Diagnose why a sales rep is missing quota
A metrics-based diagnosis of a struggling rep's performance that separates activity, skill, pipeline, and territory causes, with a support plan.
The prompt
Help me diagnose why one of my reps is missing quota.
Rep: [role, tenure, ramp status]
Attainment: [last 4 quarters and current period]
Rep's metrics vs team average: [activities, meetings booked, opportunities created, pipeline value, win rate, average deal size, sales cycle, stage conversion rates]
Territory or book: [account count and quality vs peers, any recent changes]
What I've observed: [call reviews, deal reviews, behavior, engagement]
What the rep says is going on: [THEIR VIEW]
Support given so far: [coaching, training, tools]
Steps:
1. Walk the funnel from activity to closed-won and find where the rep diverges most from the team average. Show the gap at each step.
2. Classify the main cause: effort (not enough activity), skill (activity is fine but conversion is low at a specific stage), pipeline quality (wrong deals), deal size, or territory/structure (an unfair book). There may be more than one.
3. For each likely cause, list what would confirm or rule it out.
4. Consider factors outside the rep's control and my own role as manager.
Return:
- A comparison table: Metric | Rep | Team average | Gap.
- The diagnosis, with confidence level and evidence.
- A 30-60 day support plan: specific coaching focus, leading indicators to track weekly, and check-in dates.
- Talking points for a constructive conversation with the rep.
Stick to the data I provide and avoid judgments about character. If this may lead to a formal performance process, involve HR and follow local employment rules.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Leadership & Management prompts
What to fill in
- role, tenure, ramp status
- last 4 quarters and current period
- account count and quality vs peers, any recent changes
- call reviews, deal reviews, behavior, engagement
- THEIR VIEW
- coaching, training, tools
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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