Chapter 1

Why Bother?

This Is Business

I can’t really get going with sales forecasting without writing first, to anybody running a business, about the why of sales forecasting. Too many people think forecasting stands alone, as if it were some ivory tower skill set based on math and research and dedicated expertise. It isn’t.

Sales forecasting is really a basic tool for running a business. It’s about steering a business. It’s a matter of simple steps:

  • First, you forecast sales.
  • Then you set expense budgets, interactively, with the sales forecast. Should you increase sales and marketing expenses? Then increase projected sales—or why else would you do that? If you decrease the sales and marketing expenses, then you probably have to decrease the ...

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