“How do I get my team of AEs to increase their outbound activity?”
Here's how:
👇
I worked with a few sales leaders on this exact challenge in Q1.
The conversation sounded like this:
Sales Leader: "I rally my managers & directors every Monday to get the AEs to send more outreach."
Me: "And then what happens?"
Sales Leader: "They get excited and leave the 1on1 pumped to get their team to outbound."
Me: "Then?"
Sales Leader: "The next Monday my CRO and I go over the activity from the previous week."
Me: "Let me guess...no movement?"
Sales Leader: "Yep. It's been like that the last 6-7 weeks in a row."
~~~
Sound familiar?
This is the problem with this approach:
⛔️ Arbitrary activity target with no "why"
⛔️ Focused only on lagging indicators
⛔️ No "half-time" or mid-week check-in with managers
Before you say that activity shouldn't be the focus. And that quality over quantity is better...
NOTHING happens without activity. You have to manage to a base level of activity.
Here's what we implemented to get consistent, 100+ outbound activities / week from the AEs (that produced 1-2 self-sourced meetings / week from the AEs)
✅ Build a real activity target
If AEs are staying fed through SDRs & inbound—it's pulling teeth to get them self-sourcing. Most reps won't self-source if they can hit ~80% of quota without doing outbound.
Build an actual activity target based on what the AE wants to earn. Then dig a layer deeper.
💡 Action:
Have a real "money" conversation with each rep:
- What lifestyle do they want in the next 3-5 years?
- Do they have investment goals?
- A goal to buy their dream house? Car? Vacation?
Reverse-engineer the math to make that happen:
- Total commissions they need to earn
- Exact # of deals to close
- Exact # of intro calls to run
- Exact # of outbound calls/emails to land meetings
Make the number real.
✅ Focus on leading indicators
Meetings and pipeline are important. But they don't happen without raw activity: phone calls, emails, and social touches.
Don't get stuck in a "reporting rhythm" and neglect the "planning rhythm."
💡 Action:
Empower reps to plan how they they'll hit their activity target. Then ask them to report on their effort every Monday 1on1.
✅ Formalize a mid-week check-in
We did these when I was a sales manager and they work like a charm. It's a 5-10 minute meeting on Wednesdays.
It's a halfway point in the week to course correct.
💡 Action:
Reps report on how they're making progress on their weekly target. If they're way off—there's an opportunity to course correct and make up for it the last half of the week.
"Looks like you're not pacing to hit goal this week. What's your plan to get back on track?"
~~~
Take these three steps and you'll see a significant increase in AE outbound activity over the course of 30-60 days.