How to hit revenue targets in a recession | Sahil Mansuri (Bravado)

Founders must fundamentally shift sales strategies during economic downturns by prioritizing retention and efficiency over aggressive top-line growth. With 63% of sales reps missing quotas in Q3, companies should replace rigid annual forecasting with conservative, milestone-based plans that unlock growth spending only upon hitting specific targets. Compensation structures require modernization to incentivize long-term customer value rather than just initial deal closure. Since cold outreach efficacy has declined, businesses should leverage their unique data to provide value-added insights to existing clients, effectively turning sales teams into customer success partners. Sahil Mansuri, CEO of Bravado, illustrates this approach through his experience cold-emailing Facebook executives with a data-driven report, demonstrating that deep customer understanding and strategic, non-traditional outreach remain the most effective tools for closing high-value deals when market conditions are volatile.