How to hit revenue targets and survive a downturn in B2B sales

Executive overview

In a downturn, the standard playbook — aggressive quotas, cold outreach, top-line growth at all costs — breaks. Cold response rates collapse, enterprise sales cycles double, and the majority of companies miss targets.

The shift required is structural: from hunting new logos to protecting and leveraging existing customers, and from short-term comp incentives to metrics that actually align rep behaviour with business health.

Sahil Mansuri (CEO of Bravado, a 300,000-member sales community) draws on real-time quota data across tens of thousands of reps to show what is actually happening and what to do about it.

Forecasting and quota in uncertain markets

• In Q3 2022, 63% of reps missed quota (up from 46% in Q1); 76% of companies missed targets (up from 51%).
• October 2022: 85% of reps missed monthly quota. Over 80% of companies expected to miss Q4.
• Set a conservative annual plan, then define short-term milestones that unlock permission to accelerate or contract spend.
• Agree milestone triggers with the board and sales leadership in advance — removes the bias of in-quarter optimism.
• Re-forecast regularly; plan the year but make pre-committed decisions at each checkpoint.
• Founders have a structural optimism bias; in downturns, that is a liability.

Rethinking sales compensation plans

• Standard SaaS comp: 50/50 base/variable split, quota at 5x OTE, rewards closed ARR only.
• Accelerators reward volume closers; reps with high churn face zero financial consequence.
• This made sense when capital was cheap and growth-at-all-costs was the model. It no longer does.
• The rep who closes 15 deals with 67% churn is rewarded more than the rep who closes 12 with 100% retention — that incentive structure is broken.
• Align comp to the metrics that now matter: renewal rate, net dollar retention, upsell, customer quality.
• Consider a longer commission horizon: pay a kicker when a customer renews, not just when they sign.
• Compare individual rep renewal rates to the business average to identify who is qualifying well.
• The same misalignment often applies to the VP of Sales and CRO, who also carry 50/50 splits.

Retaining existing customers

• Cold outreach response rates are at historic lows. Enterprise sales cycles have roughly doubled (62 to ~115 days).
• In a market where new logos are nearly impossible to close, existing customers are the business.
• Move your best account executives into customer success roles — patching the leaky bucket takes priority over filling the top of funnel.
• Use your unique cross-customer data to deliver insights your customers cannot get elsewhere — make yourself a value-added advisor, not just a line item in the SaaS stack.
• Invest in exclusive research content for customers: benchmarks, hiring trends, quota data, salary bands — anything that increases perceived dependency.
• Consider an in-person customer event timed before renewal season; psychology and relationship investment meaningfully affect churn.

Closing deals through warm introductions

• Warm intros now outperform cold outreach by a wide margin. Every deal closed with a current customer is a bridge to the next one.
• At customer events, invite customers only — use the time to collect warm intro names, not to co-mingle prospects.
• Do not stop at the name: ask for a text introduction on the spot, not an email intro.
• Keep the introducer on the thread long enough that the prospect cannot quietly ghost.
• Email is where deals go to die. Text is where deals get done.
• Great salespeople deeply understand the buyer's world. The Facebook deal (cold email to Sheryl Sandberg) worked because Sahil built a nine-page data report on Facebook's Glassdoor presence before making contact.
• Sales done well does not feel like sales. If it feels weird, the approach is wrong.

Innovation and adapting the business model

• Bravado's recruiting business slowed as hiring froze; the response was to launch Bravado Flex — a commission-only and fractional sales model matching idle sales talent with companies that cannot afford full-time hires.
• The product would not have worked 12 months earlier; it became one of the best months in company history.
• Do not optimise your way out of a structural problem. Change the rules of the game.
• Experiment with pricing: month-to-month or daily pricing may unlock customers who will not commit to annual contracts.
• Startups either grow or die — cutting everything and waiting is not a strategy. Maintain momentum and belief in the team.
• CEOs are full-time salespeople: selling themselves, co-founders, early employees, investors, and press.