CRM Sales Forecasting

The purpose of Sales Forecasting is to estimate the sales in the future as input to Resource Planning and Financial Planning processes.

Process Activities

• Identification and collection of all potential projects for the forecasting period
• Determine the overall business environment and macroeconomic factors
  
• Estimation of volume, status and probability and for each potential project

Process Input

• The list of all potential processes from CRM
• The list new customer prospects
• Historical data about the conversion rates of potential projects and correction factors (see below)
• Rough estimation of the resources needed to execute the potential projects
  

Process Output

• A forecast of sales in the forecasting period
• A forecast of the resources required in the forecasting period
  
• Correction to the estimation process: By comparing past estimated sales vs. real sales, the estimation process can be improved. In particularly, a correction factor can be calculated for the estimation parameters probability and volume of a project.
  

Process Support by ]po[

• ]po[ can capture all sales leads and projects in a potential status using the standard core package.
• Each project can be equipped with dynamic fields for probability, volume and status in the CRM sales pipeline.
• Probability, volumne and status of projects can be shown in a portfolio view.
• In resource management, a report is available showing the forecasted resource needs over different time periods (not yet implemented)
• A number of indicators and statistics are available (not yet implemented).
  

Process Indicators

• Forecasted 6 month revenues
• Forecasted 6 month resource requirements
• Correction factors (deviation between forecast and reality in the past) for project volume and probability per estimator.