Forecasting categories

it’s long been my opinion that over-complication of forecasts is a disease eating away at proper sales management, whether by a rep themselves, or managers sifting through reams of spreadsheets.  A pal of mine, Brendan Gillies, a winner originally from Glasgow currently selling in LA, firmly believes there’s only two types of deal on a forecast; deals coming in this month, and those coming in next month.

I spoke earlier today to an excellent sales person in the document management solutions arena.  His name’s Dylan Jones.  His firm have only two categories of forecast deal (that get reported on using Saratoga’s Avenue crm incidentally) – proof there are similar believers out there.  They are:

Pool – anything you’re working on, that isn’t yet something you feel is about to come in, part of the ‘pool of opportunities’.

Revenue Checked – Your neck is well and truly on the line, and you really reckon these ones are coming home (or indeed already have for this current period).