We teach private equity teams to assess growth plans fast
Spot a dressed-up sales story, test the hiring plan and know what to ask management, from teaser to 100-day plan.
Bring a live dealFinancials have to reconcile. Sales numbers don’t.
Sales numbers are judgment calls: pipeline stage, forecast category, what counts as a qualified opportunity. You could ask a hundred questions. What matters is knowing which three count.
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Close dates that keep slipping into next quarter, so the forecast keeps missing its mark
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Pipeline coverage padded with early-stage deals that are unlikely to close soon
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Quotas lowered mid-year, so reported attainment overstates performance
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“ARR” meaning bookings in one deck and recognised revenue in another
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Headcount plans that count unramped reps as full capacity from day one
Turn the sales story into a decision.
Four steps, from what management says to what you can underwrite.
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Start with what management says.
You share the CIM or VDD, pipeline and bookings, quota history and the headcount plan. The claim is where the work starts.
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Break the story into its parts.
Split pipeline value by stage. Most of it is early stage, and almost none is commit.
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Find where the story and the data disagree.
Old deals inflate coverage. The question is how many of the deals open for more than 90 days actually close.
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Keep what holds. Name what must be proved.
Underwrite on the pipeline that can close, not the coverage ratio. You leave knowing which assumptions hold, which do not, and what management must prove.
Who you’ll work with
I’m Edvard Nore. I’ve sold, built, invested and taught.
- Sold
- From cold calling as a graduate to closing enterprise deals today.
- Built
- Built and run sales teams.
- Invested
- As an angel, a board member and an adviser to PE funds.
- Taught
- Sales and venture capital, from coaching reps to designing courses for MBA students.
Today I help PE deal teams test whether the sales numbers in a deal add up. I only ever work for one side of a deal.
What I look for
Five things management will tell you about growth, and the question that tests each one.
“Inbound has run out”
Before you add a new channel, ask:
What have you done in the last 12 months to grow inbound, and what happened?
“The market is big enough”
A big market isn’t the same as enough buyers. Ask:
How many companies can buy at the deal size the plan needs?
“We can switch on outbound”
Check whether it has worked before. Ask:
Show me the last 10 deals you won outbound: source, cycle length, and who closed them.
“Small deals fund outbound”
An outbound rep costs the same whatever the deal size. Ask:
How many deals does each rep need to close a month to pay for themselves?
“Our pipeline is healthy”
Old deals inflate coverage. Ask:
How many deals in your pipeline have been open for more than 90 days, and how many of those close?
Half a day on your live deal
I teach by doing. Sales is a contact sport, so the best way to start is to look at a live deal together. It sits alongside CDD, not in place of it.
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01
Preparation
- What you share
- The commercial section of the CIM or VDD, pipeline and bookings data, and sales headcount.
- Under NDA
- Share only what your process allows. Your fund’s AI policy applies.
- My read
- I go through the numbers myself and mark where the plan is weakest.
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02
The session
- Who’s in the room
- Your deal team, in person or on video.
- The numbers
- We go through the sales numbers together and test them against the plan.
- The questions
- We work out the top three questions to put to management.
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03
Follow-up
- Written summary
- Is the plan structurally believable, and which questions matter most.
- Management meeting
- We rehearse the questions together, and I join the meeting with management if you wish.
- After close
- If you invest, the same questions shape the 100-day plan.
Latest articles
“Inbound has run out”: what to ask before adding a channel. When management says demand has dried up, the useful question is what they have already tried to grow it, and what happened.
Read the article“The market is big enough”: count the buyers, not the market. A large market does not mean many buyers at the deal size the plan needs. Count the companies that can actually buy.
Read the article“We can switch on outbound”: look at the last ten wins. If outbound has worked before, the last ten deals it won will show it: where they came from, how long they took and who closed them.
Read the article“Small deals fund outbound”: the payback question. An outbound rep costs the same whatever the deal size. Ask how many deals each rep must close a month to pay for themselves.
Read the article“Our pipeline is healthy”: look past the coverage number. Old deals inflate coverage. Ask how many deals have been open for more than 90 days and how many of those close.
Read the articleCommon questions
No. It sits alongside CDD, not in place of it.
Against the decision it informs. If it changes one assumption in the plan you underwrite, or stops you funding the wrong fix after close, it has paid for itself. And your team gets better at testing the next sales plan.
Whatever you can share under NDA: the commercial section of the CIM or VDD, pipeline and bookings data, and sales headcount and attainment.
The people working on the deal. The questions we land on are the ones IC will ask, so it helps if whoever presents to IC is there.
Both. Before close, it keeps you from underwriting what the company can’t deliver. After close, it keeps you from funding the wrong fix.
Yes I use business accounts where your data stays private and isn’t used to train models. If your fund’s policy rules out AI tools, I work without them.
Everything is under NDA. I never name clients or deals in public unless you’ve agreed to it in writing, and your data is never used in another engagement.
No. I only ever work for one side of a deal.
Bring a live deal through the contact form. I reply within one working day, and we agree what you can share under NDA.
Nothing is assumed. If you want more, we agree on that.
Bring a live deal. Half a day.
Tell me about the deal and I’ll reply within one working day. Everything is under NDA.