Getting People To Use Your Forecast

GETTING PEOPLE TO USE YOUR FORECASTS All companies, regardless of size, develop sales forecasts and use those forecasts as the bases for their decision making and planning activities. Thus, the sales forecast is probably the one most critical piece of information for any company because it has major short- and long-term implications that impact both operational efficiencies and the use of marketing investments. Unfortunately, in most mid-sized and small-sized companies, as well as in some larger companies, forecasting departments are non-existent mainly due to budget constraints and/or their view is it does not add any value. As a result, the forecasting task is usually assigned to associate product managers, field sales managers, and in many cases production planners. In these situations, the person developing the sales forecast is also the person who uses those same forecasts to guide their daily business decisions. In situations where there are staff people whose primary responsibility is to develop sales forecasts, the forecaster and the decision-maker (users) are not the same person. This can create some problems in the acceptance and use of the sales forecasts. Particularly, ...