A sales forecast is an estimation of your future sales revenue over a specific period (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or annually). It's a crucial part of financial planning. Here's a simple way to create one.
1. Look at Your Historical Data
Your past performance is the best indicator of your future performance. Look at your sales data from the last year. If you don't have a year's worth of data, use what you have. Your Business Portal's sales reports are perfect for this.
2. Identify Trends and Seasonality
Are your sales higher during certain months or holidays? Identify these patterns. For example, you might see a 30% increase in sales during the Eid season.
3. Consider Your Sales Pipeline
How many potential deals or leads do you have? What is your typical conversion rate? If you have 10 leads and you typically close 20% of them, you can forecast two sales.
4. Factor in Your Future Plans
Are you launching a new marketing campaign? Opening a new store? Hiring a new salesperson? Factor in how these planned activities might impact your sales.
5. Put It All Together (A Simple Formula)
A basic forecast could look like this:
(Last Year's Sales for the Period) x (1 + Expected Growth Rate) + Impact of New Activities
For example: If last December's sales were 100,000 and you expect 5% growth, your baseline forecast is 105,000. If you're also running a new ad campaign that you think will bring in an extra 20,000, your total forecast is 125,000.
Review and adjust your forecast regularly to keep it accurate.
