Sales Forecasting. Art or a science? LeadMaster Makes It Easy

Is sales forecasting an art or a science?   After all, the sales forecast is trying to predict the future.  No matter how hard we try to quantify the future we can only get close.  But close is better than a crystal ball.

The more current reality you include in the forecast, the more likely it will be achieved. If you forecast quarterly, you miss any new opportunities that arise between forecast dates. Any lost opportunities are still reelected in the numbers. Reps can become discouraged or complacent. Updating forecasts as part of daily sales activities adds much more reality to your numbers. 

When tied to a sale process even more reality is injected into the mix. Reps use less "gut feel" and more factual probability based on the step in the process.

Sales forecasting is as much an art as it is a science.

Fortunately LeadMaster has tools to help.  When it comes to sales forecasts, one way to predict the future is to examine the past.  The LeadMaster Sales Force Automation system makes it is easy to pull up historical data.  Accurate sales forecasting requires analysis by sales person, by territory, by customer segment, by product, by partner, by service etc. You’ll find all this and more with LeadMaster.

An accurate sales forecast also requires the input from the sales team.  LeadMaster makes it easy for the sales team to update their sales forecast.  All of their accounts and opportunities are in the system so all they have to do is use pull down menus to update the status and plug in the dollar value of the opportunity.

Sales Rep Forecasts are quick and easy with LeadMaster

1. Choose the forecast report either from the shortcut on the home page or the reports menu,
2. Use the drop down menus to update the forecast date, opportunity, opportunity value, win probability, sales status and sales stage. (the sales status and sales stage are user definable so no matter how you define your sales process LeadMaster works).
3. Click submit and you’re finished.

Sales reps and sales managers can update their forecasts in minutes.  Do you need to put the forecast in a presentation?  No problem, you can download it in an Excel format and work with it on your desktop.

Take LeadMaster for a free Test Drive. or call us to talk about your lead management situation.