# The Forecast Commit Standard

The working checklist from jennacclark.com/field-guide — Stage 04 in one page,
repackaged from Field Notes 01, "The forecast is a story you tell twice"
(jennacclark.com/writing/forecast-story-you-tell-twice).

Rule: the forecast is a story you tell twice — once to your VP, once to
yourself. Most missed forecasts weren't a lie to the boss; they were a lie to
yourself the boss happened to overhear. This sheet is the second telling.

---

## The dating rule: their calendar, not yours

A close date you can defend is anchored to an event on the CUSTOMER'S side
that you can verify — a launch they've committed to, a budget cycle that
expires, a program their VP has announced internally, a renewal that lapses.
If the deal slips and nothing visible breaks for THEM, the date is decoration.

- Customer-side event this deal is dated to: ____________
- Date: _________________________________________________
- Verified how (not "the champion said so"): ____________
- What breaks for them on a slip: _______________________

## Three questions before a deal goes in commit

A deal enters commit only when all three are answered out loud, without
hedging.

### 1 · Who signs

The named person with authority — not the title you assume has it.
If your champion "will find out," you haven't done discovery; you've done
a demo.

- Name + title: _________________________________________

### 2 · What happens on their side the week before

Legal, security review, procurement queue. If you can't narrate their
internal week, you're forecasting your own optimism.

- Their week-before, step by step: ______________________

### 3 · What breaks for them if it slips

The customer-side cost of delay. No answer means no urgency, and no urgency
means next quarter.

- The cost of delay, in their terms: ____________________

## Commit vs. pipeline

Deals that fail a question do not leave the pipeline. They leave commit.
Commit is a verification standard; pipeline is a working set. That
distinction is the whole discipline.

- [ ] All three questions answered without hedging → commit
- [ ] Any question open → pipeline, with the open question as the next step

---

Jenna Clark · jennacclark.com · hello@jennacclark.com
Free to use and share. Method, not client data.