TechShield Solutions was doing everything right on paper. Competitive product, motivated team, healthy pipeline coming in from the top. Yet they ended Q3 at 61% quota attainment — and leadership couldn’t pinpoint why. They had tried commission restructuring, broad coaching sessions, and even a new sales methodology rollout. None of it moved the number.
The VP of Revenue, Marcus Reid, had a gut feeling the problem lived somewhere between the demo and the close. But gut feelings don’t drive targeted interventions. Without objective, stage-level data on every rep, every fix was a guess — expensive and demoralising for a team that was already working hard.
We were coaching everyone on everything and getting better at nothing. We needed a diagnostic, not more training.
Marcus Reid
VP of Revenue, TechShield Solutions
Challenge
Broad coaching masked the real problem
With 22 reps spread across SMB and mid-market segments, TechShield had significant variation in how deals were run. Their existing coaching cadence — weekly pipeline reviews and bi-weekly call coaching — gave managers a subjective read on individual reps. But it had no systematic way to identify which specific competencies were failing and at which stage.
“We’d sit in deal reviews and hear things like ‘the prospect went cold after the demo’ or ‘they came back asking for a 30% discount out of nowhere,’” Marcus said. “We knew something was wrong, but we were treating symptoms instead of diagnosing the condition.”
Revenue leaking at an invisible stage
Analysis of lost deals revealed a pattern: 47% of opportunities stalled post-demo, never making it to contract. Competitors were consistently winning on deals TechShield should have closed. Price objections were spiking in Q3. But without stage-level competency data, the team had no way to know whether the problem was skill, process, or something else entirely.
Competitors kept winning deals we should have closed. We assumed it was pricing. Turns out it was our reps — and specifically how they handled the negotiation stage.
Marcus Reid
VP of Revenue, TechShield Solutions
Solution
A single assessment. Precise answers.
TechShield deployed the TALSMART IT Sales IQ Assessment across all 22 reps in a single week. Every rep completed the assessment independently, producing a scored report across five critical sales stages: Prospecting, Discovery, Solution-Demo, Negotiation-Close, and Account Growth.
The results were clear immediately. Prospecting (74%) and Account Growth (71%) were strong. Discovery and Solution-Demo were average. But Negotiation-Close — the exact stage where deals were dying — scored just 31% on team average. 78% of reps fell below 40% on this stage alone.
Targeted intervention, not broad training
Armed with individual-level data, TALSMART worked with TechShield’s enablement team to design a focused 6-week coaching sprint — exclusively on Negotiation-Close competencies. No generalist training. No wasted hours on stages where the team was already performing. The coaching covered value anchoring, late-stage objection handling, multi-stakeholder close strategies, and urgency creation without discounting.
“For the first time we could show reps exactly where their score was and why that mattered to their number,” said Marcus. “They weren’t defensive. The data made it objective.”
Managers finally had something to coach to
Beyond the reps, the assessment transformed how managers ran 1:1s. Instead of subjective pipeline conversations, every session started with the rep’s TALSMART score and a specific competency to work on. Coaching became structured, measurable, and consistent across the team.
Results
From 61% to 89% quota attainment in one quarter
By the end of Q4, TechShield had closed at 89% quota attainment — a 28-point jump in a single quarter without adding headcount, changing compensation, or switching sales methodology. The targeted Negotiation-Close sprint produced results that months of broad coaching hadn’t.
Pipeline velocity improved 34% as reps stopped stalling deals in late stages and drove decisions faster. $2.3M in opportunities that had been sitting dormant for 60+ days converted to closed-won.
A repeatable system for team development
TechShield now runs the TALSMART IT Sales IQ Assessment every quarter. New hires complete it in their first two weeks, giving managers a baseline competency profile before the rep ever takes a call. The assessment has replaced subjective performance conversations with a shared, objective language across the entire sales organisation.
The TALSMART report didn’t just tell us there was a problem. It told us exactly what the problem was, who had it, and how severe it was. That precision changed everything.
Marcus Reid
VP of Revenue, TechShield Solutions
