Sales forecasting is becoming hard, don't give up yet!

Sales forecasting is becoming hard, don't give up yet!

Sometimes the accuracy of sales forecasting is elusive and difficult to assume. But sales forecasting helps in being ahead of the curve. Forecasting hitherto instills a proactive judgment along with near-to-accurate data to stuff your 'need pockets' with ample of your products and services.

Although, inaccurate forecasting of sales causes numerous troubles to match their revenue goals and prediction of sales performance. You always have to pay off to get the right forecasting sales, as planning is always the major part of every organizational success. Planning a forecast is daunting. The dynamic and state-of-art infrastructure can enhance the success rates of forecasting deals by 17%. But organizations face some serious obstacles that can only be prevented by strong and strategic planning.

Five major obstacles that are faced during sales forecasting

Seller's subjective mindset

This challenge arises from the seller, who always assumes a possible opportunity rather than the actual objective data. Psychology suggests that gut feelings ease the task of making decisions. However, this trove of critical data is insignificant if it cannot be turned into valuable insights to anticipate market trends. Though these instincts are an asset, it is no less than a foot in the mouth if you rely solely on it. To overcome this, the sellers can upskill themselves with numerous resources. This, when used in forecasting together, will help the sellers to understand the objective evaluation of the opportunity depending on their prior experience, buyer roles, and decision-making process with the help of accurate and recent data.

B2B selling
B2B selling

Absence of predictive data

CRM is one of the most popular tools to consolidate data in the sales organization. As per some reports, only 25% of the sales operators have a proper set of tools to implement CRM functionality. This data-driven CRM is often poor or irrelevant to rely solely on. Sellers have to depend on an unstructured data format that does not help in analysis to tackle this challenge. Start investing in a documented plan for the management and use of data in the form of sales. This way, the sellers can easily enhance the data quality and integration. But before the implementation, make sure that data is accurate and find the right tool to connect that data to show the previous performance can be associated with current opportunities.

As a result, low-quality data create long-term pain for current deals and give rise to long-term sales forecasting challenges by preventing sales organizations from building a piece of information from outdated predictive patterns.

Limiting the use of technology

On average, sales organizations use more than ten technological innovative tools and probably plan to add more than four every year. Around 30% of the sellers integrate technology for their applications, and CRM and sales professionals also committed that their sales tech effectively eases their administrative purpose. The seller needs to invest their time, efforts, and resources to harness technology's power, which again causes hindrance. Bringing the right resources and a structured plan to implement the sales tools with strategic data can work well and give the best possible results.

B2B selling
B2B selling

Unstructured data issues

Operational data issues are one of the major problems for the sellers. If the data is not accessible in an easy format or can't be analyzed, it is a problem that needs attention. Also, the team members are not available to report the key metrics regularly. It is also very difficult for other members to understand the metrics because they don't meet the required business performance. Seeking the help of real-time reporting can enhance the business and help the teams to mention the operational data issue. With the installation of new generation software with a built-in dashboard and optimal visibility, teams can easily analyze data and are accessible anytime or anywhere. The advanced technology helps in empowering teams to collect robust data and then deliver it to the leaders to make vital business decisions.

Lack of sales management in the process

The sales manager spends most of the time training the salespeople and collecting raw data for effective forecasting. The ambiguity of this results in poor quality of data. Many organizations are not using technological tools; thus, inaccurate data makes prediction difficult and impossible. These issues can create hurdles to building precise and successful forecasting. To manage this situation, the sales manager can also take the lead in modeling sales and practice the best operations to show the consistent approach of the business. They can also be implemented in formal cadence to review the forecast. Also, they can invest in strategic data of their sales techniques.

B2B selling

Wrapping it up

At ChalkWalk, we believe the right sales forecasting is not just a science but art too. This paves the way for decision-makers to use predictive analysis to derive the best value of all the data gathered. If the organization evaluates these major sales forecasting challenges, you will be well prepared for the frontline sellers, manager, and support operation team by using accurate tools for forecasting sales. This way, you can make structured sales forecasting for your business and have a strong base rather than bearing intuition force analysis.

  • Written by Admin, 05 February 2022

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