5 questions to ask yourself when forecasting sales opportunities

We have a quote which will help you provide an accurate sales forecast for your Sales Managers and make sure you maximise time on the right sales opportunities. 'A sales pipeline is a pipeline not a pipe dream'.

By providing an accurate forecast you will help ensure your company can plan resource, stock levels, develop systems and make business and sales strategic decisions to meet your customer's demands and expectations. You will also feel more confident and motivated because you will have a higher win rate and not waste your time on sales opportunities that have little or no chance of converting into business.  

Be honest with yourself and only put it down as a winnable if you have qualified it well and you are confident it will come in. 

We can all get excited when a big brand name expresses an interest in our services or products. It looks great when you quote that company name in your pipeline; you must qualify well because the time and effort needed to win them can be immense so you have to be very confident you have a chance or you will be short listed. You will have to invest time in these opportunities to determine this however great sales qualification will really help you assess if the opportunity is winnable or a pipedream. You can assess how much time, resource and development you put in or not put in as the case maybe.  

5 quick questions to ask yourself when you are assessing if an opportunity will convert to business and what percentage to assign when forecasting.

• Do we have a solution, product or service to meet the customer's needs or a suitable alternative?
• Has the customer shown signs of genuine interest and commitment?
• Is their requirement a must have or a nice to have?
• Can we beat the competition?
• Are there sufficient reasons for them to change supplier? (If using a competitor at the moment)

There are many more qualification questions you can ask to assess if the opportunity is winnable. For more details and advice on qualifying sales opportunities and forecasting please refer to the Advanced Sales, Solution and Consultative Selling and Sales Forecasting and Planning courses in our courses menu. 

Please like this article if you want more sales tips.

We are recognised for providing customised training to companies who sell premium products, services or solutions to businesses. Complete the contact form for more information