If there is one thing that reps hate to do, it is to input and submit a forecast. How often have you heard “I should be out selling, not updating a sales forecast for my boss!”
The reality is that sales does itself a disservice by not having a sales forecast that drives value across the organization. To create a valuable sales forecast, you need a formalized process across the organization that is enforced at all levels of the company.
Often companies find themselves in the vicious cycle of sales forecasting without them even knowing it. They get sucked into a process that is tactical, time consuming and which, by the time it is complete, everyone in the organization ignores. It is ignored because no one trusts it, the output is seen to be subjective and cannot be relied upon.
Getting to Trust Your Forecast
The process of getting to a trusted sales forecast does not have to be complex, in fact it starts rather simply with getting the sales reps to input their forecasts. How do you get sales reps to regularly input and update the sales forecast on a regular basis?
First, you have to have an executive management team that is committed to the process (why on earth wouldn’t everyone be committed to it given the impact of a sales forecast?) and that clearly communicates and enforces the value of the process.
Without commitment you cannot expect reps to do it on their own!
Secondly: you have to make it really easy for the sales reps to update their sales forecasts. Many companies have shoehorned Microsoft Excel into being the answer. It is by far the most prevalent tool out there being leveraged for sales forecasting. But it’s not the best answer.
Tying the sales forecasting process to a CRM solution like Salesforce CRM, Oracle CRM-on-Demand or Siebel, does make it considerably easier for them. By doing so, the process of updating an opportunity and inputting a sales forecast becomes seamless to sales reps. You have to use the right application for the job.
Thirdly: you have to understand what is changing in the sales forecast and why — this will focus all your conversations during the sales forecast review process.
Lastly: you have to measure the sales reps’ accuracy over time to enable you to hold your sales reps accountable. If the sales reps know that you are monitoring and tracking their every move they may feel less inclined to play games with their forecasts. When sales reps are confronted with the results of their sales forecast submissions, their behavior changes, immediately!
You may never get sales reps to like updating their sales forecast, but at least you will get them to update it on a regular basis with more fact-based information than ever.