How to Forecast Sales Accurately Every Time: An SME’s Guide

If only you could know what your sales are going to be next month, in six months, in a year, in six years—then you could plan for employment levels, supply chains, parts, and service, right? But fortune telling isn’t a reliable business, so it’s probably true that your sales forecasting relies to some extent on a combination of guesswork, hopeful thinking, and past experience.

 You can do better

Sales forecasting is more science than many people realize. But what you have to do is get out of your box on both sides of the sales forecasting chain. You have to realize that your sales forecast affects every single moment in your business’s day to day, from marketing to supply to human resources. You also have to realize that every element in that day to day can contribute information that helps to make your sales forecasting more accurate.

What does that mean for your approach? Use this graphic to find out.

Via Salesforce