Another month passed and another Sales Forecast Meeting ahead of us.
The picture is often the same: Frantic Sales Directors and Sales Controllers trying to pull all the information together from the different sources like CRM, ERP, countless Excel-files only to realize that deals have slipped once again.
We and most of our customers faced the same problem: Time consuming data-collecting processes and inaccurate forecasts. According to BARC’s 2019 Planning and Forecasting Study this is a problem known and identified by 65% of their respondents (n=316).
By implementing and utilizing our own software we have created a single point of truth for all relevant sales data. ERP and CRM delta-uploads happen overnight and data entry from sales reps is done directly in the system. This reduced my preparation time for the management meetings by 85%. All information necessary for the management reporting is now available within seconds and I can focus on the outliers make profound recommendations on how to steer our business.
Further, we increased our forecasting accuracy by leveraging the built in AI features.
Previously, we heavily relied on the “gut – feeling” of our sales reps, but often there were gaps between what sales expected and what actually happened.
AI now helps us to analyze the past success rate of our sales reps, takes into account various factors (such as maturity of the opportunity, experience of the sales rep, deal size,…) and gives us an accurate range, within which turnover and closing date will lie.
Combining this with the human intelligence within the organization is the greatest factor of success. smartPM Sales Performance Forecasting…
