Ask a sales leader why their best field rep outperforms everyone else, and you’ll usually hear one of three answers.
They have the best territory. They have more accounts. They’re just a natural.
All three are comfortable explanations. None of them hold up in the data.
Map My Customers partnered with Sumedha Rai, Visiting Researcher at New York University, and Jasper Engines & Transmissions to look past those assumptions. The team paired two quarters of real CRM revenue with what 172 field reps actually did every day: where they went, how they planned, and what they logged. The results are now published in A Field Sales Performance Study.
Here’s a look at what the data says, and why it changes how you should coach.
Field execution is the set of daily habits a field sales rep uses to plan, prioritize, and complete customer-facing work: which accounts they visit, how often, in what order, and how consistently they capture what happened.
The gap is bigger than you think
Before getting to why top reps win, it’s worth sitting with how much they win by.
- Top-performing field reps averaged $83.5K in quarterly revenue.
- Low performers averaged $48.2K.
- That’s a 73% gap between reps working comparable markets.
Source: Map My Customers Field Sales Performance Study, with NYU researcher Sumedha Rai and Jasper Engines & Transmissions (N = 172 reps, Q4 2023 to Q2 2024).
If you lead a team of 40 reps, that gap is the difference between a good year and a great one. The question is whether it’s fixed, or whether you can close it.
Three explanations the data doesn’t support
1. “They have a better territory”
Territory matters. But when the researchers looked at reps working similar markets, the outcomes still split sharply. What separated them was how they planned their itineraries and used CRM insights in the field, not where they were assigned.
2. “They cover more accounts”
This one surprises people most. Top reps didn’t spread themselves across bigger lists. They went deeper, visiting priority accounts up to 2.5x more often than low performers. Breadth wasn’t the advantage. Depth was.
3. “They’re just naturals”
If top performance came down to charisma or instinct, it wouldn’t show up in behavioral data. It does, and clearly enough to predict.
The finding that should change your coaching
Using an XGBoost model with SHAP explainability, the study predicted the direction of each rep’s quarterly revenue from daily mobile activity alone.
It was right 78.7% of the time.
That means the signals of a strong (or struggling) quarter are visible in how reps work long before revenue confirms it. Instead of waiting for a lagging number at quarter end, a manager can spot the pattern in the first few weeks and coach while there’s still time to change the outcome.
The study breaks down which specific behaviors the model weighted most, so you know exactly what to look for.
The real opportunity is the middle of your team
Most coaching attention goes to two places: the stars and the strugglers. The study points somewhere else.
Between the top and bottom performers sat a large group of “rising” reps averaging $66.7K per quarter. They weren’t failing. They just hadn’t locked in the habits that separated the top group. That middle is where repeatable coaching pays off fastest, because the gap is behavioral and the behaviors are teachable.
Frequently asked questions
What separates top-performing field sales reps from everyone else?
Research with Jasper Engines & Transmissions found top reps don’t have bigger account lists or easier territories. They work their key accounts with more depth and plan their days more deliberately.
How much more revenue do top field reps generate?
In the study, top-performing reps averaged $83.5K in quarterly revenue, 73% more than low performers, who averaged $48.2K.
Can you predict which field reps will grow revenue?
Yes. A machine learning model built on daily mobile activity predicted the direction of each rep’s quarterly revenue with 78.7% accuracy, well before the quarter closed.
Is a bad territory the main reason field reps underperform?
Not according to the data. Reps in similar markets produced very different results depending on how they planned their days and used CRM insights in the field.
Where can I get the full Field Sales Performance Study?
A Field Sales Performance Study is a free PDF download from Map My Customers, with no form required.
What’s inside the study
The full study goes well beyond the headline numbers. Inside you’ll find:
- Activity benchmarks for each performance tier, covering check-ins, activities, notes, and unique accounts visited, so you can see where your own reps land
- The specific daily habits that predicted revenue growth, and how strongly each one mattered
- How top reps use routing and daily planning to trade windshield time for face time
- Five concrete moves for sales leaders to turn these findings into coaching and enablement
- A foreword from Matthew Sniff, Founder and Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Map My Customers, on what the research means for field sales leaders
It’s a quick, five-page read built to share with your sales managers.