Three steps you can take to improve your sales forecasting right away.
The unpredictability of sales this year is taking its toll. In an informal poll we conducted among integrators who attended a recent webinar about AV backlogs and bookings, 70% reported that bookings are flat or down from 2023. Industry research from NSCA, AVIXA, and Commercial Integrator confirms this sales slowdown as well.
For some of your customers, funds are drying up. Others are putting decisions on hold as they wait to see what the economy might bring later in the year. Some are choosing to build up their cash reserves due to uncertainty.
Fewer projects in the pipeline, coupled with slowed sales bookings, affect your company’s ability to forecast accurately.
But forecasting is the lifeblood of your organization. Without accurate predictions about revenue coming in—and when—how can you make informed decisions about resource allocation and investment? The faster you can gain control of your pipeline, the better you’ll be able to weather the headwinds the integration industry is dealing with.
To explore this topic in more detail, we recently hosted Forecasting to Predict 2024 Results, a webinar that provided integrators and IT companies with advice and metrics to improve forecasting. During that discussion, we asked integrators what’s making their sales forecasting more difficult. They reported that:
Customers aren’t committing to moving projects forward.
The project pipeline isn’t as big as it used to be.
Their company is losing opportunities to competitors.
But Revenueify’s objective isn’t only to preach about what’s happening in the industry: We give integrators real solutions they can implement to improve outcomes.
Below are three action items we shared during our recent webinar to help you improve sales forecasting right away.
While we cover the basics here, you can view the webinar to gather more detailed information, formulas, and resources to make sure you get it right.
Action 1: Calculate your 12-month sales pipeline and make sure it’s 15X larger than your monthly quota.
What goes into booked revenue and calculating your sales pipeline? It’s a pretty simple formula involving opportunities, average sale price, and your team’s win rate (watch the webinar to see the formula and how to use it).
When you calculate your 12-month sales pipeline, make sure it’s 15X larger than your monthly quota. If it doesn’t match up, then you should focus on increasing the number of opportunities. Why? Because, among the metrics that make up this formula, it’s the easiest one to change quickly.
Action 2: Review ROI with clients for all stuck deals
Historically, salespeople check on stuck deals by reaching out to ask whether a project is on track. “I’m just checking in!” is a phrase that’s often heard. But that “check-in” isn’t providing the client with any added value when it comes to moving their project forward. When people go silent, it’s time to provide them with direction to reactivate conversations.
To do this, focus on the ROI of that project they put on hold. If you use outcome-based sales strategies, then you already know the business reasons driving the project (minimizing downtime, grow profitability, etc.).
When salespeople call clients to follow up, what they should do instead is:
Return to their notes to review why the project was proposed in the first place.
Put themselves in the shoes of the buyer.
Revisit those reasons the project was proposed with the buyer.
Tie the project back to ROI and what they’re missing by staying stagnant.
“Here are some goals you told me you wanted to accomplish and how they tie to your business issues. Has anything changed since then? Are those still key initiatives?” Asking questions like these can help get the conversation restarted and get the client thinking.
Action 3: Establish a monthly forecasting process
Instead of annually, try conducting manual forecasting during the first week of every month. This means examining every single opportunity slated to book for the month you’re looking at. Go through them with the respective salespeople and discuss what can be done to influence those opportunities. Once your monthly forecast is complete, use it for the next 30 days.
This also allows you to look at trends and follow the trajectory for bookings. If it’s up—great! If not, consider making changes to your sales process.
Where to Go to Learn More About Sales Forecasting
Understanding your pipeline is critical not only in uncertain times but also in good times. It fuels an accurate forecast that acts as a business barometer.
You can watch Forecasting to Predict 2024 Results on demand to find out how to make your forecasts better and gauge how healthy your pipeline is. We also offer helpful metrics and formulas to help you create accurate sales forecasts.
To dig even deeper into the conversation, Revenueify is leading a sales leadership bootcamp in July. We meet for 1.5 days in person and follow up with three virtual 90-minute sessions to help you implement the strategies we’ll share during the training.
We’ll teach you the sales management process we developed, including motivating, goal setting, going through our AIM (analyze, implement, move forward) process for forecasting and predicting sales results.
Upcoming Content You Won't Want to Miss
· July 10 webinar: Hire or Fail: Navigating the 2024 Sales Talent Minefield
· July 8-12 bootcamp: Sales Manager Bootcamp
· Aug. 5 bootcamp: Prospecting and Backlog Building Bootcamp
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