Practice: Goals that hold

For: Sellers (fleet managers, org admins) · Cypress Managers acting for a delegating org

The decision

A quarter can hold four kinds of goal — units, cash by date, fleet shape, or renewal pacing — and the practice question is which one actually states what you need, and whether to let Sequoia pace it into months or type the pacing yourself.

The principle

Every goal but fleet shape gets a quarter total and monthly targets: an even split for units, a linear split by days for cash, arrivals × releases for renewal. Each goal card shows target · sold · in motion · gap, and attainment is measured against your own target — never against an invented "fleet value preserved" percentage. A units goal counts an unvalued vehicle toward it; a cash goal never does — unvalued units are counted apart and named, because a number Sequoia can't stand behind never enters a cash figure.

Fleet shape is different in kind: it's a standing policy ("average age at most 4 years"), not a countdown, and the plan keeps satisfying it rather than ticking it off. A goal can also be scoped to a track ("release 20 on Sell fast"), in which case it counts only that track's vehicles — a Sentra on Sell fast can be scheduled ahead of one on Opportunistic whatever their raw values say, and the reason on the line says so.

Worked example

Acme Fleet Services needs cash before the quarter closes. Maria, Acme's Fleet Manager, sets a Cash by date goal: $500,000 net usable by November 30. Sequoia paces it by days from the quarter's first day to November 30 — nothing lands in December, since that's past the date. Acme's 2022 Ford Transit 250 is part of the pool this goal draws from: Orbis valued it at $31,400, Maria set the floor at $29,000, Alex (the Cypress Manager) listed it at $32,500, and it eventually sold to Dan at Birchwood Logistics for $29,200 — one valued unit contributing its plan value toward the $500,000, counted the moment it's scheduled, not only once it sells. A handful of vehicles in the same lot carry no market value yet; they count toward a units goal on the same quarter, but never toward this cash figure — the goal card names them "unvalued" so Maria knows the $500,000 isn't quietly short by their absence.

Signals to watch

• The gap not moving while "in motion" grows. If scheduled cash keeps rising but the gap barely narrows, the target itself may be light — check whether unvalued units are hiding real inventory from the number.
• A shape goal read as a countdown. "Average age ≤ 4 years" never shows a monthly target because it isn't one — if you're waiting for it to reach 100%, you're reading the wrong kind of goal.
• A track-scoped goal's vehicles going to the wrong track by habit. A goal scoped to Sell fast only counts Sell fast's vehicles — moving a vehicle off that track silently drops it from the goal's count.

Common mistakes

• Setting a units goal when the real need is cash, or vice versa. "Release 50" and "$500,000 by November 30" pace completely differently and can point Sequoia at different vehicles first.
• Assuming a cash goal counts everything scheduled. It counts valued vehicles only — an unvalued one sits in the "unvalued" note until Sequoia's next valuation sweep gives it a number.
• Typing the monthly pacing by hand and forgetting it stops updating. An overridden goal's targets are fixed at whatever you typed — changing the goal's total later doesn't re-pace them automatically.

Related

• The plan — goals, lots, and the quarter
• Build the quarter plan
• Review how the plan held