When people think about working in sales the mind often jumps to the grind of prospecting, winning over, and singing customers. The nonstop hustle of getting people willing to hear about what you’re offering and sincerely settle in for the ride. But there’s a part that gets overlooked unless you exist within this world. It’s a quarterly, monthly, sometimes weekly and possibly daily task that everyone who has ever been in a sales organization has been forced to endure: sales forecasting.
For those of you not in the know, sales forecasting is where everyone carrying a quota reports up on what they expect to sell by the end of a given time frame. The quarter is the holy grail of all companies, but monthly forecasts are almost as emphasized so people can be aware of the pacing; those simply aren’t as intense. One maxim remains true throughout all sales forecasting however– it’s all completely made up.