Salesforce, what a crock of shit!

Or rather, one bit of SFDC, the pipeline probability feature.

In fairness, it’s a bit harsh to focus on SFDC, because most CRM ‘s are hopeless when it comes to predicting an accurate outcome.

Why is this?

Rather surprisingly, it’s not your CRM’s fault; the finger of blame needs pointing in management’s direction.

Why?

The trap management fall into time and again is to think they have accurate figures associated with each stage. E.G. once a proposal is written many believe there's a 60% probability of winning the business.

YOU MAY WELL BE 60% OF THE WAY THROUGH YOUR SALES PROCESS, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE A 60% CHANCE OF WINNING THE BUSINESS!

When I point this out to sales leaders a bewildered look comes over their faces.

What do I mean?

OK, for every 10 proposals – how many result in Closed Won?

Most say 6 (usually because SFDC says there’s a 60% chance).

This is bullshit!

The reality is that 30% is a very good proposal to close ratio. The best get to 50% while only unicorn’s could get 60% ( even in a fantasy world, inertia wins 40% of the time)!

The main problem here is the insidious under-mining of a sales person’s confidence (why can't you win 60%) by leaders who don’t know their numbers or how to manage technology.