Forecasting matters. Top performing sales organizations rely on accurate forecasting to predict and more importantly, improve upon, the fiscal health of their companies.
Best in class forecasting includes the use of CRM analytics to increase transparency in the process. Transparency is essential to providing the level of forecasting that will provide an organization with timely and actionable information.
Benefits to using a CRM to forecast include:
- Better year over year sales performance.
- Higher customer retention rates.
- Reduced length of average sales cycles.
- Improved inventory management.
- More timely promotional planning.
So, look to simplify the forecasting process. It can be hard to decide what is most critical to include in a report but make a start by defining your primary audience and make sure to satisfy their information needs.
Other important steps to building accurate and valuable forecasts include:
- Using standardized rankings to classify all sales opportunities and leads.
- Providing in depth training to reps on how to enter and classify data.
- Defining progressive sales stages to help weight sales forecasts.
- Reviewing analytics against agreed-to objectives to ensure that the metrics hold up as relevant.
As you continue to consider how CRM can best fit your unique business needs, please take the time to read our eBook, The Ultimate Guide to CRM, explaining how Sage CRM makes sense for every business.
