Enter your number, the pipeline you actually expect to close against it, and your win rate. We'll show you the gap. The numbers below are examples. Type over them with yours.
Three times the number in qualified pipeline is the coverage rule most sales organisations plan to. Almost nobody asks where it came from.
It came from a win rate. If a third of the qualified pipeline due in a period closes, 3X covers the number exactly. So 3X is a 33% win rate written down without saying so. A team that wins 20% of what it qualifies needs 5X. A team that wins half needs 2X. Planning to 3X with a 20% win rate is hopium with a spreadsheet.
The other assumption is the word qualified. Coverage counts pipeline that would survive a hard question about the customer, the money, the person you're talking to, the path to a purchase order and the reason it happens now. Everything else in the CRM is a conversation. That's why the verdict above ends by sending you to Kill My Deal: the multiple is only as good as the deals inside it.
A gap is not an instruction to prospect harder. It's a question about sources, and there are four: new accounts and new buying centers, existing customers and adjacent requirements, partners who own relationships and vehicles you don't, and executive plays that open doors a rep can't. The useful planning conversation is which of the four you're over-relying on, and which one you've never seriously worked.
I led Partner Sales Teams at AWS for six years, sold at F5, Red Hat, STEC and Virident, and before that spent 20 years as a Marine. I've been the seller defending the deal, the manager poking holes in it, the partner trying to help, and the guy explaining the forecast one level up.
These days I work with sales leaders in the middle: responsible for the number, responsible for the people, and getting pressure from both directions. This isn't a big consulting firm. It's just me.
Rarely just one of them. Usually a couple at the same time, quietly making each other worse.
The pipeline looks better than it really is. Plenty of opportunities in the CRM, but once you ask about budget, timing and who actually wants the thing, the number gets smaller fast.
The partner likes you, but nothing is happening. Plenty of meetings, maybe a joint deck. Nobody can point to the accounts where the two companies are actually trying to win something together.
The team is busy, but there isn't much rhythm. The forecast call happens. The one-on-ones happen. Nobody is sure what the team should do differently this week to make next quarter better.
The number from above doesn't match what you see below. Leadership has a growth number. Your team has a pipeline. You're the one who has to explain why they disagree without sounding like you've already given up.
A team can be behind plan for a lot of reasons. One seller needs help getting in front of customers. Another is doing fine and wants you to stay out of the way. Someone else thinks the year is already gone. Sometimes the rep is fine and the territory, the comp plan or the pipeline they inherited isn't. The useful part is figuring out which one you're dealing with before you fix the wrong one. That's what the tools on this site do for one deal and one pipeline. It's also most of what I do.
Talk it through. 20 minutes, free. Bring a deal, a pipeline, or a rep you can't figure out. I'll ask a few questions and tell you what I'd look at first. Sometimes the answer is "I wouldn't change much." That's useful too.
Work through one problem. 90 minutes, paid. One issue, properly: a deal, a territory, a partner, a capture plan, a seller. You get a short write-up afterward so there's something to work from.
Run the review with me. Monthly or for a few weeks. I sit in your pipeline reviews, ask the five questions, and stay involved while the team works the answers.
Free, 20 minutes, no pitch. If I don't think I can help, I'll tell you. I also build fedhoo, a federal market research tool.