Either you are using terms in ways I'm not used to, or you're doing something in a way that I usually don't. I'm having trouble trying to visualize how you are working so that I can point you in the right direction.

In the VLOOKUP formula, you usually want to have a search term that is near where you are typing the formula. You also have a lookup table which is often on a separate sheet. I rarely will use VLOOKUP to point to a pivot table as there is no easy way to make the lookup range match the size of pivot table.

Anyway, if you want to, try describing a bit more detail of what you are trying to do.