Growing sales is easy…and yet

30th September 2025 |   Carl Day

A sales leader challenges common misconceptions around “silver bullet”, short-term tactics to boost sales.

It’s the end of the fiscal period, sales have been tracking well but the OI/EBITDA 1 number isn’t where it should be, so Sales needs to sell more. Its budget time and we grew well last year, but the plan is for up to 40% growth next year without increasing fixed costs. Does that sound familiar?

Anyone who has spent more than 12 months in the profession of sales will not be unaccustomed to these scenarios. Moreover, sales leaders and managers spend too much time and energy trying not to appear negative while debating the effectiveness of potential silver bullet suggestions.

Exec teams and boards never seem to learn from the past, invested in the belief that there’s a silver bullet, that somehow we have sales hidden in our drawers waiting for the call to action.

Common suggestions are:

  • Let’s have sales pedal faster.
  • Pay sales less because hungry dogs run faster.
  • Let’s increase sales targets, we need to make more calls.
  • Let’s use a sales methodology, a new CRM (customer relationship management) system or app for the CRM.
  • Let’s increase pricing.
  • Let’s decrease pricing.
  • Let’s run a sales incentive.