19 records · 2 reviewed · 0 mapped questions
Your revenue is diversified across multiple customers, deals, or channels, without over-reliance on any single source.
Build
Work out the share of the last 12 months' revenue from your largest customer, your top three and your main channel. Decide the limit you are comfortable with.
Fix
Take the biggest dependency from your concentration figures and set one action to reduce it, such as a target number of new customers or a second channel to test.
Embed
Add revenue concentration to your regular management review with a target limit. Track progress against your plan to reduce the biggest dependency.
You understand the profitability of your deals. Contribution Margin and Pricing strategy. (impacting your break-even point).
Build
Choose your two largest customers or products. List the direct costs of serving each, work out the contribution margin and compare with your break-even point.
Fix
Extend the margin calculation to every main customer and product, and group it by customer, product and market segment. Flag any with low or negative margin.
Embed
Use the margin data in your go-to-market plans and when setting new prices and discounts. Update it every six months.
You clearly explain changes in your revenue forecast based on pipeline movement, conversion performance, and deal progression.
Build
Start a simple forecast log. Record the forecast each week and, after each change, note which deals moved and why.
Fix
Review the last four forecast changes and write the cause of each (deal moved, won, lost or assumption changed). Agree the size of change that always needs a reason.
Embed
Make the explanation of forecast changes a fixed part of your weekly or monthly review. Check each quarter whether the explanations matched what happened.
Your revenue forecasts are grounded in structured pipeline data and defined evidence-based conversion rates and assumptions.
Build
Pull the last 6 to 12 months of deals and work out your win rate and average cycle length at each stage. Use them to build a simple forecast.
Fix
Replace the least evidence-based assumption in your forecast with a rate measured from your deals. Note where you still don't have enough data.
Embed
Make an assumptions review a regular agenda point in your leadership meeting. Compare forecast with actual results and update your conversion rates each quarter.
You track and review pipeline performance using clear, reliable, and up-to-date data
Build
Pick three pipeline measures (for example pipeline value, win rate and stage conversion). Set up a simple report and decide who updates it each week.
Fix
Check your current pipeline report for missing or out-of-date entries. Agree who owns data quality and when entries must be updated.
Embed
Review the three measures in a fixed weekly slot and note one action from each. Include data quality in sales performance reviews and make it as important as revenue results.
Your pipeline and stage model is clearly defined and supports consistent qualification and real deal progression.
Build
List your pipeline stages and write one entry criterion and one exit criterion for each. Keep each to a sentence and agree them with everyone who sells.
Fix
Test your stage definitions on ten live deals by asking two people to stage them independently. Rewrite the criteria where they disagreed.
Embed
Require the exit criteria to be ticked before a deal moves stage in your pipeline tool. Audit a sample each month and fix unclear definitions.
Partner-sourced customer opportunities are held to the same qualification, progression, and conversion standards as your direct sales
Build
Record the source on every deal so partner deals are visible. Apply your qualification criteria and stage definitions to them in the same way as direct deals.
Fix
Compare last quarter's partner deals with direct deals on qualification, time in stage and win rate. Fix the biggest difference, for example by requiring the same entry checks before a partner deal is accepted.
Embed
Show partner and direct conversion side by side in your pipeline review. Share the comparison with partners and agree actions where a partner's deals fall short.
Your partners generate qualified customer opportunities, not just introductions or one-off referrals. Contributing meaningfully to your revenue.
Build
List your partners and agree what a win-win looks like for each: what they gain and what you need. Run an enablement session for your top three on your offer and qualification criteria and agree activation targets.
Fix
Review how active each partner is and what holds them back. Repeat enablement on your offer and qualification criteria and agree a clear target and benefit with each.
Embed
Make enablement and activation a regular rhythm: onboarding for new partner staff, quarterly reviews of qualified opportunities against target and feedback on what converted, so both sides see the benefit.
Your go-to-market efforts are focused on the sources that consistently generate your highest-value opportunities, based on tracked performance data.
Build
Record the source of every opportunity from the last 6 to 12 months and compare value and win rate by source. Identify your best two.
Fix
Check that every deal in your tracker has a source recorded. Re-rank your sources by value and win rate and move effort from the weakest to the strongest.
Embed
Review source performance each quarter and adjust spend and effort. Make 'source' a required field so the data stays complete.
You have Win / Loss reviews that include all GTM teams. (Including Customer non-renewals).
Build
Pick your last three lost deals and one non-renewal. Hold a 45-minute review with sales, marketing, product and customer success and write down the real reasons.
Fix
Bring in the teams not yet taking part (for example customer success and product) and add non-renewals to your review list. Record the reasons in one shared place.
Embed
Run win/loss reviews on a fixed schedule and keep the findings in one central data resource. Connect AI to draw out learning insights, and track the changes that result.
You have a clear and validated understanding of the problems your best customers are actively trying to solve, and how they prioritise them.
Build
Book five conversations with your best customers, or the closest you have. Ask what problem they were solving, how they tried to solve it before and what mattered most.
Fix
Compare what you believe customers want with what recent conversations show. Rank the problems by how often and how urgently they come up and mark what is still an assumption.
Embed
Agree a formal process that flows customer problem statements and priorities from customers through sales into product and marketing, and review it each quarter.
Customers can clearly distinguish your offering from alternatives
Build
Ask five recent customers or prospects which alternatives they considered and why they chose, or didn't choose, you. Write the differences as a single statement.
Fix
Compare how your last three proposals describe your difference with what customers told you. Align the wording and drop anything customers don't recognise.
Embed
Use a short comparison against the main alternatives, including doing nothing, in every sales conversation. Re-check it against new customer feedback each quarter.
You support customers in building a clear, evidence-based business case or ROI justification in a structured, repeatable, and low-effort way
Build
Train your sales staff on the customer inputs needed for an ROI case and capture them by hand, using a one-page template, on your next three opportunities.
Fix
Make capturing the ROI inputs a standard step in your sales process, with one agreed template and calculation. Train everyone who sells on the inputs and how to gather them.
Embed
Automate capture and calculation of the ROI in your sales process, then build it into the product so customers can see their ROI as they use it.
Your sales team consistently articulates the value and impact of your offering in customer conversations, without relying on founders or specialists.
Build
Write a one-page value story: the customer problem, your measured impact (with one customer example) and how you differ. Have each salesperson say it back to you.
Fix
Sit in on or listen to three recent customer calls and note where the team fell back on founders. Turn those gaps into answers on your value story and practise them together.
Embed
Make the value story a 'licence to operate' checkpoint in sales onboarding, and include it as a standard step when you release a product or service to market.
You actively map and engage the customer’s decision process, stakeholders, and criteria for each opportunity.
Build
Create a one-page deal map: decision-maker, influencers, budget holder, decision criteria and timeline. Use it on your three largest open deals this week.
Fix
For each active deal, fill in the missing parts of the deal map. In your next conversation, ask the customer directly to fill the gaps.
Embed
Add the deal map fields to your pipeline tool and require a named decision-maker beyond the early stage. Check completeness in your weekly review.
Your sales process is aligned to how your customers actually buy, based on observed buying and decision behaviour and outcomes.
Build
Take your last five won and three lost deals. Map the steps each customer went through, who was involved and how long each step took, then compare with your own stages.
Fix
Compare your current stages with the buying steps seen in recent deals. Rename, merge or add the stage where the two differ most and update your pipeline view.
Embed
Each quarter, review three recent deals against your stages and note where the customer's route differed. Update stage definitions and tell the sales team what changed.
You actively disqualify opportunities that do not demonstrate clear commercial viability or progression, rather than allowing them to continue through extended cycles. Incl. Paid POCs/Pilots.
Build
Agree exit rules: how long a deal can sit in each stage with no progress and what ends it. Add a rule for POCs and pilots: written success criteria, an end date and a decision meeting.
Fix
Review every deal open longer than your typical sales cycle. Close or park those with no customer movement and write the reason against each so patterns show.
Embed
Make 'stale deals' a standing item in the weekly review and record a reason whenever a deal is closed or parked. Check every live POC or pilot against its end date and success criteria.
Opportunities in your pipeline are based on confirmed customer intent and clear next steps, rather than optimistic assumptions
Build
Define what counts as confirmed customer intent (for example a named sponsor, a booked meeting or a customer-side action). Apply it to every open deal and mark those that don't meet it.
Fix
List every open deal with no dated, customer-agreed next step. For each, get a next step booked this week or move it out of the live pipeline.
Embed
Make 'next step and date' a required field on every deal. Open your weekly pipeline review with the deals whose date has passed.
You consistently identify strong-fit opportunities early using clearly defined qualification criteria, rather than subjective judgement.
Build
Write down 3 to 5 criteria that describe your best-fit customers (problem, budget, timing, decision-maker, fit). Agree them with everyone who sells and keep them on one page.
Fix
Score your ten most recent opportunities against your criteria. Note where judgement overrode them, then tighten any criterion that was ignored or unclear.
Embed
Make the fit score a required field in your pipeline tool so an opportunity can't be created without it. Check a sample of new entries in your weekly pipeline meeting.