A revenue plan is a set of assumptions about how a quarter will unfold.
A commitment is what happens when those assumptions are treated as permanent.
Most revenue organizations make the transition from plan to commitment at the moment
they stop monitoring the assumptions the plan depends on. The plan was written
in January. It was accurate in January. By March, three of its core assumptions
had quietly shifted. But the commitment persisted. The quarter was executed
against a set of conditions that no longer held.
A plan should be living. It should update when its inputs update. The assumptions
that determined who the buyer is, what problem they are trying to solve, and
why they would choose your motion over an alternative should be validated
continuously, not written once and filed.
The organizations that hit their commitments most consistently are not the ones
with the best forecasting models. They are the ones that keep the plan alive —
that monitor the assumption layer and update the commitment when the
assumptions that justified it have changed.
A plan built on current assumptions is a commitment you can defend. A plan built
on assumptions that have drifted is a commitment you will be explaining.
What is the oldest assumption sitting inside your current plan that has not been
revisited since it was written?