Sales Performance Improvement Plan (PIP): Template and Example

A sales PIP (performance improvement plan) is a written 30 to 90 day plan that tells an underperforming rep which numbers must change, by when, and what help they get. A good one judges leading indicators the rep controls, such as pipeline created and conversion, plus bookings against a fair, paced bar instead of full quota.

Most pages on this topic either explain what a PIP is in HR terms or tell a rep how to survive one. Few give a manager a plan that holds up on the numbers. The common gap is the target itself. A 60-day plan that asks a rep to hit full quota, on a sales cycle of two or three months, is judged mostly on deals the rep can no longer change. This guide builds the plan the other way round: first check whether the problem is the rep at all, then set targets on the inputs that move inside the window, then set a bookings bar based on the rep's own pipeline and pace it by week. The free plan document and tracker below do the math.

This is a guide for sales managers, not legal or HR advice. Employment law differs by country and US state: check every plan, its timing and its outcome with HR and employment counsel before you act.

What is a sales PIP?

A sales PIP is a performance improvement plan for a seller: a dated document with measurable targets, the support the company will provide, a review schedule and the possible outcomes. PIP is short for performance improvement plan, the same term HR uses for any role.

What makes the sales version different is that almost everything can be measured. Quota attainment, meetings, conversion, pipeline created and deal movement all sit in the CRM with dates attached. That is an advantage and a trap. It is easy to write a plan with ten numbers in it. It is harder to write one where each number is fair to the rep, moves within the plan window and predicts the result the business needs.

A PIP is the step after coaching, not instead of it. Before a plan starts, the rep should already have heard about the gap in one-on-ones, with the numbers, more than once. If the PIP is the first time a rep sees the problem in writing, the plan starts with an argument about the facts.

Is it the rep or the system? Check before you write a PIP

Before writing a PIP, rule out ramp, territory, pipeline supply and the market. A plan that targets a problem the rep cannot control fails the rep and leaves the real cause in place.

Missing quota alone is not evidence. In Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmarks, missed quota rates climbed to 78% from 69%. For capacity planning, ORM tells customers to plan for average attainment of 75% to 80%, with a tail below and a tail above. A rep at 70% may be in the normal spread. The question is whether the rep is below peers working in the same conditions.

Pete's points from ORM's customer data fit this check. Ramp takes longer than plans assume: B2B SaaS reps typically need 15 to 18 months to become fully productive, and the curve differs by role and region. ORM also sees a dip around months 13 to 15, partly because underperforming reps are often still in the team through their first year and are exited around then. That is exactly when PIPs start, so compare a month-14 rep with other month-14 reps, not with the fully ramped team. The method is in quota attainment for ramping reps.

The market check matters more in 2026 than usual. Across ORM customers, cycle length has been the lever that moved most this year, as buyers delay decisions. When cycles stretch for the whole segment, every rep's attainment drops, and a PIP aimed at one rep treats a market problem as a personal one. Pete's rule for reading the other levers: pressure on deal size or win rate usually means competition, and low deal count points to pipeline generation, where marketing and SDRs are the place to look.

What goes in a sales PIP

Nine sections: plan details, the gap with evidence, the system check, targets, the bookings bar, support, the review schedule, outcomes and acknowledgment. The free template follows this order. Two sections most templates leave out do most of the work. The system check (section 3) shows the plan targets something the rep controls. The decision rules (section 8) are written before day 1, so the day 90 outcome is a reading of the numbers, not a new judgment.

Which metrics belong in a sales PIP?

Use leading indicators that the rep controls, that move within weeks, and that predict bookings: meetings, stage conversion, pipeline created, deal movement and forecast hygiene. Then add one bookings measure, paced. Most plans use only quota attainment, which is the slowest number of all. The last two come straight from Pete's view of what predicts a miss. A rep changing the close date is the best single signal that a committed deal is going to slip. And at ORM, meaningful activity on a deal is a change in stage, close date or amount. A Commit deal with none of those three changes in 30 days is stale.

Pick the indicators that match the gap. A rep with a conversion problem needs conversion targets. If you already grade reps on a sales scorecard, its coaching focus and stage conversion score point to the same gap, with dated numbers behind it. Adding call counts to that plan gives the rep a way to look busy without fixing anything. Activity metrics belong in a PIP only when activity is the gap. The one-on-one guide covers how to read four core numbers against the rep's own history and the team median every week.

How to set a fair bookings bar

Multiply the rep's open qualified pipeline with a this-quarter close date on day 1 by the median rate at which peers convert that pipeline inside the quarter. The result is the bookings bar for a 90-day plan aligned to the quarter. It measures conversion on the rep's own pipeline, so territory luck drops out.

Full quota is the wrong bar for a PIP. Bookings inside a quarter come from three places: deals already in the pipeline, deals created and closed inside the quarter, and deals pulled forward from later quarters. When the sales cycle runs 60 days or more, a rep on a plan has little time to create and close new deals. And in ORM's customer data, only about 20% of the pipeline that carries an in-quarter close date on day 1 usually closes in that quarter. A rep whose day-1 pipeline is 2.2 times quota would book about 44% of quota from it at that 20% rate, before any new or pulled-forward deals.

The formulas, with the tracker's cell references:

Pace the bar by week of quarter, not evenly. In ORM's data the third month of a quarter is the largest and a big share closes in the last week, so an even pace makes every rep look behind at day 30. The tracker ships with one representative 13-week curve from Pete, the same one used in the weekly business review guide. Replace it with your own: two or more years of closed-won bookings by week of quarter.

If the bar comes out far below quota, that is information too. It means the rep's pipeline was thin on day 1, which is a pipeline supply problem. The pipeline-created indicator covers it, and next quarter's starting pipeline will show whether it worked.

The 30/60/90 day sales PIP

Split the 90 days into three phases with rising targets: fix the behavior in days 1 to 30, show it in the numbers in days 31 to 60, and sustain it with bookings in days 61 to 90. Each phase ends with a written checkpoint. Thirty-day plans suit activity problems that show up within weeks. For conversion or pipeline problems, a 30-day plan cannot see the change. Align the 90 days with the quarter when you can, so the bar uses the full quarter's pipeline and pace. Day 30 and day 60 produce a status, not a decision. The decision happens once, at day 90, against rules written on day 1. The onboarding version of the same shape, for new reps and new sales leaders, is the 30-60-90 day sales plan.

Worked example: a mid-market AE on a 90-day plan

Illustrative example. A mid-market account executive with 20 months of tenure, a quarterly quota of $200,000 of new ARR and attainment of 52% and 48% in the last two quarters, against a peer median near 80%. These are the numbers in the template's example files.

The system check rules out ramp (past 18 months), territory (similar books to two peers) and pipeline supply (6 first meetings a week, the peer median). The gap is conversion: 22% of first meetings become qualified opportunities, against a peer median of 40%, and close dates move five times a week against a peer median of two.

The bar: $440,000 of qualified pipeline carries a Q1 close date on day 1. Peers convert 25% of that kind of pipeline inside the quarter, so the bar is $440,000 x 25% = $110,000, which is 55% of quota. At the rep's own trailing rate of 18%, the same pipeline would produce $79,200. Pacing on Pete's curve gives $23,118 by day 30 (21.0% of the quarter's weight), $54,704 by day 60 (49.7%) and $110,000 by day 90.

What the numbers say:

• Day 30 was a near miss on the right things. Conversion was 7 of 24 meetings, 29.2%, just under the 30% target. Pipeline created was short, mostly because of an $18,000 first week. Pushes and stale Commit deals were already at target.
• Day 60 showed the change. Conversion of 9 of 25 meetings, 36%, and $160,000 of pipeline in four weeks. Bookings at $58,000 against a pace of $54,704.
• Day 90 met the rules. All six indicators met in days 61 to 90, and $104,000 booked is 94.5% of the $110,000 bar, above the 90% threshold. The plan is met, and the rep goes back to the normal one-on-one cadence.

The rep finished the quarter at 52% of quota, in line with the last two quarters. On quota alone, the plan looks like a failure. On the bar, the rep booked close to what a median peer would have booked from the same pipeline, lifted conversion from 22% to 43.3%, and built $478,000 of new pipeline for Q2. That is the case for judging a PIP on the right numbers: the outcome reflects what the rep changed, and next quarter's starting pipeline will test it.

How to run the weekly PIP check-in

Give the plan its own short weekly check-in, review the same tracker numbers every week, and end with one change for the coming week. Keep it out of the standing one-on-one. Once a rep links the weekly meeting with risk, they stop bringing problems to it, and the one-on-one still has to do its development job during the plan.

1. Update the weekly log before the check-in. Same CRM report, same definitions, every week. The rep can see the tracker.
2. Read the six indicators against the phase target. Ask what changed, not why it is low.
3. Review one deal or one call. A recorded discovery call for a conversion gap, a pushed Commit deal for a forecast gap. The fix is specific or it does not happen.
4. Agree one change for the coming week and write it in the notes, with the date.
5. Log the support given. The plan promised it. The record should show it happened.

Twenty minutes is enough. The coaching itself still follows the weekly sales one-on-one guide: one pattern in the rep's own numbers, then skill work on it. The manager's own record matters here too. How to measure a frontline sales manager treats the movement of the bottom third of the team as one of the few numbers that shows real coaching.

What happens at the end of a sales PIP?

The manager and HR read the day 90 numbers against the rules written into the plan, and pick one of the three outcomes it names. The template's rules:

• Plan met: all six leading indicators met in days 61 to 90, and bookings at or above 90% of the bar. Back to the normal cadence.
• Extend 30 days: indicators met but bookings below 90% of the bar. This happens when the rep fixed the right things and the cycle has not caught up. Extend once, with bookings as the only open item.
• Plan not met: one or more indicators missed in days 61 to 90. The company decides next steps with HR and counsel, which may include a role change or termination.

Keep the compensation plan and quota unchanged during the plan. The rep is paid under the existing plan, and the bar sits beside the quota, not in place of it. If the rep leaves, final pay and earned commission follow the comp plan and the law of the state where the rep works. The US Department of Labor notes that federal law does not require employers to give a final paycheck immediately, but some states may require immediate payment.

HR and legal points to check

Write the plan with HR, and check it, its timing and any outcome with HR and employment counsel before it starts and before you act on it. The points below come from primary sources, and none of them replace that review.

• Timing after a complaint or accommodation request. The EEOC's retaliation guidance lists filing or witnessing a discrimination complaint, raising harassment with a manager and requesting an accommodation as protected activity, and lists "a performance evaluation that is lower than it should be" and increased scrutiny among the possible retaliatory actions. A PIP that starts soon after protected activity needs a clear, documented performance record from before it.
• Disability and accommodation. The EEOC's guidance on applying performance standards to employees with disabilities says an employee with a disability must meet the same production standards as others in the job, and that a reasonable accommodation may be required to help them meet a standard. It also says an employer is not required to excuse performance problems from before an accommodation request. If a rep raises a medical issue during the plan, stop and bring in HR.
• Your own written policy. In Montana, under Montana Code Annotated 39-2-904, a discharge can be wrongful if it was not for good cause after the probationary period, or if the employer materially broke its own written personnel policy in a way that took away the employee's fair chance to keep the job. Wherever your reps work, check whether your handbook commits the company to specific PIP steps, and follow them.
• Outside the US, unions and contracts. Notice, consultation and termination rules differ. Get local advice before the plan starts.

Check with HR and counsel. This page and the template are not legal or HR advice.

The template, section by section

The Word plan holds the agreement with the rep. The Excel tracker holds the numbers and applies the rules. Use both.

The plan document (.docx) opens with a page to delete before use: how to fill it in, and a five-row table of checks to make with HR and counsel, each with its primary source. The plan itself has the nine sections described above, a signature block where signing confirms receipt and not agreement, and an appendix to record the three checkpoints. Highlighted fill-ins hold the example values in the example file and labels in the blank file.

Every formula is visible, and the example file's results were checked against an independent calculation. The checkpoint result is a reading of the rules, not a decision. The decision stays with the manager and HR.

Common mistakes in a sales PIP

• Full quota as the only target. On a long cycle the outcome is mostly set by day 1. Use a paced bar on the rep's own pipeline, plus leading indicators.
• Comparing the rep with the team average or the top rep. Compare with the median of peers in the same segment, tenure and territory type.
• Skipping the system check. A PIP for a ramping rep, a thin territory or a segment-wide slowdown targets the wrong cause.
• Ten metrics. Pick the indicators that match the gap. More targets mean more ways to look busy.
• Counting opportunities without checking them. A conversion target invites opportunities that do not meet the stage criteria. Inspect a sample at every checkpoint.
• Changing the quota or comp plan mid-plan. It breaks the comparison and raises questions the plan should not have to answer.
• Deciding the outcome at day 90 instead of day 1. Write the decision rules into the plan, and have HR read them before it starts.

Where ORM fits

The hard parts of a fair sales PIP are the comparisons: peer conversion of day-1 pipeline, ramp by tenure, close-date pushes and deal movement over time. A CRM stores the current state of each deal, so those numbers mean comparing snapshots. ORM snapshots each customer's pipeline every day, measures ramp curves by role, region and tenure against full quota, and forecasts each rep to the end of the period, with a model that targets 95% accuracy. A manager can see a rep falling behind peers on the same pipeline weeks before the quarter shows it. To check your own team's attainment spread first, use the quota attainment calculator. To see the rest on your data, see how ORM works.