I’ve had this happen loads. A founder sits across from me, nine months into their financial year, staring at a massive revenue target they’re nowhere near hitting. They’ve been to every founder event, they’ve posted religiously on LinkedIn, they’ve built features their team was excited about. But the revenue just isn’t there.

The problem isn’t effort. It’s direction.

When I was a SaaS sales professional, I knew that if you do the right activities every day, revenue follows automatically. But most founders they fixate on the revenue number without mapping the specific actions that will get them there. That’s where a backward sales plan changes everything.

What is a backward sales plan?

A backward sales plan is where you start with your revenue target and work backward to identify the daily activities required to hit that goal.

Instead of saying having a £2 million ARR target and hoping for the best, you break down that target into actionable, measurable steps. You determine how many opportunities you need in your pipeline, how many discovery calls that requires, and how many outbound activities in total you need to execute every week.

One of my early VPs of sales taught me to focus on the leading indicators, not the lagging ones. If you do the calls, send the emails, and have enough meetings, if you have sufficient top-of-funnel activity, revenue will naturally come. But if you only chase the revenue number, you’ll drive the wrong behaviors and burn through months before you realize you’re off track.

Why founders need this plan

Time in startup land moves like dog years. Every month that passes is significant. And if you’ve got a three to six-month sales cycle? That prospect you speak to in January won’t close until June. Half your year, gone in one deal cycle.

You can’t afford to wing it and realise in month five that you’ve been doing the wrong activities. I’ve watched founders burn three, four, even five months before they look up and realise they’re staring at a massive target with no clear path to get there. They’ve been distracted building product, attending events, creating content, which are all valuable activities, but they’re not always the right sales activities to move the needle.

Breaking down the mountain

When you tell a new salesperson they’ve got a £500k target, it feels like staring up at Everest. It’s overwhelming. It’s daunting. And honestly I’ve been there, it can be demotivating.

But when you break it down together? When you sit with that founding AE and phrase it like the below, suddenly, it’s workable.

“Our ACV is £50k, so we need 10 customers this year, that’s not even one per month. To get one customer a month, we need about 10 qualified opportunities. To get those 10 opportunities, here’s the activity we need to do.”

Breaking down that massive target into daily actions that feel manageable is what gets results.

How to build your backward sales plan

Step 1: Anchor on a realistic target

First, lock in your revenue target. Maybe it’s £2 million ARR. Whatever it is, make sure it’s realistic and commit to it. Don’t move the needle halfway through the year because things got hard. Your plan only works if you’re working toward a specific, unchanging target.

Step 2: Understand your key metrics

You need to know:

• Your Average Contract Value (ACV): What’s the typical deal size?
• Your Win Rate: What percentage of opportunities actually close?
• Your Sales Cycle: How long does it take from first conversation to signed contract?
• Pipeline Coverage: How many opportunities do you need at each stage to maintain healthy flow?

For example, if you need £2 million ARR and your ACV is £50k, you need 40 customers. If your win rate is 25%, you need 160 opportunities. If your sales cycle is three months, you need to maintain consistent pipeline generation throughout the year.

Step 3: Map your pipeline requirements stage by stage

Work backward through your sales stages:

• How many opportunities need to be in proposal stage to hit your target?
• How many need to be in demo stage to feed proposal stage?
• How many need to be in discovery stage to feed demo stage?

This gives you your pipeline coverage—the buffer you need at each stage to account for drop-off and ensure you’re not left scrambling.

Step 4: Define your daily activities

Once you know you need, say, 100 opportunities in discovery stage, you can work back to the activities that generate those opportunities:

• How many calls do you need to make daily, weekly, monthly?
• How many emails should you send?
• How many LinkedIn messages?
• How many inbound leads can you expect from marketing?
• What can you leverage through partnerships?
• What comes from founder referrals?

When you start attributing opportunities to different sources, the target becomes less overwhelming. Maybe you need 10 opportunities per month, but you already get two inbound leads from marketing, three from partners, and one from referrals. Suddenly, your outbound team only needs to generate four opportunities. That’s way more manageable.

Step 5: Track and adjust weekly

Your backward sales plan isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it document. You need to review it weekly and monthly. Even if you had no revenue in a given month, you might be on track if you created enough opportunities. If you know it takes two months to close deals, those opportunities you generated this month will convert next month.

This is what gives you gives you credibility with investors.

The cost of winging it

I recently worked with a founder who was definitely taking the winging it approach. He was attending loads of founder events (great for learning, sure), posting frequently on social media (also valuable), but he wasn’t doing the fundamental sales activities required to move the needle.

Nine months into the year, he was staring at a massive target and was nowhere near it. Why? Because he wasn’t doing the right activities every day. He didn’t have a plan. He didn’t know how many calls to make, how many opportunities he needed in pipeline, or what his conversion rates actually were.

This is the most common mistake I see. Founders commit to their investors, maybe say they’ll hit £2 million this year, and then just hope. They give it a swing and before they know it, half the year is gone, and they haven’t built the pipeline they need to close deals in the second half.

The impact of getting it right

When you build an effective backward sales plan, three things happen:

1. Clarity: Everyone on your team knows exactly what they need to do. There’s no ambiguity about whether you’re on track.

2. Confidence: Your team feels empowered because they understand how their daily actions connect to the bigger picture. That £500k target isn’t scary anymore because it’s just a series of achievable daily tasks.

3. Credibility: When you have a tough quarter, you can go to your investors with data. You can show them your win rates, loss rates, ACVs, sales cycle times, pipeline velocity, and activity metrics. You can say, “Yes, this quarter was challenging, but look at the opportunities we’ve created. Based on our sales cycle, we expect these to close in Q3.” That buys you time and trust.

Contrast that with going to an investor meeting and saying, “Tough quarter, but we’ll make it up next quarter” without any real plan. That’s how you lose credibility fast.

Making it work with your team

One of the most powerful aspects of a backward sales plan is how it works as an onboarding and alignment tool. When you bring in a new salesperson, do a whiteboarding session with them. Build the plan together.

Walk through it: “We need £500k. Our ACV is £50k, so we need 10 customers. That’s not even one per month. To get one customer, we need about 10 opportunities in pipeline. To get those opportunities, here’s the activity required.”

When they help build the plan, they buy into it. They understand the logic. They see it’s achievable. And that makes all the difference in execution.

Backwards sales plan FAQs

How often should I update my backward sales plan?

Review your plan weekly and make adjustments monthly. Your key metrics (ACV, win rate, sales cycle) should be reassessed quarterly as you gather more data and your sales process matures.

What if I don’t have historical data for metrics like win rate and sales cycle?

Start with educated estimates based on your early deals and adjust as you gather real data. Even an imperfect plan is better than no plan. Just commit to refining it as you learn.

Should my backward sales plan account for team growth?

Absolutely. If you’re planning to hire additional salespeople mid-year, factor in their ramp time. A new AE typically won’t hit full productivity for 3-6 months, so plan accordingly.

What if we’re missing our activity targets but still hitting revenue goals?

That’s a good problem to have short-term, but it’s a warning sign. You may have pulled forward deals or gotten lucky with larger ACVs. Stick to your activity targets to ensure sustainable, predictable growth.

How detailed should the activity breakdown be?

Detailed enough that anyone on your team can pick up the plan and know exactly what to do that day. Specify call volumes, email targets, LinkedIn touches, and which channels to prioritise. The more specific, the more actionable.

Author: Matthew Codd

I’m Matthew, I have 15 years of commercial leadership experience, helping VC-backed B2B technology companies scale revenue and transition from founder-led sales.  

I use my experience to help early-stage start-ups with GTM expertise, sales best practice, and hiring insights.  

I co-founded Cosmic Partners in 2022. We are SaaS sales recruitment specialists for VC backed B2B tech companies.