From the Introduction: The Deal That Looked Right

This book is for the deal that looks qualified, active, and on track.

Until it is not.

It is for the seller who believed the deal was moving, and for the manager who trusted the update, forecasted it upward, and then had to watch it stall.

The stage was right.

The activity was there.

The next steps were defined.

Meetings were happening.

The customer was engaged.

Nothing looked broken.

And that was the problem.

If you have ever been in a deal like that, you already understand the problem.

You just may not have had the language for it.

What is often missing is not more data.

It is interpretation.

Because the pipeline tells you what is happening.

It does not always tell you what it means.

The risk is not always that the record is wrong.

The risk is that the record feels complete before the decision behind it has been proven.