Sales has always been (and will continue to be) a performance game. But in 2026, the rules have changed.

Teams are leaner. Budgets are tighter. Buying committees are more complex. And yet, revenue targets have not budged. Revenue leadership is harping on sellers to simply hustle more and hustle smarter. They always ask the same thing: You need to do more with less.

So what does that actually look like in practice?

It is not about working longer hours. It is about working sharper, more focused, and more supported than ever before. Here's how to actually do that.

Leaner Teams, Higher Expectations

Many orgs have streamlined their go-to-market teams over the past two years. The result? Fewer reps covering the same, or even larger, territories. This shift means:

• Sellers manage more accounts simultaneously
• Deal cycles involve more stakeholders
• Pipeline coverage requirements remain high
• Administrative work has not disappeared

In other words, capacity has shrunk while complexity has grown.

To keep pace, sellers cannot rely on hustle alone. They need precision in how they spend their time, which deals they prioritize, and how they engage buyers.

Tool Consolidation = Reclaiming Seller Time

For years, digital stacks grew unchecked. Reps toggled between CRMs, engagement platforms, data tools, forecasting apps, and internal dashboards just to run a single deal.

Now, companies are consolidating tools to reduce admin slog. And the benefits are immediate:

• Less context switching
• Cleaner, more reliable data
• Faster onboarding for new reps
• Lower technology costs

Most importantly, consolidation returns selling time back to sellers. Instead of stitching together insights manually, reps can operate from a unified workflow that's visible to everyone.

AI Is Multiplying Seller Capacity

Artificial intelligence is becoming the ultimate force multiplier for lean teams. It's not a nice-to-have; it's a must. Today’s sellers are using AI to:

• Research accounts in seconds
• Generate personalized outreach
• Summarize calls and extract next steps
• Identify deal risks earlier
• Forecast pipeline more accurately

Rather than replacing sellers, AI removes the manual burden that slows them down. It acts as an always-on analyst, strategist, and assistant. This allows reps to focus on the human elements that close deals: trust, discovery, and consensus building.

It Starts With The Right Tooling

Doing more with less only works when sellers have the right infrastructure behind them. Pod helps sales teams operationalize efficiency by bringing deal intelligence, strategy execution, and AI-powered insights into one place.

The result is not just productivity. It is clarity and improved performance. Sellers know where to focus, how to move deals forward, how to customize their AI to suit their sales motion, and how to hit targets without burning out.

Because in today’s market, doing more with less is not a slogan. It is a system. And with the right platform in place, it becomes a competitive advantage. Book a demo with the team to learn more.