The Four Pillars of Sales Excellence: Insights From Delivering Value’s Don Lazzari

In today’s ever-evolving business environment, sales performance is more than just hitting numbers—it’s about building a scalable, repeatable process that aligns with your company’s goals and growth trajectory. For entrepreneurs navigating the complexities of building a sales function from the ground up, guidance from seasoned experts can make all the difference. Enter Don Lazzari, President of Delivering Value and author of Entrepreneur Sales Secrets Revealed. With over 15 years of experience in sales performance consulting, Don brings a refreshing, no-fluff approach to transforming how businesses lead their sales teams and structure their pipelines.

In this exclusive interview with Stacey Chillemi, Don dives deep into the essential principles of sales performance management—covering everything from building an effective pipeline, leveraging CRM tools like Salesforce, and forecasting with accuracy, to cultivating strong sales leadership. He introduces the four pillars that every entrepreneur needs to master—structure, discipline, visibility, and accountability—and explains how applying these consistently can drive real, sustainable growth. Whether you’re a solopreneur or managing a growing team, Don’s insights are practical, actionable, and designed to help you elevate your sales game with confidence and clarity.

Thank you so much for joining us, Don! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory?
It’s great to be here! My journey began in the corporate world, where I spent years working in sales and leadership roles. Over time, I realized I was most energized when helping others build and lead sales teams—especially entrepreneurs who didn’t come from a sales background. That led me to create Delivering Value, a sales performance consulting firm focused on helping businesses build the structure and systems they need to succeed in selling. After working with clients for over 15 years, I decided to take everything I’d learned and put it into a book, Entrepreneur Sales Secrets Revealed. It’s designed to help entrepreneurs navigate the entire sales journey—from solo selling to scaling a team and managing performance at a high level.

What inspired you to write Entrepreneur Sales Secrets Revealed?
I saw a pattern. Whether I was working with startups or established small businesses, the same challenges kept popping up—especially when it came to building a repeatable, high-performing sales function. Many entrepreneurs are brilliant in their own domain but don’t have a roadmap for sales. I wanted to provide something straightforward, actionable, and easy to absorb. So I broke the book into three clear parts: the solopreneur phase, scaling with a team, and advanced sales performance management. It’s full of real-world examples, templates, and exercises I use with clients every day. It’s a compact but powerful resource designed to be read on a flight and applied the next day.

What exactly is sales performance management?
Sales performance management isn’t about how to run a sales call—it’s about managing your team to drive consistent results. It’s a systems approach to ensuring your entire sales engine is tuned to deliver against your business goals. That means setting up the right structure, tracking the right metrics, and developing the right leadership habits. It’s not about chasing deals—it’s about setting up a machine that produces predictable outcomes quarter after quarter.

How do you define a sales pipeline, and why is it so critical?
The pipeline is the lifeline of your sales organization. It provides visibility into all active opportunities—where they are in the sales cycle, their value, who’s responsible, and when they’re expected to close. Done right, it becomes your real-time dashboard, your GPS. It tells you whether you’re on track to hit your goals or if you’re headed off-course. It helps guide your one-on-ones, your strategy, your hiring—everything. If you’re not actively managing your pipeline, you’re flying blind.

What are some common mistakes entrepreneurs make when structuring a pipeline?
One of the most frequent mistakes I see is confusing sales activities with sales stages. Just because a rep completed a demo or sent a proposal doesn’t mean the deal is moving forward. That activity might be done, but the customer may still be on the fence. Instead, pipeline stages should be aligned with customer commitment milestones. You want to track the actual buying journey—from initial discovery, to stakeholder alignment, to final decision-making. That gives you a much clearer sense of what’s real and what’s just noise.

Can you give an example of what an effective pipeline structure looks like?
Absolutely. A good pipeline starts with Discovery—that’s where you’re qualifying the opportunity: do they have a need, a budget, and a timeline? Next comes Business Discussion, where you start understanding the problem more deeply. Then you move to Consensus, where you get buy-in from multiple stakeholders. Once there’s verbal agreement, you enter the Closing stage, and finally, Closed-Won. Each stage should have defined criteria—what I call gating criteria—so you know when a deal is ready to move forward.

Are there specific tools or software you recommend for building these reports?
There are a lot of CRMs out there, and most of them will get the job done. That said, I recommend Salesforce more often than not. It’s flexible, well-established, and offers powerful reporting capabilities. It also scales well as your company grows. But tools like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho can be great too—it really comes down to usability and how well the platform aligns with your sales process. The key is to pick something that allows you to track, report, and manage your pipeline without unnecessary complexity.

Below are sample visuals of how a well-structured sales pipeline and forecasting overlay can look in practice—examples I often walk through with clients to help them track opportunities and close deals with greater accuracy.

Can a pipeline report help with forecasting future sales?
Yes, and it’s a critical part of the job. By overlaying forecast categories—like pipeline, best case, likely, and commit—onto your pipeline stages, you create a more refined view of what’s likely to close and when. Forecasting helps not just sales, but operations, production, and customer service as well. If the forecast says there’s a wave of deals about to close, the entire business needs to be ready for that impact.

How do you ensure forecasts are reliable?
You have to build in skepticism. The rep might believe a deal will close, but that doesn’t mean you should take it at face value. That’s where the role of a sales manager—or in my case, a fractional sales leader—comes in. You need to ask: Have they secured budget? Is legal on board? Are all decision-makers aligned? Weekly reviews and pipeline audits are essential. If you don’t challenge assumptions, you’re building a forecast on wishful thinking.

What are some factors that can throw off forecasts unexpectedly?
Where do I begin? A key stakeholder leaves. Budgets get pulled. The company gets bought. A lawsuit freezes spending. Forecasting is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise. It’s a moving target. That’s why I advise reviewing forecasts weekly. Deal dynamics shift constantly, and your forecasts should reflect that in real time.

Why is rapport and credibility so important in sales, especially when forecasting?
Because without trust, you’re not selling—you’re just talking. Rapport and credibility are the foundation of any sale. They determine whether you get real answers or just polite head nods. And when you have that credibility, your pipeline becomes more reliable because your prospects are giving you truthful feedback. That, in turn, makes your forecasts more accurate. It all connects.

Can pipeline reports be customized based on industry or product types?
Yes, and in many cases, they should be. For instance, I’ve worked with clients who sell into both food & beverage and healthcare, and their buying cycles are completely different. Segmenting your pipeline by vertical, product line, or even sales rep can help uncover patterns. You can also track the age of opportunities—if a deal has been sitting idle too long, that’s a red flag. Customization helps you see the story behind the data.

What are the four pillars of sales performance management that you emphasize?
They are structure, discipline, visibility, and accountability. Structure ensures your team is following a consistent process. Discipline means you’re holding regular meetings, doing pipeline reviews, and staying on top of the data. Visibility comes from your dashboards and reports—transparency into what’s happening in real time. And accountability ensures your team understands expectations and takes ownership for results. When you execute all four together, your sales function becomes much stronger—and scalable.

How can entrepreneurs enforce accountability without creating tension?
It all starts with expectations. If everyone knows the scorecard, there are no surprises. Accountability can—and should—be supportive. It’s not about punishment; it’s about performance. If someone’s behind, ask what they need to get back on track. If that doesn’t work, you may need to formalize expectations. The key is to be fair, clear, and consistent.

How can dashboards be used to improve team performance?
Dashboards provide instant clarity. You can see who’s performing, who’s falling behind, and where deals are stuck. I also love using leaderboards—when done right, they inspire friendly competition. Most good salespeople are competitive by nature, and seeing those numbers every week can be a powerful motivator. Plus, it gives you hard data to support coaching conversations and, if necessary, performance decisions.

What services does Delivering Value offer to help businesses with these challenges?
We offer three core services. The first is fractional sales management, which is a great fit for entrepreneurs who need seasoned leadership without a full-time hire. The second is one-on-one sales coaching—this is where we help reps improve their messaging, objection handling, and overall confidence. The third is sales message alignment, especially for tech companies that tend to focus on features instead of benefits. We help them simplify and clarify their message so it lands with buyers.

How often should entrepreneurs review their sales metrics? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?
It depends on your sales cycle. For shorter cycles, weekly reviews are critical. For longer ones, monthly or quarterly may suffice. But you should always be comparing your current performance to last month, last quarter, and the same period last year. That historical view gives you context and helps guide your strategy. Also, save those pipeline reports—over time, they become a powerful record of your growth.

How can entrepreneurs stay motivated and see their progress over time?
You’ve got to zoom out occasionally. Save your pipeline reports each quarter and review them over time. You’ll see patterns, trends, and—most importantly—progress. I’ve had clients look back and say, “Wow, five years ago we were doing $3 million; now we’re at $8 million.” When you’re in the daily grind, it’s easy to miss the big picture. This brings it back into focus.

If there’s one takeaway you’d like readers to remember from this conversation, what would it be?
Execution beats brilliance. You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room—you just need structure, discipline, visibility, and accountability. If you commit to those four pillars and execute with consistency, the results will follow. That’s not theory—that’s what I see every day with my clients.

How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can find me on LinkedIn or head to deliveringvalue.com. My book, Entrepreneur Sales Secrets Revealed, is available on Amazon for just $14. It’s packed with actionable tools and templates, and you can easily finish it on a short flight. Whether you’re a solopreneur or leading a growing team, it’ll give you the foundation you need to build a scalable sales system.

Don, thank you so much for joining me today. Your insights were incredibly valuable, and I know our readers are going to walk away with actionable strategies they can apply right away. I truly appreciate your time and wisdom.

Thank you, Stacey. It was a pleasure being here. I appreciate the opportunity to share what I’ve learned, and I hope it helps your readers strengthen their sales performance and grow their businesses with confidence.