An excerpt:

When you take a close look at how companies utilize their sales staffs, there are two clear reasons for Zero Visibility Sales Forecasts:

1. Salespeople are allowed to create their own forecast process
2. The forecast process aligns perfectly with the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Sales Model

Left to their own devices, sales reps will routinely forecast optimistic numbers for business that will most likely never close. This spells revenue roulette for the Chief Revenue Officer.

As they say, please read the entire thing.

One of the process benefits of the 4 Aces forecast model is objective clarity about where you are in the qualifying process meaning what has been completed as well as what remains to be done. We felt CRO’s would benefit having this information available on a real time basis through a CRM system so we developed an ACT!-based application package to demonstrate the process. This package includes customized fields for the Critical Qualifying Questions covering Motivation, Money, Methodology and Market with rep fields for entering updates including forecast probability changes. The C.R.O. can ‘audit’ any forecast item updates as well as receive immediate email notification of specific forecast changes – up or down.

This capability can also be installed in most CRM systems so please feel free to contact us with a specific request. We can also work directly with your CRM support specialist to develop this capability.

Our Best Wishes for a Great Revenue Year!

You’ve really got some powerful stuff here. The way you approach issues from a common sense, realistic position …comes through loud and clear. The path seems so obvious at times but it never ceases to amaze me how many people (CRO’s) end up so far off the mark.

He is right. Revenue is the life blood of all organizations and the CRO is responsible for its delivery yet we still see CRO’s bypassing the heavy lifting of doing the forecast audit drill-down based on the Critical Qualifying Questions that drive forecast reality.

Obviously there is some momentary euphoria (we call that the power of positive confusion) in this economy when initial forecast numbers suggest above plan performance but that is no justification for CRO’s to relax their forecast audit intensity. The forecast is the business equivalent of the canary in the coal mine in terms of identifying potential challenges.

Don’t start 2010 without a healthy canary and the commitment to keep it that way.

I’ve authored another article on Salesopedia.com that discusses one of the cornerstones of our Sales Revenue System 2.0 – the Bankable Forecast.  A quick outtake:

The first step starts with defining what can be put on the forecast.  This means management must define the qualifying process starting with your Differentiating Value (what separates you from the competition and makes you worth more).  The next step is to set the bar for what has to be discussed (the critical qualifying questions or CQQ’s) regarding prospect motivation for your product, money, decision methodology and market options – what we call the 4 M’s.

You can read the entire article here on the Salesopedia.com website.  If your forecast isn’t “bankable,” perhaps we can help.

The three similarities are:

1. There are no guaranteed outcomes—everything invested is at risk.
2. There is only one winner.
3. When you draw a bad hand in poker, the wise decision is to minimize your loss and fold. The same applies in sales, but if your sales reps don’t know the reality of your position in the deal (as in how to qualify), they will always push to keep you in the game.

Like in poker, #3 is the only one you can manage – the first two are simply rules of the game. That is why we spend so much effort in the book developing the Critical Qualifying Questions (CQQ’s). CQQ’s are not only the basis of our Bankable Forecast Process, they are also the roadmap for achieving both the shortest possible sales cycle and the lowest possible selling costs.

Knowing, as soon as possible, when an ‘opportunity’ is not an opportunity for your business and saving that additional sales time/expense is a critical qualifying skill. Any sales rep can stay in a deal until the end – the CQQ’s are designed to eliminate that behavior.

• Our reps can’t get to the decision maker.
• We need our reps to be more aggressive.
• Morale needs a boost.
• We need better closing techniques.
• Marketing is cutting back promotions so we need to generate more referrals.
• Our new products may need new sales techniques to make the plan.
• We just moved a number of customer service folks into sales.
• The only budget number we are exceeding is our discount allowance.

I approved most of the requests but my goal was always centered on one topic – to gain better forecast data. The lack of revenue skills in our sales reps was mostly a result of less-than-effective selection processes [a topic for another post]. The real impact to the company was fictional forecast numbers that, in most cases, caused crisis management cash-flow challenges.

My point is this – companies don’t really want to buy sales training – executive teams see this being about as relevant as teaching first-year calculus to aerospace engineering departments. What companies want are what I call “bankable forecasts.”

Your sales process needs to be grounded in your forecast model or you have the cart driving the horse.If you want to learn more, please see Sections II and III in Sales Revenue System 2.0 [available at www.Amazon.com and through the CRO Store at www.CROsuccess.com ]. In the book you will find instructions on how to install our bankable forecast process.