Imagine that
Your CEO or Manager ask you simple question:
Knowing where we currently stand in terms of sales performance is crucial. Typically, discovering sales performance at the corporate level is relatively easy. You can review finance reports or access the ERP system to find clear margin and revenue figures.
However, you would be surprised to learn that many companies do not provide consistent information to their sales teams. To test this, simply ask a random sales member, "How much have you sold this month or quarter?" Is the answer as readily available as it is at the corporate level? Or does it take time for them to search for data and calculate their achievement? Now, imagine posing this question every week.
At our organization, we strive to help you gain visibility into actual sales achievements, whether it's revenue, margin, or both—depending on what matters most to you. This information can be sliced and segmented not only for the entire company but also for each sales team, sales region, team manager, and individual sales team member. Furthermore, this information is automatically updated every week or even every day, ensuring you have the most up-to-date insights at your fingertips.
Let's imagine you are analysing your revenue/margin at the end of April this year.
Let's start with simple analysis - revenue by month. Your team was able to sell 500 kEUR in January, 450 kEUR in February and so on. Last month (April) your team achievement was 700 kEUR.
It is more important to know the figures from the beginning of the year till now (Year to Date - YTD) so we cumulate figures month by month.
As you can see revenue in April reaches the level of 2250 kEUR. If we do not sell more in following months - at the end of the year our result will be 2250 k EUR
And all the data can be sliced into individual sales person, every sales region, country, product or anything what is important to you.
Determining whether sales performance is good or bad can often be a challenge. Typically, sales targets are stored in a separate location from revenue/margin or forecast data. It's common practice to maintain an Excel file containing all the targets. To assess whether you're reaching your target, you need to manually calculate it yourself.
However, we approach it differently. We provide a consolidated view of both the achievement and the target in a single visual representation. This means that every sales team member, manager, and regional leader can quickly assess the current situation.
Are we currently reaching our target? Is there a gap that needs to be addressed? The information is automatically updated on a weekly or daily basis, ensuring you have real-time insights at your disposal. By having this comprehensive and up-to-date picture, you can easily determine whether sales performance is meeting expectations.
We find it unique and helpfull to show revenue and target figures on one single picture. Every sales member can quickly compare how was his/her achievement versus target each month.
In this example - every signle month our revenue exceeded the target.
Cumulating revenue & target figures shows overall standing through the year.
As you can see on example YTD (Year to Date) revenue in March (1550 kEUR) was above YTD Target (1200 kEUR).
Total fiscal year target is on the level of 7500 kEUR. We will finisth the year below the target if we do not sell more.
What does the future hold for us? How will we finish this quarter and the entire year? These questions often arise when considering sales forecasting.
At our organization, we are dedicated to maximizing forecast accuracy to predict future sales and margin as effectively as possible.
We understand that every salesperson is unique, employing different sales styles, possessing distinct personalities, and varying levels of sales aggressiveness. Some focus on winning large deals, while others excel at capturing numerous small opportunities. We have a diverse team with both hunters and farmers. Given such complexity, how can we accurately forecast the future?
We offer a solution that involves calculating a personalized winning ratio and winning probability for each individual salesperson. This winning ratio is then utilized to predict the likelihood of success for every opportunity at each sales stage. Consequently, you will possess valuable insights into the winning ratios for each person, department, product, and market you engage with.
To provide you with a comprehensive view, we incorporate the "weighted" forecast opportunity value into the same visual representation. This allows you to swiftly and accurately assess how you will conclude the current month, quarter, and year. Our approach offers a simple yet effective means of obtaining fast and accurate information for your decision-making processes.
There is couple of forecasting methodologies used by companies like yours. Forecast can be based on your CRM sales stage probability, winning ratio of company or individual seller. Some companies find it usefull to forecast based on sales person commit.
Every methodology allow better or worse to discover "real" future opportunity value. We calculate opportunity value times winning probability of this opportunity.
We call it weighted forecast value. Read more here
Using another source of information - usually your CRM system we can easily extract and calculate forecast number by month. In our example forecast starts from May (we are at the end of April now). Having forecast number is not enough to see how we will finish this quarter or whole year. We need to combine revenue, target and forecast data into single picture.
Finally we are getting closer to the answer. On one picture you can see year to date revenue figure, target to achieve and weighted forecast for future months.
The chart shows cumulated numbers till end of the year. In example we can clearly see that whole year achievement sholud be higher than target.
We help you to analyse not only whole year performance, but every week/ month/ quarter individually.
So the answer to the initial question: How we will finish this quarter and next one? is quick and based on prooven and accurate information.
Identifying and addressing sales gaps promptly is crucial for proactive action.
Typically, we initiate lead generation campaigns to support sellers in achieving their targets. We allocate marketing funds or devise plans to engage with more customers and secure additional business.
Furthermore, we can identify your top-performing salesperson and extract insights from their successful behaviors. By understanding their approach and strategies, we can replicate and share their techniques with other members of the sales team. This knowledge transfer empowers the entire team to learn from the best and improve their sales performance.
By proactively identifying gaps and taking appropriate measures, we ensure that there is sufficient time to implement effective strategies and close any performance disparities.
Allow you to identify any GAP during the year. You will have enough time to react and apply corrective actions to gain momentum again.
We provide information about potential gaps for current week/ month/ quarter. You can exacly know what will happen at the end of important fiscal period,.
You may already know who your best salesperson is, as this is common knowledge for most sales leaders. However, do you truly understand WHY this person is so successful? And if you do understand their success factors, are you actively sharing and teaching these strategies to others, enabling them to improve and excel in their sales careers?
At our organization, we can help you identify and measure the most important sales metrics that contribute to success within your specific market, country, and unique market conditions. We typically utilize key metrics such as revenue per person, margin, personal winning rate, open pipeline, percent of target achievement, number of sales calls/visits per week, and new opportunities created. Moreover, we can incorporate additional metrics specific to your business, as long as there is a reliable data source available.
By analyzing and tracking these sales metrics, we can gain insights into the factors that drive success in your organization. This knowledge can then be shared with your sales team, enabling them to adopt effective strategies and improve their performance. We believe in leveraging data-driven insights to empower your sales team to reach their full potential.