1/8/2025-What’s your Q1 pipeline say?

You have just as much responsibility to be credible inside your org as you do outside your org. There are three specific things you need to do if you want to be a better revenue prognosticator.

Excluding vacations and holidays, there are 65 selling days each quarter.

Today is Day 5, so it’s a good time to review your Q1. What you learn will dictate your actions for the rest of January.

This question simplifies – and guides – your work: "How much gross pipeline do I need to hit my Q1 quota?"

To complete the assignment, you’ll need only a few pieces of data: your gross pipeline and your close rate. Everything else is like pruning a bush to please your eye; it might be fun, but it’s unnecessary.

Top off your mug, return to your desk, and examine your open opps.

Are they all real? Or did some of them die off during December?

What’s the probability of them closing and affecting Q1 revenue?

Assess each opportunity through a binary lens: "Are they…or are they NOT going to affect Q1 revenue?"

Guessing won’t cut it here; get on the phone and talk to your buyers. You need to deliver an accurate Q1 number to your manager and you need first-hand intel!

On average, sellers are off with their revenue estimations between 20 – 40% each quarter. The math makes the reality look silly: if you tell your manager today that your pipeline says you’ll do $1,000,000 in Q1, the number will be closer to $600k.

Some might suggest this is how business works…it’s just hard to estimate revenue. And while that’s partly true, you should take it personally that the variance in estimates versus reality is as broad as it is. (What is your variance each quarter?)

There are three specific things you need to do if you want to be a better revenue prognosticator. And you should care because your reputation is based on your accurate promise of future revenue.

1. Ruthlessly qualify open opportunities on each interaction with a buyer. (Throughout the quarter!)
2. Proactively surface objections on each buyer interaction and probe to find out how much the objection hinders the opp.
3. Directly push your prospects for the truth about the when? You must ask questions like, When are you a buyer? (If not now, when?)

You have just as much responsibility to be credible inside your org as you do outside your org. Figure out how to deliver accurate quarterly projections.

If you had time travel abilities like Scarlett Johanson in the movie Lucy, projecting revenue would be easy.

But you don’t. You can’t see the future.

And you may not want her powers after watching this wild, beautiful, and gripping clip.

Welcome back to January 8…you have a number to hit, so stop wandering around the internet and answer the only question you should ask yourself today: What number am I going to hit in Q1?