Segment To Win: Stop Chasing Everyone and Start Winning the Right Business

If your sales team is running around “being busy,” but you're still missing your number, this post is for you.

I recently joined the Sandler Sales Booster to talk about how we coach teams to Segment to Win and I didn’t hold back. Too many teams are confusing motion with progress, chasing anything with a pulse, and wondering why their forecasts are off and their pipelines are full of ghosts.

You don't need more activity. You need better focus. And that starts with behavior.

Here’s what we covered and what every SMB owner and marketing director should be thinking about as we head into Q4:

1. A Full Pipeline Is Not a Healthy Pipeline

If your team is still measuring success by how full their pipeline is, you’ve already lost the plot.

Deals you shouldn’t be chasing are clogging your visibility. RFPs that were never qualified. Prospects that went dark after asking for a quote. These are not signs of momentum; they’re signs of disorganization.

We have to disqualify harder upfront. Otherwise, we’re setting ourselves up for longer sales cycles and lower close rates.

 Ask your team: What evidence do you have that this deal is real?

2. Busyness ≠ Progress

Sales is the only profession where people still get rewarded for just looking busy. Calendar full? That’s cute. What did you actually move forward with today?

We’re not interested in people who are "always grinding." We’re looking for individuals who make informed choices and exhibit the right behaviors.

Haley Rule: If you can’t define what a successful sales day looks like for you, you’re reacting, not selling.

 Could you challenge your team to write down their 3-5 daily behaviors that define success? If they can’t, that’s a coaching opportunity.

3. Use KARE to Segment Strategically

We teach clients to map their time and strategy across four buckets:

• Keep: Protect and defend your best clients. Competition is knocking.

• Attain: Pursue new business opportunities, but ensure they align with your ideal client profile.

• Recapture: Reconnect with past clients. There's often low-hanging fruit just waiting for a call.

• Expand: Grow within existing accounts. Stop assuming they’re buying everything you offer.

This isn’t just account segmentation;  it’s a time segmentation strategy. And it works.

Take a whiteboard. Draw four quadrants. Write down five accounts per quadrant. Now ask: Where am I spending my time? If you’re overinvested in C accounts, fix that.

4. Selling Without a Plan Is Just Expensive Cardio

I used this analogy during the podcast, and it struck a nerve: going to the gym without a plan, wandering around, lifting a few weights, and grabbing a protein shake, that’s not training. That’s activity theater.

Sales is no different.

You want results? Then your reps need a behavioral plan tied to their goals. They need clear expectations. And they need the courage to say no to bad fits.

5. Stop Avoiding the Real Conversations

The best time to raise a challenge with a client isn’t when the renewal is at risk, it’s well before that. Plant seeds about future issues now.

Ask your team:

• Who in your current book of business is a potential flight risk?

• Who could be blindsided by price pressure, leadership change, or competitive noise?

• Who are you assuming is “happy” without actually asking the hard questions?

Don’t wait for issues to erupt. Act like a professional. Surface the tough stuff early.

Final Thought: The Goal Is Not to Sell More. It’s to Sell Smarter.

Segmenting to win is not a Q4 strategy; it’s a mindset shift. And it’s one we work on every day with our clients at Next Level.

If you’re a business owner or marketing leader watching your team spin their wheels, you don’t need more hustle. You need more clarity. And it starts with having a standard system, a clear strategy, and the discipline to follow it.

Need help? Let’s chat.