It was a line in the sand that was respected

[sami]

Their philosophy was simple: When you give me a sales pipeline forecast, your are writing a check that better not bounce.

Likewise, if you sandbagged and way over delivered, there were penalties. The objective was truth and accuracy because this is the only path to trust and peace of mind.


What I loved most about these leaders was their belief that with the truth on the table up front, the future can be changed.

If you came in with a forecast that was below quota or budget, rather than beating you up, they’d sit down with you and build a plan for changing the future.

This was a whole lot easier at the beginning of the quarter chinese overseas europe database than getting surprised at the end of the quarter (see Dan) and scrambling through a fire drill in a fruitless attempt to hit a flawed forecast.

Predictable Sales Pipeline Forecasting is a Mix of Math and Art
Let’s dispense with any pretext that there is any formula that will deliver a perfect forecast every time because, there is not. No matter how dialed in you are, sometimes you’ll miss and sometimes you’ll over perform.

Therefore the goal isn’t perfection. Instead, it is narrowing the variability of your forecast which, improves predictability.