Every business benefits from closely managing the flow of money into and out of their financial accounts. It is critical to closely monitor both revenues and expenses. At The Guisado Group we suggest a company’s primary focus be on the accuracy of its sales forecast. This translates into how disciplined the sales forecasting activity is. Forecasting needs to adhere to a defined, repeatable process to be timely and accurate.
Forecasts should be submitted weekly but updated in real-time by the salesperson as activities happen which influence sale results. Different products and services have different length sales cycles. The more complex the offering, the longer the sales cycle, typically.
Sales to large businesses require longer sales cycles due to the amount of people involved in the decision being made. Corporations have multiple channels of approvals required when a large procurement is made. Most often, there are multiple departments involved, meaning multiple budgets are involved. Larger transaction dollar amounts typically require a higher level of authorization from within the organization.
The forecast itself can be performed using any software program from using a spreadsheet to using an enterprise application. Many Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications include sales forecasting functionality.
