Ben, a sales representative on your team, has developed the nickname… “Mr. Sunshine.” He always has a smile on his face. He’s like a ray of sunshine in the office and tells anyone and everyone how great he is doing with sales. To hear him talk, you would believe he is the top seller on the team.

When it comes to his prospect pipeline reviews, Ben gets you (Vice President of Sales) fired up as he shares prospect after prospect…with each one being an imminent win. It seems like he has a gazillion dollars in his sales pipeline that will close any minute.

Ben has shared these stories for a few months now. The gazillion dollars that was to “close any minute” last quarter still is just pocket change when you look at actual results.

Ben still walks around with the same big smile and he thinks life is roses, but not you. You are furious and embarrassed as you’ve used his pipeline data to create the overall sales team’s forecast. As a result, you have egg on your face with both the CEO and your executive peers for the forecasting snafus.