Sales Execution In Your First 90 Days In Leadership

As a sales leader in a new role, you’ve done all you can to establish a strong foundation of trust with your team, improve processes, and explore new strategies and technologies to foster revenue growth.

Keep the momentum going with solid sales execution.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at specific strategies you can deploy in your third month to scale sales and grow your pipeline.

Our latest resource offers more advice from other sales leaders who have been here before. Here are some of their top tips.

(If you missed our previous posts on building momentum and developing a successful sales strategy, check them out too.)

Develop Strategic Account Plans

As you enter the final phase of your first 90 days, it’s time to shift your focus toward execution and scaling. Begin by rolling out strategic account plans for your company’s largest and most critical customers.

These detailed B2B sales strategies should focus on deepening relationships, securing long-term contracts, and identifying key growth opportunities within each account. For example, you can analyze clients’ past purchase behavior to propose long-term supply agreements that include bundled services. Additionally, introduce customer planning sessions with these accounts to align on mutual growth strategies. These collaborative meetings will position your company as a trusted partner embedded into their operational strategy, which can lead to stronger loyalty and increased business.

Initiate Conversations with Technology Vendors

By the final stretch of your first 90 days, you should have a clear picture of your team’s technological needs and the gaps in current tools. This is the time to begin discussions with potential vendors to explore solutions that could fill those gaps. Here’s how to approach this phase effectively:

1. Prioritize Vendors with Distribution-Specific Solutions

The distribution industry is growing, and CRM adoption isn’t just for sales teams anymore. It’s also helping inside sales, customer service teams and marketing teams be more efficient.

To be fully effective, however, distributors need a CRM built for them. Start by focusing on vendors who understand the distribution industry’s unique requirements. A CRM or BI tool that integrates well with ERPs like Epicor P21, for example, is critical for teams that need instant access to customer and inventory data. Look for partners with a proven track record in the distribution field and ensure they understand the daily operational challenges that your team faces.

2. Prepare Your Team’s Needs and Challenges

Before reaching out, summarize your team’s top priorities, the challenges you’ve identified, and the essential features you’re seeking. For instance:

Data Visibility That Drives Smarter Selling – Does your team struggle with accessing the right insights at the right time? Look for a solution that puts real-time customer order history, outstanding invoices, and inventory levels at your team’s fingertips—without jumping between systems.
Intuitive, Built-for-You Reporting – Reporting shouldn’t require a data science degree. If your team is spending hours pulling reports manually, prioritize sales and marketing tools with embedded BI that transforms raw data into actionable insights—seamlessly connecting CRM and ERP intelligence.
AI-Powered Automation for Sales Efficiency – Sales teams thrive when they can focus on selling, not data entry. Ask vendors how their platform leverages AI to surface next-best actions, predict reorder timing, and automate repetitive tasks. The right automation tools help reps spend more time closing deals and less time hunting for information.

3. Evaluate Vendor Support and Implementation Approach

Since technology transitions can disrupt workflows, it’s essential to choose a vendor with strong onboarding and long-term support. Some questions to consider:

What support resources are available? Ask if they offer dedicated account managers, ongoing training sessions, or 24/7 support.
How does the vendor handle integrations with existing systems? Ask about their specific experience integrating with your ERP and eCommerce platforms.
What’s their track record for quick, seamless implementations? Case studies or references from similar distribution companies can provide insight into their success.

4. Assess Flexibility and Scalability

Look for a solution that can evolve with your team. Some questions to ask:

Is the technology scalable? As your team grows or new branches open, you’ll need a solution that can easily scale.
What customization options are available? Since distributors often have niche needs, the ability to customize dashboards, workflows, and reports is invaluable.
How does the vendor update features? Frequent updates with minimal downtime will keep your tech stack future-proof.

5. Get a Product Demo

Make time to see the technology in action with a few key members of your sales team. They can provide feedback on ease of use, relevant features, and potential challenges to adoption. For instance, if it takes a dozen clicks to find the features they’ll use most often, this frustration will be multiplied across the rest of the sales team over time.

Involving the team in these conversations early will make it much easier to gain their buy-in and ensure a smoother transition when the time comes.

Use Data-Driven Sales Execution

Data is key to personalized sales strategies. Arm your sales team with real-time business insights about your customers’ purchasing behavior, online browsing habits, and profit margins. Customer scorecards display all this information in one place, which helps your reps prepare to have more relevant conversations.

For instance, in White Cup BI, they can see which products a specific customer ordered in the past year and notice increases or declines in sales. This can help uncover the reasons behind these trends.

To ensure your sales team is hitting their targets, implement regular sales performance monitoring. Set up consistent reporting and review sessions so you can quickly spot trends and make data-driven adjustments to keep your strategy on track. These sessions should focus on both team-level metrics and individual performance to help identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth. Reinforce the notion that this is growth-minded as much for your team as it is for company objectives, and not merely a sales quota. Performance monitoring should be a two-way street; it can readily identify areas in your strategy or implementation that may need to be revisited or revised. It is as much a reflection of leadership as it is a rep’s sales performance.

Sales rep scorecards help each team member see sales performance in relation to their goals. Within White Cup CRM, they can also see what tasks are assigned to them and recent activity to help them plan their day more efficiently.

Scale High-Impact Initiatives

Once you have your strategic plans and data insights in place, it’s time to accelerate. Launch strategic growth initiatives that drive substantial results, such as bundling product categories, introducing new service offerings, or expanding into adjacent markets where there’s demand. For instance, if you identify a trend where multiple customers frequently purchase complementary products, bundling those items with a discount can boost sales. Improving collaboration ensures a seamless customer experience, maximizing sales opportunities.

Build a strong pipeline by ensuring your sales reps are actively managing deals at every stage. Regular pipeline reviews guarantee that no opportunities are missed and the sales process remains efficient and targeted as you scale your growth initiatives.

Accelerate Sales Execution With White Cup CRM + BI

As you navigate your first 90 days as a VP of Sales or other sales leadership role, you’ll have plenty of support from your team and colleagues. In setting the foundation for long-term success, the right technology will be an important asset. Relying on manual processes or outdated systems won’t cut it in an increasingly competitive distribution space. You need tools that streamline your sales processes, provide actionable insights, and allow you to make data-driven decisions that spur revenue growth.

That’s where a CRM and business intelligence (BI) software built specifically for distributors can help. Integrating your CRM and BI with your existing ERP consolidates all your go-to-market and customer data in one place, offering your whole team a complete view of your customers, operations, and performance. A distribution-specific CRM like White Cup CRM + BI transforms data from multiple sources into insights that help you stay ahead of the competition and the market.

Your team can have more meaningful conversations with customers because they already know their buying history, what products they’re most likely to need next, and when they’re ready to reorder. They can collaborate with inside sales, marketing, and customer support to close deals faster using automated notifications and workflows. With sales rep scorecards, your sales team can see their progress toward meeting sales goals and plan their day based on their most important priorities. At the same time, you can use customer insights for more effective coaching and determine where they need the most support.

White Cup CRM + BI makes life in distribution easy. With built-in AI features that recommend top related products for each customer and identify when they’re most likely to reorder, your team will always know their next best action. There’s no more guesswork—just real-time data that drives sustainable revenue growth.

Get More Expert Advice For Scaling Sales

Looking for more insights as you develop your sales strategy?

Check out our webinar, where we discuss this in more detail with two longtime industry veterans, Kate Nied, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at American Refrigeration Supplies, and Frank Heenan, Group Vice President of Epicor.

If you’d like to take a closer look at how White Cup CRM + BI can help, schedule a consultation.