How do you separate forecasting and pipeline management activities? Or, even more simply, how do you tell them apart? The two goals of pipeline management are to build a healthy pipeline and to win more deals. In our research, we found that companies measured pipeline health across three key dimensions — size, shape, and contents.
Deals were won through focused coaching on individual opportunities. The only goal of forecasting is to accurately predict future performance. Nailing those assumptions will not make you more likely to win that deal, nor will it make your pipeline any healthier. Both are rich topics that require unique strategies, tactics, and analytics to do well.
But the first step toward improving them both is to successfully separate them in your minds. How to Calculate Recurring Revenue. Build Business Resilience with Sales Cloud. Enable the healthiest pipelines and most accurate forecasts by taking unique approaches.
The sales pipeline challenge. A useful, free tool on AppExchange is the Salesforce-native Opportunity Push Counter , which tracks how many times an Opportunity has been pushed from month to month. Account engagement is an important factor to use in prioritizing which Opportunities to invest in heavily pursuing. Things to measure include number of emails exchanged, number of meetings, ratio of sent and received emails and whether the sales person engaged with more than one person.
Another great indicator of forward progression on a deal is whether there is a future meeting on the calendar. Below are two common challenges and the tried-and-true fixes to get your Opportunity pipeline — and forecast — correct and working for you. Opportunity with a low engagement score but a fast approaching close date : A situation like this is indicative of a problematic Opportunity pipeline that is likely poisoning the forecast. Time to get real and push to the right time frame.
Account in Stage 1 of Sales cycle with a fast approaching close date : By nature, salespeople are eternally optimistic. Ensure you have a timeline that is consistent with historical customer journey data from similar deals in the past. For example, you might have a promising Opportunity, but at a very early stage in your Sales cycle.
Data like average deal size, time to close, and close ratio can help reps plan proactively to ensure a steady flow of new business. Typically, it is a projection based upon specific assumptions, such as targeted prospects or a defined sales strategy. Production-driven and resource-constrained organizations like manufacturing or consulting, for example often tend to invest more time and effort in forecasting than companies in other industries, because the forecast dictates hiring and material needs for the immediate future.
Other businesses that may especially benefit from forecasting are those with long deal cycles, repeat purchases, or the need to report on shipments and orders at a detailed level.
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