Business Smartz Workshop

For the 35 years Warren Avery has been in sales, a constant standard is the ‘sales forecast’. The problem he notes is that forecasts are at best - guesses; and at worst - wishful thinking.

“To make matters worse,” continues Warren, “not a single company I know produces to forecasts, they use history. Whatever they produced last month is what they will produce this month, regardless of the forecast. So the issue for me is why a forecast. The answer became very simple once I pondered what I needed as a sales manager. What I really wanted was to monitor sales activity – prospecting, opportunities and finally sales. The whole issue of ‘when a deal would close’ becomes moot – if I had quality prospects, I could turn them into quality opportunities I could close my share. Not every one, but my share, based on my personal closing ratio.

The presentation explains why and how to stop focusing on forecasting and start honing in on Sales Activity Monitoring, make sure that all the steps are being done, make sure the follow up is in process and then delete any activity that is not real. The presentation has some great examples using coin tossing to explain close ratios and the three areas that sales managers manage.

About the speaker:  Warren Avery, President of Promethean Data Solutions, Inc. and publisher of the IT Weekly Newsletter, is a 35 year sales veteran in computer systems, retail, advertising and executive recruiting.