Sales forecast automation for Communications & Media

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You’re going to make a million dollars this  year. At least, you might be able to say that…   if you learn how to forecast your sales.Welcome to  NetHunt Gmail CRM and expert sales learning hub.  Today we’re looking at sales forecasting, and by  the end of this short video, you’re gonna know   what it is, why you should do it, the different  kinds of forecasting there are, and exactly how   to do it. Enough chit chat, let’s get  growing. What is sales forecasting?   Based on data, a sales forecast is an educated  prediction of how many deals a business will   close within any given timeframe. A sales forecast  changes in scope, it can measure an individual,   a team, or a whole business. With NetHunt CRM…  sales forecasting is easy. But above all, sales   forecasting is important for sales management.  But why is sales forecasting important? Sales   forecasting helps shape future business decisions.  With enough data, it becomes easy to predict the   necessity and consequences of particular actions.  For example, a good sales forecast can help you   build your future budget, scale the size of  your team, and understand whether you’re in   line for that bonus to pay for the trip to  the carribean you promised your other half…   Sales forecasting helps build business objectives;  business objectives help build your business.   So... What kinds of sales forecasting are there?  The answer is… loads. But we’ve put together three   of the most popular, most trustworthy ones. The  first one is Length of Sales Cycle Forecasting,   which takes the average length of your sales  cycle into account to predict the success of   any pending deals. Let’s imagine your average  sales cycle is two months. I look in my pipeline,   and see that there is a deal that has been active  for one month. I can say, with some varying degree   of confidence, that this deal has a 50% chance  of success. One fatal flaw in this forecast is   that deals take varying amounts of time to close  depending on different variables. LoSC forecasting   isn’t that reliable. If you want to know more  about managing a sales pipeline, check out the   link on the screen! The NetHunt Sales learning hub  is full of them. Next up is historial forecasting.   This one is simple, really. All you need to  do is look at the same timeframe in the past.   So, if you wanna know your forecast for  September, take a look at August. Similarly,   you could look at September last year.  Historical forecasting is good, sure.   But, it doesn’t take into account  external factors such as seasonal trends;   nor internal trends such as downsizing.Are  you still there? Stay tuned. Here comes the   cherry on the cake! Finally, Opportunity Stage  Forecasting. This one is all based on the stage   a deal stands at in your pipeline and the  probability of that deal closing. It takes   some guesswork on your part, because you need to  put a percentage on whether you think a deal is   going to go through. For example if a deal is in  the offer stage, you can rate that deal at 70%.   Then, to put that deal in your forecast, you do a  simple equation. Expected revenue = deal amount x   probability. If my deal is $100,000, I multiply  that by 0.6 and get $60,000 in expected revenue.   I can then include this figure in my forecasting.  As far as predictability goes, sales forecasting   is similar to weather forecasting. You tell  everybody it’s going to be sunny, but as soon as   you say this, it starts raining. Opportunity Stage  Forecasting gives us the most reliable forecast   for our business, because it is linear rather than  binary. NetHunt CRM helps you build a Opportunity   Stage forecast. How can I build a sales forecast? With NetHunt CRM, it’s easy. When you’re setting   up your different fields in the Deals folder,  be sure to include Deal Amount, Probability,   Close Date, and Forecasted Revenue fields.  We recommend using the following field types:   ‘Currency’ field for Deal Amount. ‘Dropdown’  field for Probability. ‘Formula’ field for   Forecasted revenue. Your formula will look like  this. =field(“Deal Amount”)*field(“Probability”). Then, once you enter Deal amount and Probability,   the Forecasted Revenue will be automatically  calculated as shown below. Apply the ‘Date’   field for Close date. Once you have your Deals  created and necessary fields filled in, you can   proceed with creating a dashboard view to show  you forecasted sales by month. Do this by clicking   Card view by Close date. And then period:  Month. Choose the fields to show on the card:   Add Total forecasted sales amount for each month  by clicking the three dots, and then Summarize. Easy, right? If you haven’t already, sign up for  your NetHunt 14-day free trial for easy peasy   sales forecasting and a bunch of other cool CRM  features. I know that we have a wise community   of sales experts watching this video, so let us  share our best practices. Fellow sales experts,   share in the comments, what your favourite  sales forecasting technique is! Like Comment   Subscribe. Watch our next video on how to  grow sales on LinkedIn. NetHunt over and out.