Most sales teams operate. Few truly optimize.
At first glance, these might sound like similar ideas: both involve engaging with customers, talking about your products, and closing deals. But the difference between a team that is simply operating and one that is optimizing is the difference between treading water and swimming toward a destination.
Operating: Keeping Up With the Day-to-Day
For many sales teams, the daily grind is all-consuming. They are constantly reacting—handling customer calls, resolving issues, responding to urgent emails, keeping up with product changes, and navigating internal processes – which keeps them busy but often leads to missed opportunities for improvement.
This is the operational mode of selling: getting things done, but not necessarily improving.
When a sales team is stuck in operating mode, there’s minimal room for growth. The activity level is high, but there isn’t enough time or focus put on the areas that can unlock better results.
Optimizing: The Pursuit of Better Performance
Optimizing is about taking deliberate actions to improve results. It’s not just about doing the work—it’s about making the work more effective. This means going beyond the routine tasks and investing in continuous improvement.
Here are three simple ways your sales teams can start to evolve from operating to optimizing:
1. Investigating Obstacles
Every sales team faces barriers to success. But too often, these challenges are discussed in vague terms—”the market is tough,” “customers aren’t interested,” “we need better pricing”—without truly understanding the root cause.
Optimization requires leadership to sort out fact from fiction. Can sales reps improve with a specific part of the sales process? Is there misalignment between what customers need and what the team is pitching? Are salespeople simply afraid to talk about things that are new and less familiar?
Identifying and addressing these sales blockers is the first step toward meaningful improvement. The hardest part is finding the time to do this. Most sales managers are in operating mode just like their employees. Leadership needs to assign someone the responsibility – and give them the time – to dig deeper.
2. Making Adjustments
Sales teams can’t be afraid to change up their approach. If you’re operating, you are probably in a routine that feels comfortable. Making changes is hard, mostly because you don’t know where to start.
These changes don’t have to be major, though. It could mean refining part of your sales message or asking a customer some new questions.
Coaching plays a significant role here. The best sales teams don’t just expect reps to improve on their own—they provide guidance, support, and actionable feedback. Unfortunately, many teams lack the time or expertise to coach effectively. Without proper coaching, sales reps continue using outdated or ineffective approaches, leading to stagnant results.
3. Seeking Customer Feedback
The best source of truth for any sales team is the customer. However, too many decisions are made without having current insights from the buyers themselves.
Optimizing sales performance means actively seeking feedback—both in formal ways, like surveys and customer interviews, and informal ways, like asking insightful questions during sales conversations. Understanding what customers appreciate (and what they don’t) helps refine messaging, improve offerings, and ultimately close more deals.
The Bottom Line
Sales teams that only operate will always feel like they are running on a treadmill—moving but not necessarily progressing. Teams that optimize are committed to finding ways to improve, and action on them. They investigate, adjust, and listen, ensuring that every sales interaction becomes more effective over time.
The question isn’t whether your team is working hard—it’s whether they’re doing the things that will help the business grow.
