Frame in-person prospect visits as a finite resource. By allocating a limited number of 'poker chips' for drop-ins each month, field sales reps are forced to qualify leads more rigorously and use virtual tools for less critical interactions, combatting inefficient territory management.

When revenue targets are unattainable, create a secondary, controllable quota for building new relationships within target accounts. This reframes daily activity as a long-term investment, building a strong pipeline for the future and preventing team demoralization.

Salespeople follow the money. If your compensation plan makes it easier or more lucrative to manage existing accounts than to land new ones, you are financially incentivizing them to stop prospecting. The reward for the difficult work of hunting must be significantly higher.

Instead of just hiring more reps to handle PLG inbound, Cursor's McCarthy immediately re-segmented, giving strategic reps only four accounts (one customer, three prospects). This created a "forcing function" for proactive, value-based selling instead of just converting inbound demand.

Instead of assigning target accounts, foster sales ownership by presenting them with a data-driven, ranked list and letting them pick their own. This respects individual rep capacity and work styles (e.g., some prefer doing detailed account plans, others don't), leading to better execution and accountability.

It is exceptionally rare to find salespeople who excel at both acquiring new logos (hunting) and managing existing accounts (farming). The most effective, albeit costly, solution is to stop forcing reps to do both and instead create dedicated roles for each function.

Small companies often overload their first salesperson with both new logo acquisition and existing account management. This is a trap. Prospecting will always lose out to servicing known customers. Plan for account continuity early to protect your growth engine, even before you can afford a second hire.

AE prospecting fails when given a watered-down SDR activity quota. Instead, have AEs build a strategic plan to land three deals at 2x average contract value from a target list of just 10 accounts per quarter. This focuses their limited prospecting time on high-impact activities.

To maintain team morale and performance, structure sales pipelines like a venture capital portfolio. Each rep needs a mix of "liquidity" (smaller, faster deals) to stay motivated and build confidence, alongside "whales" (large, strategic accounts) for massive upside, preventing burnout from only chasing long-cycle enterprise deals.