Cartoon for the Weekend: Forecasts from Crystal Balls and Spreadsheets are Similar in Results

03/18/2016

Cartoon for the Weekend: Forecasts from Crystal Balls and Spreadsheets are Similar in Results

The best forecasts don't come from a crystal ball, or a spreadsheet; the best come from a CRM system and not the dreaded spreadsheet. Maintaining spreadsheets as a forecasting tool is time consuming, inaccurate and a waste of a salesperson's time and these are the least of the problems. It is interesting when I visit a company and find the CRM is not being fully used and the reps use spreadsheets. Why does this happen?

Why it matters:

Using spreadsheets for forecasting instead of the CRM system hides poor sales processes and enable poor performers (managers and salespeople) to stay beyond their expiration date.

Sales Lead Management Association

This cartoon is one of many that appear in Stu Heinecke's new book, "How to Get a Meeting with Anyone." Stu has been the SLMA's Humor Relations Contributor for three years.

What’s occurring is that the sales manager and the salespeople are hiding the realities of future sales and hobbling the company’s ability to manage inventory and cash flow. Spreadsheets hide poor sales processes and enable poor performers (managers and salespeople) to stay beyond their expiration date. Dump the spreadsheet as a forecasting tool and start using the CRM which 90% of the companies have in place, but which is being used at half speed in most companies.

In How to Get a Meeting with Anyone, Heinecke explains how you can use your own creative Contact Campaigns to get those critical conversations. He divulges methods he’s developed after years of experience and from studying the secrets of others who’ve had similar breakthrough results—results that other marketers considered impossible, with response rates as high as 100 percent.

This blog is supported by the generous sponsorship of ClickPoint Software, OMI - Outward Media, VanillaSoft and Goldmine CRM Software