The Math Behind Missed Procurement Targets

And Why Your Sourcing Plan Needs a Funnel, Not a List.

If you run procurement, you’ve lived this paradox: the pipeline looks full, the math checks out, yet the year closes short. The original post nails the structural reason:

“McKinsey’s research highlights something many teams experience: to deliver 100% of target value, procurement often needs to generate 160% worth of initiatives. Some ideas stall. Others under-deliver. In practice, only about 60–65% convert into measurable results.”

That ratio is not an indictment of competence; it’s a recognition of reality—procurement pipelines behave like sales funnels, not tidy backlog lists. We’re not building a bridge; we’re advancing dozens of interdependent, risk-bearing propositions in a volatile business. That’s why the punchline of the post stings and liberates in equal measure:

“It means procurement pipelines work more like sales funnels than straight project lists. The key is not just execution, but building a pipeline big enough — and tracking where value leaks along the way.”

So, how do high-performing teams operationalize a funnel mindset without drowning in dashboards or over-promising savings? The best answers in the thread came from practitioners who’ve wrestled with this math in public.