Discover why sales forecasting is important for your company and how it may deliver considerable benefits. Learn about sales forecasting, its benefits, types, and how to carry out this critical sales management study.
Benefits of Sales Forecasting for Your Company
Even if your sales are small, a sales forecast can help. Here are some of the main advantages.
Professionalizes business management: Sales forecasting gives you a data-driven strategy that assists you in making strategic decisions while eliminating harmful assumptions.
Facilitates budget adjustments: By anticipating future revenues, you can effectively adjust your budget to ensure financial stability.
Organize sales activities: Sales forecasts help you make the right decisions, such as training the team and allocating resources to achieve specific goals.
Refine marketing strategy: A solid sales forecast influences marketing and other areas, enabling better integration and a focus on shared goals.
Attract more investment: To attract investors, it is critical to have solid growth prospects backed by a sales forecast.
Types of sales forecasts
There are several types of sales forecasting to suit your business needs:
- Time series forecasting: analyzes trends and variations based on sales history.
- Sales funnel-based forecasting: Evaluate pipeline opportunities and conversion rates.
- Market-based forecasting: Uses market research and benchmark studies to size the business.
- Source-based forecasting: Considers different sales channels and their behavior.
- Contribution Margin Projection: Estimates profits needed to cover production costs.
- Account-Based Forecasting: Establishes strategies based on Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and characteristics of successful companies.
How do you make your company's sales forecast?
How can you create an effective sales forecast? Follow these steps.
- Collect the most relevant data: Use a variety of sources such as sales history, business reports, and market data to obtain valuable information.
- Segment and contextualize the information: Link the data and segment the analysis to better understand your sales process.
- Create and share the sales forecast: Organize your data in a spreadsheet or use business management software, such as ERP or CRM, for an automated approach.
Sales forecasting is a vital tool for growing your business. By recording and analyzing your sales activities daily, you will be able to improve your strategy and ensure solid growth in the short, medium, and long term.
We hope this information will help you understand the importance of sales forecasting and how to carry out this process effectively in your company.
If you like the content, we invite you to learn about the services that Upnify can implement as part of your business strategy to help you improve your prospecting processes and increase your sales.
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Upnify´s Editorial Team; formed by professionals and experts in Marketing, Sales, Communication, Design and other areas. They share their experience through articles enriching the commercial culture.