Sofia Bennett Executive mandate Revenue Leadership Seat · USD 6,200 / month
90-day CRO mandate: Pentland Analytics
Sofia Bennett owns the revenue system. Discount authority is capped, and the cap is the point.
Pentland hits its quarterly number roughly half the time and nobody can say in advance which half. Fourteen people in sales, no forecast anyone believes, and a discount pattern that gets worse in the last two weeks of every quarter. This mandate fixes the system, and caps the one lever that would let it pretend to.
From 8 February, Sofia owns the sales team, the pipeline process, the forecast and territory design. Her own discount authority is capped at 15 percent, the same as a sales director, and anything deeper goes to the CEO. A revenue leader who can discount without limit can always make one quarter look fine.
Document control
- Document number
- MAN-PEN-01
- Version
- 1.0
- Effective
- 8 February 2027
- Owner
- Sofia Bennett, Fractional CRO
- Approved by
- Marcus Pentland, CEO
- Next review
- 10 May 2027
- Classification
- Confidential. Leadership team
Why
What the diagnostic found
| Observed | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Forecast accuracy averages 52 percent | Eight quarters of forecast against actual |
| Deals close at a discount in the final fortnight | Mean discount 9 percent in weeks 1 to 11, 24 percent in weeks 12 and 13 |
| No agreed definition of a qualified opportunity | Four reps, four definitions, all reasonable |
| Pipeline is reviewed, never cleaned | 31 percent of open pipeline has had no activity in 90 days |
| Territories overlap | Two reps called the same account in October, separately |
| Win rate on qualified deals is good | 38 percent. The problem is not selling |
The end-of-quarter discount pattern is the tell. A 24 percent average in the last fortnight against 9 percent the rest of the time is not negotiation, it is a system that teaches buyers to wait.
Authority
Decision rights
| Sofia decides | CEO decides | |
|---|---|---|
| Sales team structure, territories and quotas | Yes | |
| Pipeline definitions and stage criteria | Yes | |
| The forecast and how it is produced | Yes | |
| Sales process, tooling and reporting | Yes | |
| Discount to 15 percent | Yes | |
| Hiring within the approved plan | Yes | |
| Performance management of reps | Yes, with People | |
| Discount above 15 percent | CEO, per deal, in writing | |
| Commission plan design | Proposes | Approves |
| List price and packaging | CEO | |
| Non-standard contract terms | CEO and legal |
Plan
What the 90 days does
-
One definition of qualified, written down
Agreed with all four reps in a room. Applied retrospectively to the existing pipeline in week two.
-
Pipeline cleaned
The 31 percent with no activity in 90 days comes out. The number will look worse and be true.
-
Territories redrawn, no overlaps
Published. Every account has one owner.
-
Weekly forecast call, same format every week
Commit, best case, pipeline. Reps forecast their own deals and are held to it gently for a quarter.
-
Discount ladder published to the team
Who may approve what. Removes the negotiation about the negotiation.
-
Review, with one clean quarter of forecast data
Accuracy is the measure, not the number itself.
Measures
How this gets judged on 10 May
| Measure | Today | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Forecast accuracy | 52 percent | Above 80 percent |
| Final fortnight discount average | 24 percent | Within 5 points of the rest of the quarter |
| Stale pipeline | 31 percent | Under 10 percent |
| Accounts with two owners | Unknown, at least 1 | Zero |
| Agreed definition of qualified | None | One, used by all four reps |
| Revenue | Reported | Reported, not promised in 90 days |
Forecast accuracy is the measure a revenue system should be judged on in a quarter. Revenue itself is a lagging number on a sales cycle of four to six months, and a CRO who promises to move it inside 90 days is promising to discount.
Document control
Revision history
| Version | Date | Author | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 30 January 2027 | Sofia Bennett | Agreed and signed. Effective 8 February 2027. |
| 0.2 | 26 January 2027 | Sofia Bennett | Draft. Discount cap added at my own request and set at the same level as a sales director. |
| 0.1 | 22 January 2027 | Sofia Bennett | First draft from the revenue diagnostic of 18 January. |