Sales forecasting: what are we talking about?

As a business owner, it is important to predict the future of your business, especially when it comes to sales. This approach will allow you in particular to make the right decisions likely to improve your turnover. Obviously, there is a certain rule to follow when calculating a sales forecast and there are several methods to achieve this. Here are the essentials to know about forecasting business sales.

What is sales forecasting?

By sales forecasting mean the estimate of future sales, inflows and outflows of a business. The value of this is obtained from old company data or comparative studies related to its sector of activity.

What are the advantages of sales forecasting?

La sales forecast It is primarily used to project the volume of income (or sales) of a business to different dates in order to dispatcher resources in order to develop the business in the long term. Through this forecasting, you will be able to put in place plans, programs as well as strategies for the development of your business and to overcome unforeseen cash flow problems.

It is used to precisely define the various sales objectives of the company, to assign to each sales team the minimum quota to be reached for the smooth running of the company. With this realistic minimum value, each individual salesperson in your business will know precisely what goal they need to achieve and can work towards it for the success of your business. In addition, this forecast will help you to optimally forecast the total amount to be allocated in the recruitment of new employees or in the purchase of your equipment at different times of the year. In short, sales forecasting is a valuable tool that facilitates the management of a business.

How to forecast your future sales?

There are several tools as well as a large number of forecasting methods available to you to estimate your future sales. Here are the most reliable.

• CRM software: they save time in the processing of data (or various information) relating to the processes of your past sales. In addition, they serve to avoid the errors that mark prediction reports exclusively designed by hand and to obtain both precise and reliable results.
• The dirty pipeline: this sales forecasting tool is also known as projected sales. Used with delicacy, it helps to reap very reliable results.
• The method of forecasting sales based on historical data.
• The survey of customer intentions.
• The sector forecasting method.
• Forecasting sales by multivariate analysis.
• The stages of sale.

Good to know: to extract forecast results with great precision, use at least two of the methods previously seen using the two aforementioned tools (the CRM software and the dirty pipeline). Finally, avoid taking your own desires for reality, instead rely on the results of your predictions.