How far are you from your annual number right now?
Half the year is behind you, and the number you carry into December is decided now.
The plan you wrote in January met the market you had in January.
Six months later, the accounts have shifted, demand has moved, and some of the deals you were counting on are gone.
Run the second half on that same plan, and you miss the change until the fourth quarter, when there is no runway left to fix it.
The teams that finish strong stop in July, read where they actually stand, and rebuild the plan around the six months they have left.
52% OF B2B REPS HIT QUOTA IN A GIVEN QUARTER Source: RepVue and Bridge Group benchmarks |
FOR SELLERS Your second-half number is not made in December. It is made now, in the deals you open across July and August, because the pipeline you build this summer is the pipeline that closes at year end. |
FOR MANAGERS Midyear is the cleanest read you get all year. Six months of real results show you which reps have real coverage and which are running on hope, and you still have six months to act on what you see. |
FOR OWNERS The plan you set in January answered the January market. The second half needs a plan built for the market in front of you now, or you spend the next six months funding a mix the market has already moved past. |
The second half is where the number gets made. Most of the annual gap is still open at midyear, and most of it is still winnable. Teams that treat July as a reset, not a coast, protect the number. Teams that ride the old plan hand the quarter to whoever did the work.
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KEY TERMS
Gap to Goal | The distance between booked revenue and your annual number, measured today, not in December. |
Pipeline Coverage | Open pipeline divided by the gap you still need to close. Three times the gap is the working floor. |
Recovery Plan | A written second-half plan that names the deals, the moves, and the dates that close the gap. |
DO AND DON'T
DO | DON'T |
Rebuild the plan around the six months you have left. | Run the second half on a plan written for a market that has moved. |
Name the specific deals that close your gap. | Hope that raw activity covers the number on its own. |
THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE Open Worksheet 1 and list every deal that can close before year-end, then mark the ones that close your gap.
THE WORKSHOP
MODULE 01 · FOR SELLERS Build December Now Turn your second half into a named list of deals, not a hope. EXAMPLE A digital ad seller at a regional publisher sits at 48% of the annual number in July. The gap looks huge, so the instinct is to chase every open deal at once and hope volume covers it. The stronger move is to sort the pipeline by close date and gap coverage first, then work the few deals that actually close the gap before touching the rest. Step 1 List every open deal with a real close date in the next two quarters. Step 2 Add the dollar value and the next action for each. Step 3 Mark the deals that close your gap if they land. Work those first. Q. What if the named deals do not cover the gap? A. Then the gap is a prospecting problem, not a closing problem. Book the outreach time this week. |
MODULE 02 · FOR MANAGERS Read the Signal Use six months of real data to coach the second half. EXAMPLE A sales manager at a broadcast group sees three reps at 40% and one at 95%. The weak read is to push all four harder and hope effort closes the gap. The strong read is to find the one habit the 95% rep runs that the other three skip, then coach that single habit into each of their next months. Step 1 Pull each rep's booked revenue against their number. Step 2 Compare pipeline coverage rep by rep, not just attainment. Step 3 Set one specific behavior target per rep for the next 90 days. Q. Which number matters more at midyear, attainment or coverage? A. Coverage. Attainment tells you the past. Coverage tells you whether the second half can happen. |
MODULE 03 · FOR OWNERS Reset the Plan Replace the January plan with one built for the second half. EXAMPLE A media company CEO set a growth plan in January around a product mix that has since softened. Holding that plan feels like discipline, but it protects the story, not the number. Reading the first half line by line shows where demand actually moved, and where the budget and the sellers should follow. Step 1 Compare first-half actuals to the January plan, line by line. Step 2 Name the two products carrying growth and the two dragging it. Step 3 Move budget and seller time toward what the market is buying now. Q. Does resetting the plan mean the first half failed? A. No. It means you read the market in real time instead of once a year. |
RECOMMENDED READING
01 The 12 Week Year Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington It compresses a year into 12-week cycles, which is exactly how you attack a second half. |
02 Fanatical Prospecting Jeb Blount The second-half gap is usually a pipeline problem, and this is the manual for filling it. |
03 Revenue vs. Sales Mort Greenberg It draws the line between activity and revenue, the same line that decides your second half. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1961059223 |
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