Calling your Miss

I couldn’t believe it when the head of sales said this during my team coaching session earlier this week.

"We’re good. We’re gonna hit our Q2 #”

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Sometimes sales leaders live in a world of delusion.

I was looking at his #s and he was completely out to lunch.

This is how you know you’re in trouble.

This is what leads to layoffs, anxiety and tension.

You need to know when you’ll miss so you can prepare accordingly.

Things get bad when everyone thinks things are good - but they really aren’t.

This is the quick/directional way you can find out if you’re going to miss your # or not and exactly what I did with this head of sales.

Calculate Your Coverage - Will you hit or miss?

Step 1: Identify your Goal/# for the quarter

If you don’t know this. Please stop reading and get this.

Step 2: Identify your win rate. How many deals do you close out of the opportunities that come into your pipeline?

Step 3: Identify your coverage.

THIS is key. Let’s say your # is $3MM for the quarter and your win rate is 20% (this means you win 1/5 deals).

How much pipeline will you need to hit your #? Go ahead. Do the math.

You can scroll down to see the answer and continue reading on coverage but wanted to give a HUGE shout out to Clari for sponsoring this newsletter.

They’ve got their signature event of the year - CHARGE - coming up and you don’t want to miss it.

They’re going to share:

• How to transform your business with AI-powered revenue cadences, plus new additions to the Clari Revenue Platform 

• Strategies, tactics, and technology to create, convert, and close more revenue 

• A CRO panel on how to stop revenue leaks and achieve outsized returns

It all goes down May 8th (+ they have a whole Charge tour happening in person).

Save your spot here.

Alright - back to the goods. So what # did you get when you did the math?

The answer is…

$15MM. (20%*X = 3 for the non-believers).

So back to the story.

This head of sales showed me his numbers and the math worked out to be $6MM in coverage. 

With a 20% win rate.

I told him there’s no chance he’s going to hit (well the only ways to hit would be to get more pipeline or get win rates up to 50%).

And this is why knowing your #s is so powerful.

Because now, the head of sales can report back and say they’re going to miss.

But MORE IMPORTANTLY… they can get out of a delusional state of doing nothing and put their intentions behind changing behavior.

The reality is that when you call your miss you can then start the next phase of the journey.

This is where you diagnose WHY you missed and WHERE you focus your efforts next so that it doesn't continue.

Missing 1 quarter sucks.

Missing 2 quarters leads to loads of tension and anxiety.

Miss 3 and well… you may or may not be having a lot more time on your hands.

Calling your miss changes the game.

If you want more content like this please reply with “I want more” and I’ll make it a priority.

Until next week,

PS - if you have 3s can you please let me know what you think of our newsletter?