According to CSO Insights up to 24% of the deals in your forecast will end in a No Decision by the end of the quarter.  The  majority of those No-Decision deals, up to 3/4, are the result of close date slippage (CDS).   Close Date Slippage is the single biggest cause of missed quarters

We’ve all been through it!

The deal is scheduled to close during last  couple of weeks of the quarter, as the date approaches the sales rep informs you that they’re expecting the paperwork any day now. The forecasted close date slips by, still no order; but you still have time. One week rolls into the next and you’re now down to the last couple of days of the quarter, you’re starting to get concerned (or panic, depending on how significant the deal is).

Now, there’s only a couple of days left in the quarter, you haven’t hit your quota and you need this order, what do you do?

You do what we’ve all done; get the sales rep to ‘ask for a favour’ and hurry the paper work through, offer an allowance or extra discount, pull something out of the hat with one of your other sales reps who has been sandbagging a deal.

You’d better do something or you will miss your quarter.

Wouldn’t you be better off knowing which deals have the potential to slip past their forecasted close date at the beginning of the quarter, when you have time to react?

Occulus will tell you which deals in your forecast have the greatest potential to slip past the forecasted close date; anything RED & ORANGE is a problem.