How to ensure you hit your sales objectives (without guesswork)

If you run a B2B business—such as a consultancy or a web design agency—the question that really matters is this: do you currently have enough contacts in your sales pipeline to hit your client target? If the answer is “I don’t know” or “it depends,” you’re in good company: most business owners feel they don’t have control over whether their sales team has enough qualified contacts in progress right now. The good news is this can be solved with simple maths and clear criteria. Let’s turn your sales objectives into operational numbers that guide marketing and sales every day—no guesswork.

The economic ceiling towards your sales objectives: LTV with margin

Before deciding how much to invest to acquire customers, define the economic ceiling of what you can spend per customer. Here we use LTV with gross margin (contribution), not “net profit.” It’s the margin you expect to obtain from a customer over the relationship.

The formula is straightforward:

LTV = Average order value × Number of purchases × Gross margin

Simple example: with an average order value of €1,500, two purchases per customer over time, and 40% gross margin, you get €1,200 in LTV as accumulated margin per customer. This €1,200 is the “margin pool” that justifies your commercial and marketing investment to acquire that customer.

Your red line: maximum CAC

CAC is the Customer Acquisition Cost—what it costs you to turn someone who doesn’t know you into a customer. To protect profitability, use the B2B rule of thumb LTV:CAC ≥ 3:1. In simple terms, CAC should not exceed 30–40% of LTV. With the example LTV (€1,200), a prudent limit is €360 as maximum CAC. Below this value you’re protecting the health of the business; above it you’re squeezing margin and increasing risk.

The funnel that provides predictability

Predictability comes from knowing—and monitoring—the conversion rates between stages in your customers’ buying journey. If you’ve never measured them, start with market benchmarks and begin measuring today; in a year you’ll have real data to work with.

A realistic example for B2B services:

• From Lead (cold contact) to Prospect (initial qualified contact): 20%

• From Prospect to Opportunity (active deal): 30%

• From Opportunity to Customer: 40%

What does this tell us? On average, 20% of all contacts coming in (Leads) show interest in the services you offer (Prospects). Of those, 30% are actually ready to buy and negotiate (Opportunities). And you close 40% of those into real sales, turning them into customers.

In reality, only 2.4% of leads become customers (0.20 × 0.30 × 0.40). You can choose to remove either the “Prospect” or “Opportunity” step and work with fewer stages, but it’s recommended to keep an intermediate qualification step before “Customer.” This step separates the merely curious from genuine potential buyers, stabilises the pipeline, prevents the sales team from wasting time on poor-fit contacts, and helps you disentangle prospecting efficiency from the strength of your value proposition.

“Working backwards”: how many contacts you need to hit the goal

Suppose your goal is to close 20 new customers every 6 months. If your opportunity win rate is 40%, you need 50 opportunities (20/0.40). To reach 50 opportunities with a 30% prospect→opportunity rate, you need approximately 167 prospects (50/0.30). And to get 167 prospects with a 20% lead→prospect rate, you need 835 leads (167/0.20).

This calculation is your minimum required. Without generating close to 835 leads in the half-year, you’ll struggle to reach 20 customers. It’s not opinion—it’s maths.

The trick that links finance to day-to-day ops: stage target cost (to guarantee your objectives)

You know your maximum CAC is €360. Now, convert that ceiling into a target cost per unit at each stage, using the probability of that unit becoming a customer. The rule is:

Maximum cost per unit = Maximum CAC × Probability that the unit becomes a customer

In our example, the probability that a lead becomes a customer is 0.20 × 0.30 × 0.40 = 0.024. Therefore, the maximum CPL (cost per lead) is €360 × 0.024 = €8.64.For prospects, the probability of becoming a customer is 0.30 × 0.40 = 0.12, so the maximum cost per prospect is €43.20.For opportunities, the probability is 0.40, so the maximum cost per opportunity is €144.

This is the connection point between finance and daily operations: if you keep cost per lead, cost per prospect, and cost per opportunity below these ceilings, the expected cost per customer remains ≤ €360. Operating below these limits (e.g., target CPL of €6) creates a margin buffer and accelerates payback; above these limits you raise risk and reduce the attractiveness of your business.

A pace that avoids end-of-period scrambles: monthly pipeline (focused on the goal)

Split the six-month target into monthly goals to maintain cadence and predictability. In our example, 835 leads over 6 months equals about 139 leads per month; 167 prospects equals 28 per month; 50 opportunities equals 9 per month.

This granularity enables short weekly meetings where marketing and sales align on: how many real leads came in, how many were qualified, how many opportunities were opened, and whether stage costs are staying within ceilings.

How much to invest at the top of the funnel (and what counts toward CAC)

If you set a target CPL of €6 and need 139 leads/month, your lead-generation budget will be around €834/month (139 × €6). Remember that CAC is not just ads: it also includes sales costs (SDRs/consultants), CRM, tools, and commissions. To assess true efficiency, add everything that directly contributes to acquiring customers.

What to do now

Return to the opening question: do you have, today, enough contacts at the right stages to hit your client target and guarantee your sales objectives? If you’re not sure, apply the maths to your case: calculate LTV with margin, set the maximum CAC, confirm your stage-to-stage conversion rates, work backwards from the client target to the number of leads required, define cost ceilings per stage, and set monthly goals.

This playbook gives you control. You stop “hoping for the best” and start managing with indicators that flag problems early enough to fix them.

If you’d like, we can take your real numbers (ticket, margins, CRM rates) and deliver a control board with monthly targets per stage, cost ceilings, and deviation alerts. The objective is simple: stop guessing the budget and start predicting results.

Do you need assistance start controling your numbers? Get in touch.