Commit

Commit is the part of the forecast a seller is ready to answer for. These are the open deals they expect to close as won this period. The seller does not simply hope for them. They have a reason: the customer named a decision date, agreed the terms and knows the price.

In a CRM, commit is usually a forecast category on the deal card, next to the stage and the amount. The seller sets it, and the head of sales can challenge it. The commit total is the sum of those deals. It leaves out every deal that only might close.

Commit of 4 deals worth $36,000 against a plan of $45,000: commit covers 80% of the plan. The remaining $9,000 has to come from best case.

Update commit once a week, before the weekly pipeline review. Each seller checks their deals and moves them in or out of commit. The head of sales reads the team total and each seller's list, deal by deal. The owner needs one number: what the team commits for the month.

Commit changes what you do in the last weeks of the period. If commit covers the plan, the team protects those deals and keeps building pipeline for next month. If it falls short, you look at best case and choose which deals deserve extra help.

Commit works together with best case and the forecast. Commit is the floor, the forecast sits above it, and best case is the ceiling. Best case holds deals that could close if everything goes right. The forecast is the number you report: commit plus a careful share of best case. Each commit deal needs a decision date the customer confirmed and a next step before that date. In the three forecast versions, commit is close to the cautious one.

• Putting a deal in commit because it is large or old. Size and age say nothing about the customer's decision. Ask one question: did the customer confirm a date and the terms?
• Never checking commit against the result. Example (invented numbers): a seller commits $40,000 and closes $22,000, three months in a row. That seller needs a different rule, not more pressure. Compare commit with won deals at the end of each period.
• Moving deals out of commit silently. A deal that drops out should leave with a reason, said aloud in the weekly review. Otherwise you learn about the gap on the last day of the month.
• Punishing an honest miss. If sellers are blamed for every slipped deal, they commit less and hide good deals in best case. Discuss the reason first, then adjust the rule.

By Friday, the head of sales asks each seller to mark their commit deals in the CRM for this month. Each one needs a decision date the customer confirmed and a dated next step. Deals without both move to best case before the weekly review. At the end of the month, compare commit with what actually closed, seller by seller.

Which numbers to check every week, with one definition for the whole team.