Sales Forecasting System

Courtesy of TopOPPS

Jim Eberlin, Founder & CEO

HOW TO BECOME BEST-IN-CLASS

YOU’RE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE!!!

The ROI of reaching a high level of sales forecast accuracy can be incredible if you

follow the guidelines in this blog. Research that we acquired here at TopOPPS

from Gartner, Aberdeen and CSO Insights shows that by applying these

principles, you can have an increase of 11% to 13% in Quota Attainment,

Forecasted Win Rates, and Revenue Plan Attainment. On a $10M quota for the

sales team, this could mean $1.1M to $1.3M in more revenue. And that’s

increased productivity without spending more on marketing or adding sales

resources.

MAKE FORECASTING EFFECTIVE

Get on top of the forecast early and stay on top of it. Before we get into how, you

have to understand why. Two things come from getting on top of the forecast

early - win rates will go up and sell times will go down. This is due partly to getting

alignment and better allocation of resources on the right deals early on. This

helps make an impact before a deal goes dark or you lose them to a competitor.

And, once you get the forecasting accuracy down so that you can predict earlier in

the sales period, you will improve processes. When you are better organized and

know what’s going on in the pipeline and sales process - you can concentrate more

on what works and measure effectiveness better.

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What’s interesting is that best-in-class still miss the forecast on average of up to

11%, even right before the end of the sales period according to this research. This

article will help in outdoing best-in-class.

OBSTACLES TO FORECASTINGSo what are the challenges to achieving best-in-class sales forecasting? According

to the research, the following were the biggest obstacles:

1. Insufficient and inaccurate data on current deals in the pipeline - this

certainly does not support any reporting or analytics.

2. Overconfidence (I call this Happy Ears) or Sandbagging (this is usually due

to fear of accountability).

3. Lack of accountability on sales forecast - sometimes managers just give up

and don’t rely at all on a sales reps forecast - trying to figure it out for

themselves and forced to be ultra conservative.

4. Lack of help from manager - managers that are overburdened have to

triage their help and coaching. And without empirical data to support

what’s happening, their coaching is not as effective.

5. Can’t understand probability of closing - this could be due partly to #2, or it

could be because it’s a new seller that’s ramping up.

6. No formal process or lack of rigor around sales pipeline stages and exit

criteria.

MITIGATE OBSTACLES AND BE ACCURATE EARLYThe following four steps are necessary to be best-in-class in forecasting and to get

out on top of the forecast early.

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1. Regular RepManager Forecast Reviews

Regular pipeline meetings between

manager and seller are a must - and

something most companies do at least

weekly in order to scrutinize deals

that are being worked. Aberdeen’s

research shows that 71% of

best-in-class forecasters do this but so

do 67% of the others surveyed that

are underperforming. So, what do the

world-class forecasters do different

than the others? See 2, 3 and 4….

2. Standardized Rankings to Classify All Sales Opportunities and Leads

Elite sales organizations are much

more rigorous on how they classify

and rank sales opportunities. They

use data driven alerts to guide the

right kind of behaviors in order to

qualify opportunities better as they

pass through the sales funnel.

Everyone is on the same page on how

they rank and classify and have

confidence that the pipeline is real.

3. Process to Improve Discovery Activities to Better Predict Deal

Outcomes

World-class selling organizations

outperform other companies by

following formal processes that allow

them to separate good from bad sales

opportunities and to focus the

attention of sellers on the right

activities at the right time.

4. Automated Reminders

Modern sales analysis and artificial

intelligence helps management and

sellers understand the results of what

happened in sales pursuits

historically. Artificial intelligence

from applications such as TopOPPS

can inform sellers with intelligent

prescriptions to better align

resources, plan better and act in time

to make an impact.

BEST-IN-CLASS LEVERAGE THE RIGHT SOLUTIONS

By implementing solutions like ours, managers and sellers can be best-in-class in

sales forecasting. Being best-in-class also means they are having better coaching

conversations and their reps are consistently doing the same things that they

need to do in order to advance a deal. So, what’s the good news to being

best-in-class in sales forecasting? The good news is that teams are better

organized causing win rates to go up and sales cycles to be reduced.

If you’d like to see how our customers are using artificial intelligence and

prescriptive insights to achieve best-in-class sales forecasting, complete this form

or call us at (866)328-0867.

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