We love solving problems.
It’s how we’ve been trained—from classrooms to boardrooms. In fact, we’re so good at solving problems that we’ve forgotten how to define them.
Nowhere is this more visible than in sales.
When the numbers slip, our reflex is immediate:
- Train the reps.
- Change the comp plan.
- Buy a new tool.
- Restructure the team.
It feels decisive. It signals leadership. It shows we’re “doing something.”
But here’s the question that rarely gets asked:
What if the sales team isn’t the problem?
What if the real problem was misdiagnosed from the start?
A striking line from a book I recently read stopped me in my tracks:
“People too often end up solving the wrong problem.”
Why? Because defining the right problem is uncomfortable. It’s ambiguous. It creates friction. It demands we pause, reflect, and question assumptions.
Most teams don’t have the time—or permission—to do that.
So we react.
We fix what’s visible.
We act on the first plausible story.
And as the book warns:
“The first plausible description of the situation defines the problem that the team will try to solve. But it isn’t.”
In high-pressure environments, speed is seductive. But here’s the catch:
Putting out fires doesn’t stop the fire.
Sales leaders today are stuck in what I call the firefighter trap. Every quarter is a new crisis. Every initiative is a new hose. But the smoke never clears.
Why?
Because we keep treating symptoms:
- A missed quota becomes a training issue.
- Slipping deal velocity becomes a CRM issue.
- Stalled growth becomes a headcount issue.
Yet the real causes often lie upstream—in strategy, positioning, segmentation, pricing, even leadership mindset.
And these aren’t “sales problems.” They’re business problems that sales teams are simply revealing.
The first principle of effective decision-making is this:
Define the problem.
Not react to it. Not solve around it.
Define it—clearly, courageously, and without bias.
That starts by asking two deceptively simple questions:
- What are we truly trying to achieve?
- What’s standing in the way?
And it requires resisting the urge to jump to answers before these are honestly explored.
Here’s the truth: most sales transformations fail not because we don’t try hard enough—but because we try to solve the wrong things.
So next time your sales numbers slide, pause.
Before you launch a new initiative, ask:
- Are we reacting? Or are we reasoning?
- Are we solving? Or are we simply busy?
Because sometimes, the bravest thing a leader can do isn’t to act fast.
It’s to think deeper.
Learning for Performance 