- September 12, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Imagine hearing “Power Alley” during an interview with a sales candidate. As a baseball guy, I pictured a right-handed batter smashing a home-run to left-centerfield. Like my son did in his college baseball days in the video below.
But I was wrong—and I’m thrilled about it. A sales candidate introduced me to a concept from their former company, and I think with a little bit of tweaking, it can be a grand slam for CEOs and sales teams alike.
What Is the Power Alley?
At this candidate’s company, the CEO was obsessed with forecasting accuracy, demanding actual revenue be within 1% of the forecast. Miss it, even by a hair, and sales leadership faced the heat – even if they exceeded the target. The CEO called this trifecta of pipeline, forecast, and actual revenue the Power Alley. It’s a term that slides perfectly into Baseline Selling terminology and, more importantly, I see it as a way to fix a universal sales problem: inaccurate forecasting.
Why Forecasting Accuracy Matters
CEOs rely on forecasts to budget, plan, and meet board expectations. When sales forecasts are off, it’s chaos—they can’t commit, can’t plan, and can’t deliver. The Power Alley KPI changes that by holding sales teams accountable for aligning pipeline, forecast, and actual revenue within a tight threshold.
Implementing the Power Alley
I gave the concept a lot of thought and devised a plan to implement the Power Alley at your company:
Start with a 10% Threshold: A 1% threshold is too aggressive for most teams. Begin with 10% to drive compliance without overwhelming the team.
Phase It Down: After a three-month adjustment period you can tighten it to 5% and after a year, aim for 1%.
Tie Compensation to the KPI: Link sales leaders’ bonuses and/or commissions to hitting the Power Alley KPI. I can guarantee that as soon as the sales leader’s revenue is tied to the Power Alley, CRM compliance will never again be an issue. The sales leader must require that all new opportunities as well as updates on existing opportunities be entered into CRM daily. That solves the issue with lack of realtime data. It must be a condition for continued employment.
Enforce Rigorous Qualification: Salespeople must uncover compelling reasons to buy, confirm urgency, verify spend amounts, thoroughly qualify their opportunities and lock in closing dates. No exceptions.
Implementation is straightforward. If your sales leader doesn’t buy in? Replace them with one who does. If salespeople won’t comply? Find ones who will. This solves the CEO’s biggest frustration: unreliable forecasts.
What If It Doesn’t Work?
You might be thinking, “What if we do all this and we’re still off by 20%?” Great question! Remember that everything is relative:
Improvement Is Progress: If forecasts were off by 50% before and now they’re off by 20%, that’s a huge win. Keep refining.
No Improvement? Dig Deeper: Persistent inaccuracy points to sales effectiveness issues. Maybe the team struggles with discovery, fails to reach decision-makers, or sells on price instead of value. An inadequate sales process could also be the culprit.
Sales training and coaching can address these gaps, but expect it to take 8-12 months (plus the length of your sales cycle) for all of the issues to be resolved. The Power Alley exposes hidden weaknesses, giving you a clear path to fix them.
Swing for the Fences
The Power Alley isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a strategy to transform forecasting accuracy and drive sales accountability. Start today, and you’ll see why this concept is a game-changer. Share your forecasting challenges in the comments or reach out for a consultation to hit your Power Alley!