What Doesn’t Work: Avoiding the Panic Button when Revenue Targets Fall Short

In times of revenue struggles, it’s tempting for leadership to look for quick fixes or to shake things up dramatically. Unfortunately, these reactive decisions often do more harm than good, leaving businesses scrambling to clean up the mess later.

Here’s what doesn’t work, no matter how well-intentioned it might seem at the time:

1. Totally Reworking Your Sales Strategy Too Soon
   Sales strategies need time to bear fruit. Constantly overhauling your approach mid-stream because results aren’t immediate is like pulling a plant out of the ground to see if the roots are growing. Whether it’s redefining your ICP, pivoting to a new vertical, or adjusting pricing models, these changes take time to trickle through the pipeline. Frequent pivots destroy momentum and confuse your teams, your prospects, and your metrics.
2. Firing Your Agency or Marketing Leadership to Appease Your Sales Director
   It’s easy to make your agency or internal marketing team the scapegoat when revenue numbers dip. But if the underlying challenges—like longer sales cycles or economic headwinds—aren’t addressed, no new hire or agency switch will magically turn things around. In fact, these transitions often create months of lost time and fractured strategies that set you even further back.
3. Allowing a CRO Without Field Experience to Make Sweeping Changes
   A Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) can bring valuable insight, but when they’re not in the trenches, their sweeping decisions—like restructuring territories, enforcing unrealistic quotas, or micromanaging KPIs—can do more harm than good. Successful revenue leadership depends on collaboration with field teams and respecting the nuances of the sales cycle, not unilateral mandates.
4. Ignoring Your Sales Team’s Objections and Recommendations
   Your sales team is your frontline—they know what’s resonating with prospects and where deals are stalling. Ignoring their feedback in favor of a top-down directive not only alienates your team but also ensures misalignment between strategy and execution. When sales objections go unaddressed, they compound into deeper revenue problems.
5. Constantly Switching Attribution Models Before Data Can Settle
   Attribution is crucial for understanding where revenue comes from, but it’s a long game. Constantly switching between first-touch, last-touch, multi-touch, or custom models without waiting for a complete dataset is like changing the rules of a game every quarter. Without a stable framework, it’s impossible to gain reliable insights or optimize future campaigns.
6. Overreacting to Isolated Failures
   One botched deal or underperforming campaign isn’t a trend. Making knee-jerk reactions based on single instances leads to a series of disconnected strategies that lack cohesion and direction. Instead, focus on identifying patterns over time and addressing systemic issues rather than one-offs.
7. Neglecting Cross-Functional Collaboration
   Revenue success requires alignment across sales, marketing, customer success, and leadership. Allowing silos to dictate decision-making—such as letting marketing focus solely on leads while ignoring sales enablement—creates disconnects that slow down progress and weaken results.
8. Obsessing Over Vanity Metrics
   It’s tempting to celebrate big website traffic numbers or social impressions, but these metrics mean little if they don’t translate into pipeline growth or closed deals. Chasing vanity metrics distracts from actionable insights that actually drive revenue.
9. Underfunding Efforts Midstream
   When budgets are slashed during tough times, marketing and sales teams are often left scrambling to do more with less. Underfunding campaigns, slashing ad budgets, or freezing hiring for sales support roles cripples your ability to meet the very goals leadership expects.

Why These Missteps Persist

Many of these reactive choices stem from fear. When revenue dips, the pressure from boards, investors, and leadership teams can cloud judgment. But knee-jerk reactions to symptoms, rather than diagnosing and addressing root causes, lead to wasted resources and further delays in achieving revenue recovery.

How to Avoid the Trap

Instead of reaching for the nearest panic button, businesses need to focus on long-term stability. Here’s how:

• Trust the Process: Give new strategies time to show results. Success isn’t instant—it’s built on consistent execution over time.
• Empower Teams: Rather than overhauling leadership or dismissing your sales or marketing teams’ concerns, involve them in problem-solving and make collaborative adjustments.
• Stay Data-Informed, Not Data-Distracted: Commit to one attribution model and let the data build. Use insights to refine—not redefine—your strategy.
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: Alignment between departments and transparent communication with leadership ensures everyone is rowing in the same direction.

And give us a call, we can help!

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.