domingo, 25 de março de 2012

A Predictable Sales Forecast Results From Your Sales Funnel

By Rui Ludovino


A good sales forecast is what every company wants to have to help them make good business decisions. However predictable sales forecasts can be highly elusive and difficult to achieve. There's often a remarkable difference between what the sales team says they'll bring in and what they actually land up bringing in.

Having an correct analysis of your business will allow you to run your business smoothly and have best sales volume as possible. Sales funnel management will allow you to calculate your probability of revenue for a certain period of time (days, months and years to come). Some companies do exceptionally well at managing their sales funnels.

Do not confuse a sales forecast with a sales funnel - they are very different. Your sales forecast determines the buying cycle of your customer in relation to your business and then predicts your sales every day. Your funnel examines the overall health of all potential sales in your income stream. It then estimates the likelihood that there are a lot of opportunities moving in the direction of closing to ensure revenue flow for a specified period of time.

A robust sales funnel is a good indicator of your long-term deals health. It's important to keep all the deals in your pipeline current. Be sure you build a system where your data is constantly reviewed. You should be collecting data on * The number of deals in the funnel * The number of deals in each sales stages * Cost of sales * Size of deals * Progression of the deals * Utilization of resources

Next you will need to review the relationship between you and the prospects: * Customer support * Best practices for your sales process at eachstage * How to make decisions * Prospect qualification

Sales funnels come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Each funnel have a number of steps that the prospects need to go through. Some of those opportunities are for a short period but far reaching, while others take place on a log period of time but only a few deals finding their way into the flow. There is no sales funnel that doesn't have at least a few holes. This mean the opportunity makes its way into the sales funnel but doesn't generate a sale. The key is having good opportunities that will make it from start to close.

It's important for you to have plenty of opportunities in each step so that the next step remains filled as it filters through. This can ensure you have a steady flow of sales rather than trying to recover from a lot of sales or having none at all.




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