Is adequate good enough to survive in this recessionary world?
One should question whether adequate is ever good enough.
The American Bankruptcy Institute reported 814 commercial Chapter 11 filings in February 2026, a 67% increase from the 487 filings recorded in the same month the previous year. Household names including Forever 21, Spirit Airlines and Rite Aid have all sought bankruptcy protection, while Saks Global, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, filed in January 2026 after missing payments and letting debt accumulate. Eddie Bauer filed in February 2026, citing declining sales, with all US stores set to close if a buyer cannot be found. The list is growing daily. ABI + 3
For this reason, CEOs and CROs are adjusting their go-to-market models with ever increasing focus on the most critical revenue levers, not only to grow, but to survive.
Some examples of focus levers that make up a peak performing sales organisation are:
aligning sales strategy to strategic initiatives,
reinventing the segmentation and sales coverage model,
increasing customer activity and planning,
applying rewards and incentives that drive the right behaviour,
stronger sales management and coaching,
increasing understanding of how customers succeed.
In fact, there are 20 sales effectiveness base levers to consider. In the work done to date, the key questions organisations ask are:
What are the 20?
Do you need to focus on all?
Which ones need remediation?
What priority needs to be applied?
The Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic both addresses these and generates the blueprint for a sale effectiveness improvement plan.
Consider the heatmap from a company’s Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic Report (shown above) 18 out of 20 components are deemed as adequate yet have high impact on the business. One could question whether adequate is ever good enough.
Cutting costs is natural in a revenue growth constrained economy. Arguably, clear insights regarding how the sales function compares to peak performing sales organisations, enables precision in decisions regarding investment or pruning.
The clarity and direction in determining an effective change initiative to drive peak performing sales, is achievable through completion of a comprehensive Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic. Adequate is reduced to mediocrity, especially when this tool provides a clear road map to enable peak performance.