{"podcast":{"title":"The Sales Evangelist","slug":"the-sales-evangelist-745326","podcast_index_feed_id":745326,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-sales-evangelist/","website_url":"https://thesalesevangelist.com","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/fe6d6bc9-634a-4afd-b1b9-2c486ff17ad8/podcast-cover-art-min.jpg","author":"Donald C. Kelly","episode_count":2000,"summary":"I believe in doing BIG THINGS! You should be earning 6 figures easily as a sales rep. But chances are you are not...yet! Sales is the most important department in every company but many sellers are never taught how to effectively sell, much less how to earn their way to high-income status. My own career limped along until a company I worked for invested in sales training to help me succeed. Immediately afterward, I closed a deal worth 4X what the company spent on me and saw hockey-stick improvement in my performance. So I started a podcast to “Evangelize” what was working. Today I interview the world's best sales experts, successful sellers, sales leaders and entrepreneurs who share their strategies to succeed in sales right now: folks like Jeffrey Gitomer, Jill Konrath, Bob Burg, and Guy Kawasaki to name a few. They share actionable insights and stories that will encourage, challenge, and motivate you to hustle your way to top income status. If you’re someone looking to take off in your sales career and earn the income you deserve, hit subscribe and let’s start doing BIG THINGS!","last_synced_at":"2026-06-26T20:21:23.816716+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-sales-evangelist-745326"},"episode":{"title":"Missed Quota Series: 10 Data Backed Reasons Why Seller Missed Q1 Targets | Donald C. Kelly - 1992","slug":"missed-quota-series-10-data-backed-reasons-why-seller-missed-q1-targets-donald-c-kelly-1992","published_at":"2026-04-10T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-sales-evangelist-745326/missed-quota-series-10-data-backed-reasons-why-seller-missed-q1-targets-donald-c-kelly-1992","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-sales-evangelist-745326","url":"https://thesalesevangelist.com","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/episodes.captivate.fm/episode/fc0a50d9-9157-4287-b426-e1236a82fe72.mp3","summary":"A slow Q1 isn’t random. There are patterns behind why many sellers miss their targets early in the year. I’m walking through ten of those challenges and how you can turn things around. 1. Tariff Uncertainty Is Freezing Decisions A lot of companies are hitting pause right now because of tariff uncertainty. When businesses don’t know what’s coming next, they delay decisions. In fact, 82% of U.S. firms reported declining sales after tariffs took effect, which is leading to a lot more hesitation. 2. Buyers Are Cutting Costs Prospects are being more cautious than ever. Budgets are tighter, spending is under more scrutiny, and even existing contracts are getting reduced. Around 78% of business buyers say they’re being more careful with spending, and it’s starting to show in lower win rates. 3. The Global Economy Is Slowing Things Down There’s a broader slowdown happening, and it’s affecting how businesses spend. B2B spending is contracting, and global GDP growth is cooling, which is stretching out buying cycles across the board. 4. Sales Reps Aren’t Spending Enough Time Selling A big chunk of a rep’s day is going toward admin work, internal tasks, and switching between tools. On average, reps are only spending about 28% of their time actually selling, which makes hitting targets a lot tougher. 5. Buyers Are Doing Their Homework Without You By the time a sales rep gets involved, buyers have often already done most of their research. Around 67% of the buyer’s journey is completed independently, meaning prospects are forming opinions long before sales has a chance to step in. 6. Deals Are Getting Stuck in Committees More deals now involve multiple stakeholders, sometimes seven or more people. That naturally slows things down and makes it harder to build alignment and move decis…","meta_description":"A slow Q1 isn’t random. There are patterns behind why many sellers miss their targets early in the year. I’m walking through ten of those challenges and h…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2051,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-sales-evangelist-745326/episodes/missed-quota-series-10-data-backed-reasons-why-seller-missed-q1-targets-donald-c-kelly-1992/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-sales-evangelist-745326/missed-quota-series-10-data-backed-reasons-why-seller-missed-q1-targets-donald-c-kelly-1992.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}