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Targets/Quotas…let’s talk about them.

You got a bigger target this year, but nothing else changed.

Same team. Same tools.

Same broken processes. Same broken promises that your senior leadership will get you support.

But now, somehow, you are supposed to hit a number that looks like it belongs to a different company.

Wild, right?

Was this newsletter forwarded to you?

If you feel under-resourced and vaguely guilty about it, this is for you.

This week is not about “trying harder.” It is about getting brutally honest about the support you do not have, the cost of pretending you do, and the exact moves to walk into senior leadership and secure what you actually need to win next year.

Let’s dance.

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Your boss doesn't care that you're drowning. They care about the number. And right now, "we need support" sounds like a problem they have to solve, not an opportunity they should fund.

If you want resources (i.e., real budget, real headcount, real tools), you have to stop complaining and start selling. You are in business development. Use those skills in your own leadership.

But here's the part most people miss: you can't just walk in with math.

You need to know what objection is coming. You need to understand whether you're actually under-resourced or just inefficient. And you need a backup plan if the answer is still no.

This is how you actually get what you need.

Before you pitch leadership, you have to be ruthless about one question:

Am I under-resourced, or am I just running a bad process?

The Inefficiency Test:

Track your team for two weeks. Log everything:

If you find 10+ hours per week of pure waste per rep, you don't need a bigger team. You need to cut the noise first.

Why this matters: If you ask for budget while your team is drowning in process waste, leadership will rightfully say no. They'll say, "Fix your ops first, then we'll talk budget." You need to come in clean.

Once you've cut the waste, then you make the case for resources.

Here are a few past articles that I’ve written on this:

No Blind Spots: The Elite Framework for Seeing What Others Miss

The Cost of Inaction in Business

It’s Called a Go/No-Go Decision for a Reason - Master It to Win

Most leaders think a $80k support hire costs $80k. They don't see the real cost of not hiring them: lost revenue.

Here's the exact formula:

Step 1: Track non-revenue work.
Your top closer spends:

Total: 14 hours/week of non-revenue work.

Step 2: Calculate the opportunity cost.
If this rep's quota is $1M/year, their time is worth roughly $500/hour in revenue (working 2,000 hrs per year).
14 hours x $500 = $7,000/week in lost opportunity.
$7,000 x 48 weeks = $336,000 in lost annual revenue.

Step 3: The pitch.
"We are paying our highest-cost people to do $20/hour work. This costs us $336k per rep per year in lost revenue. I can hire a junior researcher for $60k. That's a 5x ROI. Here's the job description and start date."

Why this works: You're not asking for money. You're asking to stop losing money. That's a different conversation entirely.

You don't need vague tool upgrades. You need to prove that a specific tool closes deals.

Do this:

Pull your last 10 lost deals (worth $200k+). For each one, identify the exact moment it died:

The pitch:
"We lost 4 deals last quarter worth $200k because we couldn't map the account fast enough before the first call. Our competitors are using ZoomInfo to identify the buying committee before we even reach out. The tool costs $15k/year. If it saves one deal, it pays for itself in month two. Approved?"

Why this works: You're not asking for a tool. You're asking to recover lost deals. That's ROI, not expense.

Don't wait until you miss quota to ask for help. Call a meeting now called "2026 Risk Assessment."

The setup:

Schedule 30 minutes with your VP/CFO. Bring the data.

"To hit our new $5M quota, we need 3x pipeline coverage. That's $15M in the pipeline.
Current pipeline is $8M.
Gap: $7M.
Current lead gen velocity: $1M per quarter.
At this pace, we miss by $3M."

Then present the options:
"We have two ways to close this gap:

Option 1: Hire 2 SDRs ($200k salary, 6-month ramp, revenue impact in month 8)
Option 2: Outsource to [Agency Name] ($10k/month, starts Monday, pipeline in 30-60 days)

I recommend option 2 to hit our Q1 numbers. Which should I move forward with?"

Why this works: You're not asking. You're presenting a problem they already know exists and offering solutions they can choose from. They feel like they're deciding, not approving your ask.

You don't get resources because you make a good pitch. You get them because you've already built trust. You need to have the relationships and trust built up to make the ask.

The micro-ask strategy:

Don't go big first. Build a track record of asking for small things and delivering on them.

Week 1: Ask for a $500 tool trial. Get it. Show ROI. Deliver.
Week 6: Ask for a budget to send one rep to a conference. Prove they close deals faster after attending.
Week 12: Ask for 2 hours of marketing time for one piece of collateral. Show impact.

By week 15, when you ask for the $200k hire or the $50k tool, your boss has already said yes to you three times. Momentum is real. Trust is real.

The relationship angle:

Before the big ask, have coffee with your boss. Not to pitch, to listen. Get a better understanding of historical patterns, numbers, what has worked, what doesn’t work, etc.

When you understand what they're being measured on, you frame your ask around their problem, not yours.

Your leadership might say no. Here are the exact objections and the exact counters.

Objection 1: "We're cutting costs right now."
Counter: "I understand. This isn't about more spend, it's about protecting revenue. We're losing $336k per rep per year to tasks we could outsource for $60k. This reduces total cost and increases output. That's a cost cut, it’s a company save."

Objection 2: "Maybe next quarter."
Counter: "I appreciate that. Here's what happens if we wait: we miss Q1 by $2M in pipeline. By Q2, we're already behind on the year. We either recover now or chase for the next three-to-five quarters. Which is preferable?"

Objection 3: "Just work harder."
Counter: "We're already at 50+ hour weeks. The issue isn't effort, it's leverage. Our best people are doing admin work. If we free them to sell full-time, our close rate can go up 15%. I can more effectively allocate resources."

Objection 4: "Hire from within."
Counter: "I agree, we should have bench strength. Here's the gap: we need someone in three weeks. Internal hiring takes anywhere from three to six months to post, interview, and ramp. We can't wait. Let's do this outsource now, and parallel-path building internal capacity."

Objection 5: "The tool is too expensive."
Counter: "Fair point. But the math: we lose $200k in deals because we can't map accounts fast enough. The tool is $15k. That's a 13x ROI on just one recovered deal. Can we do a 30-day pilot?"

Why these work: You're not defending. You're pivoting to numbers, timeline, and business impact. That's what leadership cares about.

If you're a Manager pitching a VP:
Focus on team productivity and quota attainment.
"This hire frees my reps to sell 5 more hours per week. At our close rate, that's $200k in additional revenue. The cost is $60k. Approved?"

If you're a VP pitching the CFO/CEO:
Focus on EBITDA, CAC, and LTV.
"Our CAC is rising because reps are spending 30% of their time on non-revenue activities. If we reduce that to 10%, our CAC drops 15%, and our LTV payback period improves from 18 months to 12. This tool enables that shift."

If you're a Founder pitching investors:
Focus on unit economics and scalability.
"We've proven the model at $5M ARR. To scale to $20M, we need to improve ops efficiency. Current plan requires 15 more hires and $2M burn. Better tooling reduces that to 8 hires and $800k. Let's invest in tools first, people second."

Same ask. Different angle. Different audience.

Sometimes the money really isn't there. Budget is frozen. Headcount is locked. The answer is no, and it's final.

Don't quit. Pivot.

Ask for non-monetary support instead:

These don't cost money. They cost attention. But they solve the problem.

The real talk: If leadership says no to budget, no to time, and no to process changes, you don't have a resource problem. You have a leadership problem. And the question becomes: is this the right company?

From new tools, recent trends, and market updates, here is what has been on my mind.

You get resources when you can prove they generate revenue, when you've built trust through small asks, when you understand the objections coming, and when you audit yourself first.

Most people skip steps one through three. That's why they get rejected.

Do the work. Make the case. Present it right. And if the answer is still no, you know what you're actually working with.

Then you decide if you're staying or leaving. But at least you'll know it wasn't because you didn't ask the right way.

See you next week.