- How's it going, everyone?
I'm Yan, today we're talking
about sales forecasting.
We'll discuss what forecasting is,
why accurate and real-time
forecasting is important,
and three tips to consider
when building out your
forecasting strategies
with examples of how
we do it here at Salesforce.
If that sounds good to you
let's get right into it.
Welcome to Salesforce on Salesforce,
an inside look at our sales, service,
marketing and IT businesses
with helpful how-to tips you
can use for your business.
For sales professionals,
we'll have tips that can help businesses
save on costs with automation,
be more efficient with productivity tools,
and so much more.
As always, you can continue
learning on Trailhead,
Salesforce's online learning platform
for more information on this topic
and many others you might
find useful for your business.
Now onto sales forecasting.
Sales forecasting can
be defined as a projection
of future revenue and a prediction
of which deals will move
through the sales cycle.
Accurate forecasting ensures that everyone
is on the same page
rowing toward the same goal
which helps all levels of the organization
be more effective and
strategic with their time.
Every company has a different way
of managing their pipeline
and preparing sales forecasts.
At Salesforce, we've broken it down
into three key components:
people, process, and tools.
That might sound easy
but it's really not a
simple recipe for success.
All three elements,
people, process and tools,
need to work well together
to create a data driven culture
which will improve your forecast accuracy.
Now here are three tips you
can use to foster a data culture
and maximize the impact
of your sales forecasts.
Tip number one, create a data culture.
Selling is a team sport.
Every member of the sales organization
plays an important role
when it comes to forecasting
because every team
member has unique insights
into the likelihood that
that particular deal will close.
At Salesforce, every member
of the sales organization
from the sales rep to the C-suite
helps put together our forecasts.
We abide by our golden rule.
If it isn't in Salesforce,
it doesn't exist.
Every sales rep and every
manager is held accountable.
The account executives identify, create,
and adjust opportunity
data in a timely manner.
Sales managers are responsible
for inspecting this data,
monitoring pipeline changes,
and adding their own judgment and commits.
Executives further inspect
sales manager commits,
investigate trends and
ultimately redirect resources
and guide action to address gaps.
If any one of these
individual fails to do their part,
forecast reviews are inefficient
and inaccurate since
they're based on stale data.
Involving each level of
the sales organization
in this process ensures
we're approaching our forecast
from both a bottoms-up
and a tops-down perspective.
Tip number two,
develop a consistent, transparent process.
To prepare an accurate forecast,
an organization first needs
to carefully define and align
on the metrics that are most important
to the health of the business.
Because Salesforce is a
subscription-based business,
we measure pipeline generation,
annual contract value or bookings,
recurring revenue and attrition.
Of course, the metrics
that work for our business
don't necessarily work for yours,
so start by agreeing on the measures
that affect your business's outcomes
but don't stop at defining your KPIs.
It's also important to align
on the critical components
of your opportunity data.
This could include
everything from deal stages
to the required inputs
from each sales rep.
For example, at Salesforce,
we require every opportunity
to include close dates,
amounts, deal stage, a sales
manager judgment, next steps,
and an up-to-date log of activities.
Once you have your
definitions and rules in place,
it's time to design your
forecasting cadence.
Now, would you believe me if I told you
that we have a forecasting
call at Salesforce
every single day of the week?
Well, it's true, let me break it down.
On Monday mornings, our
CEO and COO start with a review
of week-over-week changes,
the quarterly outlook,
and influential deals.
Each day, the forecast is
reviewed at a different level
from region and country managers
to industry managers to
individual territory managers.
And all along the way,
sales reps are taking action
and updating their pipeline data.
Remember, the golden rule.
From the CEO down,
Salesforce aligns sales teams
with processes designed to
keep us on track with our goals
and because everyone
understands the goals,
we're all working toward them.
Weekly cadences feed into our monthly,
which in turn helps guide
the quarterly, biannual,
and yearly cadences,
driving alignment
throughout the entire process.
Tip number three,
Use the right tools for the job.
Now this is the last piece of the puzzle
and it's critical to the success
of bringing the people
and the process together.
Remember, if it isn't in
Salesforce, it doesn't exist,
so you guess it.
Every element of our forecasting process
happens in Salesforce.
Everything starts in Sales Cloud.
As I alluded to before,
the entire process starts
with a rep creating an opportunity.
Reps and managers can
make adjustments in real time
from anywhere to ensure accuracy.
These opportunities are rolled up
by collaborative forecasting
to show expected sales
by team, time period or
product family and territory.
From there, the sales
manager uses pipeline inspection
to inspect pipeline health.
With pipeline inspection,
our reps and managers can
quickly see recent changes
to opportunity amounts, close dates,
AI-based opportunity scores and more.
It also integrates
with Einstein Conversation Insights
where managers can
listen to call recordings
to understand where a deal went sideways.
Tools like pipeline inspection
help to facilitate sales coaching moments.
Managers can quickly identify gaps
and help the rep create an action plan
to hit their number.
Once a pipeline has gone
through manager inspection,
it's ready for the Monday
executive forecast call.
This is where powerful tools
like CRM Analytics come into play.
CRM Analytics is a Salesforce
native analytics platform
that allows us to connect data
from across the organization
and visualize it in a single view
for our sales teams to consume.
One of our most commonly
used analytics dashboards
is our global forecast dashboard.
Here, the sales organization
can get a bird's eye view
of every important sales metric.
And for deeper dives,
filters are available for time periods,
specific sales leaders,
customer segments, and more.
The dashboard is color coded,
intentionally designed to call attention
to the most impactful changes.
Here, sales teams review
commits bookings or ACV,
year over year trends, pipeline coverage,
and much, much more.
And because CRM Analytics
is native to Salesforce,
users can drill down and take action
with a single click of a button
directly from the dashboard.
This all comes together to
create a single source of truth
for pipeline and forecasting.
Every aspect of the pipeline
starts with the opportunity,
goes through manager
inspection and commitment,
and ultimately rolls up to the CRO
as part of a global forecasting dashboard.
It's a centralized place
for your sales teams,
from reps to managers to the C-suite,
to focus on what's working
where sales reps can
boost our productivity
and where teams can make
the sales process more efficient.
Well, there you have it,
three ways to help you build
an accurate forecast for your business.
Check out our additional resources
and be sure to watch the
other episodes in this series
to learn how we use Salesforce products
to deliver exceptional
selling experiences.
We'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)