Would you bet your paycheck on the accuracy of the local weather forecast for tomorrow? Surely you would not. But, when you put all of your company’s eggs in the basket of a bad sales forecast, you’re doing just that.
A bad forecast, whether too high or too low, can lead to real losses like wonky pipelines, increased inventory or not enough inventory, higher costs, loss of revenue, overstaffing or understaffing, and the elephant that is oh-so-hard to remove from the sales room: poor morale. Your company sales forecasting can be more reliable than the weather forecast. The key is to remove biases, and replace them with cold, hard facts.
Remove Biases
Sales forecasting as many teams know it is largely up to one personality. An experienced manager will call on past experience and knowledge of the industry, which is appropriate. Then, without fail, they’ll add a few special ingredients: personal biases, hopes, needs and even passing moods. An optimistic forecaster looking forward to vacation will land on the too-high side; a pessimist with problems at home will veer towards too low. Neither persuasion has anything to do with the facts.
Replace with Cold, Hard Data
Sales enablement solutions with analytics help you to gather big data to replace personalities and opinions with cold, hard facts. Data and predictive analytics predict, spot and alert sales reps to changes in buyer behavior on macro and micro levels. With data, sometimes you won’t get the warm and fuzzy prediction that the hopeful part of you wants to see. But, if you can prepare according to accurate forecasts, and you perform in keeping with those preparations, it’s going to be healthier for the entire team. Think: increased revenue, ideal inventory, proportionate business costs, and good, steady team morale.
The new Skura SFX platform delivers adaptive sales enablement capabilities like accurate forecasting. Take it for a test spin today.
