November 25, 2025- There’s a slow, quiet way sales teams die. Not from layoffs. Not from economic collapse. Not from tariffs. But from good years. A string of good-enough quarters. A few reliable accounts. Comfortable margins. A sales team that’s “earned the right” to coast. Until one day, someone looks around and realizes: We’re no longer growing. We’re just… existing. This week, I met that team.
Just a few days ago, I was on a discovery call with a sales leader. He was smart, likable, experienced – and completely aware of his team’s reality. He told me – without flinching – that their veteran reps don’t prospect anymore. They don’t go deeper with existing customers. They don’t use LinkedIn. And their idea of training? Talking strategy. When I pulled up several of their LinkedIn profiles, most were blank. I mentioned it.
His response?
“Oh yeah, we don’t use LinkedIn. That’s more for people looking for jobs.”
I just sat there. Here was a multi-million-dollar company, with a full sales team … proudly choosing irrelevance.
They’ve had a lot of good years. But you could feel it – deep down, this guy knew the good years had made them soft. He wasn’t defensive. He was resigned.
So, I figured, why not just say what I was thinking?
“Are you telling me that you and your team have decided to stop improving?” That hit him. “No, no, no – we want to get better,” he stammered.
So, I pushed. “You told me your reps don’t prospect,” I said. “They don’t ask deeper questions. They don’t even use the most powerful tool in modern B2B selling. You had a chance to give them two hours of focused skill development at your national meeting – and they voted it down. Why?”
His answer? “They said there are better things we could do with that time.”
I asked, “Like what?”
He said, “We’ll talk strategy.”
“OK … strategy about what? Because if your team isn’t improving their ability to open new doors or go deeper with clients, what exactly are you strategizing?” Silence. And then the truth: He didn’t want to challenge them. Didn’t want to make waves. Didn’t want to be the leader who “pushed too hard” after all these good years.
It hit me right there: This is what death by a thousand good days looks like. Nobody gets fired. Nobody panics. They just quietly accept that “good enough” is good enough.
Continue Reading in the latest issue of Repertoire Magazine.