Half-year close: 6 analyses to run before turning the page

A good half-year closing analysis is not a report of what happened. It is the list of decisions you carry into the next cycle, each one backed by the number that supports it.

The difference shows up in practice. A review that only describes the past is read once and filed away. One that points to decisions becomes the basis for the next planning round, and keeps the team from restarting the cycle based on whoever spoke loudest in the last meeting.

There are six analyses. None of them requires a new tool, but all of them require that the lead's source has survived all the way to the sale.

1. Which channel generated customers, not just leads

Start with the question that changes budgets. It is not how many leads each channel brought in, it is how many customers.

The ranking often changes when you change what you count. The channel that fills the funnel sometimes ends up far lower when the criterion is a closed contract, and the channel that looks expensive on cost per lead sometimes supports half of the revenue.

The decision it informs: where to expand and where to cut budget in the next cycle. It is the most direct analysis on the list and the one most people skip, because it requires bringing CRM data back into the marketing report.

2. Cost per funnel stage

Break down the cost at each step: cost per lead, per opportunity and per customer. Three numbers, not one.

What this breakdown reveals is where the money is getting stuck. A stable cost per lead with a rising cost per customer means the problem is not in acquisition, it is in conversion after it. It is a diagnosis that aggregate CAC hides.

The decision it informs: whether the next cycle's effort goes to media or to the sales process. They are different investments, and the calculation above shows which of the two it is.

3. Evolution of the sales cycle

Measure how long, as a median, it took a lead to become a customer, and compare it with the previous period. Use the median rather than the average, because two contracts that took a year distort the whole average.

A lengthening cycle is an early signal of several problems: a changing lead profile, tougher competition, a sales process with a new stage. It shows up before revenue drops.

The decision it informs: the next cycle's forecast. If the cycle grew from sixty to ninety days, the budget from the start of the period is buying revenue further down the road, and the target needs to reflect that before it is signed.

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4. Lost deals by reason

This is the analysis that returns the most useful information to marketing, and the one that depends most on recording discipline in the previous period.

Group the losses by reason and cross them with the source. That is where the pattern nobody could see appears: one specific channel generates many leads discarded because of service region, another brings people whose budget is out of range. Recording the real reason for the loss and identifying patterns is what separates a review that changes something from one that only reports the result.

The decision it informs: adjusting segments and offer. Loss on price calls for a conversation about the proposal; loss on profile calls for a conversation about the audience.

5. Revenue by source

Add up what each channel, campaign and product generated in reais, not in volume.

It is the number leadership understands without translation, and it is what supports the budget request for the next cycle. It is also worth breaking it down by product or line, because the channel that brings the higher-ticket customer is not always the one that brings the most customers.

The decision it informs: budget allocation and, in many cases, the product focus for the following period.

6. Comparison between equivalent periods

Last, put the period that just closed next to the same period of the previous year. Not the period immediately before it, the equivalent one.

The reason is seasonality. Comparing a strong period with a weak one produces a wrong conclusion in both directions: you celebrate growth that is only the calendar, or you cut a channel that was in its normal valley.

The decision it informs: whether the operation really improved or whether the number just followed the market. It is the analysis that gives the other five their footing.

What the half-year closing analysis requires from your data

A word of honest warning. The six analyses above only return reliable answers if three things are in place in the period you are going to analyze.

The source must have reached the sale, otherwise analyses 1 and 5 do not add up. The same contact must be a single record, otherwise the cost per stage comes out lower than it really was. And the stage change date must be recorded, otherwise the sales cycle cannot be calculated.

If any of them is missing, it is still worth running what you can and declaring the gap instead of estimating on top of it. A declared gap protects your credibility in the meeting, and it is the most concrete argument there is for asking for data organization in the next cycle.

What to do with the six answers

They feed directly into the next period's planning. The order that works is to close the review first and discuss allocation afterwards, not the other way around. We wrote about this in the article on why data management comes before planning.

A suggested format: record the six analyses in the same document, with a one-sentence conclusion under each number. That way, when someone asks three months from now why a decision was made, the answer is written down.

If you want the formulas for each metric mentioned here, the Marketing and Sales Metrics Guide is free and covers the funnel from the first click to retention.

Frequently asked questions

How long before the end of the cycle should I start the analysis?

Two to three weeks before. That way you arrive on the first day of the new period executing, not checking spreadsheets.

Can I do the half-year closing analysis without an integrated CRM?

You can, with manual work and a larger margin of error. Analyses 1, 4 and 5 depend on sales data, so without an integration they require exporting and cross-referencing by hand, which is usually the bottleneck.

Is it worth doing this every quarter?

It is, and some operations do. The caution is volume: with a long sales cycle, three months give little sample and the number fluctuates by chance. In that case, the quarter serves to track trends, and the larger closing to make decisions.