You’re not the only one struggling to improve forecasting accuracy. That’s why BoostUp created the Forecast Maturity Framework which relies on 5 principles to achieve 90% forecasting accuracy by week 6 in the quarter.
“Define what a good analysis looks like and have an opinion on how salespeople should come up with their number.” - Chad Cameron
Step 1 is to determine where your sellers are at today and start moving them forward. You can improve visibility by:
Forecasting tools help you follow best practices, standardize inputs, and streamline your forecasting processes.
Bring in activities, KPIs, historical trends, account data, and product data.
Choose one methodology to increase your ability to understand how and why people are calling their numbers.
“An escalating cascade in a fixed time is the only way to forecast at scale effectively.” - Jason Bieber
Tiered cadences give you time to inspect your data for accuracy. Successful cadences focus on the following:
At mid-week, focus on forecast alignment across your sales management layer. The end of the week should be a CRO-led forecast call.
Set clear accountability guidelines by role, including what needs to be done and by whom based on sales stage, deal behavior, and category definition.
Align your sales and forecast disciplines which provide the basic record-keeping framework for pipeline management forecast assembly.
Deal reviews are about what it will take to get a prospect into the customer column. Always ask these key questions:
What must the seller and buyer do to execute the deal? Find your blind spots and get consensus on key outcomes.
Find out who’s involved, who should be involved, how they’re aligned, and their roles in influencing decisions
Use an objective lens to view your close dates to decide what to forecast and what to push
“AI forecasting isn’t a crystal ball, just an input to help you call your number.” - Chad Cameron
Combine your human judgment with AI forecasting to help you call a number. Historical performance data can help you identify rep behavior so you can coach them to improve.
Review from bottom-up and top-down then add insight from the extended sales team
Utilize a weighted pipeline and review funnel conversion
AI can help you with historical forecast projections and deal risk analysis
These KPIs help you measure and benchmark to determine what “good” looks like:
“Allow a lane for exploration, trying different things, and evolution.” - Jason Bieber
Want to understand how your forecast is performing from a maturity perspective and increase your accuracy earlier in the quarter? Reach out to the BoostUp team for a custom forecast maturity score and heat map.
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