- Dan McKee
- Jul 16
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 23
Let’s Be Honest—Forecast Reviews Are Broken
If you asked your reps to list their top three most painful meetings, there’s a good chance forecast reviews would make the cut.
They’re supposed to help the business. But instead, they often feel like:
A performance interrogation
A pipeline theater show
A guessing game to please leadership
And reps aren’t wrong to hate them.
Most forecast reviews are more about inspection than leverage.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right leadership approach, forecast reviews can become your most powerful coaching tool—a rhythm that drives precision, clarity, and team alignment.
What Forecast Reviews Were Meant to Be
Originally, forecast calls were designed to:
Help reps think critically about deals
Align cross-functional support around key accounts
Coach through friction points and decision risk
Create visibility into pipeline health and velocity
Improve forecast accuracy
Audit CRM hygiene
In theory? Excellent. In practice? Most leaders miss the mark.
Why Sales Reps Hate Forecast Reviews
Here’s what your reps are actually experiencing:
They’re being interrogated, not supported. Questions feel like traps: “Why did this push?” “Is this really going to close?”
The focus is on dates and dollars—not deal dynamics. Leadership wants numbers, not nuance.
Leaders prescribe actions without context, often doing more harm than good.
It’s unclear how the meeting helps them win. If it feels like a waste, it probably is.
They leave with more pressure—but not more clarity.
Forecast reviews become disconnected from the actual work of selling.And reps start giving the answers they think leaders want—rather than the truth leaders need.
The Real Problem: You’re Managing the Output, Not the Inputs
If your review is only about “what’s closing this week?” or “are we going to hit the number?”, you’re operating at the end of the sales motion.
High-performing teams know that accuracy is the output of a great process—not pressure.
That means:
Setting the tone: We call it “side by side,” not “face to face”
Seeking to understand before acting: Context—not assumptions—drives effective decisions
Reviewing deal progression and next steps through structure, not spontaneity
Trusting your people and guiding them instead of commanding them
Coaching the thinking, not just checking the math
Asking high-leverage questions that help reps reflect—not defend
This posture shift—from inspection to coaching—changes everything.
What Great Forecast Reviews Actually Look Like
Great leaders don’t use forecast reviews to inspect performance. They use them to shape performance.
Here’s what they do differently:
Focus on deal quality, not just quantity
Bring clarity to chaos—especially in complex, multi-threaded deals
Connect pipeline movement to execution habits
Reinforce mindset—not just mechanics
Rally resources to increase velocity and deal confidence
Address CRM hygiene as part of the flow—not as a surprise beatdown from RevOps
Done right, the forecast review isn't for the leader—it's for the rep.
The Quality Forecast Test
Want to know if you’re doing it right?
Run the best forecast process you can—value-first, structured, and coaching-oriented—for 12 weeks.
Then stop without explanation.
If your team asks, “When’s our next forecast review?”—that’s your answer.
When reps start seeing value in the process, you’ve hit the mark.
The Anatomy of a High-Impact Forecast Review
Here’s what we teach inside the High Achiever Leadership Coaching Program. A strong forecast review includes:
Structured cadence: Weekly or biweekly, time-boxed, consistent
Deal-first lens: Not just numbers—deal-by-deal insights and buyer progress
Shared frameworks: Clear, consistent criteria for “commit,” “best case,” and “slipping”
Strategic coaching moments: Focused feedback on messaging, stakeholder management, or risk mitigation
Documentation and follow-up: Aligned next steps—not just more tasks
This rhythm is a core part of Building High-Performing Customer-Facing Teams.
What to Stop Doing Immediately
If you want forecast reviews to actually help your team, stop doing this:
Stop asking “Will this close?” without reviewing buyer signals
Stop publicly embarrassing reps—nothing shuts down transparency faster
Stop guessing based on sandbagged numbers or hope
Stop confusing urgency with clarity
Stop showing up unprepared and expecting rigor from others
Your team mirrors your behavior.If you bring vagueness, pressure, and judgment—they’ll bring guardedness, spin, and surface-level answers.
A Better Way: Turn Forecast Reviews into Coaching
Here’s how to elevate the meeting:
Ask reps to walk through what the buyer is experiencing—not just CRM stages
Focus on risk factors in the deal—not just positive signals
Coach managers to facilitate—not just host
Carve out time for reps to learn from each other: “What’s working this week?”
Reps don’t hate accountability.They hate arbitrary, shallow inspection.
What they actually crave is leadership that helps them win.
Want to Take This Further?
Forecast reviews should be part of a broader accelerated learning system—a structure where salespeople are constantly refining judgment, strategy, and execution.
That’s why we combine Accelerated Learning with Selling Better is Rarely the Solution in our leadership systems. The solution isn’t more pressure—it’s more process, more clarity, and more coaching.
Download: Unlock the Potential of Frontline Leaders to help your managers turn every forecast review into a leadership moment.
Final Thoughts: Forecast Reviews Aren’t the Problem—Leadership Is
If your forecast reviews are broken, it’s not because the meeting is bad.
It’s because it hasn’t been led well.
The solution isn’t to cancel the meeting.The solution is to transform it into a ritual of precision, clarity, and growth.
That’s what the High Achiever Leadership Coaching Program is built to do—help your leaders turn routines into performance engines.
Because your team doesn’t need more check-ins.They need a coach who helps them win.
