By the middle of the year, sales leaders can usually identify one thing pretty quickly: we are either on track to hit the number, or we’re not.
The end of Q2 is a good time to review your numbers, check your pipeline, and see if you’re satisfied with your progress. No matter where you stand, you’re likely thinking about what needs to happen in the second half of the year to reach your revenue goal.
But you can’t just ask, “Are we behind?” That’s a yes-or-no question and doesn’t really give you any insight.
Instead, try asking, “Where is the revenue coming from, and where is it getting stuck?”
That’s a much more revealing way to analyze your mid-year numbers, and requires you to dig deeper than the dashboard. You have to understand how you’re tracking from a net-new perspective and a current-customer growth perspective. You have to look at churn, land-and-expand opportunities, pipeline stages, and a whole lot more inputs that have a major impact on your P&L.
Think of this as mid-year revenue triage. You’re figuring out what’s working, what isn’t, and where to focus your efforts for the rest of the year.
How do you analyze your mid-year revenue number?
Before making changes or deciding something isn’t working, take a step back and look at the numbers. Find out how much revenue you need for the year, how much you’ve already closed, and what the gap is. Once you know that, you can start breaking things down.
Saying, “We need more revenue,” is too broad. You need to break it down and look closely. Are all your reps meeting their quotas, or is one person doing most of the work? Are some territories, products, or customer segments performing better than others? How much growth is coming from new customers versus existing ones?
These are the levers you can use, but only after you understand what’s really happening with your current performance. Knowing the size and source of your go-to-market strategy gap is the first step to refocusing for the rest of the year.
Which KPIs show if your pipeline can support the goal?
Once you know your target, the next step is to see if your pipeline can actually support it. This is where we open the RevOps black box and look inside.
Begin by looking at pipeline coverage. Check if your total pipeline value is enough to reach your remaining revenue goal for the year. Some teams use 3x or 4x coverage as a guideline, but I avoid relying on these ‘magic numbers.’ These ratios only help if you know your real win rate, sales cycle, and deal size. In many mid-market sales teams, things can change too much to trust simple rules.
Once you know what’s in your pipeline, look closely at your win rate. Go beyond the big picture and dig into the details. Which sales reps, offers, and channels are actually closing deals? At this point in the year, you need opportunities that are likely to turn into real revenue.
Sales velocity and deal size often go hand in hand. If your pipeline is full of large deals, you can typically expect them to move a little slower. They might need more nurturing to get across the finish line, and in the worst-case scenario, it might not even land this year. Smaller deals might close more quickly, but you need to know how many you need to efficiently hit your goal.
There are a lot of moving parts, but they all contribute to the number. Your job at this point in the year is to figure out where you need to unstick deals, apply a little pressure, and keep RevOps on course.
What’s different about mid-market pipeline dynamics?
As I said before, mid-market deals are unique. They are usually less transactional than small-business deals, which tend to be quick and simple. At the same time, they are not as formal or slow as enterprise sales. This uncertainty is what makes mid-market deals challenging, especially in the middle of the year.
It’s not uncommon for multiple people to be involved in the process on a mid-market proposal. There’s probably a budget owner, perhaps a department lead, or a technical reviewer. IT is notorious for being a third-party with significant input. Sometimes you’ll have an executive team member brought in as a champion. And none of that even includes your day-to-day contact, who will actually be the one responsible for making the work happen. In situations like this, even a clear business case can stall as it moves through the decision-making process.
But a stuck deal is not a dead deal. And at this time of year, an unstuck deal can make a major impact toward a successful second half. But before you put a lot of energy into moving that deal forward, make sure it’s honestly a good ICP fit. The right-fit prospect is much more likely to have urgency, budget, and use case aligned.
This matters even more when you have less time to reach your goals. Some B2B benchmarks show average closed-won rates at about 21% for all opportunities, and closer to 30% for qualified ones. The exact rate depends on your business, but the main idea is clear: in mid-market sales, having the right prospects makes a big difference in closing deals.
Which two pipeline stages can create the most movement?
When I’m looking to unstick deals, I look the hardest at two places in the pipeline: discovery and contract. Now, I’m not saying the middle of the pipeline doesn’t matter, because it absolutely does. But if you’re trying to figure out where to focus your energy in the second half of the year, discovery and contract usually tell you a lot in a short amount of time.
Discovery shows if you have enough qualified people coming into your pipeline.
Contract tells you whether enough revenue is close enough to move.
If you don’t have many leads at the top of your pipeline, you likely need more conversations with the right people. This isn’t about chasing numbers or blasting your CRM. Focus on finding people who fit your ideal customer profile, have the problem you solve, and are open to talking. This approach is much more targeted than just trying to increase volume.
If you have several deals stuck in the contract stage, you’re facing a different challenge. These opportunities are already moving, so now the question is what will help push them across the finish line.
When you’re reviewing your mid-year revenue, you don’t have unlimited time to fix every stage of the pipeline. You need to focus where you can make the biggest impact quickly. Discovery and contract are two key points that can help shape your strategy for the next six months.
Stop asking for an update. Start creating a reason to re-engage.
Once you’ve identified where your stuck deals are, it’s time to reconnect. The most important consideration for this type of sales motion is to recenter the conversation on the problem the prospect said they needed to solve.
This isn’t done with a dreaded “just checking in” email. Instead, send something that helps them think about their problem in a different way. Maybe it’s some data, a study, or a new piece of industry news. Anything that communicates “I saw this and thought of your challenge.” Anything that gives them a real reason to re-engage.
At this point in the year, some key sales tools are:
- Tailored Case Studies: These provide evidence-based content that shows ROI for similar companies solving similar problems.
- Interactive Demos: Use tools like Walnut to give prospects the opportunity to interact with your solution directly.
- Mutual Action Plans (MAPs): Help the prospect map out the steps to close, setting clear next steps and a join checklist.
- Objection Handling Scripts: Equip sales reps with targeted messaging to address common and specific hesitations.
This is where sales and marketing can really work together to create movement. Audit the message and channel, and see if shifting one or the other could create new opportunities. If email is going nowhere, try a LinkedIn campaign. Send a short personalized video. Pick up the phone and invite the prospect to a working session where you can help scope the problem. Don’t just keep zagging. Try a little zig and see if the prospect responds.
Focus the second half around the right moves
The midpoint of the year is a useful checkpoint because it forces a clearer look at what is actually happening across the business. By now, sales leaders should have a better sense of which offers are producing, which pipeline stages are creating momentum, where current customers may have room to grow, and which campaigns need to be retooled before more time or budget is invested.
The goal is not to fix everything at once. It is to understand where the best opportunities are and make focused decisions for the second half of the year.
When leaders know where mid-year revenue is coming from, where deals are getting stuck, and what it will take to move the right opportunities forward, the second half becomes less reactive and more intentional.
