A Q&A on the Missed Numbers in H1 and How a Sales Operating System Can Fix It in H2
Yes, and at scale. According to Scale Venture Partners, nearly 50% of venture‑backed SaaS companies missed their revenue targets in Q1 2025. Additional industry benchmarks show more than three-quarters of reps fell short of quota, continuing a downward trend in rep attainment seen over the past 18 months.
This wasn’t a soft patch. It was a systemic miss.
Even after two years of cost‑cutting and planning discipline, SaaS teams are still letting qualified deals fall through the cracks. The problem isn’t just strategy, it’s the absence of a system to ensure strategy is consistently executed across reps and deals.
Because dashboards don’t drive discipline.
Most sales orgs are surrounded by data, CRMs, call recorders, AI analytics, but very few have a Sales Operating System. Something that connects their strategy to every rep’s daily decisions.
When there's no structure linking actions to outcomes, execution becomes ad hoc. Good deals get deprioritized. Messaging gets misapplied. Coaching gets delayed.
That’s why Hive Perform exists. We don’t just show you what’s happening, we ensure your reps are doing what works.
They’ve adjusted the targets. But the system that executes them? Still broken.
In today’s buying environment, it’s not enough to plan smarter. Sales leaders need to see:
Which deals are worth pursuing, based on value indicators (not just momentum).
Which actions reps are taking and whether they align to strategic initiatives.
Whether enablement is showing up in the field or sitting in slide decks.
A Sales Operating System ties your go-to-market plan directly to rep behavior. It helps teams scale without sacrificing consistency or accountability.
Without it, strategy fades under pressure. Reps revert to guesswork. Forecasts miss.
Because data doesn’t drive action. Systems do.
Even the most experienced reps get stuck. When a stakeholder goes silent, or a deal goes dark, they need guidance, not just visibility.
That’s where Hive Perform steps in. We help teams act fast and act right.
Take Fospha, a full-funnel measurement platform that helps retail brands spend smarter, grow faster, and outperform the market without relying on pixels or guesswork. Their CRO, Tom Sheepshanks, faced a familiar challenge:
“There are two problems I consistently face with scale:
Have I set the right sales strategy to compete in a fast-changing market?
Are my team executing it in the right way?”
With Hive Perform, Fospha didn’t just get more data, they built a system for execution. As a result:
New reps ramped to revenue 35% faster (cutting time to first deal to just 36 days).
Leaders saved 160+ hours per quarter in admin overhead.
Win rates improved by enabling reps to respond in real-time to buyer signals.
🡒 Read how Hive helped Fospha scale execution without losing control.
It looks like clarity at every layer of the org.
For reps: Call prep, follow-up nudges, and objection handling, all grounded in deal context.
For managers: Execution insights by team, territory, and stage without manual tracking.
For leaders: Visibility into which strategic plays are working, where gaps exist, and how execution is moving the forecast.
All of it embedded in daily workflows. No extra tabs. No missed moments.
Execution stops being reactive. It becomes repeatable.
Start by diagnosing the system, not just the team.
Ask yourself:
Are we guiding reps to prioritize based on deal value, not just activity?
Can we connect every major GTM initiative to field execution?
Do we know which reps are following the framework and where it’s breaking?
If the answer is “not really,” it’s not a rep issue. It’s a system issue.
And it’s solvable. In H2, the winners won’t just be efficient, they’ll be aligned. From boardroom strategy to rep action.
It’s not just about hitting a number. It’s about building a team that can scale without chaos.
A Sales OS drives:
Faster onboarding: Fospha cut ramp time to 36 days. No more waiting 90 days to see progress.
Consistent performance: Only 14% of reps are driving 80% of revenue today. Hive Perform helps lift the middle.
Strategic agility: Reps adjust to new messaging, pricing, and product plays immediately, because they’re delivered in-flow.
Leader efficiency: 160+ hours per quarter saved from manual coaching and pipeline triage.
Execution becomes scalable. Strategy becomes sticky. Revenue becomes repeatable.
Q1 exposed a hard truth: sales orgs aren’t losing because they lack insight. They’re losing because they lack execution infrastructure.
A Sales Operating System fixes that.
It helps your reps know what to do, when to do it, and how to win without the guesswork. It gives leaders clarity. It makes strategy visible. And it connects every motion to measurable outcomes.
📉 Missed Q1? You’re not alone.
📈 Miss H2? That’s a choice.
Let’s make execution your advantage.