Should a sales rep's performance be judged by quota attainment or by behaviors and competencies?

Shaunt Voskanian · Mar 21, 2026

Behaviors and competencies should be the core of a sales performance framework, written out and documented explicitly, with results as only one of three buckets

Making them explicit is what lets you judge performance on something other than the number

Scope: admits their written framework is probably too detailed

45:06 20Sales: Inside Figma's $1BN ARR Revenue Machine | Why We Do Not Have Customer Success or SDRs | Why I Do Not Believe in Sales Quotas with Shaunt Voskanian, CRO @ Figma

Shaunt Voskanian · Mar 21, 2026

Competencies are the most critical part of the framework — concretely defined skills like pipeline generation, discovery, and pipeline management against a named methodology — while behaviors are about how someone shows up

Competencies are the things defined as necessary to be good at the job day to day, so they are the actionable diagnostic when someone is underperforming

46:00 20Sales: Inside Figma's $1BN ARR Revenue Machine | Why We Do Not Have Customer Success or SDRs | Why I Do Not Believe in Sales Quotas with Shaunt Voskanian, CRO @ Figma

Shaunt Voskanian · Mar 21, 2026

Sales quotas are essentially arbitrary constructs rather than meaningful targets

0:00 Quota is an arbitrary construct not a real target

Shaunt Voskanian · Mar 21, 2026

Whether a rep hits quota should not be the basis for judging their performance, because quota attainment is largely systemic rather than individual

In his experience quotas are frequently set wrong in either direction once the year gets going, so attainment reflects the quota-setting as much as the rep

43:41 Quota attainment is systemic not individual

Harry Stebbings · Mar 21, 2026

If a rep genuinely does pipeline generation and qualification well and shows up to the calls, they will convert

47:50 Good execution converts so the number is a fair measure

Shaunt Voskanian · Mar 21, 2026

Good execution usually does convert, but not always — the quota itself may have been set wrong — so leaders should diagnose behaviors and competencies rather than the number

Competencies and behaviors are more real-time signals than quota, and requiring leaders to reason in those terms keeps them in the details and in the boat with the rep

47:58 Execution usually converts but diagnose competencies because quota can be wrong

Kyle Norton · May 30, 2025

A young sales rep should focus on inputs — work ethic, rate of learning, coachability, daily discipline — rather than outputs

The outcomes will eventually come from consistent inputs

70:22 Focus on inputs like work ethic and coachability rather than outcome metrics