Simple tips for your Sales Forecasting
Sales forecasting is especially difficult when starting out and even harder if you don’t have any previous sales history to guide you. That said there are all sorts of ways to estimate sales revenues for the purposes of sales forecasting.
Sales Forecasting Tip No 1: Develop a unit sales projection for your business. Where you can, start simple with a sales forecast by unit by month. Not all companies sell by units, for example a service based company, so try to find some unit measure as it's easier to forecast by breaking into their component parts.
Sales Forecasting Tip No 2: Look to past sales data if you have it. Whenever you have past sales data about your products, your best sales forecasting tool is the often the recent past. There are some statistical analysis techniques that you can use to take past sales data and project it forward into the future. Statistical sales forecasting software are a great addition and are very valuable in any business plan.
Sales Forecasting Tip No 3: When launching a new product look to other factors for a new product. When launching a new product is still no excuse for not having a sales forecast. Of course you don't know what's going to happen, but that's no excuse for not drafting a sales projection. Break it down by finding important decision factors or components of sales. If you have a completely new product with no history, then find an existing product to use as a guide.
Sales Forecasting Tip No 4: Use technology such as Sales Forecasting Software. Forecast Pro is the innovative leader in enterprise demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization. Forecast Pro solutions help companies manage the future of their business. With Forecast Pro you can increase forecast accuracy, reduce inventory levels, improve customer service, take control of your supply chain. That is the power of Sales Forecasting Software.
There are some simple tips on creating a sales forecast that stands up. If you are still unsure check out our Free whitepaper on Financial Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting.