Great Sellers are Great Forecasters; Great Executives are Great Forecasters too! - Bob Sherman

So there you are Mr Responsible for the PampampL Executive at the beginning of March You take a look at yeartodate 228 numbers and you are off your revenue budget Several totally unpredictable events have cost you revenue Maybe two sales executives resigned to start their own venture Maybe a severe weather period slowed down industry activity in your area Fortunately you are not so far off that the full year budget appears unachievable but if truth be known you think good luck will have to play a part Too bad there aren39t EVPs of good luckIt might have to be luck because in preparing your revenue budget for the year you39ve identified every potential revenue stream and put a number against it Let39s see core customer renewals and upgrades new business targets additional products and or services etc You are an experienced budgeter so your plan is probably all inclusive Well prayerfully now that you39re in the hole you39ll be able to think of something newAnd this is where your forecasting acumen comes in You take a good look at the rest of the quarter39s prospects and you pick an absolutely quotcan doquot number This number can be neither aspirational nor doomsday Rather it must be borne of a deep look at your sales team39s pipeline oneonone meetings with your sellers and a thoughtful and realistic review of the past forecasting performance of these sellers You must apply a rational degree of confidence percentage to their forecastsHow do you accomplish that First you challenge each account in the pipeline quotWhat have you proposed and to whom at this account Was the decision maker a participant at the quotclosequot When did you see him last Did he agree to the specific price level you are forecasting or did he say he would decide which plan and get back to you When did he say he would actquotAnd thenthe Great Executive Forecaster pulls out each individual sales reps39 forecast history sheet you have them don39t you to help gauge the seller39s reliabilityYou are now in a position to make a professional informed forecastand uh ohIt39s mostly fear of the quotuh ohquot that poisons accurate forecasts fear on the part of average sellers and average managers alike Here39s what happens when that fear is converted to quotcan do will doquot by the Great OnesThey come together and help each other get it done quotJoe among the seven accounts you believe can close this month two appear to carry the meaningful revenue load Let39s callsee them together ASAP to see if we can close the deal With respect to client A if wedo you think that could get him to move todayquotNow the session above does two things First it gives the Great Ones the best shot at maximizing the short term results But let39s assume your researched proactive challenging and helping still leaves your now professional and therefore probably near perfect forecasting short for Q1 Now it is quotWhat can we change add invent that will drive incremental revenue over the next nine months to cover our projected shortfallquot This is your new probably top priority exercise Do it well and with a little additional luck you39ll crash through your budgetGreat SellingBob Sherman has 40 years experience managing relationships between media companies and advertisers in old and new media from radio cable and TV to the Internet and from sales executive to chief executive and from the biggest media corporations to his own entrepreneurial companies He is currently in partnership with Pilot Group LLC Bob can be reached at rshermanpilotgroupbizRead all Bob39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Great Sellers Go To HeavenCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Great Sellers are Great Forecasters; Great Executives are Great Forecasters too! - Bob Sherman

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Great Sellers are Great Forecasters; Great Executives are Great Forecasters too! - Bob Sherman

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