Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 16, 2013

Here''s the premise: Companies that have been rigorously enforcing sales process should stop doing so because it is resulting in longer sales cycles, decreased conversion rates, unreliable forecasts and depressed margins. So they say. Here are some of the many problems with their premise. It was a survey! Sound familiar?

Sales Process 251

Sales Process Margin Survey Forecasting 251

The Pipeline

AUGUST 14, 2013

Another example of this half-assed approach is sales forecasts. Talk to most sales people, they will tell you that their task is to submit a forecast. I have had more than one rep tell me that they in fact have two forecasts, one they share, and the other is their own secret stash of opportunities.

Scale 293

Scale Forecasting Call-back Account 293

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 6, 2025

Businesses must strike a delicate balanceoffering competitive pricing without eroding margins, ensuring consistency across direct sales, e-commerce, and partner networks, and adapting to fluctuating costs and customer demands. E-commerce: Offers transparent, self-service pricing, which must remain competitive yet profitable.

Margin 48

Margin Channels Maximizer Lead Rank 48

Pointclear

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

It only took two months after the first rep’s retirement to start seeing an impact on the forecast and on revenue. With three out of 10 reps gone, the forecast dropped substantially and with it the year that was going so well for the company. The yearly forecast has to have a hedge. Many sales managers have two forecasts.

Forecasting 124

Forecasting Sales Forecasts Territories Sales Qualified Lead 124

SBI Growth

AUGUST 9, 2013

SM forecast is not very accurate. Forecasting big deals is tough at the end of the quarter. SMs who can’t be accurate in forecasting don’t have a command on their business. He looked at the value of the SM based on Gross Margin Contribution. This will tell you which SMs are being carried by a superstar.

Sales Management 288

Sales Management Forecasting Analysis Margin 288

Gong.io

MARCH 15, 2022

Sales forecasting isn’t revolutionary — it’s been around since the dawn of time. Forecasting relies on opinions … subjective percentages tied to “what we think” will happen. Take a single deal: A sales rep who is overly aggressive may have a different looking forecast compared to a rep who is more conservative.

Sales Forecasts 127

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Call-back Decision Maker 127

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 13, 2022

I understand that predictive analysis tools can be accurate at forecasting business trends and sales performance. But what will happen in 2022? That depends on whom you’re talking to and what their biases are.

Trends 356

Trends Margin Cold Calling Inbound 356

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Sellers need to spot the buyer in order to produce an accurate forecast. Done incorrectly it will negatively impact revenue, deal size, and margins. Understanding, recognizing, and adapting to these signals effectively is the key to success. Otherwise, they end up using a gut feeling. 1 stated reason for the failure rate.

Customer 306

Customer Sales Qualified Lead Demographics Margin 306

Hubspot Sales

JANUARY 9, 2023

For this, you need to turn ‌sales forecasting into an art form. Yet, many are uncertain about the best way to predict their profit margins. In this article, you’ll learn what sales forecasting is all about and how to do sales forecasting in Excel. What is sales forecasting? What is sales forecasting?

Forecasting 105

Forecasting Sales Forecasts Analysis Microsoft 105

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 23, 2025

We become obsessed with forecasts, pipelines, and their health. The marginal cost of doubling activity through AI is virtually $0. We are focused on hitting our revenue goals, not just by the end of the year, but quarterly and monthly. And that drives us to look at our prospecting and activity metrics. But something becomes very clear.

Segment 121

Segment Maximizer Margin Up-Sell 121

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

This stage focuses on maximizing revenue opportunities, optimizing profit margins, and reinforcing a leadership position in the market. Key Objective: Solidify market leadership by balancing competitive pricing with margin optimization. Data-Driven Decisions: Leverage analytics to fine-tune pricing and forecast customer behavior.

Company 112

Company Scale Retention Margin 112

Pointclear

JUNE 12, 2018

Offering discounts in the last quarter savages the margin and seldom solves the revenue shortfall. Qualified leads, i.e. people with a declared need and an intention to buy, will save the forecast. What's it take to generate leads that fuel your forecast? There is just one option left. No requalification; it isn’t needed.).

Forecasting 113

Forecasting Outsourcing Services Sales Qualified Lead Discount 113

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

The management dashboard, metrics, charts, graphs, tables, pipeline, forecasts, reports and anything else you can coax from today's feature-rich CRM applications will not contain up-to-date and accurate information unless every salesperson is committed and held accountable to updating it - DAILY.

CRM 235

CRM LandSlide Margin Cold Calling 235

Anthony Iannarino

JULY 11, 2019

When you miss your sales forecast or goal, there is almost always a deal or two (or three) that pushed, prospects that didn’t sign the contract by the end of the quarter. These two varieties mean something different when it comes to forecasting. Forecasting Deals. Every Commitment Pushed. Meetings get pushed. The One Push Rule.

Forecasting 92

Forecasting Sales Forecasts Proposal Cancellation 92

Pointclear

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

For this company ‘someplace else’ had been growth, but at low margins, with chaos in the sales ranks, and a poorly installed CRM system…all because of a marketing plan that wasn’t a plan. Sales were up (marginally), but profits were suffering, their salespeople were not happy, and were leaving the company in spite of growth.

Margin 203

Margin Marketing Hiring Lead Rank 203

SBI Growth

JANUARY 20, 2013

Faulty forecasting could make your performance look much better (or worse) than it actually was. Operating Income / Margin. This viewpoint is important because it measures you across a level playing field. For example, you may have dominated your number, but perhaps your number was low. ROIC / ROC.

Hiring 306

Hiring Margin Quota Inbound 306

SBI Growth

DECEMBER 26, 2013

But the bi-weekly forecast is done on a spreadsheet. Although the process protects margins, it saps valuable selling time from his day. So, I have to constantly follow up. I’m project managing my project managers.”. Reporting is another time drain. Jerry leverages his CRM system to manage his opportunities. Where Does the Time Go?

Hiring 282

Hiring SAP Study Retention 282

SBI Growth

SEPTEMBER 3, 2012

There’s a good chance that 75% of your performance appraisal is tied to revenue, margin and selling activity. Reevaluating expectations on your quota and forecast. Successful reps intuitively use mornings, evenings and weekends to knockoff these activities. Reconsidering non-selling activities. There are four months left in the year.

Segment 288

Segment Maximizer Margin Banking 288

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 16, 2012

27% reported that their sales forecasts are not accurate enough. Despite those business pressures, these initiatives were put in place: 53% want higher margins. You also have inaccurate forecasts, a longer than necessary sales cycle, poor conversion ratios and insufficient growth in top line revenue. 15% want to reduce turnover.

Hiring 193

Hiring Territories Compensation Forecasting 193

Pointclear

MAY 23, 2017

This is the place to show how amazingly low the close rate can be to break-even on converting marketing qualified leads to sales qualified leads via lead qualificant and nurturing, a nd what the return is on good sales lead management: Assumptions: Margin is 60% (probably conservative for software and services). 694% (not even 1%).

Sales Qualified Lead 160

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Marketing Qualified Lead Closing 160

Sales Hacker

JULY 1, 2019

Sales forecasting is a crucial business exercise. Accurate sales forecasts allow business leaders to make smarter decisions about things like goal-setting, budgeting, hiring, and other things that affect cash flow. Meanwhile, an inaccurate sales forecast leaves sales managers guessing at whether they’ll actually hit quota.

Sales Forecasts 86

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Examples Lead Rank 86

The Pipeline

MARCH 6, 2012

In these times of shrinking margins and diminishing returns, Mark’s insights will change the way you think about discounting, price, negotiating, and, above all, the all-important concept of value. Stored in Attitude , Book Notice , Price , Proactive , Sales Leadership , Sales Success , Sales Technique , execution. Customer Care.

Pipeline 212

Pipeline Hiring Top of Funnel Cold Calling 212

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Quotas, pricing, margins, forecasts, conversions, quotes, close rates, meetings booked, average sale and more. By contrast, 38 years in sales consulting has shown me that selling is only about the numbers and admittedly, at times, I’ve been guilty of contributing to that focus on numbers.

Revenue 201

Revenue Sports Margin Quota 201

Hubspot Sales

DECEMBER 17, 2024

Forecasting and Risk Management Depending on the industry, AI can be a great tool to help identify risks, especially when it comes to processing loans and credit applications. Other industries can use AIs forecasting capabilities to make predictions on their investments.

Examples 98

Examples Ideal Customer Profile System Benefit 98

Cincom Smart Selling

APRIL 22, 2025

This strategy centralizes your sales, forecasting, and approval data to create a unified, efficient system. Harness Data for Strategic Insights: With centralized data, leverage analytics to identify trends, forecast more accurately, and fine-tune sales strategies. Outcome: Complexity becomes a strength, not a barrier.

Revenue 48

Revenue Scale Strategy Lead Rank 48

Hubspot Sales

JUNE 12, 2019

Better sales and budget forecasting. Forecasting. At this stage of the S&OP process, data is gathered about prior sales and forecasts are made for future sales. At this stage of the S&OP process, data is gathered about prior sales and forecasts are made for future sales. Demand forecast versus actual.

Infor 144

Infor Oracle SAP Forecasting 144

MEDDIC

JANUARY 9, 2025

Revenue goals focus on the desired outcomes, such as achieving $1 million in sales, $500k gross margin, or acquiring 10 new clients. Prefer improving your win rate, instead of the number of deals in your forecast. Set a goal for the percentage of 80%+ scored champions in your forecast. FAR or Forecast Accuracy Rate.

Ideal Customer Profile 64

Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Lead Scoring Forecasting 64

Close.io

JUNE 3, 2019

The difference between these two sales managers can be explained through one simple, yet ultra-powerful tool: A Sales Forecast. Before you yawn and your eyes glaze over, realize forecasting doesn’t have to be a complicated or tedious tool to manage. 23+ sales forecast templates for any sales team. How to forecast sales.

Sales Forecasts 91

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Top of Funnel How To 91

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 29, 2025

These errors may result in overcharging, underpricing, or misquoting, all of which can harm customer relationships and reduce profit margins. Sales teams may not have real-time access to inventory or manufacturing costs, leading to quotes that do not reflect actual availability or margins.

Software 48

Software Software Discount Lead Rank 48

Cincom Smart Selling

APRIL 21, 2025

It also involves selecting the right tools and technologies to streamline workflows, forecast accurately, and improve decision-making. Is our forecast reliable? Forecast confidence How reliable are our predictions quarter over quarter? Align incentives e.g., shared OKRs for sales and finance based on margin + revenue.

Sales Management 48

Sales Management Top of Funnel Strategy Scale 48

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 27, 2019

In fact, according to a recent study by Aberdeen, companies that used SPM technology improved their profit margins at an 88 percent greater rate year-over-year. SPM systems have significant potential to make selling more substantive to an organization through data analytics and insights.

Strategy 223

Strategy Compensation Commission Incentive 223

InsightSquared

JULY 14, 2020

Your forecast is just a number. Just a number implies that your forecast holds no real value — no purpose behind it. Forecasting is all about precision. The closer your forecast aligns to actual earnings, the more efficient and effective your organization runs. The Common Sales Forecasting Misconception.

Forecasting 62

Forecasting Sales Forecasts Incentive Incentives 62

Hubspot Sales

JUNE 6, 2019

This is achieved by running competitive analysis, conducting forecasting, and making recommendations on how the sales, marketing, and other teams should move forward. Forecasting, long-term financial planning, and operational and financial reporting are just a few of the skills you’ll home in on this position. Sales Analyst.

Salary 141

Salary Face-to-face Sales Operations Forecasting 141

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 25, 2024

You must pull out all the stops and sell your value without trying to win with low-margin, low-retention pricing. Lesson #3 – The Power of Relationships The Saturday forecast was for 2 inches of rain, forcing Saturday’s doubleheader to be played on Sunday. ” Decision made.

Decision Maker 188

Decision Maker Hotels Cancellation Travel 188

Hubspot Sales

MARCH 27, 2019

This type of quota is based on the gross profit or margin of a dedicated sales team, product/service grouping, or salesperson. If you’re held to a gross margin quota, your number would be calculated by subtracting the cost of goods you sell from the overall revenue. Forecast Quota. Finally, account for forecasted growth.

Quota 143

Quota Territories Commission Forecasting 143

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 9, 2025

Pricing: Applies real-time rules, discounts, and margin controls. Traditional quoting methods often rely on manual calculations, which increases the risk of: Mispriced products that cut into margins. Higher profit margins by reducing unintended discounts. Improved reporting and forecasting with real-time insights.

Tools 48

Tools Scale Comparison Discount 48

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

One approach that intrepid leaders can look to is too shrink the size of territories, based on a number of factors driven by deal size, length of cycle, nature of the offering (new or mature), is the focus margin or market share, is there opportunity for organic growth, or strictly competitive account growth, and others. Customer Care.

Pipeline 212

Pipeline Territories Harvest Cold Calling 212