You Have Your Sales Forecast. Now What?

In order to be prepared for your company's future, you need to be able to properly forecast what your sales are going to be.

• Sales forecasting is the use of current information and conditions to estimate future sales.

• Sales forecasting is key to planning your sales strategy and adequately budgeting for your sales team.

• Sales forecasting challenges include short sales histories, inaccurate data, seasonal influences, research, and terminological inconsistency.

• This article is for business owners and sales managers who are looking to create sales forecasts.

In business, you’re always selling something. Even if your company is the furthest thing from a storefront with cash registers and credit card readers – say, a consultancy that charges by the hour – you make a sale every time you earn money by providing goods or services. Of course, you also incur certain expenses to make these sales, so you’ll need to know ahead of time whether you’ll make enough sales to cover your costs. That’s where sales forecasting comes in.