So what happens if a sales leader doesn’t have a proper sales forecast?
So if you are using spreadsheets to forecast, you end up guesstimating. Those guesstimates are primarily based on intuition and the pipeline data of sales reps’ opportunities. Most often, these numbers are under/overestimated.
Here's what happens when:
Forecasts are underestimated
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Forecasts are overestimated
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Your sales reps lose out on the potential to close more deals
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- Your sales reps get frustrated as the targets are not achievable
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- Your competition with accurate forecasting models end up hunting deals your (inaccurate) forecast neglected
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- Your top-performing sales reps move on to organizations that do accurate forecasts, with realistic targets
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- Affects sales reps’ commission as the business is not ready to meet the demand
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- You invest in unnecessary resources such as hiring new members to scale up and meet the demand (as calculated by the inaccurate forecast)
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And over time, the business will incur a loss!
A sales leader can avoid this situation by moving out of spreadsheets.
But this is easier said than done and there are some existing challenges to be overcome. In most cases, the sales team has to constantly juggle between the phone, Excel sheets to manage contacts; email marketing software; notes taken during conversations and calls; sales reports; and a lot more.
As such, it is not enough to use a forecasting software that performs ‘only forecasting’ — which makes the already hectic routine of the sales team even more tiresome.
What most fast-growing businesses do is use an all-in-one tool that forecasts sales, keeps track of sales reps’ performance, generates reports, sets reminders, manages emails, makes calls, takes notes, and a lot more...
Enter Freshworks CRM