Nobody Outsells the Plan

The #1 predictor of hitting your number?
Turns out it’s your sales plan.

At more than 50% of companies we studied, losses tied to poor planning decisions cost more than an entire year of growth.

See what 1,000+ revenue leaders say separates teams that hit their number from those that don’t. Get the 2026 Market Spotlight report.

Inside the report, you’ll find:

Insights from 1,000+ senior revenue leaders, giving organizes advice on what separates companies that exceed their revenue targets from those that miss.
How we tracked the quality of plan design, and what framework you can use to improve the decisions that shape seller performance every single day.
How top teams use AI differently than lower-performing companies do.
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Highlights from the 2026 Market Spotlight

Why Nobody Outsells the Plan

We correlated dozens of variables to find what factors most predict whether a company hits its number. One ended up mattering the most above the rest: the quality of the revenue plan.

The finding held even after controlling for sales team size, seller experience, industry, prior growth, and more. Learn why your GTM team matters, but the plan they inherit may matter even more. 

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The Daily Cost of the Annual Plan

For more than 50% of companies, losses from poor planning decisions wipe out the gains from an entire year of growth.

See where those losses come from and which planning decisions can slowly put the most revenue at risk.

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The Missing Feedback Loop

Only 4% of companies can identify which past planning decisions worked and which didn’t.

Find out what separates the few companies that learn from their decisions from the others planning in the dark.

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Planning Effectively With AI

Companies that used AI in one specific part of revenue planning were 46% more likely to exceed target.

Where AI gets applied may matter more than you think. See the specific planning decisions where leading teams are gaining an advantage.

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Download the 2026 Market Spotlight report to learn what 1,000+ revenue leaders reveal about the revenue planning decisions behind revenue performance.

Download The Report

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Frequently Asked Questions

The 2026 Market Spotlight, Nobody Outsells the Plan, is a Varicent research report based on a survey of more than 1,000 senior revenue leaders. It examines how revenue plan design shapes seller performance and revenue growth, and where AI is changing how leading teams plan. The report is free to download.

Across 1,000+ companies surveyed, the single strongest predictor of revenue growth was the design of the revenue plan — ahead of company size, number of sellers, seller experience, and industry. Before sellers start selling, the plan has already shaped the accounts they pursue, the targets they carry, and what they're rewarded for.

Companies in the study estimate that poor planning decisions cost them 6–11% or more of annual revenue. Those losses compound through thousands of seller decisions over the year, and only 4% of companies have a formal way to tell whether last year's planning decisions worked.

Companies using AI for revenue planning are 40% more likely to exceed their revenue targets than companies that don't. The research shows the advantage comes less from adopting AI than from where it's applied in the planning process.