Locking in predictable revenue: Gong takes Piano’s forecast accuracy to 90%

In revenue operations, you face an existential question: Does our company know with at least 90% certainty how much revenue is coming in, and when? If you can’t answer yes, it’s hugely challenging to make strategic decisions. Peter Lastowski, the VP of Revenue Operations at Piano knows this intimately — and he needed a way to confidently pinpoint Piano’s forecast.

Piano is a rapidly scaling global software company with offices across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Piano’s platform helps major brands like Air France, the BBC, and LinkedIn to understand and influence their customers’ behavior. Piano experienced a tremendous transformation with Gong. Piano started with Gong’s Conversation Intelligence in 2021 to tighten sales processes, coaching each rep toward reliable commits and faster closes. As it matured, and acquired new companies, it added Gong Forecast to improve pipeline management and get forecast accuracy to 90%. Read on to see what you can borrow from Piano’s push toward revenue excellence.

Before Gong, pipeline info was everywhere: in Salesforce, spreadsheets, Google Drive, Slack — even on literal napkins! If Piano’s lean revenue team was going to ‘work smarter, not harder,’ Peter needed technology to increase revenue predictability and speed up deal-making. 

Today, Piano’s CRO and sales leadership team use the Gong Revenue Intelligence platform to track plan performance and lead weekly forecast calls with zero prep time. Everyone on the call operates from a single screen providing efficiency and transparency. No matter who logs in, they see the same numbers for ‘closed’ or ‘commit’. The group leverages AI-driven insights like Deal Likelihood Scores and Deal Warnings to dive straight into forecast risks. They decide exactly where to focus their efforts to ensure deals close. It’s easy to present a clear, defensible forecast to the CEO or the board, even at a moment’s notice. 

Before Gong Forecast, quarterly revenue projections could vary by millions, causing significant decision-making hurdles. Now, Piano is at 90% forecast accuracy.

“The progress we’ve seen from what the CRM, sales managers, and even the CRO used to tell us was going to land is astronomical. We’ve closed the gap by millions. With Gong, our end-of-quarter forecasts are solid.” – Peter Lastowski, VP of Revenue Operations at Piano

For Peter, streamlined workflows were essential.  He wanted a platform to match Piano’s own robust AI capabilities and innovation — one that people would love to use every single day. 

Piano first applied Gong to its sales workflows by capturing every customer interaction. Then, it used Gong Revenue AI to understand customer and rep behavior from data points across systems like Salesforce, email, and calendars. Immediately, Gong’s guidance ensured reps and managers stayed on message and improved their win rates — they loved it. By flagging deal risks, Gong insights helped the revenue team better manage its pipeline. It got much clearer on the numbers it could commit each month, and forecast accuracy significantly improved.  

“Gong brought data cleanliness to our entire pipeline. When everyone started living in Gong and managing activities right from the Deal Board, it brought us an amazing level of visibility and accountability.” 

Gong’s influence spread fast. Marketing started using Gong for market insights and showing pipeline gaps for specific segments. This clarity allowed it to shift tactics and messaging to stay on target. Gong was more than a tool, it became a platform to power critical revenue workflows and collaboration at every level.

A year into partnering with Gong, Piano welcomed a new CFO, igniting a drive for greater precision in forecasting new business. Given the team’s comfort with Gong’s customer insights, Gong Forecast was a natural add-on for more predictive capabilities.

“What’s most exciting about Gong — and what I can’t get anywhere else — is the combination of Forecast with all the other guidance Gong offers us. Ingrained in the forecast are all the deal updates we’ve made based on Gong’s suggestions and prompts around risk. This means I can trust it. It’s all pulled together intelligently into one source.”

When Peter assessed implementation time, he said it was a no-brainer. While other solutions could have taken six months, Gong Forecast was up and running in less than a week! The rapid setup and ease of use for reps allowed Piano to dive straight into optimizing forecasts instead of onboarding software.  

Piano’s transformation is remarkable. Gong Forecast reclaims five hours weekly for the RevOps team. With streamlined workflows, it has shifted focus from reconciling numbers to driving impactful strategies across the business. Peter directs his saved time towards future planning and refining RevOps workflows for amplified value. He’s excited for Piano’s future and we’re thrilled about its trajectory too. 

With Gong’s mounting AI capabilities to predict revenue more accurately, Peter expects Gong will give Piano even greater predictive insights in the coming months and years—all fueling its ability to scale. Gong is driving continuous revenue optimization, ensuring a successful future—a journey we’ll proudly follow.