Sales forecasting is the curse of every sales professional. It’s an art and a science that we all struggle with.

Why Our Sales Forecasts Frequently Miss The Mark

• We feel forced to tell our sales managers what they want to hear.
• In our desire for more sales, we operate from a position of baseless confidence.
• We don’t understand our industry.
• We aren’t properly qualifying our prospects.
• To create the illusion of a full funnel, we hang on to dead prospects ad infinitum.
• We don’t develop our skills at reading a prospect’s buying/not-buying signals.

Sales Tips For Sharpening Your Sales Forecasting Pencil
1. Re-qualify them. Don’t be afraid to re-qualify prospects in the middle of a sales cycle. It’s a good idea to constantly check the cards your fellow gamblers are showing when betting in Vegas.

2. Understand the steps of your sales process. If your company doesn’t have a defined and effective sales process, create one of your own. This will act as a benchmark.

3. Get real. Look at your normal closing ratio and apply it to the prospects in your pipeline. After you do that, reduce it by 25% to take into account all the unexpected delays, budget problems and competitive moves you’ll undoubtedly encounter.

4. Look for signs of commitment from the identified decision makers. If there is not a shred of skin in the game from them, then let them die a natural death. Remove them from your funnel.

5. Know your industry. It’s hard to anticipate buyers’ next moves when we don’t know their game.

6. Be sensitive to the vibes your prospects are sending out. Once we establish a relationship with them, they rarely tell us when they are unequivocally no longer interested. We have to be sensitive to their vibe or meta-message. The biggest mistake I see here is when sales professionals don’t make eye contact with prospects. A prospect’s eyes rarely lie.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
Forecasting is an important part of being a sales professional. Your employer doesn’t want you to overestimate or underestimate the business you’ll be bringing in. Your proficiency at this art and science will enhance your credibility with your sales manager and within your organization.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Related posts:

1. The Bad And The Ugly Of Sales Forecasting
2. 6 Ways You Might Be Fooling Yourself In Sales
3. 3 Reasons You Need A Sales Process

Tags: closing, manager, performance, Prospecting

We'd like to hear your feedback on this post - feel free to comment below!