Sales operations leaders can establish or improve a sales forecasting process in eight to 12 weeks.
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Sales forecasting must continually adapt to a changing market
Internal and external forces — from new products to changing market conditions — challenge sales operations leaders who depend on accurate sales forecasting. In response, many organizations have either reevaluated their existing sales forecasting workflows or created entirely new forecasting processes from scratch.
Successfully (re)designing the sales forecasting process requires completing a series of steps that emphasize stakeholder engagement, clear communication and visibility. This structured, systematic approach ensures that the new process will address existing challenges while supporting broader company objectives.
Designing an effective sales forecasting process
A strong sales forecasting process requires collecting requirements from key stakeholders, establishing a shortlist of metrics to measure progress and choosing the right technologies for success.
1. Plan for the effort ahead
Identify and establish support from key stakeholders across business functions. Take a RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed) approach, and be sure to include leaders from sales, finance, supply chain, marketing and product development — even if they don’t currently participate in sales forecasting.
2. Confirm requirements
Collect and document requirements from each stakeholder group. For example, how often do they need forecasts and how much detail do they need? Define the scope of the sales forecasting process, including top-down and/or bottom-up approaches.
3. Improve pipeline data quality
Identify the key signals of a deal’s progress and health, so you can understand which deals are overdue, stalled, high-risk, pessimistic or optimistic. Use a CRM system to record customer verifiers and incorporate the resulting insights into your pipeline analytics.
4. Equip your managers with insightful analytics
Develop analytics to support the sales forecasting process by digging into questions like:
How does the current forecast compare with previous forecasts and sales periods?
Has the forecast changed since the previous submission?
How does the forecast compare to predictive analytics?
Does the remaining sales pipeline justify the current forecast numbers?
5. Get a boost from technology
Help enable success by selecting the right technologies for your sales forecasting process. Audit your existing tech stack to determine if it’s still capable of effective forecasting, and consider implementing AI to improve forecast accuracy while reducing administrative burden on your sellers and managers.
6. Assess the performance of the process
Continually evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of your sales forecasting process. Establish consensus among business leaders about the process and collect feedback from key stakeholders to help address any lingering challenges and pain points.
Sales forecasting FAQs
How do you prepare a sales forecast?
Larger organizations should get started early when preparing their sales forecast. A sales forecasting redesign is expected to take between eight and 12 weeks with the effort of a single full-time employee (or multiple employees working on it part-time). This assumes that the employee has access to all necessary information, including input from stakeholders, data from CRM and ERP systems and an understanding of the existing technology stack.
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