The specific date you and the buyer expect the contract to be executed and the deal to be won.
Close date is when the deal actually closes—the signature lands, the money moves, the customer goes live. Not when you hope it closes. Not when it might close. The date you and the buyer have agreed to.
It's the only number that matters to your forecast and your leadership. Everything else—discovery, demos, budget approval—is in service of this date. If you don't have one, you don't have a deal, you have a conversation.
The buyer tells you when they need to decide based on their business timeline, budget cycle, or go-live date. You confirm their process requires what you've mapped out. You agree on the date. You put it in the Mutual Action Plan. You hold it.
Not all deals have the same close date because not all buyers move at the same speed. One deal might close in four weeks, another in fourteen. What matters is that the date is real—not inflated because you're falling short of quota.
Pushing a close date back repeatedly without new information from the buyer, or claiming a close date when the buyer hasn't actually committed to one. This kills forecast accuracy and makes leadership stop trusting your pipeline. If you don't know the close date, say so.
Part of our guide to Discovery calls.
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