Sales forecasting can be tricky to perform accurately if you aren’t used to it, whether you’re forecasting with paper, spreadsheets, or even Numerik! With economic instabilities, global crises, and supply chain issues affecting your customers’ spending, maintaining sales forecasts can seem pointless. Keep persevering! An accurate sales forecast gives you a precise path to reaching sales goals, tracking your personal sales performance, and provides an early warning system when revenue starts slipping. 

In this blog, we’ll look at how you can run better sales forecasts in Numerik to ensure you make your number. Scroll down to see our video guides and get started.

Learn how to run a better sales forecast in Numerik

Finding your sales forecast 

You can’t become a sales forecasting pro if you can’t locate your forecast quickly. Follow the simple workflows below to find your sales forecast quickly in Numerik.

There are two ways to find your sales forecast. When you load up the app, you’ll find yourself on the homescreen with your scorecards and target cards. From here you can access sales forecasts by tapping “Forecasts” on the top right, then selecting a current or future target you’d like to forecast for. Now you can forecast revenue against your customers.

Alternatively, if you’re already in the grid, provided you're in the customer dimension, you can see your sales forecast by switching the metric to “Forecast.” From here you can adjust your forecasts.

Having your sales forecast close and quick to access makes it easier to include forecast updates into your routine. If you can find your forecast without thinking, you’ve got the right foundation.

How to proactively adjust your sales forecast 

Keeping up with your customer’s changing requirements throughout the period can turn sales forecasting into a chore. Here’s what you can do in the Numerik app to proactively stay on top of your forecasts:

Numerik’s in-app sales forecasts use (-) and (+) buttons to quickly subtract or add dollars in relative increments: great for when you’ve only got 3 minutes to mash a number in before a team meeting. If you’re needing greater accuracy, you can tap the forecast figure to manually change it.

Good sales forecasts can’t be maintained without a proactive approach. Your sales forecast can’t warn you if you’re going off course if you aren’t updating that forecast and planning preemptive actions when customers fail to meet their forecasted revenue. Salespeople who make efforts to update their Numerik sales forecasts after connecting with customers and making sales can relax knowing their forecasts are accurate and they know where they’re going. 

A simple tap of the (-) or (+) buttons and glimpse at your Forecast Tracking could mean the difference between meeting sales targets or not: make efforts after each client meeting to review your forecast. 

Using Posts to take action over your sales forecast

Without context, sales forecasts are nothing more than numbers: in Numerik, you can easily keep notes on all your sales activities, and forecast changes, using Posts. Noting critical forecast-related details could help keep you a step ahead, ready to jump on sales opportunities.

If you use Posts, you’ll be familiar with writing notes, uploading photos, recording video and capturing audio to save against your customers after calls, meetings, and store visits. The same workflow applies to sales forecasts. 

After adjusting a customer’s forecast, tap their name and scroll down to “Actions.” There, you’ll have the option to “View Posts.” Tapping “View Posts” takes you to all the Posts recorded against the customer, and on the bottom right, you can create another.

In your Post, you could elaborate on why you’ve changed the forecast. A customer might be ready to proceed with a new quote, or show interest in ordering more. Perhaps you recently spoke to them and know they’re starting a new project. Maybe you need to note an Opportunity or a Task: an opportunity to earn more, or you need to follow up with the customer to keep on track. Additionally, if you’d like your team or manager’s feedback, you could add your manager to the post using the @ mentions feature. If it can help you plan your next move, expand on your forecast with a Post.

Your summary and key takeaways

Sales forecasting can help you get perspective, clarity, and direction when you need it most. To build a better forecast which helps you make your number, you’ll need to include forecast updating into your routine, be comfortable making quick forecast changes, and build nuance with notes. 

Next time you’re interacting with your forecasts in Numerik, ask yourself these questions:

• Are you making efforts to build forecasting into your routine?
• Can you find your forecast without thinking?
• Are you using your forecast to identify Opportunities, Tasks, and plan your next move?

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