes confidence. When coaching focuses only on numbers and missed quotas instead of personalized skill development, reps begin to feel like failures rather than learners. Effective coaching should emphasize growth, not just evaluation.

3. Skill and Training Gaps

Even motivated salespeople can underperform if they lack the right tools and techniques. Common gaps include objection handling, negotiation skills, and product knowledge. Without structured training and ongoing development, bottom performers remain stuck in bad habits. Research shows that continuous training can increase sales per rep by up to 50%, which proves skill-building is one of the most effective levers for turning performance around.

4. Technology Adoption Issues

Modern sales depend heavily on CRM systems, sales engagement tools, and analytics platforms. But if your reps don’t use these tools consistently, performance will suffer. Bottom performers often lag behind in adoption, which means managers have less visibility into their pipeline and activity. When CRM usage is inconsistent, forecasting accuracy plummets, deals get lost, and managers can’t coach effectively. Ensuring every rep embraces technology is key to creating a level playing field.

Turning Sales Underperformance Into Momentum

Understanding why sales teams underperform is only the first step. The real challenge, and opportunity, is figuring out how to turn things around. Replacing reps may solve today’s problem, but it doesn’t build long-term growth. Motivating and developing your underperforming sales team creates a stronger foundation for consistent performance.

1. Train and Upskill to Close Gaps

Sales performance almost always improves when you close skill gaps. Companies that provide continuous training see 50% higher net sales per rep than those that don’t (ATD, 2023).

Practical steps include:

• Running regular performance evaluations to identify skill deficits.
• Providing role-specific training on negotiation, product knowledge, and objection handling.
• Encouraging peer-to-peer knowledge sharing through workshops or lunch-and-learns.
• Offering e-learning modules and certifications so reps can develop at their own pace.

Bottom performers are often those who missed crucial learning opportunities early. Training gives them the structure and confidence to compete, while also reinforcing best practices, closing knowledge gaps, and creating pathways for long-term improvement and stronger quota attainment.

2. Set Clear Goals and Track the Right Metrics

One of the fastest ways to fix an underperforming sales team is to clarify expectations. Without clear, measurable goals, even experienced reps lose focus.

SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) should be set at both the individual and team level. For example:

• Response to inbound leads within 1 hour.
• At least 8 qualified meetings per week.
• Close rate improvement from 15% to 20% within the quarter.

Metrics aren’t just about evaluation. They are powerful tools for coaching and recognition. When progress is visible, reps see where they stand and managers can celebrate wins, even small ones, that reinforce confidence.

This is also where broadcasting performance matters. Putting results on dashboards or TV screens in the office builds accountability and camaraderie. Everyone can see progress, and middle or bottom performers get recognized for incremental improvements, not just quota-crushing wins.

3. Build a Coaching and Mentorship Culture

Coaching is consistently ranked as the #1 factor in sales rep success. According to CSO Insights (2024), reps who receive ongoing coaching achieve 27% higher win rates than those who don’t.

Great coaching means more than pipeline reviews. It requires:

• Weekly one-on-ones focused on strategy and skill-building.
• Role-plays to practice handling objections in real scenarios.
• Shadowing calls with immediate feedback.
• Mentorship pairings between top performers and newer reps.

Middle and bottom performers often lack confidence more than skill. Coaching provides a safe environment to practice, fail, and improve without judgment, while also building resilience, trust in leadership, and habits that lead to sustainable performance growth.

4. Motivate With Incentives and Gamification

Motivation is where underperforming sales teams can experience dramatic turnarounds. Recognition, rewards, and competition are all proven motivators, but they must be designed inclusively.

The mistake many managers make is running contests where only the top 2–3 reps ever win. That disengages everyone else. Instead:

• Run lottery-style competitions where each logged activity earns a ticket. Anyone could win, which keeps bottom performers engaged.
• Offer tiered rewards so progress at any level is celebrated.
• Recognize social motivators like peer shoutouts, not just financial bonuses.

Gamification plays a crucial role here. Salesforce (2023) found that 90% of companies using gamification see higher engagement. By making work feel like a game with leaderboards, badges, and real-time recognition, managers create motivation systems that don’t fade after a single contest.

5. Improve Pipeline Management and Forecasting

Underperforming sales teams often struggle not because of effort, but because they waste time on dead opportunities. Improving pipeline discipline is a powerful lever:

• Standardize sales stages to reflect the real buyer journey.
• Train reps to qualify rigorously and exit low-value opportunities earlier.
• Hold pipeline reviews to identify stuck deals and redirect focus.
• Use AI-driven forecasting to prioritize opportunities with the highest win probability.

Better pipeline management gives reps clarity, improves forecasting accuracy, and ensures effort is spent where it counts, helping underperforming sales teams focus on high-quality opportunities, shorten sales cycles, and build long-term revenue consistency.

6. Foster Communication and Collaboration

Motivating underperforming sales teams isn’t just about individual skills. It’s also about culture. Teams thrive when collaboration and transparency are built into the workflow.

• Run quick daily stand-ups to align on priorities.
• Create cross-functional alignment with marketing and customer success so reps get better leads and stronger customer insights.
• Use communication tools that allow real-time visibility into performance and progress.

Middle and bottom performers in particular benefit from an environment where they feel supported, not isolated, because collaboration, peer recognition, and shared learning opportunities give them the confidence to grow and contribute consistently.

7. Hire and Onboard With Performance in Mind

Long-term sales team performance starts with who you hire. Gartner (2024) reports that 69% of new sales hires underperform in their first year. That’s not always a hiring mistake — often it’s an onboarding failure.

To avoid this cycle:

• Hire for competencies and mindset, not just experience.
• Involve existing reps in the interview process to test culture fit.
• Build structured onboarding plans that ramp reps quickly.
• Assign mentors early to guide new hires through their first months.

By setting up hires for success, you prevent future underperformance from the start, reduce costly turnover, build confidence early, and create a stronger foundation for long-term sales growth and consistency.

8. Master Time Management and Productivity

Bottom performers often look less productive not because they aren’t working, but because their time is spent in the wrong places. Managers can fix this by:

• Auditing how reps spend time across selling vs. admin.
• Introducing time-blocking techniques for focused outreach.
• Reducing unnecessary meetings to give reps more selling hours.
• Leveraging automation tools to remove repetitive tasks.

Reps who feel their time is valued are more motivated to put energy into the activities that generate pipeline, strengthen customer relationships, and ultimately improve overall sales team performance.

9. Lead With Data-Driven Insights

Gut instinct can only take a manager so far. To really fix an underperforming sales team, you need clear visibility into where progress is happening and where deals are falling apart. Analytics uncover the story behind the numbers — whether it’s a rep struggling to convert demos into opportunities, or a stage in the pipeline where deals consistently stall.

When that data is shared openly across the team, it stops being just a leadership tool. Reps can see their own performance in context, recognize patterns, and course-correct in real time. Managers, meanwhile, can shift from reactive pressure to proactive coaching.

The real power of data is that it turns performance into a shared system instead of a private conversation. Everyone knows where the team stands, everyone sees the opportunities to improve, and underperformers in particular get the clarity they need to take meaningful steps forward.

Inspire Instead of Replacing: The SalesScreen Perspective

At the end of the day, the question every manager faces is the same: Should I replace my underperformers, or find ways to inspire them?

The evidence is clear. Firing is expensive, demoralizing, and risky. Inspiring is cost-effective, culture-building, and performance-enhancing. By focusing on motivation, recognition, and personalized development, managers can transform underperformance into momentum.

This is where SalesScreen sales gamification makes the difference. Our platform is built to motivate middle and bottom performers — the reps who are often overlooked but hold the key to growth. By making performance visible, celebrating every win, and aligning incentives with effort, SalesScreen gives leaders the tools to turn underperformance into measurable progress.

Final Word

Sales underperformance doesn’t have to be permanent. With the right mix of training, coaching, clear goals, gamification, and recognition, even bottom performers can become strong contributors. Managers who choose to inspire instead of fire build teams that are resilient, motivated, and consistently improving. Improving sales performance is not about pressure. It’s about building a system that helps every rep, and not just the top few to reach their full potential.