55% of sales managers who meet their sales goals lack confidence inaccuracy of forecasts. Not to mention those who don't reach them...
And yet this ability to obtain reliable sales forecasts is a key asset of successful organizations. They make it possible to develop income, monitor the evolution of profitability, anticipate recruitments, make your financial director happy, etc.
In 2020, even Salesforce, , which achieved a turnover of $21 billion that year, admitted its difficulties at predicting its sales.
Their solution to overcome this problem? A forecasting model based on more complete data And a in-depth transaction analysis, allowing better visibility on sales opportunities.
To help you start off on the right foot at the start of the commercial year, we suggest that you follow in their footsteps. On the program today:
⚡️ The ultimate method for predicting sales
⚡️ The opinion of our expert on the subject
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1. The ultimate method for predicting sales
Several steps make it possible to obtain realistic figures. Here they are:
1. Define and document your sales process
Without a clear sales process, accurate forecasts cannot be created. So start with:
🔦 Identify and document each stage ofthe sales process, from lead generation to customer conversion.
👉 Decide what are the necessary actions every step of the way. Les criteria Changes in status from one stage to another must also be taken into account, or even regulated, in the CRM by mandatory properties.
📚 Establishing common definitions to ensure that the whole team uses the same terms and steps. And remind them in a team point, as well as in writing.
💬 Communicate the standards and best practices across the organization through rituals and reminders regular.
Benefit from a diagnosis of your commercial maturity by using our online questionnaire.
2. Preparing for CRM data analysis
For an accurate sales forecast, a complete and up-to-date analysis of the data in your CRM data is essential.
❇️ Verify that your CRM is synchronized with all the relevant data sources to ensure a global view of your sales activities.
Integrating different platforms and tools is very useful for your data to be as complete as possible. Take a look at your current tools, and check out the latest integrations they've developed.
✨ The ideal is to create a schema which shows the tools put in place throughout the sales process.
→ Make data flows, their directions, and synchronization frequency visible.
For deploying integrations, you have 3 options:
1 ️/Native integrations: easy to use and deploy, they are generally provided by the CRM publisher for common professional tools.
2 ️/Third-party tool integrations: use tools like Zapier to connect your applications and automate repetitive tasks.
3 ️/100% personalized integrations: use APIs for a finer synchronization that is specific to the needs of your business.
Airtable is also an excellent database and Zapier allows you to automate the integration of data from many tools into it.
👉 To increase the efficiency of your sales force, discover our Performance offer
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❇️ Make regular audits of your CRM to check the accuracy of the data.
✨ Create a folder with rosters of transactions and contacts who:
→ Update automatically
→ Identify objects for which information is lacking.
This will prevent you from having to repeat the same analyses. You can even set up alerts weekly to automate this task.
❇️ Make sure that customer interactions that are not automatically registered are also present. That darn colleague who still doesn't take notes on CRM will hear about you...
✨ Of course, the pipeline review weekly conducted by the Manager is an opportunity to check that the information is up to date on each opportunity.
❇️ Establish cleaning routines data to eliminate duplicates, correct errors, and update outdated information This ensures the reliability and relevance of the data used for forecasting.
3. Analyzing pipelines
Having a clear vision of the current state of your pipeline is crucial for an effective business strategy.
When pipeline management is poor or unreliable, sales forecasts are nothing but wishful thinking.
The following actions will only be effective if every member of your team is convinced of them.
🔭 Start by analyzing performance: Segment The analysis by representing, team, or territory.
→ Use your CRM data to evaluate The performance of each segment, taking into account the differences and specificities of each.
🔭 Develop reports customized in your CRM for each target group (representatives, teams, territories).
→ These reports should include key indicators such as the quota attainment rate, the number of transactions concluded, and the average value of transactions.
4. Establish initial forecasts based on your data
A good forecast takes into account all of the factors next:
▫️ The history of the company
▫️ Active opportunities
▫️ External factors
▫️ Internal factors
To get yours: use the historical data to understand seasonal trends and cycles.
📈 Study the impact of market conditions, economic changes, and consumer behaviors on your past results.
An export Excel of your data will allow you to add these exogenous elements manually.
🔍 Then look at the trends that are emerging in relationship between your Sales And these variables.
Is your current situation similar to one in the past?
📜 Create different scripts (optimistic, realistic, pessimistic) of possible changes in your sales for each stage of your sales cycle after an opportunity is opened. For the bravest among you, models based on linear regressions aren't that complicated to use.
5. Update your predictions regularly
The final step is to create a routine to regularly adjust your forecasts to make them as realistic as possible. For these purposes:
📆 Plan a monthly meeting dedicated to reevaluating your predictions.
An opportunity for you to:
→ Review data from the previous month
→ Adjust forecasts based on actual results
→ Review new information
Take into account The impact Of changes in the sales process on your forecasts.
Also, do not hesitate to incorporate into the routines Individuals one weekly forecast that salespeople send to their manager.
2. The opinion of our expert
This week he is our coach Axel Debreilly, Growth Architect & Revenue Optimizer, who shares his advice with you.
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An expert in Revenue Operations, Axel has solid experience in structuring customer journeys. He specializes in optimizing sales processes to maximize revenue.
His current forecasting method
” I use several methods, each more or less adapted to each business model (pricing model, average basket, tunnel complexity, team size, etc.).
My favorite is still thebottom-up approach based on the data found in the CRM: each salesperson is responsible for keeping their opportunity pipeline up to date (and there are a lot of tools & processes to help them be rigorous) and the addition of each salesperson constitutes the sales prediction.
The architecture of CRM is essential for this method.”
The methods he used in the past
” In some cases, the use of other types of data may be necessary.
In particular:
👉 Historical data: evolution, seasonality, vertical dynamics, etc...
👉 The conversion rate by stage : to forecast sales based on the pipe
👉 The Sales Velocity : a KPI to estimate the volume of deals that a salesperson can sign per month.
In any case, the most important thing in forecasting sales is to follow their evolution over time.
A good forecasting process results in a forecast that fluctuates little from month to month.”
Her favorite resources on the subject
🌟 The HubSpot blog: This article allows for example to calculate its Sales Velocity
🌟 The PepperCloud article on forecasting methods is very comprehensive
🌟 The pound “Sales Forecasting: A Practical Guide“by Mark Blessington
For all your questions about Akimbo and for support focused on commercial acceleration, our Sales Leader Alexandre Laurent makes himself available for you. And of course, we support you in optimizing your machine and creating a custom sales forecasting process.
