Forecasting—a Salesperson’s Bugbear
November 2nd, 2005 by Keith ThompsonI want to do something on forecasting, and always try to come up with a title first. So I thought it should be “Forecasting—a Salesperson’s Bugbear.” Then I took a second look – my mind said bugbear was the word to use. My eyes said “No way, that’s not a serious word—think again.” So off I go to the on-line dictionary and here is the scoop!
bugbear
n 1: an imaginary monster used to frighten children [syn: bogeyman, bugaboo, boogeyman, booger] 2: an object of dread or apprehension; “Germany was always a bugbear for France” . . .
Knowing how I felt about the monthly ritual of forecasting I can see that bugbear is indeed the right word . . . more on forecasting later.
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November 11th, 2005 at 1:50 am
Sales forecasting is more than a salesperson bugbear, it’s a pain in the duffis (care to guess which part of the body that is?).
Yet, successful salespeople can and do forecast properly, much to the delight of their sales managers. Why don’t more salespeople forecast effectively? It’s not that they don’t know how, although some don’t, it’s that they don’t have easy access to the information they need to do the job. Also, they let their sales funnels and pipelines get filled with non-sales stuff that confuse the situation.
In my article “Getting the Crud Out Of Your Sales Funnel” http://www.salesforcetraining.com/includes/SP14-8.htm I show a simple way to clean up your sales opportunities and improve your forecasting abilities. It’s very much in keeping with many of the philosophies that are covered in Sales Automation Done Right.
The proper sales automation tool can change forecasting from being a nightmare and bugbear into a dream.