IntermediateSITUATIONAL
Imagine your top two accounts suddenly cut their spend by 40% for the next two quarters. How would you adjust your team’s action plan, re-prioritize accounts, and communicate changes to maintain overall quota attainment?
Sales Manager
General

Sample Answer

This actually happened to me when two enterprise accounts that made up ~35% of our regional revenue cut spend by about 40% for two quarters due to internal budget freezes. Within 24 hours, I sat down with finance and RevOps to quantify the gap by month and by rep. We modeled three levers: expansion in our top 20 accounts, faster activation of mid-market deals, and new logo volume. I reshuffled territories so my two strongest strategic reps focused on the next 10 highest-potential accounts, each with at least 20–30% whitespace. We built specific expansion plays and weekly “red account” reviews for at-risk customers to prevent further erosion. I was very transparent with the team: I shared the numbers, what we could control, and what success would look like. Within one quarter we backfilled about 70% of the lost revenue and by Q2 we were at 102% of quota despite the cuts.

Keywords

Quantify the revenue gap quickly with finance/RevOpsRe-prioritize high-whitespace and mid-market accountsAdjust territories and plays, not just push reps harderCommunicate transparently and focus on controllable levers
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