You expect to generate higher sales in 2026 by doing exactly the same things as in 2025?

Every year, the pattern is familiar.

Targets go up.
Budgets stay tight.
Operating modes remain largely unchanged.

And yet, many sales leaders genuinely expect different results.

This is not a question of motivation, effort, or even talent.
It is a leadership reality check.

If 2026 is meant to be different, then sales leaders need to pause before acting and ask themselves a few uncomfortable but essential questions.

Not about numbers.
About how performance is actually produced.

Below is a practical checklist to start the year on solid ground.

1. How are you really running pipeline and deal reviews?

Look closely at your deal reviews.

Are they mainly about:

  • Which deal will close

  • When it will close

  • Why it is late

Or are they used as:

  • Learning moments

  • Quality reviews

  • Collective intelligence builders

A pipeline review focused only on forecasting is a control ritual.
A pipeline review focused on deal quality is a performance lever.

The best sales organizations treat each deal as a real-life learning experience:

  • What made this deal move?

  • What weakened it?

  • What would we do differently if we had to restart it tomorrow?

If nothing new is learned in your deal reviews, nothing new will happen in your results.

2. How much do you truly trust your salespeople?

This question is often avoided, because the answer is uncomfortable.

Do you see your salespeople primarily as:

  • Independent agents chasing commissions
    or

  • Team members with ambition, doubts, fears, and human limits?

Trust is not a soft value.
It is an operating principle.

Low trust environments generate:

  • Defensive selling

  • Sandbagging

  • Short-term deal behavior

High trust environments enable:

  • Honest pipeline discussions

  • Early risk detection

  • Better customer decisions

The question for 2026 is simple:
What are you willing to change to earn more trust rather than apply more pressure?

3. What exactly will you do differently as a sales leader?

Be very precise here.

Are you planning to:

  • Increase pressure?

  • Tighten controls?

  • Add more dashboards?

  • Escalate harder when deals slip?

Or are you willing to:

  • Improve clarity

  • Upgrade decision quality

  • Reduce noise

  • Create psychological safety around learning and failure

Pressure can deliver short-term results.
It almost always damages long-term performance.

High-performing sales teams are not pushed.
They are designed.

4. How do you really see your role as a sales leader?

This may be the most important question of all.

Do you see yourself as:

  • A super-salesperson who knows how to close

  • Someone who shows others how to do it “the right way”

  • A deal-saver stepping in when things get tough

Or do you see yourself as:

  • An orchestra conductor

  • Someone who does not play every instrument

  • Someone whose primary role is to raise the team’s ability to perform together

The first model creates dependency.
The second creates scalable performance.

Your impact in 2026 will depend less on how many deals you personally influence, and more on how well your team performs when you are not in the room.

A simple leadership checklist to start the year

Before setting new targets, take a moment to reflect:

  • Are our deal reviews producing learning or just pressure?

  • Do we genuinely trust our salespeople?

  • What leadership behaviors must change this year?

  • Are we pushing harder or designing better?

  • Are we acting as heroes or as conductors?

Sales performance rarely fails because of ambition.
It fails because operating modes remain untouched.

2026 will not reward those who push harder.
It will reward those who lead differently.

If you want higher sales, start by changing what actually produces them.