Hero cohort: the best quarter, not the best rep
Online version: https://funneleconomics.ai/resources/glossary/hero-cohort
The hero cohort is the best quarter of sales reps by current stage win rate, with one joint rate. The hero cohort is a group, never a single person. It is a yardstick from your own organisation: the same open pipeline is valued at the rep’s own stage win rate and at the hero cohort’s rate.
How is the comparison with the hero cohort calculated?
bEFV at the hero cohort’s rate = open pipeline amount × pooled stage win rate of the hero cohort
Distance = bEFV at the hero cohort’s rate − actual bEFV
- Actual bEFV – the same open pipeline, valued at the rep’s own stage win rate
- Pooled stage win rate of the hero cohort – the joint rate of the group for the same stage, the same opportunity type and the same period
bEFV (Baseline Expected Funnel Value) is the structural expected value of the funnel: each opportunity's amount multiplied by its stage win rate, without regard to current sales hygiene. See bEFV, the expected value of the pipeline.
Pooled means that the cases of the group are put together and one joint rate is formed from all of them. A rep with many cases weighs more in that rate than a rep with few.
The calculation replaces only the rate. The pipeline stays the same.
How do you notice that the yardstick is missing or the wrong one?
The organisation’s rate is the baseline, not a best value. A comparison with it shows the distance to the average, not the distance to the best group.
A group carries the yardstick more steadily than a single sales rep.
Where too few sales reps have a current rate for the stage, there is no hero cohort. The comparison then counts as not measurable. It is not replaced by the single best rep, the organisation’s rate or any other rate.
The distance is not a lost amount and not a cash flow. Whether coaching closes the distance is not measured by the distance.
Delimitation: what is the hero cohort not?
| What it is | Which question it answers | |
|---|---|---|
| Organisation’s rate | Yardstick: the stage win rate of the whole organisation | What if every rep closed like the organisation on average? |
| Hero cohort | Yardstick: the pooled stage win rate of the best quarter | What if everyone worked like the best group? |
| Single best rep | Yardstick: the highest stage win rate of a single sales rep | What if everyone worked like the best rep? |
| The top three of a stage | Ranking: three individual people | Who had the highest rates in this stage most recently? |
| Quartiles | Grouping: all sales reps in four groups, by stage win rate or by PAS | Where does each rep stand in the whole group? |
PAS, the win rate weighted by contribution, uses the win rate across all decided deals, not the stage win rate. A top quartile by PAS is therefore not the hero cohort.
The daily value likewise replaces only the rate, on the health-weighted pipeline. There the organisation’s rate stands beside the hero cohort’s rate. The daily value is not a cash flow. The article Internal Benchmark Arbitrage, your own best quarter as the yardstick covers this in detail.
Related terms
- bEFV
- stage win rate
- Internal Benchmark Arbitrage
- PAS
- CIF
- Sales Velocity
FAQ
Who belongs to the hero cohort?
The hero cohort is the best quarter of sales reps by current stage win rate. Membership holds for one stage, one opportunity type and one period. It is not a property of a person: a rep who belongs to it in one stage does not necessarily belong to it in another. The hero cohort has one joint rate, and all cases of the group go into it.
Is the hero cohort the best sales rep on the team?
No. The hero cohort is a group, never a single person. The single best rep is a yardstick of its own and answers a different question: what if everyone worked like the best rep? The hero cohort asks what would happen if everyone worked like the best group. A group carries the yardstick more steadily than a single sales rep.
What applies when too few sales reps have a current stage win rate?
Then there is no hero cohort, and the comparison with it counts as not measurable. The comparison is not replaced by the single best rep, the organisation’s rate or any other rate. A comparison with the single best rep remains possible, but it is then called that and not hero cohort.
What does the distance to the hero cohort say, and what does it not say?
The distance to the hero cohort’s rate is the distance between two valuations of the same open pipeline: once at the rep’s own stage win rate, once at the hero cohort’s rate. The distance is not a lost amount and not a cash flow. It does not say what closes it either; whether coaching closes the distance is not measured by it.