Forecast and plan your sales
Introduction
A sales forecast is an essential tool for managing a business of any size. It is a month-by-month forecast of the level of sales you expect to achieve. Most businesses draw up a sales forecast once a year.
Armed with this information you can rapidly identify problems and opportunities - and do something about them.
For example, accurately forecasting your sales and building a sales plan can help you manage your production, staff and financing needs more effectively and avoid unforeseen cashflow problems.
While it's always wise to expect the unexpected, a well-constructed sales plan, combined with accurate sales forecasting, can allow you to spend more time developing your business rather than responding to day-to-day developments in sales and marketing.
This guide shows you how to put together a sales forecast and a sales plan.
Subjects covered in this guide
- Introduction
- A basis for sales forecasts
- Your sales assumptions
- Developing your forecast
- Avoiding forecasting pitfalls
- Creating a sales plan
- Here's how sales forecasting helped my firm
