Engagement: Sales Planning

Client

A leading technical software vendor.

Challenge

Forecast sales for a business with tens of thousands of product-market segments. Managers must have final say on high-level targets, but they can not humanly track thousands of segments. How can we utilize expertise of many people in many segments yet have a consistent company forecast? How can we measure performance of segment managers when macro-effects often have a major impact on results?

Solution

Let managers' judgment control the overall plan and any segments for which they choose to provide forecasts. Let historical data provide forecasts for any segments that managers to do not forecast. Allow product, country and industry forecasts to interact, to quantify inconsistencies between these types of forecasts. Superimpose centrally-planned estimates of global all-product sales growth. Set up performance metrics for product and country managers for the next year from which global all-product growth has been removed.

Client Impact

Sales planning tools improve segment detail, credibility and consensus around sales plans. Segment managers have stronger voice in sales plan. Sales plans provide adequate detail so managers can review actual variances from plan adjusted for macro effects at a segment level.

Related Product

Sales Plan

Managers specify sales targets, in dollars or growth, for all product licenses and all support contracts for high-level segments (countries in this case) in the light blue cells. The tool finds a compromise between conflicting country, product and industry forecasts, and reports degree of agreement (in red, yellow, green cells). Managers discuss inconsistencies and revise the forecast.

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