We all know how important having a good sales forecast is. It helps managers predict short and long-term company performance, and therefore also helps with things such as resource allocation (amongst other important items). However, if sales forecasts are prepared improperly or are inaccurate/missing information, they are more likely to hurt your business. Today, we will take you through some best practices for building a great sales forecast to ensure yours helps your company succeed.

Consistency is Key

How often do you build your forecasts? If you’re like most, you still do them annually. However, more and more companies are choosing to do rolling forecasts where they reforecast every month or quarter. Whatever you decide is up to you and your company’s needs, but make sure you keep the frequency consistent so you know how often doing it will really help you. We have an ebook available for free on our website if you’d like to learn more about rolling forecasts. You can access it here.

Keep Your Overall Business Strategy in Mind

Building a sales forecast that connects to your business’s strategy and priorities will help focus on what you need to measure in order to track performance.

Set Clear Expectations

If you are building a sales forecast, it makes sense to involve members from the sales team. Their input can help with the accuracy of your predictions, but this is also a time when you can discuss expectations. Let them know what is being forecasted, how, why and any possible timeframe expectations of targets. Open communication will help build better team morale and incentivise overall personal and professional growth.

Consider Using Forecasting Software

Sales forecasting software can integrate data from various systems such as your CRM, ERP or others. Also, it allows you to view KPI metrics on dashboards, amongst other features. Automation software helps save you time on administrative functions, leaving you more time for deep dive analysis and decision making.

With True Sky’s budgeting and forecasting tool, you can perform what-if scenarios as well. Our solution helps ensure your data is accurate and up to date so you can compare forecasts with budgets side-by-side and make better informed decisions. Sales forecasts are crucial to helping your business grow. If you’re interested in learning more about how True Sky can help your organization, give us a call today at 1 855 878 3759 or visit our website www.truesky.com.