I’ll start by saying I’m looking forward to hearing the good opinions as to why it’s not but it’s a question I’ve been wanting to discuss and this community provides a good opportunity to do so without being ridiculed.
Managers want accurate forecasting so they can report accurately upwards, so on and so forth. That I get - but a deal is only real once it’s signed (and even then I’d like the money deposited in my account first). I’m sure others have this happen often where you need to forecast something for the current month so you do. You think it has a decent shot and the champion is even hinting it could happen - and then it doesn’t - so you slide it to the next month, rinse and repeat. I know this isn’t the spirit of forecasting but it happens quite a bit.
My point is - fundamentally what does it matter what I project happens vs what actually happens? I sell software - it’s not like I need to project inventory for my widgets over the next 3 months.
Maybe forecasting just means my direct manager has something to talk about with me in terms of the deals I’m working? You would need me to keep track of opportunities somehow and I suppose you could attach a date to it but ultimately if the goal is always closed won as soon as possible - does it matter?
I’ll add that I’m interested to hear the arguments as to why its important - particularly in larger companies with mature sales organizations. My only experience is in start ups with 50-70 employees but we sell to companies of all size including fortune 100.
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