sales forecast in business plan pdf

3 Popular Sales Forecast Examples For Small Businesses

• October 9, 2022
• Small Businesses

When creating financial forecasts for their business, entrepreneurs often face difficulties. Yet, there are 3 popular sales forecast examples you can use when creating yours. They work for the most popular revenue models , from restaurants, to retail shops, to software companies and other online businesses.

If you aren’t sure what are sales forecasts, read our article and follow these 5 simple steps to create accurate sales forecasts for your business. Looking for examples instead? In this article we explain what are the most popular 3 sales forecast examples for (almost) any type of business. Let’s dive in.

What is a sales forecast?

A sales forecast is the financial projection of a business’ sales (or revenues, turnover) over a given period. Therefore, sales forecasts are a must have of any financial forecast: by projecting sales and expenses we can then prepare the  4 financial statements  which constitute a financial forecast.

Often, sales forecasts are included within a business plan as part of your projected financial statements. Indeed, investors will want to see your business’ financial projections over a given period. Sales forecasts often are  3 or 5-years projections .

For more information on sales forecasts for small businesses and why they are important, read our article here .

Let’s now dive into the 3 most popular sales forecast examples which work for any type of business, from restaurants, to retail shops, to software companies and other online businesses.

Why are sales forecasts important?

Because sales forecasts are part of your financial forecasts, and ultimately your business plan, it is very important to get it right.

Sales forecasts help you set goals for your business

Sales forecasts aren’t simply a requirement for your business plan. Instead, they also help you set goals for your business. The sales you expect to generate as per your sales forecast should be used as a guidance for your budget and your business decisions later on.

You show you understand your business

Showing investors you’re not only a great entrepreneur but also a well-rounded and omniscient founder is very important to get the best deal. A great sales forecast will help understand how your business generates revenues, what are the different drivers affecting revenue and the potential risks involved.

Investors will give more credit to financial plans based on verified assumptions and reasonable targets. Calculate expected revenue using market size , market share and/or user adoption rates for instance. The more you justify your plan with verified assumptions, the more credible it will be.

You know how much you need to raise

Many entrepreneurs and founders do not really know exactly how much they need to raise.

Sales also drive expenses, so forecasting sales plays a pretty important role when assessing things such as your breakeven or the amount of money you need to raise . Miss the mark and you may be in trouble.

How much cash do you need to cover your losses over the next 12-18 months? The amount of money you need to raise is the result of your financial projections. This is very important to accurately estimate your revenues and expenses.

How to do a sales forecast?

Before we dive into the specifics of creating a rock-solid sales forecast for your small business, let’s first explain which approach you should follow.

Many entrepreneurs make the same mistake when forecasting their sales: they use a top-down approach. So what is bottom-up and top-down sales forecasting? Let’s use an example below.

• Top-down sales forecasting : we forecast sales using from the top down. For example, you make $500k in revenue per year and you forecast the next 3 years revenue by assuming you will capture 3% of your market size (assuming it is $100 million). By following this approach, your annual revenue is 3 years time is $3 million, a 6x increase from today.
• Bottom-up sales forecasting : we forecast sales using operational drivers (from the bottom up). For example, if your $500k sales are a function of your website traffic, we will forecast revenues based on this metric instead. Assuming website traffic increase by 50% each year (as you invest in paid and content), your revenue in 3 years time is $1.7 million, a 3x increase from today.

Bottom-up sales forecasting is the best approach for 2 main reasons:

• It allows us to relate revenues to another metric, helping us making sense of the projection. Does $3 million really make sense given this would mean multiplying website traffic by 6x over the next 3 years?
• Top-down approach requires us to make assumptions on the market size, which is often inaccurate for lack of publicly available data. Instead, bottom-up uses your own business’ historical data

Sales forecasts: 3 popular examples

1. location-based businesses.

If you are running a businesses with a physical location, such as a hotel, a restaurant, a repair shop or a retail store for example, forecasting sales boils down to forecasting street traffic.

Indeed, sales (revenues) are a function of the sales volume you generate (the number of “units” or products you sell). The sales volume itself is a function of the number of people who enter your store, and, by extrapolation, the number of people who pass by your store.

When forecasting sales for a new business, you should look at the location where your business will be based first. Assess the approximate number of people who are passing by.

Note: when assessing traffic, be careful to exclude any external factors (e.g. Christmas day), cyclicality and seasonality. Ideally, your assessment should look at a full week and all work hours in the day.

Once we have established the approximate number of people who pass by the street in a day, we will need to apply conversion rates, in order:

• How many people enter the store?
• Out of the people who enter the store, how many make a purchase?

Of course, if you already have some historical data (if you already run a store and are opening a new one), use your existing conversion rates. Else, make assumptions.

When making assumptions, you should use the data you have collected when making your own observations earlier. Use similar stores to yours, in a different street for example.

For example:

• 5% of people passing by your store enter
• 10% of people entering the store make a purchase

We can now create a simple sales forecast over a week, adding up the average traffic over a typical week:

2. Online businesses

Online businesses often acquire their customers via their website, or any type of online presence.

As such, unlike location-based businesses, sales (revenues) are a function of visitors (and not street traffic). The visitors can be visitors on a website, on a Appstore page (mobile apps) or any type of online lead acquisition page.

We often refer this type of acquisition as inbound acquisition . The traffic is two fold: paid and organic:

• Paid traffic : all visitors coming from paid marketing channels (Google Search, Facebook Ads, etc.). You are either paying for clicks, or impressions. 
• Organic traffic : all visitors landing on your landing page(s) organically (either via a referral link, direct search, social media post, blog article, etc.)

Paid marketing is the easiest way to generate traffic. Yet, because you are paying for each paid visitor, you will need to monitor your  Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)  to make sure your paid marketing campaigns are profitable.

In comparison, whilst you do not directly pay for each organic visitor, organic traffic is not free. Organic traffic is earned from investment into  SEO  and content. Whilst investing into your SEO for instance does not pay immediately, the returns can far outweigh those of your paid marketing in the long run.

So, when forecasting sales for online businesses, we should make assumptions on traffic. For example assuming:

• 30,000 visitors last month: 20,000 paid and 10,000 organic
• 3% monthly increase
• 2% conversion rate
• $50 average purchase price

This is how could look like a simplified sales forecast example for an online business:

3. Lead-acquisition businesses

Lead-acquisition businesses are companies that make sales through their sales teams efforts. This is also known as outbound acquisition (vs. inbound discussed above).

With outbound acquisition, a business acquires customers through its sales team. Whether it is via phone, email, Linkedin or even in-person, the number of acquired customers is a function of the number of sales people.

Outbound acquisition is very common for business-to-business (B2B) companies. For example, Enterprise SaaS and B2B marketplaces use outbound acquisition to acquire their customers.

Outbound customer acquisition is therefore easier to forecast vs. inbound. The simple formula to estimate new customers over time is:

The number of closings per sales person is also referred to as the efficiency of your sales team = the number of customer one sales person acquire (or “close”) each month, in average.

For example, lets’ assume you have 20 sales people. Historically, your sales team has closed (“acquired”) in average 2 B2B clients per month per sales person. Assuming you have the same number of sales persons and the same sales efficiency in the future, we can reasonably expect 40 new customers per month.

Now, assuming 1 new hire every 2 months, a sales forecast example for a lead-acquisition business could look like this:

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How to Create a Sales Forecast (Examples & Templates)

Every business needs management tools to maximize performance and keep everything running smoothly. A sales forecast is a critical tool that businesses use to measure their progress and check everything is going to plan. Here’s a closer look at why sales forecasts are important and how to create them. We have some great templates for you, too.

What Is a Sales Forecast – And Which Factors Impact It?

Sales forecasts are data-backed predictions about the sales volume a business will experience over a specific period.

A sales forecast is very important because it provides the foundation for almost all other planning activities. Businesses will rely on accurate sales forecasting to better understand how they should plan financially and execute their game plan .

This means that sales forecasts have the potential to make or break a business.

As with anything in life, though, nothing is certain. Sales forecasts can be affected by a range of factors. This means that businesses have to prepare for any and all eventualities.

Here’s a look at some of the factors that can affect sales forecasting:

A lack of sales history

Sales forecasts are often built using historical data. Businesses analyze previous results to extrapolate and create predictions. If a business starts and lacks a good body of historical sales data, it will struggle to create an accurate sales forecast.

The type of business

Each industry has its series of unique challenges and quirks. Those factors are sometimes unpredictable and could affect a business’s revenues. The ad tech industry, for instance, is often rocked by new data privacy regulations.

Outside factors

Some businesses find that everything is moving according to plan before blindsiding by an unpredictable event they cannot control. Consumer earnings may plummet, for instance, and cause people to restrict their spending.

Inside factors

Some businesses are forced to change their pricing or payment structures. This new dynamic can often have unpredictable effects and cause a business to veer off course from what its sales forecast predicted.

Why Should You Establish Sales Forecasts?

Sales forecasting is essential for every business. Here are some of the key reasons.

Perform accurate financial planning

Sales forecasts help the CFO and financial team understand how much cash is going to be coming into a business. This gives businesses a better understanding of how they can use that capital and makes it possible to calculate what profit they can expect over a given period .

Plan sales activities

A sales forecast can help executives with sales planning. Those executives will understand how many salespeople to employ, for instance, and which quotas and targets to attribute to each of those salespeople. This means that an accurate sales forecast can help salespeople to understand and hit their objectives.

Coordinate marketing

A sales forecast will have a big impact on marketing. For instance, the sales forecast might show that sales are waning, and a bigger investment needs to be placed within marketing. It might also show that a particular product or service fails to deliver appropriate amounts of value.

Control inventory

A sales forecast gives businesses a good understanding of how much inventory they will need to purchase and retain. This is an important factor; it helps businesses balance overstocking and running out of materials. This is also true for SaaS businesses needing customer support and success.

Avoid fluctuations in price

An accurate sales forecast helps businesses maintain consistent product and service pricing. A poor sales forecast might mean a business is forced to adjust its pricing unpredictably. This tactic is often the result of panic; without the proper strategy, it jeopardizes a business’s profitability.

How to Forecast Sales – The Best Sales Forecasting Methods

Businesses around the world use a range of sales forecasting techniques. Here’s a closer look at some key methods you could use.

Opportunity Stage Forecasting

What is it?

This sales forecasting technique calculates the likelihood of deals closing throughout a pipeline.

Most businesses use a sales pipeline divided into a series of sections. The likelihood of converting a prospect increases the deeper the prospect moves into the sales process. To get the most from this technique, the team must dig into the current performance of the sales team.

After that analysis, the probabilities might look something like this:

• Sales Accepted lead : 10% probability of closing
• Sales Qualified Lead : 25% probability of closing
• Proposal sent : 40% probability of closing
• Negotiating : 60% probability of closing
• Contract sent : 90% probability of closing

Using these probabilities, you can extrapolate an opportunity stage sales forecast. You’ll want to take the deal’s potential value and multiply that by the win likelihood.

Who should use it

This is a great sales forecasting method if you have access to historical data, lots of leads in your pipeline, and you need a quick estimate. It’s important to understand that this isn’t the most accurate option, given that many random factors affect those probabilities.

Length of Sales Cycle Forecasting

This sales forecasting method finds the average length of your sales cycle. This helps you predict when your deals will likely close and reveal opportunities for your sales team to expedite the sales cycle.

This method is simple. You can find the length of your average sales cycle using the following basic formula:

Total # of days to close deals / # of closed deals

Let’s imagine, for instance, that you find the following:

• Deal 1: 28 days
• Deal 2: 15 days
• Deal 3: 50 days
• Deal 4: 38 days

We closed four deals, and it took 131 days to close them all together. This means that the average length of our sales cycle is 33 days.

Equipped with that information, we can look at our pipeline and estimate how likely we are to close deals based on how old they are. The closer a deal moves toward the average sales cycle length, the more likely it will be closed.

This is a great sales forecasting method for sales managers who want to learn more about the deals spread across their pipeline. For instance, they can use this method to differentiate between different types of groups.

Sales managers might find that the average sales cycle length is much shorter for web leads, for example, when compared to email leads.

Historical Forecasting

Historical forecasting is a very quick and simple sales forecasting technique. The process involves looking back at your previous performance within a certain timeframe and assuming that your future performance will be superior or at least equal.

This is a useful reference because it helps you to get to grips with seasonality and the outside factors that affect your sales. You might find, for instance, that the holidays are a particularly slow time for your business, and looking at historical data can help you to prepare.

With that said, historical forecasting has its issues. It assumes that buyer demand will be constant, which is no longer a given. This could mean you overestimate your sales statistics and use an accurate sales forecast.

This forecasting method is ideal for a business that needs a quick and easy way to project how much it will sell over a given period. That said, historical data should be used as a benchmark instead of the foundation of a sales forecast.

Lead Pipeline Forecasting

This time-consuming sales forecasting method involves reviewing each lead within your pipeline and determining how likely the deal will be closed. That likelihood is determined by exploring factors like the value of the opportunity, the performance of your salespeople, seasonality, and more.

This is a time-consuming method, and it often makes sense for businesses with fewer high-value leads – it wouldn’t necessarily be efficient or make much sense for a SaaS business, for instance.

The big benefit of this method is its accuracy. If you have reliable and rigid data to base your analysis on, you will find that this method can give you a deeper insight into each lead.

This method makes sense for those businesses that have a lower number of leads. Inside salespeople, for instance, will want to get a clearer picture of every lead within their pipeline. This method isn’t appropriate for SaaS businesses that operate according to volume.

Test Market Analysis Forecasting

Businesses often launch exciting new products and services. But it can be difficult to get accurate sales forecasts without historical data . Test Market Analysis forecasting is the process of developing a product or service and introducing it to a test market to forecast sales and get an approximation of future sales.

This limited rollout allows businesses to track the performance of the new offering and monitor things like consumer awareness, repeat purchase patterns, and more. This is a data-gathering exercise, and it feeds businesses with the information they need to create accurate sales forecasts.

This approach is perfect for those businesses that need to perform real-world experiments to gather useful information. A new business can use sales forecasting to use its sales data to predict where future sales can come from. This can limit the cost since it’s an effective way of having a busy sales pipeline. The limited rollout of the product is also useful from a product perspective, given that adjustments can be made according to feedback.

A big issue with this form of forecasting is that one test market may not be like the others. Your data might not reflect the wider reality, so you must make prudent choices that provide you with accurate information.

Multivariable Analysis

As the name suggests, this method calls upon analyzing a range of variables to get the clearest picture possible. This means that if the method is performed well, it can often provide the most accurate forecast.

If you use this technique, you will want to bring together factors like the average length of your sales cycle, the performance of your salespeople, historical forecasting, and more.

The success of this method hinges upon two key factors within your business: 

• the accuracy of your salespeople and their reporting
• the quality of the forecasting tools that you use.

Both of these factors must be in place to make sure this forecasting method has the best chance of success.

Multivariable forecasting is most appropriate for larger and well-organized businesses, as it uses the data and tools necessary to blend various forecasting methods into one. This could be it if you need the most accurate forecast method possible.

Intuitive Forecasting

Your salespeople are on the front; their experience is very valuable. They often have a good idea of how likely they are to close a particular deal and can use educated guesses to assess the situation.

Experienced salespeople can take emotion out of the equation and rely on their experience and knowledge to make accurate predictions. Some businesses decide to incorporate those gut instincts into the way that they forecast a particular sale.

Some businesses, for instance, will add a score to the conversion probability of their various prospects according to the gut feeling of their salespeople.

This intuitive forecasting method is particularly useful for businesses that lack historical data. Without the quantifiable data to provide the basis for your sales forecasting, you might have to turn to more qualitative assessments from your salespeople.

The downside of this sales forecasting method is clear, though. These assessments are highly subjective, and you might find that your salespeople are often more optimistic in their projections. This means those projections should be taken with a pinch of salt, but they are better than nothing.

Sales Forecast Examples

We know the theory, but how about the practice? In these awesome examples, let’s take a closer look at what those sales forecast methods look like.

Standard Business Plan Financials

This example from Tim Berry (chairman and founder of Palo Alto Software) looks at what a startup sales forecast might look like .

Tim sets the scene and describes Magda’s situation – she wants to open a small café in an office park.

He goes on to show how Magda would establish a base case, estimate her monthly capacity, and what type of sales she could expect. To wrap up, she goes through her month-by-month estimates for her first year and estimates her direct cost.

This is a great exercise and unmissable reading for new entrepreneurs dreaming up a new venture.

Sales Forecast Guide by Toptal Research

This simple sales forecasting guide from Toptal Research also includes a simple example that forms the basis of the guide. These simple visuals and data will give you a good idea of how you can put your sales forecasting efforts together and what it will look like.

This example also shows that you can attractively forecast sales and inform the sales teams. Sales forecasting doesn’t have to be boring columns of data, but you can bring your sales forecast to life with colorful visuals.

Detailed Sales Forecast by Microsoft

This detailed sales forecast template from Microsoft makes it simple for you to estimate your monthly sales projections.

The formula comes with pre-built formulas and worksheet features that result in an attractive and clear template. The template also relies on a weighted sales forecasting method based on the probability of closing each opportunity.

Even if you do not use this exact template, it’s a great file to use. It can give you a great idea of the information you need to include and how it might come together in a spreadsheet format.

Sales Forecast Templates

Looking for your own sales forecast templates to get a running start? Here’s a look at some of the most practical and useful templates.

Sales Forecast Template for Excel by Vertex42

This free sales forecast template helps you keep a handle on key information like unit sales, growth rate, profit margins, and gross profit.

The template is already set up to help you compare and analyze a range of products and services on a monthly basis. The chart also includes a range of sample charts that can be used to effectively and accurately communicate the contents of your sales forecast.

The same worksheet can be used to create monthly and yearly forecasts. You can play with the template to find your desired view and information. 

Sales Forecast Template by Freshworks

This simple forecasting template helps you to put together an effective sales forecast. This finished product can then be used to grow your revenues and hit your quotas.

This template is particularly effective for small businesses and startups that need to project sales and prioritize deals at the early stages of their business. Freshworks also explains that the template can help businesses achieve a higher rate of on-time delivery and accurate hiring projections.

The free sales forecast template is very intuitive to use. Again, it’s great to flick through the spreadsheet to understand what you need in a sales forecast and how it can be put together.

Free Sales Forecast Template by Fit Small Business

This sales forecast template is perfect if your CRM doesn’t currently offer built-in sales forecasting. This template can help you create a forecast from scratch that is adjusted to your own particular needs much quicker.

The template is available in various formats, including PDF, Excel, and Google Sheets. This is great news if you create your small business on your own terms and have limited software access .

Again, this template is clear and simple to use. All of the fields are explained within the spreadsheet – you don’t have to worry about going elsewhere to find definitions.

Sales Forecasting Tools

Looking for sales forecasting tools to take your activities to the next level? Here’s a look at some of the standout options.

Pipedrive is a sales CRM that is designed for salespeople by salespeople. It is a robust CRM that includes all of the features a sales team needs to achieve sales success and grow their business.

The tool also includes a forecasting tool. This tool acts as a personal sales manager that helps salespeople to choose the right deals and activities at the right time. This helps salespeople to become better closers.

By all accounts, this function is very useful for salespeople and managers alike. The forecasting tool can also be customized to match the specific needs of salespeople.

Smart Demand Planner

Smart Demand Planner is a consensus demand planning and statistical forecasting solution that understands how accurate critical forecasts are to a business.

The tool was built on the premise that forecasts are often inaccurate and can cause various issues. Moreover, the traditional sales forecast often resides within a complex spreadsheet that is difficult to use, share, and scale.

The tool aims to fix those issues by aligning strategic business forecasting at all levels of your hierarchy. Smart Demand Planner offers a statistically sound objective foundation for your sales activities.

amoCRM is an easy and smart sales solution that focuses on the world of messenger-based sales. The platform understands the popularity and potential of messenger apps, so it offers a whole new way of using the channel to create valuable relationships.

The tool also includes visual, real-time reports that give salespeople and managers powerful insights. These analytics can be used to set targets and also forecast future sales. What’s more, they can measure performance and identify target areas.

The visual look and feel of the platform make this a very intuitive option. It can drive value through accurate forecasting in businesses where messenger-based selling is critical.

As we have seen, forecasts are critical to the success of your business. They can be cost-effective for a new business, keep sales teams and reps informed, and more. However, every business also needs the leads to make those forecasts a reality. Learn more about UpLead today and how our platform can help you to find, connect, and engage with qualified prospects.

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Sales forecasting: How to create a sales forecast template (with examples)

A strong sales team is the key to success for most companies. They say a good salesperson can sell sand at the beach, but whether you’re selling products in the Caribbean or Antarctica, it all comes down to strategy. When you’re unsure if your current strategy is working, a sales forecast can help.

What is a sales forecast?

A sales forecast predicts future sales revenue using past business data. Your sales forecast can predict a number of different things, including the number of new sales for an existing product, the new customers you’ll gain, or the memberships you’ll sell in a given time period. These forecasts are then used during project planning to determine how much you should allocate towards new products and services. 

Why is sales forecasting important?

Sales forecasting helps you keep a finger on your business’s pulse. It sets the ground rules for a variety of business operations, including your sales strategy and project planning. Once you calculate your sales projections, you can use the results to assess your business health, predict cash flow, and adjust your plans accordingly.

An effective sales forecasting plan:

Predicts demand: When you have an idea of how many units you may sell, you can get a head start on production.

Helps you make smart investments: If you have future goals of expanding your business with new locations or products, knowing when you’ll have the income to do so is important. 

Contributes to goal setting: Your sales forecast can help you set goals outside of investments as well, like outshining competitors or hiring new team members.

Guides spending: Your sales forecast may be the wake-up call you need to set a budget and use cost control to reduce expenses.

Improves the sales process: You can change your current sales process based on the sales projections you’re unhappy with.

Highlights financial problems: Your sales forecast template will open your eyes to problem areas you may not have noticed otherwise. 

Helps with resource management: Do you have the resources you need to fill orders if it’s an accurate sales forecast? Your sales forecast can guide how you allocate and manage resources to hit targets.

When you have an accurate prediction of your future sales, you can use your projections to adjust your current sales process.

Sales forecasting methods

Sales forecasting is an important part of strategic business planning because it enables sales managers and teams to predict future sales and make informed decisions. But why are there multiple sales forecasting methods? Simply put, businesses vary in size, industry, and market dynamics, so no single methodology suits all.

Choosing the right sales forecasting method is more of an art than a science. It involves:

Analyzing your business size and industry

Assessing the available data and tools

Understanding your sales cycle's complexity

A few telltale signs that you've picked the correct approach include:

Improved accuracy in sales target predictions

Enhanced understanding of market trends

Better alignment with your business goals

Opportunity stage forecasting

Opportunity stage forecasting is a dynamic approach ideal for businesses using CRM systems like Salesforce. It assesses the likelihood of sales closing based on the stages of the sales pipeline. This method is particularly beneficial for sales organizations with a clearly defined sales process.

For example, a software company might use this method to forecast sales by examining the number of prospects in each stage of their funnel, from initial contact to final negotiation.

Pipeline forecasting method

The pipeline forecasting method is similar to opportunity stage forecasting but focuses more on the volume and quality of leads at each pipeline stage. It's particularly useful for businesses that rely heavily on sales forecasting tools and dashboards for decision-making.

A real estate agency could use it by examining the number of properties listed, the stage of negotiations, and the number of closings forecasted in the pipeline.

Length of sales cycle forecasting

Small businesses often prefer the length of sales cycle forecasting. It's straightforward and involves analyzing the duration of past sales cycles to predict future ones. This method is effective for businesses with consistent sales cycle lengths.

A furniture manufacturer, for instance, might use this method by analyzing the average time taken from initial customer contact to closing a sale in the past year.

Intuitive forecasting

Intuitive forecasting relies on the expertise and intuition of sales managers and their teams. It's less about spreadsheets and more about market research and understanding customer behavior. This method is often used with other, more data-driven approaches.

A boutique fashion store, for example, might use this method, relying on the owner's deep understanding of fashion trends and customer preferences.

Historical forecasting

Historical forecasting uses past performance data to predict future sales. This method is advantageous for businesses with ample historical sales data. It's less effective for new markets or rapidly changing industries.

An established book retailer could use historical data from previous years, considering seasonal trends and past marketing campaigns, to forecast next quarter's sales.

Multivariable analysis forecasting

Multivariable analysis forecasting is a more sophisticated method that's ideal for larger sales organizations. It analyzes factors like market trends, economic conditions, and marketing efforts to provide a holistic view of potential sales outcomes.

An automotive company, for example, could analyze factors like economic conditions, competitor activity, and past sales data to forecast future car sales.

How to calculate sales forecast

Sales forecasts determine how much you expect to do in sales for a given time frame. For example, let’s say you expect to sell 100 units in Q1 of fiscal year 2024. To calculate sales forecasts, you’ll use past data to predict future trends. 

When you’re first creating a forecast, it’s important to establish benchmarks that determine how much you normally sell of any given product to how many people. Compare historical sales data against sales quotas—i.e., how much you sold vs. how much you expected to sell. This type of analysis can help you set a baseline for what you expect to achieve every week, month, quarter, and so on.

For many companies, this means establishing a formula. The exact inputs will vary based on your products or services, but generally, you can use the following:

Sales forecast = Number of products you expect to sell x The value of each product

For example, if you sell SaaS products, your sales forecast might look something like this: 

SaaS FY24 Sales forecast = Number of expected subscribers x Subscription price

Ultimately, the sales forecasting process is a guess—but it’s an educated one. You’ll use the information you already have to create a data-driven forecasting model. How accurate your forecast is depends on your sales team. The sales team uses facts such as their prospects, current market conditions, and their sales pipeline. But they will also use their experience in the field to decide on final numbers for what they think will sell. Because of this, sales leaders are more likely to have better forecasting accuracy than new members of the sales team.

Sales forecast vs. sales goal

Your sales forecast is based on historical data and current market conditions. While you always hope your sales goals are attainable—and you can use data to estimate what your team is capable of—your goals might not line up directly with your forecast. This can be for a number of reasons, including wanting to create stretch goals that push your sales team beyond what they’ve done in the past or big, pie-in-the-sky goals that boost investor confidence.

How to create a sales forecast

There are different sales forecasting methods, and some are simpler than others. With the steps below, you’ll have a basic understanding of how to create a sales forecast template that you can customize to the method of your choice. 

1. Track your business data

Without details from your past sales, you won’t have anything to base your predictions on. If you don’t have past sales data, you can begin tracking sales now to create a sales forecast in the future. The data you’ll need to track includes:

Number of units sold per month

Revenue of each product by month

Number of units returned or canceled (so you can get an accurate sales calculation)

Other items you can track to make your predictions more accurate include:

Growth percentage

Number of sales representatives

Average sales cycle length

There are different ways to use these data points when forecasting sales. If you want to calculate your sales run rate, which is your projected revenue for the next year, use your revenue from the past month and multiply it by 12. Then, adjust this number based on other relevant data points, like seasonality.

Tip: The best way to track historical data is to use customer relationship management (CRM) software. When you have a CRM strategy in place, you can easily pull data into your sales forecast template and make quick projections.

2. Set your metrics

Before you perform the calculations in your sales forecast template, you need to decide what you’re measuring. The basic questions you should ask are:

What is the product or service you’re selling and forecasting for? Answering this question helps you decide what exactly you’re evaluating. For example, you can investigate future trends for a long-standing product to decide whether it’s worth continuing, or you can predict future sales for a new product. 

How far in the future do you want to make projections? You can decide to make projections for as little as six months or as much as five years in the future. The complexity of your sales forecast is up to you.

How much will you sell each product for, and how do you measure your products? Set your product’s metrics, whether they be units, hours, memberships, or something else. That way, you can calculate revenue on a price-per-unit basis.

How long is your sales cycle? Your sales cycle—also called a sales funnel—is how long it takes for you to make the average sale from beginning to end. Sales cycles are often monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Depending on the product you’re selling, your sales cycle may be unique. Steps in the sales cycle typically include:

Lead generation

Lead qualification

Initial contact

Making an offer

Negotiation

Closing the deal

Tip: You can still project customer growth versus revenue even if your company is in its early phases. If you don’t have enough historical data to use for your sales forecast template, you can use data from a company similar to yours in the market. 

3. Choose a forecasting method

While there are many forecasting methods to choose from, we’ll concentrate on two straightforward approaches to provide a clear understanding of how sales forecasting can be implemented efficiently. The top-down method starts with the total size of the market and works down, while the bottom-up method starts with your business and expands out.

Top-down method: To use the top-down method, start with the total size of the market—or total addressable market (TAM). Then, estimate how much of the market you think your business can capture. For example, if you’re in a large, oversaturated market, you may only capture 3% of the TAM. If the total addressable market is $1 billion, your projected annual sales would be $30 million. 

Bottom-up method: With the bottom-up method, you’ll estimate the total units your company will sell in a sales cycle, then multiply that number by your average cost per unit. You can expand out by adding other variables, like the number of sales reps, department expenses, or website views. The bottom-up forecasting method uses company data to project more specific results. 

You’ll need to choose one method to fill in your sales forecast template, but you can also try both methods to compare results.

Tip: The best forecasting method for you may depend on what type of business you’re running. If your company experiences little fluctuation in revenue, then the top-down forecasting method should work well. The top-down model can also work for new businesses that have little business data to work with. Bottom-up forecasting may be better for seasonal businesses or startups looking to make future budget and staffing decisions.

4. Calculate your sales forecast

You’ve already learned a basic way to calculate revenue using the top-down method. Below, you’ll see another way to estimate your projected sales revenue on an annual scale.

Divide your sales revenue for the year so far by the number of months so far to calculate your average monthly sales rate.

Multiply your average monthly sales rate by the number of months left in the year to calculate your projected sales revenue for the rest of the year.

Add your total sales revenue so far to your projected sales revenue for the rest of the year to calculate your annual sales forecast.

A more generalized way to estimate your future sales revenue for the year is to multiply your total sales revenue from the previous year.

Example: Let’s say your company sells a software application for $300 per unit and you sold 500 units from January to March. Your sales revenue so far is $150,000 ($300 per unit x 500 units sold). You’re three months into the calendar year, so your average monthly sales rate is $50,000 ($150,000 / 3 months). That means your projected sales revenue for the rest of the year is $450,000 ($50,000 x 9 months).

5. Adjust for external factors

A sales forecast predicts future revenue by making assumptions about your growth rate based on past success. But your past success is only one component of your growth rate. There are external factors outside of your control that can affect sales growth—and you should consider them if you want to make accurate projections. 

Some external factors you can adjust your calculations around include:

Inflation rate: Inflation is how much prices increase over a specific time period, and it usually fluctuates based on a country’s overall economic state. You can take your annual sales forecast and factor in inflation rate to ensure you’re not projecting a higher or lower number of sales than the economy will permit.

The competition: Is your market becoming more competitive as time goes on? For example, are you selling software during a tech boom? If so, assess whether your market share will shrink because of rising competition in the coming year(s).

Market changes: The market can shift as people change their behavior. Your audience may spend an average of six hours per day on their phones in one year. In the next year, mental health awareness may cause phone usage to drop. These changes are hard to predict, so you must stay on top of market news.

Industry changes: Industry changes happen when new products and technologies come on the market and make other products obsolete. One instance of this is the invention of AI technology.

Legislation: Although not as common, changes in legislation can affect the way companies sell their products. For example, vaping was a multi-million dollar industry until laws banned the sale of vape products to people under the age of 21. 

Seasonality: Many industries experience seasonality based on how human behavior and human needs change with the seasons. For example, people spend more time inside during the winter, so they may be on their computers more. Retail stores may also experience a jump in sales around Christmas time.

Tip: You can create a comprehensive sales plan to set goals for team members. Aside from revenue targets and training milestones, consider assigning each of these external factors to your team members so they can keep track of essential information. That way, you’ll have your bases covered on anything that may affect future sales growth. 

Sales forecast template

Below you’ll see an example of a software company’s six-month sales forecast template for two products. Product one is a software application, and product two is a software accessory. 

In this sales forecast template, the company used past sales data to fill in each month. They projected their sales would increase by 10% each month because of a 5% increase in inflation and because they gained 5% more of the market. They kept their price per unit the same as the previous year.

Putting both products in the same chart can help the company see that their lower-cost product—the software accessory—brings in more revenue than their higher-cost product. The company can then use this insight to create more low-cost products in the future.

Sales forecast examples

Sales forecasting is not a one-size-fits-all process. It varies significantly across industries and business sizes. Understanding this through practical examples can help businesses identify the most suitable forecasting method for their unique needs.

Sales forecasting example 1: E-commerce

In the e-commerce sector, where trends can shift rapidly, intuitive forecasting is often useful for making quick, informed decisions.

Scenario: An e-commerce retailer specializing in fashion accessories is planning for the upcoming festive season.

Trend analysis phase: The team spends the first week analyzing customer feedback and current fashion trends on social media, using intuitive forecasting to predict which products will be popular.

Inventory planning phase: Based on these insights, the next three weeks are dedicated to selecting and ordering inventory, focusing on products predicted to be in high demand.

Sales monitoring and adjustment: As the holiday season approaches, the team closely monitors early sales data, ready to adjust their inventory and marketing strategies based on real-time sales performance.

This approach allows the e-commerce retailer to stay agile , adapting quickly to market trends and customer preferences.

Sales forecasting example 2: Software development

For a software development company, especially one working with B2B clients, opportunity stage forecasting can help predict sales and manage the sales pipeline effectively.

Scenario: A software development company is launching a new project management tool.

Lead generation and qualification phase: In the initial month, the sales team focuses on generating leads, qualifying them, and categorizing potential clients based on their progress through the sales pipeline.

Proposal and negotiation phase: For the next two months, the team works on creating tailored proposals for high-potential leads and enters negotiation stages, using opportunity stage forecasting to predict the likelihood of deal closures.

Closure and review: In the final phase, the team aims to close deals, review the accuracy of their initial forecasts, and refine their approach based on the outcomes.

Opportunity stage forecasting enables the software company to efficiently manage its sales pipeline , focusing resources on the most promising leads and improving their chances of successful deal closures.

Pair your sales forecast with a strong sales process

A sales forecast is only one part of the larger sales picture. As your team members acquire leads and close deals, you can track them through the sales pipeline. A solid sales plan is the foundation of future success.  

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How to Create a Sales Forecast

11 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

Business owners are often afraid to forecast sales. But, you shouldn’t be. Because you can successfully forecast your own business’s sales.

You don’t have to be an MBA or CPA. It’s not about some magic right answer that you don’t know. It’s not about training you don’t have. It doesn’t take spreadsheet modeling (much less econometric modeling) to estimate units and price per unit for future sales. You just have to know your own business. 

Forecasting isn’t about seeing into the future

Sales forecasting is much easier than you think and much more useful than you imagine.

I was a vice president of a market research firm for several years, doing expensive forecasts, and I saw many times that there’s nothing better than the educated guess of somebody who knows the business well. All those sophisticated techniques depend on data from the past — and the past, by itself, isn’t the best predictor of the future. You are.

It’s not about guessing the future correctly. We’re human; we don’t do that well. Instead, it’s about setting down assumptions, expectations, drivers, tracking, and management. It’s about doing your job, not having precognitive powers. 

• Successful forecasting is driven by regular reviews

What really matters is that you review and revise your forecast regularly. Spending should be tied to sales, so the forecast helps you budget and manage. You measure the value of a sales forecast like you do anything in business, by its measurable business results.

That also means you should not back off from forecasting because you have a new product, or new business, without past data. Lay out the sales drivers and interdependencies, to connect the dots, so that as you review plan-versus-actual results every month, you can easily make course corrections.

If you think sales forecasting is hard, try running a business without a forecast. That’s much harder.

Your sales forecast is also the backbone of your business plan . People measure a business and its growth by sales, and your sales forecast sets the standard for  expenses , profits, and growth. The sales forecast is almost always going to be the first set of numbers you’ll track for plan versus actual use, even if you do no other numbers.

If nothing else, just forecast your sales, track plan-versus-actual results, and make corrections — that process alone, just the sales forecast and tracking is in itself already business planning. To get started on building your forecast follow these steps.

And if you run a subscription-based business, we have a guide dedicated to building a sales forecast for that business model.

• Step 1: Set up your lines of sales

Most forecasts show several distinct lines of sales. Ideally, your sales lines match your accounting, but not necessarily in the same level of detail.   

For example, a restaurant ought not to forecast sales for each item on the menu. Instead, it forecasts breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and drinks, summarized. And a bookstore ought not to forecast sales by book, and not even by topic or author, but rather by lines of sales such as hardcover, softcover, magazines, and maybe categories (such as fiction, non-fiction, travel, etc.) if that works.

Always try to set your streams to match your accounting, so you can look at the difference between the forecast and actual sales later. This is excellent for real business planning. It makes the heart of the process, the regular review, and revision, much easier. The point is better management.

For instance, in a bicycle retail store business plan, the owner works with five lines of sales, as shown in the illustration here.  

In this sample case, the revenue includes new bikes, repair, clothing, accessories, and a service contract. The bookkeeping for this retail store tracks sales in those same five categories.

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• Step 2: Forecast line by line

There are many ways to forecast a line of sales.

The method for each row depends on the business model

Among the main methods are:.

• Unit sales : My personal favorite. Sales = units times price. You set an average price and forecast the units. And of course, you can change projected pricing over time. This is my favorite for most businesses because it gives you two factors to act on with course corrections: unit sales, or price.
• Service units : Even though services don’t sell physical units, most sell billable units, such as billable hours for lawyers and accountants, or trips for transportations services, engagements for consultants, and so forth.
• Recurring charges : Subscriptions. For each month or year, it has to forecast new signups, existing monthly charges, and cancellations. Estimates depend on both new signups and cancellations, which is often called “churn.”
• Revenue only : For those who prefer to forecast revenue by the stream as just the money, without the extra information of breaking it into units and prices.

Most sales forecast rows are simple math

For a business plan, I recommend you make your sales forecast a detailed look at the next 12 months and then broadly cover two years after that. Here’s how to approach each method of line-by-line forecasting.

Start with units if you can

For unit sales, start by forecasting units month by month, as shown here below for the new bike’s line of sales in the bicycle shop plan:

I recommend looking at the visual as you forecast the units because most of us can see trends easier when we look at the line, as shown in the illustration, rather than just the numbers. You can also see the numbers in the forecast near the bottom. The first year, fiscal 2021 in this forecast, is the sum of those months.

Estimate price assumptions

With a simple revenue-only assumption, you do one row of units as shown in the above illustration, and you are done. The units are dollars, or whatever other currency you are using in your forecast. In this example, the new bicycle product will be sold for an average of $550.00. 

That’s a simplifying assumption, taking the average price, not the detailed price for each brand or line. Garrett, the shop owner, uses his past results to determine his actual average price for the most recent year. Then he rounds that estimate and adds his own judgment and educated guess on how that will change. 

Multiply price times units

Multiplying units times the revenue per unit generates the sales forecast for this row. So for example the $18,150 shown for October of 2020 is the product of 33 units times $550 each. And the $21,450 shown for the next month is the product of 39 units times $550 each. 

Subscription models are more complicated

Lately, a lot of businesses offer their buyers subscriptions, such as monthly packages, traditional or online newspapers, software, and even streaming services. All of these give a business recurring revenues, which is a big advantage. 

For subscriptions, you normally estimate new subscriptions per month and canceled subscriptions per month, and leave a calculation for the actual subscriptions charged. That’s a more complicated method, which demands more details. 

For that, you can refer to detailed discussions on subscription forecasting in How to Forecast Sales for a Subscription Business .

• But how do you know what numbers to put into your sales forecast?

The math may be simple, yes, but this is predicting the future, and humans don’t do that well. So, don’t try to guess the future accurately for months in advance.

Instead, aim for making clear assumptions and understanding what drives your sales, such as web traffic and conversions, in one example, or the direct sales pipeline and leads, in another. Review results every month, and revise your forecast. Your educated guesses become more accurate over time.

Experience in the field is a huge advantage

In a normal ongoing business, the business owner has ample experience with past sales. They may not know accounting or technical forecasting, but they know their business. They are aware of changes in the market, their own business’s promotions, and other factors that business owners should know. They are comfortable making educated guesses.

If you don’t personally have the experience, try to find information and make guesses based on the experience of an employee,  your mentor , or others you’ve spoken within your field.

Use past results as a guide

Use results from the recent past if your business has them. Start a forecast by putting last year’s numbers into next year’s forecast, and then focus on what might be different this year from next.

Do you have new opportunities that will make sales grow? New marketing activities, promotions? Then increase the forecast. New competition, and new problems? Nobody wants to forecast decreasing sales, but if that’s likely, you need to deal with it by cutting costs or changing your focus.

Look for drivers

To forecast sales for a new restaurant, first, draw a map of tables and chairs and then estimate how many meals per mealtime at capacity, and in the beginning. It’s not a random number; it’s a matter of how many people come in.

To forecast sales for a new mobile app, you might get data from the Apple and Android mobile app stores about average downloads for different apps. A good web search might also reveal some anecdotal evidence, blog posts, and news stories, about the ramp-up of existing apps that were successful.

Get those numbers and think about how your case might be different. Maybe you drive downloads with a website, so you can predict traffic from past experience and then assume a percentage of web visitors who will download the app.

• Estimate direct costs

Direct costs are also called the cost of goods sold (COGS) and per-unit costs. Direct costs are important because they help calculate gross margin, which is used as a basis for comparison in financial benchmarks, and are an instant measure (sales less direct costs) of your underlying profitability.

For example, I know from benchmarks that an average sporting goods store makes a 34 percent gross margin. That means that they spend $66 on average to buy the goods they sell for $100.

Not all businesses have direct costs. Service businesses supposedly don’t have direct costs, so they have a gross margin of 100 percent. That may be true for some professionals like accountants and lawyers, but a lot of services do have direct costs. For example, taxis have gasoline and maintenance. So do airlines.

A normal sales forecast includes units, price per unit, sales, direct cost per unit, and direct costs. The math is simple, with the direct costs per unit related to total direct costs the same way price per unit relates to total sales.

Multiply the units projected for any time period by the unit direct costs, and that gives you total direct costs. And here too, assume this view is just a cut-out, it flows to the right. In this example, Garrett the shop owner projected the direct costs of new bikes based on the assumption of 49 percent of sales.

Given the unit forecast estimate, the calculation of units times direct costs produces the forecast shown in the illustration below for direct costs for that product. So therefore the projected direct costs for new bikes in October is $8,894, which is 49% of the projected sales for that month, $18,150.

• Never forecast in a vacuum

Never think of your sales forecast in a vacuum. It flows from the strategic action plans with their assumptions,  milestones , and metrics. Your marketing milestones affect your sales. Your business offering milestones affect your sales.

When you change milestones—and you will, because all business plans change—you should change your sales forecast to match.

• Timing matters

Your sales are supposed to refer to when the ownership changes hands (for products) or when the service is performed (for services). It isn’t a sale when it’s ordered, or promised, or even when it’s contracted.

With proper  accrual accounting , it is a sale even if it hasn’t been paid for. With so-called cash-based accounting, by the way, it isn’t a sale until it’s paid for. Accrual is better because it gives you a more accurate picture, unless you’re very small and do all your business, both buying and selling, with cash only.

I know that seems simple, but it’s surprising how many people decide to do something different. The penalty for doing things differently is that then you don’t match the standard, and the bankers, analysts, and investors can’t tell what you meant.

This goes for direct costs, too. The direct costs in your monthly  profit and loss statement  are supposed to be just the costs associated with that month’s sales. Please notice how, in the examples above, the direct costs for the sample bicycle store are linked to the actual unit sales.

• Live with your assumptions

Sales forecasting is not about accurately guessing the future. It’s about laying out your assumptions so you can manage changes effectively as sales and direct costs come out different from what you expected. Use this to adjust your sales forecast and improve your business by making course corrections to deal with what is working and what isn’t.

I believe that even if you do nothing else, by the time you use a sales forecast and review plan versus actual results every month, you are already managing with a business plan . You can’t review actual results without looking at what happened, why, and what to do next.

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

Table of Contents

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How to write a sales forecast for a business plan

Table of Contents

What is a sales forecast?

Why do you need a sales forecast, how do you write a sales forecast, top-down or bottom-up, writing your sales forecast, calculating a sales forecast, how can countingup help manage your forecasting.

Sales forecasts are an important part of your business plan . If done correctly, they can give accurate projections of your business’ cash flow, and let you better prepare for the year ahead. They can also make it easier to find the right investors . While it’s easier for existing businesses with plenty of data, you can still calculate a sales forecast for a new business .

In this guide, we’ll explore:

• How can you manage your forecasting?

A sales forecast is a prediction of your business’ future revenue. In order to be an accurate prediction, the forecast is based on previous sales, current economic trends, and industry performance. Having a sales forecast is a useful tool, because it gives you a better idea of how to manage your business. 

Having a sales forecast is like using the past to have a peek into the future of your company. It might not be 100% accurate, but it can help you plan any future spending, or prevent any cash flow issues from occurring. 

You can also use your sales forecast to monitor your business’ progress. For instance, if your business regularly performs better than your forecast, it could be a sign that your business is continuing to grow. On the other hand, if your actual sales are frequently less than expected, this could be a sign that your business is struggling and needs adjustment. 

It’s important to remember that any projections you make aren’t guaranteed, there can be advantages and disadvantages of financial forecasting . 

Now we’ve run through why having a sales forecast can help you run your business, let’s look at how to write one. 

While there are two types of sales forecasting (top-down and bottom-up), one is a lot more accurate for small businesses than the other. A top-down forecast looks at the market as a whole and attributes a portion of the market to your business. 

A top-down approach may work for large businesses that already own a significant chunk of the market. When forecasting for a small business, it’s easy to overestimate your market share. For example, a 1% market share may not seem like a lot, but a small restaurant owning 1% of the £89.5 billion UK market is extremely unrealistic.

The alternative to top-down is bottom-up. A bottom-up sales forecast starts with existing company data (like customer or product information) and works up to revenue. Since this starts with the company, it’s easier to 

Your sales forecast is ultimately a prediction of your revenue over a set period. It considers the amount you think you’ll sell, and the cost of those sales. We’ve included how to calculate a sales forecast below.

A sales forecast consists of three separate values: revenue, cost of goods sold, and gross profit. For estimating values in the calculations below, it’s best to use any existing business data to be as accurate as possible. 

To calculate your predicted revenue:

• Make a list of your available goods and services
• Note the price of each of your goods and services
• Estimate the expected sales of each good or service
• Multiply the price by the estimated sales to get your estimated revenue
• Add them all together to get your total revenue

For example, if your food truck business sold pizzas at £10 and burgers at £5, you would multiply these values by how much you expected to sell. For calculating a weekly sales forecast, you might estimate selling 60 pizzas and 80 burgers. Your predicted revenue for that week would be £600 for pizzas and £400 for burgers — giving £1,000 total.

In order to figure out how much profit you’ll make, you also need to calculate your costs for those predicted sales. To calculate your predicted costs:

• Figure out how much each good or service will cost per unit
• Multiply each cost by the projected sales

Using the same example as above, assume a single pizza cost £3.50 to make and a burger cost £2. Using the estimated sales, the total cost for your pizzas (3.5 x 60) would be £210, and £160 for your burgers (2 x 80). Combining these two figures gives you a total cost of £370.

The last step is to work out your gross profit , and it’s a relatively simple calculation.

• Subtract the total predicted cost from your total predicted revenue

Continuing with the example above, your revenue (£1,000) minus your costs (£370), leaves you with a projected gross profit of £630 for the week. Using this estimate, you can then plan how much working capital your business should have access to. It’s important to remember that these are only estimates, and your actual values can be higher or lower than your forecast.

If you want your forecasts to be as accurate as possible, you need to refer to all of your business’ financial data. Since collecting and collating this data can be challenging, you may want to use financial management software like the Countingup app. 

When trying to calculate your sales forecasts, having an up-to-date log of your current sales can be hugely beneficial. By combining a business current account with accounting software, Countingup is the only software that provides real-time cash flow tracking. 

The Countingup app also provides business owners with access to automatically generated profit and loss statements. These can prove invaluable when trying to stay aware of all your business’ costs.

Start your three-month free trial today. Find out more here .

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22 Sales Projection Templates for 2021 Forecasts

Casey O'Connor

What Is Sales Forecasting?

Types of sales forecast templates, forecasting templates for startups, forecasting templates for businesses with multiple products, forecasting templates for b2b companies.

Sales projection templates can help you quickly and easily create an accurate, data-driven sales forecast for your team.

Sales forecasting is an important exercise for any sales team that wants to see significant year-over-year growth and the ability to fine-tune their sales process in specific, targeted ways. 

In this article, we’ll go over the basics of sales forecasting, as well as provide various forecast templates to help you streamline the process. 

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Top Forecasting Templates for Startups

A sales forecast is a data-driven prediction of the financial outcomes a business will most likely see at the end of a given time period. A sales forecast can provide insight into the performance of individual sales reps, full sales teams, or even entire organizations. 

For overworked salespeople, making financial projections about future sales that may or may not come to fruition can seem like an exercise in futility. But a thorough, carefully considered sales forecast can be a huge asset to your business .

In order to create an accurate sales forecast, consider how the following factors currently impact your bottom line:

Your business goals are a very important benchmark for your sales team to keep in mind as you create your sales forecast. While your goals may not directly factor into the actual template, they will help steer your decision-making processes. Both short-term and long-term SMART goals will help give structure to your forecast.

Sales Process

Your sales process map will be another helpful tool in creating your sales forecast (if you don’t have one yet, check out our tips on creating one here ). Use your sales process map to pull data points and determine areas of strength and growth.

Company Standards

Chances are that your sales team is made up of salespeople from all different backgrounds and experiences — what one sales rep considers a “qualified lead” may be entirely different from the next. The same goes for things like follow-up communication — how much is too much? Should the follow-up process start on LinkedIn , or via email? 

While it may feel laborious, it’s worth your time to standardize and define these kinds of terms with your team. Use your sales process map to guide this exercise. Having consistency in your metrics will go a long way in pinpointing your sales projections.

In business, every penny counts (this is particularly true for small businesses and start-ups). If you’re not tracking every single penny that goes into and out of your business ( many businesses aren’t ), you need to start ASAP. Your sales projections will only be as accurate as your accounting, and the devil here is in the details. 

Don’t worry — you don’t need to go and cut funds from every department. Sometimes knowing the numbers is just as powerful as trimming them. But you’ll only reap the benefits of sales forecasting if you take a good hard look at the dollars you’re currently spending — all of them. 

Befriend Your CRM

If your company utilizes any CRM software, now’s the time to start maximizing it. Your CRM can be a great way to track the many moving pieces that make up a sales forecast. Make sure you understand its full functionality , as many companies tend to only stick to the surface-level features.

When executed correctly, sales forecasts can give you very valuable insight into various aspects of your sales performance over a period of time. It also gives investors a really compelling reason to inject money into your business — if your forecasted sales are promising, they’ll be much more likely to invest.

Different businesses have different needs for sales forecasting templates. These templates may include things like multiple products, multiple time frames, seasonality considerations, and other variables. It’s important to make sure the template you choose captures the full financial picture without overcomplicating it. 

In general, there are seven main types of forecast templates. Some of these standardized templates may work for your business, but you should also feel free to use these as a starting point, and customize as needed

(Don’t be intimidated by this process — you can do most of this with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets!)

1. Lead Driven Forecasting

With this lead-driven forecasting template , you’ll be relying on extensive knowledge of your leads. Each lead source gets a value assigned, and projections are calculated accordingly.

Because this template requires a lot of data about leads and their behaviors, it may not work well for businesses that are just starting out and still researching their customer base. 

2. Length of Sales Cycle Forecasting

Length of sales cycle forecasting  predicts the probability of a deal closing based on where they are in your sales cycle. It then assigns each deal a value based on how far along they are in the process. 

This template works well for companies who have robust CRM or other automation tools.

3. Opportunity Stage Forecasting

Opportunity stage forecasting is similar to the previous two templates, though it doesn’t account for source of leads or exact length of sales cycle. Instead, it assigns a probability to each prospect based on what stage of the sales process they’re in. 

This template will take these probabilities, assign them a value, and add those values into your sales projection as your leads move through the sales process. 

4. Intuitive Forecasting

Intuitive forecasting is pretty self-explanatory, and the least objective approach to sales forecasting . It relies on a sales rep’s experience to make judgments about how much  value each deal will bring to the company. 

Sales reps might consider any of the following as they make their forecast:

This method is difficult to scale, but it also doesn’t require a ton of historical sales data — it’s a good fit for many startups as they gather sales data. 

5. Test-Market Analysis Forecasting

Test-market analysis forecast templates are used when launching new products. This method requires that you perform and collect data on a small test launch, and apply those results to your overall forecast.

6. Historical Forecasting

This is a very data-driven approach — it uses your historical sales data to predict future  growth. It’s relatively quick and easy, but it has its downfalls. 

Historical forecasting  does not take any external factors into account, like market conditions or sales team changes. It simply looks at your history of sales. It also assumes year-over-year growth, which isn’t always the case. For most companies, historical sales data is a hugely beneficial piece of the sales forecast, but not the entire basis.

7. Multivariable Analysis

This multivariable analysis example spits out forecasts for gross profit and growth rate, but you could also formulate to predict things like profit margin or total revenue.

Without long-term historical sales data, it can be hard for many startups to create detailed projected sales reports. This is also true for older businesses who are launching a new product. In cases like these, it’s best to start with a simple projections template. 

Here are some of the most basic, easiest-to-use templates we found for businesses that are just starting out. Click on the template’s header to download each one. 

8. One-year Sales Forecast

One-year Sales Forecast (Google Sheets):

This template has very few inputs for historical sales data. All you need to include are the year, product, unit type, and the number of units sold. The spreadsheet has built-in formulas that will calculate the remaining rows automatically.

9. Best & Worst Case Scenario

Best & Worst Case Scenario (Excel):

This template works well for companies who have only minimal data, and can give new businesses a target forecast range rather than precise numbers. For startups, this can allow for flexibility while still pursuing aggressive growth.

10. Expense-Focused

Expense-Focused (Excel):

This template does a really nice job of breaking down all the various expenses that go into running a business. It could work really well for startups who are still learning how their cash flows in and out. 

11. Monthly Sales

Monthly Sales (Microsoft):

This template is great for startups that want to cut out the extra noise and simply determine whether their efforts are paying off month-to-month while they’re starting out.

12. Simple Monthly Reporting

Simple Monthly Reporting (PDF):

Businesses with multiple products (many e-commerce businesses fit this description, for example) sometimes struggle to create a sales forecasting template that’s fluid enough to capture the performance of many different profit streams. 

Take a look at some of the best templates we found that are flexible enough to meet those needs. 

13. 12-Month Forecast for Multiple Products

12-Month Forecast for Multiple Products (Excel):

This template is detailed enough to see how each product fits into the bigger picture, but also simple and intuitive enough that a fledgling business could use it effectively.

14. Color-Coded Outputs

Color-Coded Outputs (Excel):

This template does a really nice job of streamlining the data from multiple product sales and arranging them in an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-read manner. 

15. Opportunity-Based

Opportunity-Based :

This template  allows you to input sales based on deal stage, size, and probability. It’s best suited for companies who have a more developed understanding of their leads and sales process.

16. New Product Launch

New Product Launch (Excel):

This template is great for companies who are launching a new product and want to look at projections for that product in isolation. Because new products sometimes take longer to get off the ground and aren’t necessarily representative of sales projections as a whole, it can be good to look at their performance removed from the bigger picture — at least in the beginning.  

17. Individual Growth Rates by Product

Individual Growth Rates by Product (Excel):

This template does the dirty work for you by breaking down growth rates by individual products, so you can pinpoint the ones that are making the biggest impact.

Here are a few examples of sales forecasting templates for B2B companies.

18. Lead-Driven B2B

Lead-Driven B2B (Excel):

This template allows salespeople to enter data following a lead-driven approach. It assigns a projected value based on what stage the lead is in.

19. Projected Volume

Projected Volume (Excel):

20. Site Traffic Projections

Site Traffic Projections (Google Sheets):

This template download has wonderful step-by-step instructions for inputting your data and analyzing the results. The template uses site traffic as one of its metrics, so it would work best for e-commerce or other heavily web-based businesses.

21. Multivariable Analysis

Multivariable Analysis (Google Sheets):

This template allows for projections based on a number of different variables, including seasonality. The template is great for businesses that have many external variables to consider. 

22. Historical Growth Rate

Historical Growth Rate (Excel):

This template uses your historical sales data to predict future growth. Because the only inputs are past sales, it’s important to make sure that this data is very robust — we recommend at least two years of historical sales figures for this template.

Hopefully, one of many of these templates will be a good fit for your sales forecasts. They can be used as a guide to creating your own custom template in Excel or Google Sheets. Make sure to include the constants — things like unit sold and cost of goods sold — but tweaking the templates can go a long way in making them a more powerful tool for your business.

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How to Create a Sales Forecast Business Plan

Sales forecasting is a powerful way to improve decision-making and make smarter choices as a business. But the reality is, many organisations don’t get it right.

Accurate sales forecasts rely on astute insights driven from robust, holistic data. If your business has struggled to accurately predict future sales revenue in the past, our guide could help you get it right in the future.

Ready to get started? Use the links below to navigate or read on for our full guide to accurate sales forecasting.

Quick Links

What is a Sales Forecast?

Why is sales forecasting important, what factors can affect sales forecasting, how to create a sales forecast, tools to help with sales forecasting.

A sales forecast is an estimate of what a company will sell in a week, month, quarter or year. It’s used to predict future revenue, accounting for the number of units an individual, team or company is likely to sell over a set period.

Sales forecasting offers many benefits when leveraged as part of a broader business strategy. At all levels and across all functions within a business, forecasting can facilitate shrewd decision-making, whether that’s setting goals and budgets, prospecting for new leads, deciding on the best time to hire new staff, or effective stock management to help maximise cashflow.

Accurate sales forecasting is a projection of where a company will stand in the future. And that’s important, not only for business continuity and growth, but for cultivating credibility, trust and advocacy with key stakeholders – be it partners, investors, clients or customers.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why sales forecasting matters:

• Bolsters decision-making – accurate predictions about future revenue can facilitate improved decision-making across all business functions, from hiring managers tasked with recruiting new talent, to procurement teams discerning when and how much stock to source.
• Adds value to all business functions – sales forecasting defines the value brought by different departments across the business. It highlights how different functions and channels contribute to revenue generation, helping businesses manage their resources.
• Accurate sales and buying for reduced costs – a sales forecast simplifies inventory management, with accurate stock predictions reducing costs and freeing up valuable resources, like warehouse space.
• Allocation of sales and marketing budget – Forecasting helps account for peaks and troughs in sales, so you can assign marketing budgets and determine which products and services need attention.
• Guarantees timely recruitment and outsourcing to drive business growth – understanding the areas of your business that drive the most revenue can make for seamless recruitment. Reinvesting revenue in personnel is a seismic driver of business growth, and sales forecasting can help you decide where to make hires and when. Not only that, but it can help companies decide whether they should look at outsourcing or whether to bring outsourced activities back in-house, e.g., the use of courier companies versus investing in your own delivery fleet.
• Provides valuable revenue expectations to outside stakeholders, like investors – sales forecasting quantifies your revenue predictions, making it easier and less risky to attain outside support from investors and stakeholders.
• Allows for simple company benchmarking against competitors – where your business ranks against competitors is important, and sales forecasting highlights how your trajectory compares to your closest rivals.
• Offers a powerful means of motivating sales personnel – a sales forecast is the best way of benchmarking the performance of salespeople within your business. It’s also a great motivator, particularly for staff incentivised by the promise of commission.

Many internal and external factors can impact the accuracy of your sales forecasts. You’ll need to account for all sorts of influences when predicting sales activity, including:

• Economic uncertainty and conditions
• Competitor changes
• Market trends and seasonality
• Product changes and future innovations
• Internal pricing or policy changes
• Available marketing spend and budgets
• Staff levels (more or fewer sales personnel will affect figures, for example)
• Future business plans e.g., expansion or diversification plans

This isn’t an exhaustive list of factors that can affect sales forecasting, but it does provide a steer for the types of influences that you’ll need to factor into your predictions.

Sales forecasting isn’t rocket science, but it does require a methodical approach to guarantee accuracy. Here, we’ll demonstrate how to make accurate sales predictions in five easy-to-follow steps.

Step 1: Consider Sales History

The first step to accurate sales forecasting is to look not to the future, but the past. By examining sales data over the past 12 months, you’ll glean insights that you can use as the basis of your future sales predictions, noting things like volumes, trends, and seasonality changes that caused peaks and troughs in demand.

When exploring historic sales data, be mindful of your ‘sales run rate’ – the number of projected sales for a particular period. For example, sales data may reveal a large disparity between quarterly sales figures, affecting the overall run rate; you’ll need to factor this into your forecasts for the future.

Step 2: Anticipate Changes and External Influences

While historic sales data provides a clear view of when and where sales typically happen over a year, it doesn’t guarantee the same sales figures for the future. Depending on a plethora of external and internal influences, next year’s sales could be up or down – so how do you accurately predict future revenue?

Start by taking each influence in turn and assess how such a force would have impacted last year’s sales figures. For example, do you plan to increase prices over the next 12 months? If so, how might this affect sales in relation to previous figures?

Here are some of the factors you should consider when predicting future sales performance:

• Pricing changes – will your prices change? How might this affect custom?
• Customer changes and trends – are consumer trends turning in your favour, or going the other way? Market awareness is crucial for accurate sales forecasting.
• Promotions – do you have any sales or promotions lined up to increase demand? How might these affect sales targets?
• Product alterations – are you improving your products and services?
• Sales channels – do you plan to expand into additional sales channels in the near future or acquire new branches?

Step 3: Lean on the Right Systems for Accurate Data Capture and Analysis

Sales forecasting becomes much simpler and more accurate when the right tools are used to capture and analyse data. Integrated ERP software, for example, collates sales data from every channel of your business – including trade counter or EPOS sales, telesales, sales rep orders, ecommerce etc. – so you can make data-backed predictions with confidence.

A great example of the types of tools you can use for accurate sales forecasting is predictive stock management. Automating the forecasting process, it presents the user with a forecast prediction aligned to their stock preferences, e.g., how much buffer stock you want to carry, as well as stock lead times.

Presented with this data, the procurement team can then use their insight and knowledge to tweak this forecast where necessary. It’s a great example of the marriage of automation to reduce manual work, whilst still allowing people to have input on the end result.

Elsewhere, utilising customised dashboards or control desks, instead of static reports, to differentiate pipeline value by rep, branch, prospect customer etc., can give businesses dynamic information to adjust their forecasts and be agile around expectations and demand.

What’s more, clever use of the CRM in conjunction with opportunity probability management enables you to allocate an estimated percentage chance that you think you will win a sales deal. By giving each sales opportunity/quotation a probability, you can produce a sales weighting forecast that will give you a fairly accurate idea of what your sales will be.

This will give you a better chance of forecasting the revenue and stock position of months and years ahead.

Step 4: Align Sales Predictions with Your Business Strategy

Many businesses have a five-year plan, a strategy that looks to drive business growth and profitability. But remember, such a plan will impact sales in one way or another, so it’s important that you align your sales forecasts with your short and long-term business objectives.

Say, for example, your business plan sets out a period of growth in the form of new hires or the creation of a whole new department. How will this affect sales? And to what extent should it be factored into your revenue forecasts?

Aligning your business strategy and sales forecasts is a crucial step. It helps prioritise business activity, ensuring that the right decisions are made to drive the business forward.

Step 5: Set Out Your Sales Forecasts in the Right Way

Charts, graphs and annotations can all be used to set out your sales forecasts for the year ahead. These should be included in your business plan, providing an accessible means of sharing forecasts with key stakeholders, personnel and investors.

As well as charting forecasts in number terms, you should set out your sales strategy, including how you arrived at the quoted figures. This not only quantifies your reasoning, but serves as a reminder of the market position at the time of writing – something that could prove useful if you need to refer back to where the figures came from at a later date.

Sales forecasting can be a laborious process, particularly if you want to guarantee accuracy. There are, however, a range of tools and software which can be leveraged to automate some elements of the process, removing some of the legwork associated with sales forecasting.

At Intact, we’re well aware of the importance of sales forecasting – and the arduous nature of it. That’s why we offer specialist expertise and solutions to help automate and simplify the process, from ERP software and predictive stock management to data analytics tools designed to improve data-driven decision-making.

We hope this guide helps you take stock of sales forecasting. If you’d like to optimise this area of your business, the Intact team can help. For more information or to speak to a member of our specialist team, visit the homepage . Alternatively, for more help and advice on ways to manage your inventory, take a look at our free guide to effective stock management .

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Sales Forecast

Ai generator.

The term sales forecasting refers to the process of predicting and estimating probable future sales. It helps the companies to take informed decisions and predict the performance of short term or long term businesses. This sort of forecasting can be based on the past performances of the business, comparisons of the projects, and the economic trends.

What is the Importance of Sales Forecasting?

Sales forecasting helps the businessmen and traders to plan and strategize the steps that they take in the sales. Such strategized and planned steps can save the company’s interest from the crises. It is like knowing your future and taking measures to deal avoid it even before it might get to your sales way. There are several other important facts about sales forecasting that you might know. Like

• Sales forecasting gives insights into the process or way in which the workforce, cash flow , and other resources of the company need to be managed.
• This process considers the availability of resources like required equipment and capital while determining its production volumes.
• It helps the companies to plan for future growth.
• The process helps to efficient resource allocation.
• Forecast sales revenues that are possible to be achieved.
• The process can help to decide the policies the company should take in.
• It helps to know to what extent the advertisement should be done.
• Sales forecasting can give ideas on deciding the production and purchase schedules.
• Such a forecast result helps in guiding the marketing and business activities for hitting and surpassing the targets.

What are the different Sales Forecasting?

Two types of sales forecasting are practiced to predict the future performances of the sales of companies, that is, short-term forecasting, and long-term forecasting.

Short-term Forecasting

Short-term forecasting refers to the sales that last not more than a year. The period of sales depends upon the business nature and types. This forecasting is used for several purposes like

• It helps to forecast and avoid the problem of overproduction and minimal supply of the raw materials and other required things by adopting suitable production policies.
•  It helps to have control over inventories.
• Forecast always helps in setting a target of the sales.
• It allows for arranging the financial requirements in advance so that the demands can be met.

Long-Term Forecasting

Long-term forecasting as the name suggests lasts for years and years. Here also the period of the sales may depend on the nature of the business. in many cases, especially after 12 years, the forecast is assumed uncertain but for giant industries, forecasting is required due to the high cost of the equipment. Long-term forecasting also has several purposes.

• If the demand rises, it helps to plan for the new required units that need to be produced.
• it helps to plan the financial requirements that the company might require in its long-term business.
• It predicts the need for the possible man-power requirement in the future so that it can be met.

You can also get an idea of sales forecasting by referring to the below-mentioned examples and templates on the topic. So, have a look at them today!

Sales Forecast Examples & Templates

1. sales inventory and forecasting example.

Size: 846 KB

If you are a sales practitioner and need to focus on its forecasting we understand your concern and thus we suggest you may choose this example. The template added here discusses the requirements in a sales process and describes different aspects of the sales strategic plan . So have a look at this template and make your task easier.

2. Sales Forecasting Management Example

For the purpose of forecasting any sales possibility, you need to study and analyze the different details available in your hand. The mentioned template describes the  sales analysis  and sales forecasting management process. You can follow this template before preparing one for you as it might reduce your responsibilities and save your time. So, check the template out today!

3. Sample Sales Forecasting Management Example

Size: 372 KB

Sales is not an easy task as it involves a vast audience so does it raises the complexities. That is why companies forecast sales to predict the future reactions and actions that might take place to the company stays ready with the required measures. You can refer to this example template to understand the relevance and importance of the sales forecasting. Have a look at this template and if it looks useful to you download this today!

4. Marketing Sales Forecasting Example

Size: 654 KB

5. Simple Sales Forecasting Example

Size: 569 KB

6. Sales Data Forecasting Example

Size: 376 KB

7. Demand Planning and Sales Forecasting Example

Sales Forecast Size: 106 KB

8. 12 Month Sales Forecast Example

Size: 37 KB

9. Consumer Behavior and Sales Forecast Example

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Home » Business » Free Sales Forecast Template (Word, Excel, PDF)

Free Sales Forecast Template (Word, Excel, PDF)

A sales forecast template (Word, Excel, PDF) is used by the sales teams and maybe the marketing or sales managers to make projections of the sales of different things, products, or items you purchase. A sales projection is a fundamental piece of a marketable strategy. It is additionally basic in the event that you are hoping to get a bank advance or financial specialists.

The sales forecast template gives you a chance to break down and conjecture the unit deals, development rate, net revenue, and gross benefit for your items and administrations. It gives a speedy beginning stage to set up your business estimate and incorporates some specimen diagrams. You may also like hold harmless agreement template .

Anticipating sales of your item or administration is the beginning stage for the money related projections. The business gauge is the way to the entire money related arrangement, so it is imperative to utilize practical appraisals. Partition your anticipated month to month deals into “Classifications”, which are common divisions that bode well for your sort of business. Run of the mill classifications may be product offerings, divisions, branch areas, client gatherings, topographical domains, or contracts.

To concealment of many centers without a moment’s delay, there are different sales templates available online all of which can be downloaded for nothing. Notwithstanding a business activity design format, you’ll discover a pipe layout to help imagine the business procedure, a business gauge layout for making projections, deals tracker, and report layouts for gathering imperative information, a pipeline for following contacts, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. We’ve likewise included deals with email formats to improve correspondence with leads. You should also check the expense report template .

Utilizing a business format gives simple association and productivity, authorizing assets, and time that can be utilized toward achieving business objectives. A format can likewise be a compelling specialized instrument for deals and promoting groups when creating and progressing in the direction of offers targets. Contingent upon the nature and extent of your business, a few formats can likewise be incorporated as a feature of a compelling strategy for success. You may also see the business plan template .

Table of Contents

Benefits of Using Sales Forecast Template:

• You can track your item by item budget.
• You can forecast or project your sales of different items in different periods.
• You can compare the projections with the actual ones.
• Customize able
• Easy to use.
• Enhanced decision making

12 Month (One Year/1 year) Sales Forecast Template Excel

Weekly Sales Forecast Template

Monthly Sales Forecast Template Word

Strategic Sales Forecast Spreadsheet

3 Month Sales Forecast Template

3 Year Sales Projection Template

Business Plan Sales Forecast Template

Sales Forecast Example Business Plan

Sales Forecast Excel Template

Sales Forecast Template Excel Free

Sales Forecast Template for Startup Business

Sales Projection Template Excel

Sales Revenue Forecast Template

Additional Reading: How to Do a Sales Forecast? ( link )

How To Use Sales Forecast Template?

These format templates enable you to design your business objectives with the adaptability and usefulness of an Excel spreadsheet. This business design format is isolated into a year and separate product offerings.

Sections are incorporated for the earlier year’s execution, current deals objectives, and results. Make the design of a yearly deal, and think about information after some time and crosswise over items.

In conclusion, these sales forecast templates are very useful and efficient for the sales managers and the marketing teams.

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I am Ryan Duffy and legal writer. I received a bachelor of business administration (BBA) degree from London Business School. I have 8+ years of writing experience in the different template fields and working with ExcelTMP.com for 7 years. I work with a team of writers and business and legal professionals to provide you with the best templates.

9 Free Sales Forecast Templates to Super-Charge Sales Growth in 2024

Sales forecasting templates might not sound all that exciting. Fair enough. After all, who wants to create more reports—on top of all your other responsibilities?

If you're feeling a little skeptical, take a walk with me and imagine this scenario involving two different sales managers :

Which of these sales managers is more likely to get the budget they want?

No brainer. It's Sales Manager 2 every day of the week.

What's the difference between their pitches? A solid sales forecast to back up the substantial investment they're asking the VP to make.

Sales forecasts can be exciting—they give you the superpower to see what's coming down the pipeline. More importantly, they're easy to create using the right sales forecasting templates.

In this guide, we'll give you a step-by-step method to create a sales forecast and access to several free sales forecast templates (in both Microsoft Excel & Google Sheets format).

But first, let’s quickly touch on why sales forecasts are key to growing your sales team—and your business.

Why are Sales Forecasts Crucial for Sales Teams?

Sales forecasting provides a window into your business's future. Depending on the template, it can help you:

• Predict sales figures for the next quarter: Much like projecting total contract value growth, sales forecasting provides a roadmap for anticipated revenue, enabling you to plan and allocate resources accordingly.
• Make more accurate cash flow projections
• Predict expenses
• See where to invest marketing dollars
• Better allocate hiring budgets
• Spot emerging trends early on
• Diagnosis of potential issues in your sales flow early

Lastly, it is a powerful motivation tool for your sales team—especially if you have a longer sales cycle. It allows you to paint a clear picture showing how the work your team is doing today will pay off.

9 Best Sales Forecast Templates (Free Google Sheets + Excel Templates)

Not every sales team needs a super complex sales forecasting model. For instance, small businesses only want (and need) to track a few important metrics. On the other hand, eCommerce companies must track multiple products, which is challenging without a template.

So, we've sorted through all the free sales forecast templates we could find (in Excel + Google Sheets format) and even created one of our own. Choose the best template for your company, sales team, and industry.

1. Best General Forecast Template (without a CRM)

This sales forecasting template from Close provides a simple way to track and forecast two years of sales. The first tab allows for adjusting funnel metrics depending on your sales cycle, average deal size, lead growth, and number of leads.

The second tab forecasts sales by month based on meetings booked, new opportunities created, and leads closed/won. A chart at the bottom displays expected growth.

The only thing better than this is having sales forecasting built right into your CRM ( like with Close ), which enables you to have powerful integrations that enrich your forecasting accuracy and pipeline health over time.

GET THE FREE TEMPLATE HERE

2. Best Forecast Template for a Lead-Driven Sales Process

This template is ideal for companies that track their lead generation efforts and monitor their monthly sales forecast. You’ll see it breaks the year into quarters and tracks leads in all stages of the sales funnel .

The best part? This is a Google Sheets template (which can be accessed via Google apps and can also be downloaded for use in Microsoft Excel).

This template tracks the deal value and uses a weighted forecast model. It can also predict the probability of closing, which is a helpful metric for B2B companies. You can download it right here .

3. Best Free Forecasting Template for Multiple Product Businesses

Does your company sell multiple products or services? This sales projection template could be a great choice for a business with more complex offerings. It tracks the number of units sold for each product line over 12 months on a single spreadsheet to streamline your forecasting accuracy.

It also carries over sales history from three previous years, making it easy to compare sales by unit, month, or year. You can download it right here in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel format. Just make a copy and start editing the sheet.

4. Best Forecasting Template for Retail Businesses

This template is ideal for retail stores that want to forecast sales, track gross sales, and mark up percentage and profit margin for each item to generate more new business. The yellow cells allow you to input your own data, and the spreadsheet uses smart Excel automation formulas to calculate forecasts.

While it doesn't display the previous year's data in this view, you could easily create a pivot table in Excel or Google Sheets to pull data from several years. That way, you can compare average sales, total sales, and other sales KPIs that matter to your leadership. You can pick this one up right here .

5. Best for Long-Term Future Sales Analysis (36 Months of Historical Data)

This is one of the most colorful templates on the list, but that's not why we included it. This template is ideal for companies that want to monitor long-term data closely.

In addition to 12 months of full historical sales data, you'll also see detailed insights and data for the past five years, including overall revenue for each type of item. This is a good option if you want to focus your sales analysis on the long and short term. You can grab this one right here .

6. Best Sales Forecasting Model for Scenario Planning (New Product Launches)

Forecasting sales for a new product launch can be a challenge—which is why many companies do a soft launch without high expectations.

After a soft launch, use this forecasting template to track initial sales data and project your next five years of sales. Head over here to download this one .

7. Best Free Template for Multiple Products at Different Growth Rates

Looking to track product sales that grow at different rates? This spreadsheet tracks growth and forecasts revenue for 12 months—even if the products or services grow at different rates. This is a great fit for businesses with legacy products that regularly launch new products.

This forecasting chart also includes five years of historical data so you can see overall sales growth at a glance. Pick this template up right here .

8. Best for Short-Term Forecasts

Want to plan your inventory or marketing campaigns for just the next few weeks? This 3-month forecast template can help.

Customize the start date, then enter your number of units and price per unit to get projections. It’s simple and effective. Download this template right here .

9. Best for Daily Forecasts

Now, let’s shorten the projections even more—to a daily window. This one is primarily useful for businesses in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industries.

With this template, predict your sales on a daily or weekly time frame. This granular vision can help you optimize day-to-day sales. Plus, you can rely on historical sales data and add weekly notes.

Grab this forecast template here .

How to Choose the Right Sales Forecast Template (& Forecasting Methods for Your Business)

The right forecasting template provides access to the sales KPIs that matter most to your sales team. But not all businesses are the same.

Retail businesses may need to track hundreds of products and dozens of different suppliers, while a SaaS company might only offer three pricing plans—but have a really long sales cycle.

You need to find the right template for your business needs. Otherwise, you'll be left floundering in a sea of useless data.

Here's how to select the right sales forecast template for your organization.

Get Clear on Your Sales Goals & Set Realistic Sales Revenue Targets

Different sales goals and revenue targets rely on different data. For example, if you want to predict sales over the next two years, you'll want a forecast template that covers a longer time period.

Goals can also impact which template will work best for your team.

For example, suppose an eCommerce company wants to increase monthly sales by 10 percent and boost customer lifetime value . In this case, they'll need a different template than a small business looking to increase sales from a specific customer segment.

Next, set realistic revenue targets using overall market growth as a benchmark. If your industry expands by 25 percent, a 10 percent growth rate might be too low, while 50 percent is likely too high.

Look for a template that fits your business goals and revenue targets.

Consider Your Business Type & Plan Ahead for Sales Fluctuations

Your business type is one of the most important factors to consider when selecting a template. The size, industry, age, and growth rate can all impact which template will work for you.

Also, consider how often your sales fluctuate. For example, an eCommerce store may have 10 to 15 fluctuations a year, so they need a template that can handle their data. On the other hand, a small fly fishing business may have just two fluctuations—on and off-season.

Look for a template that suits your business model and accommodates your sales fluctuations.

Decide Which Method of Sales Forecasting to Use for Your Sales Team

When it comes to sales forecasting methods, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

You'll need to adjust your forecasting based on your historical data, the metrics you need to track, and your confidence in the data. Your goals and KPIs also impact the forecasting methods you use.

Here are seven sales forecasting methods, including who should use them:

• Lead-driven forecasting : Looks at previous lead conversion rates and projects future sales based on current lead volume. Best for organizations with clear historical data and a steady stream of inbound leads, such as SaaS or technology companies.
• Length of sales cycle forecasting : Tracks how long a typical lead takes to close based on lead type. Best for organizations with insights into the entire sales pipeline and well-aligned sales and marketing teams, especially B2B.
• Opportunity stage forecasting: Calculates how likely a lead is to close based on specific actions and lead type. Ideal for businesses with good historical data on closing rates.
• Test-market analysis forecasting: Leverages data from a soft release to get a sense of projected revenue. Best for startups or businesses launching a new product line or service.
• Historical forecasting : Forecasting data based on historical data and market trends. Works well for any business with at least a year of historical data.
• Multivariable analysis: A complex analysis that considers multiple factors and closing ratios. Best for companies with varying deal sizes and close rates or selling multiple products or services.

Make sure whatever template you choose fits your analysis method.

Look at Historical Data & Past Sales Metrics

We've already discussed how historical data can impact your sales forecasting, but it's also an important factor in choosing the right template.

Before choosing a template, look at your past metrics and historical data. How much data do you have? Consider a template with a longer forecasting model if you have several years' worth of data.

What data do you want to include based on your business type and forecasting methods? Make sure the template you choose includes the fields important to your business.

Research External Market Conditions to Create an Accurate Sales Forecast

Finally, spend a few hours researching current market conditions and consider how they may impact your sales forecast. For example, if your industry is growing fast, you might select a forecasting template that updates in near real-time.

On the other hand, if a large competitor is acquiring another company, growth might be more challenging, and you might need to lower your growth expectations.

Look for a template that works well with current market conditions.

How Do You Calculate Sales Forecasts Quickly?

Here’s a simple formula that SaaS businesses can use for a specific forecast period:

Number of expected new customers x Average deal size

The accuracy of such a forecast depends on various factors, including your churn rate, upsells, changes to your existing subscriptions, market conditions, etc. The more informed your assumptions, the better your accuracy.

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How to Create a Custom Sales Forecast Template: Five Easy Steps

Sometimes, you need to do it yourself. Sales forecasting can be simple—especially if you create a forecasting template based on your own sales process and KPIs. Assuming you’re already tracking your sales, here are the steps to create your own template.

Step 1: Choose Sales Performance Metrics

What do you want to track? Whether it’s the sales quotas of individual sales reps, your gross profit, or simply one-year sales projections, choose KPIs based on your goals.

You can check out this exhaustive list of KPIs , but most SaaS businesses can start by calculating their run rates. Keep in mind that it requires a few months of revenue data to project your annualized revenue.

Here's the sales run rate formula :

Projected sales = Run rate (Current sales/number of sales periods elapsed) X the remaining number of sales periods

This is one of the easiest ways to predict future growth, and it’s a great starting point. We’ll refine it in the fourth step, but now, let’s start creating a template.

Step 2: Create a Layout for Your Template and Add Formulas

Now, add relevant formulas for your chosen metrics so that your sheet can make automatic forecasts based on your data input.

The specific columns you include in your layout depend on the KPIs you want to track and the information you want to include.

If we were calculating the annual run rate, you could use one column for the month, another for the sales in that month, and another for calculating the total sales up to the current month.

Next, you want to create formulas for the average monthly rate and the annual run rate formula (ARR), which will be your average monthly sales X 12. These two can be additional columns.

Step 3: Calculate Your Sales Forecast

Now, it’s time to test your template. Input data and let the spreadsheet automatically calculate your sales forecast. In our example, after inputting data for January through March, here’s what the forecasted annual run rate looked like:

Step 4: Adjust for External Factors and Strategic Business Plans

Our simple run rate formula doesn't consider seasonality, competition, market changes, or business growth.

If seasonality or trends impact your sales, calculate the percent change from your average month during periods of spike or dip. For example, if your sales typically spike by 30 percent in November, you can adjust your sales run rate to account for these trends.

Internal changes can also impact sales forecasting. Are you launching new products ? How have product launches performed in the past? Are you marketing to new customer segments? How many new customers do you expect these new markets to add to your customer file?

Refining your formula will improve your forecast's accuracy, leading to informed sales plans and decisions.

If you want to create a comprehensive SaaS revenue forecast model from scratch in Excel, check out this tutorial .

Step 5: Integrate the Template Into Your Process (& Keep Improving It)

Most sales reps spend only one-third of their day selling to prospects. So, you want to integrate the sales forecasting template into your workflow naturally so it doesn’t diminish productivity. Work to blend it with your team's existing spreadsheets or software.

Set up a regular cadence for importing data into the template—either manually or automatically from another software. Then, generate forecasts based on inputted data.

To keep your forecasts relevant, regularly review the accuracy of the results. Adjust your template as needed, and remember that a change in business strategy or market conditions should also invite revisions.

Want to sophisticate your forecasts and consider advanced trends? Then, you must use evolved sales forecasting methods. Get more detailed insights into sales forecasting here .

Using Forecasting Templates to Predict + Optimize Future Revenue

When it comes to sales forecasting, the right template can make all the difference. If you're still doing the process manually, you might miss out on actionable insights that could help your team meet and exceed your sales goals. Plus, manual forecasting takes a lot of valuable time—and is prone to error.

So, choose one of the above templates to create a standardized forecasting approach for your company, but don’t be afraid to make it your own. Add columns, include metrics that matter, and even plug in your brand color and name.

Or, you can just design a template from scratch.

Remember that your template isn’t static. Keep refining your forecast assumptions, and iterate to improve accuracy. Over time, you'll end up with a custom sales forecasting spreadsheet that makes you look like a superstar—and boosts your revenue potential.

Want even more actionable insights? See how Close gives you access to the reporting metrics that matter .

But even if you’re working without a CRM or using another product to manage your sales process, grab our free sales forecast template to achieve your goals that much faster.

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All about Sales Plans: Definitions, Tips, and Free Templates

By Kate Eby | July 27, 2018

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In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about sales plans: how they relate to sales forecasting and sales pipelines, as well as benefits, challenges, and tips for getting the most out of your sales plans.

Included on this page, you’ll find over 8 free sales plan templates , learn the difference between sales forecasting and sales planning , and find best practices for writing a sales plan .

Free Sales Plan Templates

In this section, you’ll find over 15 free sales planning templates in Microsoft Excel and Word formats.

Sales Plan Template

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This template allows you to plan your sales goals with the flexibility and functionality of an Excel spreadsheet. This sales plan template is divided into 12 months and separate product lines. The template includes columns for the previous year’s performance, current sales goals, and outcome. Create a yearly sales plan, and compare data over time and across products.

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Sales Leads Template

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If you want to keep track of sales leads, but don’t need the full functionality of customer relationship management (CRM) software, this spreadsheet may be adequate for your business. The template has columns for detailed information about each sales lead, including contact dates and status — this allows you to keep track of communications with each customer, plan future contacts and follow-ups, and evaluate potential sales. You can also indicate lead sources on the spreadsheet to monitor your marketing efforts and track how customers are referred to your business.

Sales Tracker Template

This sales tracker template makes it easy to keep track of items sold, along with profit per item and total earned income. You can also track costs, including shipping charges and returns. This template is especially useful for a new business, online retail sales, or any small business that wants to track sales and profits.

Sales Pipeline Template

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This sales pipeline template is an alternative to CRM software and is designed with small businesses in mind, use it to keep track of contacts and estimated sales. It also provides a quarterly sales forecast, along with space to record deal status, projected closing date, and further actions. This simple template is easy to edit and serves as a management tool for your sales pipeline.

Sales and Marketing Plan Template

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Creating an effective sales and marketing plan may involve market research and analysis, evaluating your competition, looking at your sales history, examining future sales projections, and more. Once you have adequate information to develop a sales plan, a template can help you organize the plan into steps that will drive sales. This sales and marketing plan template provides space for identifying your sales goal, target customers, strategies for attracting those customers, marketing tactics and messages, scheduled action steps, and results.

Sales Funnel Template

‌ ‌ Download Sales Funnel Template - Excel

This sales funnel template provides a visual representation of the sales process, along with whatever sales data you choose to include. The template can be used as a scorecard to evaluate sales progress, and the funnel makes it easy to visualize the steps in your sales process. This free template is a simple but effective tool for reaching sales and business goals.

Sales Report Template

‌ ‌ Download Sales Report Template

Track monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales activity with this free sales report template. Customize the template or use the existing columns to keep track of sales and pertinent data. This sales report template also includes a monthly forecast showing sales history and projections. Use this template to track progress, plan future goals, and create a sales report with pleasing visual design.

Sales Action Plan Template

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Create a sales plan with actionable steps and a scheduled timeline. This template features sections for listing clearly defined goals, methods for measuring success, action steps, ownership for each step, and deadlines. These are all important components of a sales action plan for reducing risk and increasing the probability that you will reach your sales goals.

Using a Sales Plan Template

Finding the right sales template provides easy organization and efficiency, which frees up resources and time that can go toward reaching business goals. A template can also be a powerful communication tool for sales and marketing teams to develop and track their progress against sales targets. Depending on the nature and scope of your company, some templates can be a component of an effective business plan.

The Basics of a Sales Plan

A sales plan outlines sale goals for a cycle, as well as the steps you will take to hit those targets. The sales plan document also defines tools, high-level tactics, target customers, competitors, obstacles, among other details. A strong plan will communicate company goals to the sales team, keep everyone focused on strategy, and delineate priorities.

What Is the Difference Between Sales Forecasting and Sales Planning?

While many people confuse the two terms, sales forecasting and sales planning are distinct concepts. A sales forecast is a future projection of sales based on business and environmental conditions, while a sales plan defines the concrete steps needed to achieve the sales forecast. You can create a sales forecast for your entire business or for a particular initiative over any period of time (examples include an economic forecast; an industry forecast; a company forecast; and a short-, medium-, or long-term forecast).

Sales plans are helpful tools when budgeting for advertising or travel costs, identifying new sales markets, planning for staffing needs, and creating a timeline to reach milestones. But a sales plan is just one piece of the business planning and management — and it relies on accurate sales forecasting. You can get free sales forecasting templates here .

Large organizations, small businesses, and startups can all equally benefit from sales planning. Sales forecasts and plans are most often used by the sales team, although marketers, executives, and even customers may interact with the documents as well.

What Is a Sales Pipeline?

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospective buyers are in the sales process. A sales pipeline can quickly identify a prospect’s position in the buying journey; use that information to support them and respond to their needs appropriately.

While a specific buyer’s journey will vary based on the industry and type of products or services sold, there are three general phases of any sales pipeline:

A prospect initiates contact with a company and explains its needs.

A salesperson provides the prospect with a quote (including the product or service and price).

The prospect purchases a product or service (and thereby becomes a customer).

Use the targeted sales pipeline templates above to track potential customers’ journeys through the process.

What Is the Sales Funnel? 

The sales funnel is a visual representation of the average conversion rate of potential customers and qualified leads move through the sales process. Sales teams can use the sales funnel to help understand the volume of sales, as well as the percentage of each sale that has passed through each sales process stage.

The sales pipeline represents what the seller is doing during the sales process; the sales funnel shows the sales process conversion rates. The sales funnel feeds the sales pipeline; once a lead is converted into a prospect, they move into the sales pipeline.

Benefits of Using a Sales Plan

A high-quality sales plan is one of the key parts of the sales forecasting process as well as the operational plan and the marketing strategy. When done right, a sales plan can provide the following benefits:

• Guide and contribute to business growth.
• Communicate company sales goals, objectives, and strategic direction for the sales team and leadership.
• Expose new angles based on the research performed to fill out the items on the template. 
• Define needed actions during the sales cycle.
• Provide easy monitoring of sales team progress as linked to goals.
• Provide a high-level view of expenses, finances, and risks, as well as the competition and target customers. 
• Improve and track performance by keeping the team focused on the strategy, priorities and achieving shared milestones.
• Inspire and motivate stakeholders.
• Help keep customers and potential customers as the focus.
• Clarify team capabilities.
• Aid in comparison of targets and results.

Best Practices for Writing a Sales Plan

While creating the sales plan, take the following steps in order to create a quality and realistic plan:

• Perform a SWOT analysis.
• Review prior periods’ performance to gather data.
• Base the targets and goals on market research and historical data.
• Verify facts and data being used.
• Break down data by different sales groups (inside sales, outside sales, etc.).
• Make sure the sales team buys in to the plan.
• Identify patterns that can help reach target customers.
• Pick a time period that makes sense for your industry.
• Ensure that the budget is supported by the research.
• Ensure that sales objectives are linked to sales goals, and that sales goals are linked to business goals.
• Break down estimated expenses to meet sales goals into groups (commissions, sales training, sales tools and resources, contest prizes, team building, travel costs, food, etc.). 
• Use the SMART goals model (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). 
• Measure what you want to manage.
• Keep the plan updated throughout the sales cycle — it’s a living document.
• Keep the plan as simple as possible.
• Look for untapped market segments to target.
• Define the value proposition for potential customers.
• Map out the ideal customer journey.

Sales Plans Challenges

While a sales plan is a valuable tool, creating one does pose some challenges: 

• Creating a sales plan can be very time consuming.
• Inaccurate data will skew forecasts — verify your numbers before you finalize the plan. 
• It’s difficult to predict changing tastes, so forecasts may not be met.
• Rapid growth may increase the workload of the sales team, and throw off forecasts.
• Be careful not to move goalposts mid-cycle.
• Wishful thinking is easy to do, so be realistic and don’t ignore your own assumptions.
• Neglecting to consult with the sales team may prevent them from buying into the plan.
• Neglecting to get feedback from other groups can have a negative impact on the plan.

What Is Included in a Sales Plan?

The sales plan contains numerous sections that provide information to readers, and help guide decisions that will contribute to meeting sales goals.

• Mission and Executive Summary: Include a short history of the business for background.
• Team Structure: Provide a breakdown of the team by sales team, including each person’s role and capabilities. Also include plans for any future hiring.
• Target Customers: Break down the customer list into segments by products or product lines. Build a prospect list that includes referrals, renewals, upsells, and any new segments, and make sure to leverage existing customer relationships.
• Tools, Software, and Other Resources: Include a list of CRM packages or other sales tools (including training tools), and provide any relevant documentation.
• Positioning: Include competitor data, including a comparison of your products with theirs. Anticipate how market trends may impact your business.
• Marketing Strategy: Include pricing information, promotions, and any actions you have planned to increase brand awareness.
• Prospecting Strategy: List criteria for qualifying leads generated by marketing strategy. 
• Action Plan: Include a list of steps needed to hit revenue and sales goals.
• Revenue and Sales Goals: Include measurable, realistic goals that support the overall business. Additionally, supply information on how performance will be measured and monitored, and be sure to base projections off historical data.
• Budget: Include estimated costs (including training, sales tools and resources, team building activities, travel, food, contest prizes, etc.). Make a case for the budget you present.
• Schedule: Provide a timeline that addresses the length of the sales cycle covered by the plan (annual, quarterly, month, etc.).
• Other Items: Consider including a performance review of the prior sales cycle, as well as market and industry conditions that may impact sales.

Improve Sales Planning with Smartsheet for Sales

Sales planning is an activitiy to gain and retain customers, meet changing market demands, and ultimately, ensure business success. While premade templates can help you get started developing your plan, you need a tool to manage all of your sales processes and operations that is accessible to your team in real time and allows you to collaborate and track sales activity across multiple reps.

Smartsheet is a work execution platform that enables enterprises and teams to get from idea to impact - fast. Top performing sales organizations rely on Smartsheet to stay on top of leads, accelerate productivity, and exceed every quota.

Use Smartsheet to build a strong opportunity pipeline, reduce risks and identify blockers, and refine your sales forecast. Improve transparency to process and procedure, optimize operations with cross-department collaboration, and accelerate team output.

Discover how Smartsheet can help maximize your sales efforts, today. 

Try Smartsheet for Sales

Additional Resources

Operations management

Sales Operations 101: Roles, Duties, Headaches, and Pro Tips

Learn the basics of sales operations and how roles are evolving. Hear from the pros and find tips to remedy sales ops headaches.

Nov 18, 2021

Get the most out of your sales planning efforts with Smartsheet for Sales.

What is Sales Planning? How to Create a Sales Plan

Published: December 06, 2023

Sales planning is a fundamental component of sound selling. After all, you can‘t structure an effective sales effort if you don’t have, well, structure . Everyone — from the top to the bottom of a sales org — benefits from having solid, actionable, thoughtfully organized sales plans in place.

This kind of planning offers clarity and direction for your sales team — covering everything from the prospects you‘re trying to reach to the goals you’re trying to hit to the insight you're trying to deliver on.

But putting together one of these plans isn‘t always straightforward, so to help you out, I’ve compiled this detailed guide to sales planning — including expert-backed insight and examples — that will ensure your next sales plan is fundamentally sound and effective.

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In this post, we'll cover:

What is a sales plan?

Sales planning process.

• What goes in a sales plan template?

How to Write a Sales Plan

Tips for creating an effective sales plan, sales plan examples, strategic sales plan examples.

A sales plan lays out your objectives, high-level tactics, target audience, and potential obstacles. It's like a traditional business plan but focuses specifically on your sales strategy. A business plan lays out your goals — a sales plan describes exactly how you'll make those happen.

Sales plans often include information about the business's target customers, revenue goals, team structure, and the strategies and resources necessary for achieving its targets.

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What are the goals of an effective sales plan?

And if (or more likely when ) those goals change over time, you need to regularly communicate those shifts and the strategic adjustments that come with them to your team.

Your sales strategy keeps your sales process productive — it offers the actionable steps your reps can take to deliver on your vision and realize the goals you set. So naturally, you need to communicate it effectively. A sales plan offers a solid resource for that.

For instance, your sales org might notice that your SDRs are posting lackluster cold call conversion rates. In turn, you might want to have them focus primarily on email outreach, or you could experiment with new sales messaging on calls.

Regardless of how you want to approach the situation, a thoughtfully structured sales plan will give both you and your reps a high-level perspective that would inform more cohesive, effective efforts across the team.

An effective sales org is a machine — one where each part has a specific function that serves a specific purpose that needs to be executed in a specific fashion. That's why everyone who comprises that org needs to have a clear understanding of how they specifically play into the company's broader sales strategy.

Outlining roles and responsibilities while sales planning lends itself to more efficient task delegation, improved collaboration, overlap reduction, and increased accountability. All of which amount to more streamlined, smooth, successful sales efforts.

Sales planning can set the framework for gauging how well your team is delivering on your sales strategy. It can inform the benchmarks and milestones reps can use to see how their performance stacks up against your goals and expectations.

It also gives sales leadership a holistic view of how well a sales org is functioning as a whole — giving them the necessary perspective to understand whether they have the right people and tools in place to be as successful as possible.

Sales planning isn‘t (and shouldn’t) be limited to the actual sales plan document it produces. If that document is going to have any substance or practical value, it needs to be the byproduct of a thorough, well-informed, high-level strategy.

When sales planning, you have some key steps you need to cover — including:

• Gather sales data and search for trends.
• Define your objectives.
• Determine metrics for success.
• Assess the current situation.
• Start sales forecasting.
• Identify gaps.
• Ideate new initiatives.
• Involve stakeholders.
• Outline action items.

When putting this list together, I consulted  Zach Drollinger — Senior Director of Sales at edtech provider Coursedog — to ensure the examples detailed below are sound and accurate.

Step 1: Gather sales data and search for trends.

To plan for the present and future, your company needs to look to the past. What did sales look like during the previous year? What about the last five years? Using this information can help you identify trends in your industry. While it's not foolproof, it helps establish a foundation for your sales planning process.

For the sake of example, let‘s say that I’m a new sales director for an edtech company that sells curriculum planning software to higher education institutions. My vertical is community colleges, and my territory is the East Coast.

Once I assume this new role, I‘m going to want to gather as much context as possible about my vertical and how my company has approached it historically. I would pull information about how we’ve sold to this vertical.

How much new business have we closed within it in the past five years? How does that compare to how we perform with other kinds of institutions? Are we seeing significant churn from these customers?

I would also want to get context about the general needs, interests, and pain points of the kinds of institutions I‘m selling to. I’d look for insight into figures like degree velocity, staff retention, and enrollment.

Ultimately, I would get a comprehensive perspective on my sales process — a thorough understanding of where I stand and what my prospects are dealing with. That will ensure that I can deliver on the next step as effectively as possible.

Step 2: Define your objectives.

How do you know your business is doing well if you have no goals? As you can tell from its placement on this list, defining your goals and objectives is one of the first steps you should take in your sales planning process. Once you have them defined, you can move forward with executing them.

To extend the example from the previous step, I would leverage the context I gathered through the research I conducted about both my and my prospect's circumstances. I would start setting both broader goals and more granular operational objectives .

For instance, I might want to set a goal of increasing sales revenue from my vertical. From there, I would start putting together the kind of specific objectives that will facilitate that process — like connecting with administrators from at least 30 community colleges, booking demos with at least 10 schools, and successfully closing at least five institutions.

Obviously, those steps represent a streamlined (and unrealistically straightforward) sales process, but you get the idea — I would set a concrete goal, supplemented by SMART objectives , that will serve as a solid reference point for my org's efforts as the sales process progresses.

Step 3: Determine metrics for success.

Every business is different. One thing we can all agree on is that you need metrics for success. These metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs). What are you going to use to determine if your business is successful? KPIs differ based on your medium, but standard metrics are gross profit margins, return on investment (ROI), daily web traffic users, conversion rate, and more.

I kind of covered this step in the previous example, but it still warrants a bit more elaboration. The “M” in SMART goals (“measurable”) is there for a reason. You can‘t tell if your efforts were successful if you don’t know what “successful” actually means.

The edtech sales example I‘ve been running with revolves mostly around me assuming ownership of an existing vertical and getting more out of it. So it’s fair to assume that sales growth rate — the increase or decrease of sales revenue in a given period, typically expressed as a percentage — would be an effective way to gauge success.

I might want to structure my goals and objectives around a sales growth rate of 20% Y/Y within my vertical. I would make sure my org was familiar with that figure and offer some context about what it would take to reach it — namely, how many institutions we would need to close and retain.

Step 4: Assess the current situation.

How is your business fairing right now? This information is relevant to determining how your current situation holds up to the goals and objectives you set during step two. What are your roadblocks? What are your strengths? Create a list of the obstacles hindering your success. Identify the assets you can use as an advantage. These factors will guide you as you build your sales plan.

Continuing the edtech example, I would use the historical context I gathered and the objectives I set to frame how I look at my current circumstances. I might start by considering my goal of increasing revenue by 20% Y/Y. In that case, I would look at the company's retention figures — ideally, that would give me a sense of whether that needs to be a major area of focus.

I would also try to pin down trends in the colleges that we've already closed — are there any pain points we consistently sell on? I might take a closer look at how we demo to see if we might be glossing over key elements of our value proposition. Maybe, I would use conversation intelligence to get a better sense of how reps are handling their calls.

Ultimately, I would try to identify why we're performing the way we are, the inefficiencies that might be resulting from our current strategy, and how we can best set ourselves up to sell as effectively as possible.

Step 5: Start sales forecasting.

Sales forecasting is an in-depth report that predicts what a salesperson, team, or company will sell weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. While it is finicky, it can help your company make better decisions when hiring, budgeting, prospecting, and setting goals.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, economics has become less predictable. Claire Fenton , the owner of StrActGro — a professional training and coaching company — states, “Many economic forecasters won't predict beyond three months at a time.” This makes sales forecasting difficult. However, there are tools at your disposal to create accurate sales forecasts .

In our edtech example, I would approach this step by trying to estimate how my sales org is going to fare with the specific vertical we‘re pursuing in the time window we’ve allotted.

The method I decide to go with will depend on factors like how many concrete opportunities we have lined up — in addition to elements like the kind of historical data we have handy, how the reps working these deals tend to perform, and the degree of insight we have about our potential customers.

Let's say I consider those factors and decide to run something called a multivariable analysis. In that case, I could start by taking stock of the opportunities my reps have lined up. Then, I could look at the reps working those deals, their typical win rates, and the time they have to close — among other factors.

For instance, I might calculate that a rep working with a particularly large institution has a 50% chance of closing within the window we‘ve allotted. Using that insight, we could attribute 50% of the potential deal size to our forecast — we’d repeat that process with all of the opportunities in question and ideally get a solid sense of the revenue we can expect to generate in this window.

Step 6: Identify gaps.

When identifying gaps in your business, consider what your company needs now and what you might need in the future. First, identify the skills you feel your employees need to reach your goal. Second, evaluate the skills of your current employees. Once you have this information, you can train employees or hire new ones to fill the gaps.

Continuing the edtech example, let‘s say my forecast turned up results that weren’t in keeping with what we need to reach our goals. If that were the case, I would take a holistic look at our process, operations, and resources to pin down inefficiencies or areas for improvement.

In my search, I find that our sales content and marketing collateral are dated — with case studies that don‘t cover our product’s newest and most relevant features. I also might see that our reps don‘t seem to have too much trouble booking demos, but the demos themselves aren’t converting due to a lack of training and inconsistent messaging.

And finally, I find that a lack of alignment with marketing has prospects focusing on unrealistic outcomes our sales team can‘t deliver on. Once I’ve identified those gaps, I would start to hone in on ways to remedy those issues and improve those elements.

Step 7: Ideate new initiatives.

Many industry trends are cyclical. They phase in and out of “style.” As you build your sales plan, ideate new initiatives based on opportunities you may have passed on in previous years.

If your business exclusively focused on word-of-mouth and social media marketing in the past, consider adding webinars or special promotions to your plan.

In the edtech example we've been running with, I would likely ideate initiatives based on the gaps I identified in the previous step. I would start a push to ensure that our sales content and marketing collateral are up-to-date and impressive.

I would also consider new training programs to ensure that our coaching infrastructure is prioritizing how to conduct effective demos. Finally, I would start to work on a plan with marketing to ensure our messaging is aligned with theirs — so we can make sure prospects' expectations are realistic and effective.

One way or another, I would take the gaps I found and find concrete, actionable ways to fill them. I would make sure that these initiatives aren't abstract. Just saying, " We're going to be better at demos," isn‘t a plan — it’s a sentiment, and sentiments don't translate to hard sales.

Step 8: Involve stakeholders.

Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations with a vested interest in your company. They are typically investors, employees, or customers and often have deciding power in your business. Towards the end of your sales planning process, involve stakeholders from departments that affect your outcomes, such as marketing and product. It leads to an efficient and actionable sales planning process.

This step is sort of an extension of the previous two — once I‘ve identified the key issues and roadblocks obstructing my edtech startup’s sales org, I would start identifying the right people to fulfill the necessary initiatives I've put together.

In this example, I would tap some stakeholders in charge of our sales content and marketing collateral to produce newer, more relevant case studies and whitepapers we can pass along to the institutions we're working with.

I would also go to middle management and either offer more direction for coaching on demos or bring in a third-party training service to offer more focused, professional insight on the issue.

Finally, I would connect with marketing leadership to align on the benefits and outcomes we generally stress when pitching the schools we sell to. That way, we can ensure that the institutions we're connecting with have realistic expectations of our product or service that we can speak to more clearly and effectively.

Step 9: Outline action items.

Once you have implemented this strategy to create your sales planning process, the final step is outlining your action items. Using your company's capacity and quota numbers, build a list of steps that take you through the sales process. Examples of action items are writing a sales call script, identifying industry competitors, or strategizing new incentives or perks.

In our edtech example, some key action items might be:

• Revamp our prospecting strategy via more involved coaching and re-tooled sales messaging.
• Revamp administrator and college dean buyer personas.
• Conduct new trainings on demoing our software.
• See our new prospecting strategy from ideation to execution.
• Align with our sales enablement stakeholders for new, more relevant case studies and whitepapers.

Obviously, that list isn‘t exhaustive — but those are still the kinds of steps we would need to clarify and take to structure a more effective high-level strategy to produce different (ideally much better) results than we’ve been seeing.

One thing to keep in mind is that sales planning shouldn't end with creating the document.

You‘ll want to reiterate this process every year to maintain your organization's sales excellence.

Now that you‘re committed to the sales planning process, let's dive into the written execution component of sales planning.

Featured Resource: Sales Plan Template

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Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

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The Complete Guide to Building a Sales Forecast

Set your company up for predictable revenue growth with the right forecasting processes and tools.

Paul Bookstaber

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Building a sales forecast is both an art and a science. Accurate sales forecasts keep your leaders happy and your business healthy. In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about sales forecasting — so you can get a clear picture of your company’s projected sales and keep everyone’s expectations on track.

We’ve organised this reference guide by the top questions sales teams have about the sales forecasting process, based on our internal conversations and more than 20 years of experience developing  sales solutions .

Hit your forecast with real-time pipeline insights

What could you do with relevant insights at your fingertips? Sell smarter, take action, and hit your forecasts. That’s how Sales Analytics works.

What you’ll learn:

What is a sales forecast, why is sales forecasting important, who is responsible for sales forecasts, who uses sales forecasts, what are the objectives of sales forecasting, how do i design a sales forecasting plan.

• What happens to sales forecasting in unpredictable times?

How accurate are sales forecasts?

What tools do you use to forecast sales revenue and how do crm systems forecast revenue, how is forecasting better with crm vs. other methods.

If you’re a sales leader who’s already well-versed in the who and what of sales forecasts, skip to the sections on  designing a sales forecasting plan  and  tools to improve sales forecasts  for more relevant knowledge. Sales forecasting can become especially tough when we face an unexpected turn of events, so head to the section on  what happens to sales forecasts in unpredictable times  for more on that.

A sales forecast is an expression of expected sales revenue. A sales forecast estimates how much your company plans to sell within a certain time period (like a quarter or year). The best sales forecasts do this with a high degree of accuracy, and they’re only as accurate as the data that fuels them.

A strong data culture is at the heart of an accurate sales forecast. This means all sales data is available to everyone at the company, and all teams do their part in keeping it updated, leaning on AI and automation to help. More on that in the section on  tools used to forecast sales revenue .

All sales forecasts answer two key questions:

• How much:  Each sales opportunity has its own projected amount it’ll bring into the business. Whether that’s €500 or €5 million, sales teams have to come up with one number representing that new business. To create the number, they take everything they know about the prospect into account.
• When:  Sales forecasts pinpoint a month, quarter, or year when the sales team expects the revenue to hit.

Coming up with those two sales projections is no easy feat. So sales teams factor in the important ingredients of who, what, where, why, and how to make their forecasts:

• Who:  Sales teams are responsible for sales forecasting.
• What:  Forecasts should be based on the exact solutions you plan to sell. In turn, that should be based on problems your prospects have voiced, which  your company can uniquely solve .
• Where:  Where is the buying decision made, and where will the actual products be used? Sales teams see better accuracy when they get closer (at least for a visit) to the centre of the action.
• Why:  Why is the prospect or existing customer considering new services from your company in the first place? Is there a compelling event making them consider it now? Without a forcing function and a clear why, the deal may stall inevitably.
• How:  How does this prospect tend to make purchasing decisions? If you’re not accounting for how they do it now and how they’ve done it in the past in your forecast, it may be fuzzy math.

Forecasting lets leaders set realistic sales targets, create attainable and motivating quotas for sales reps, and gauge expected revenue, aiding in budgeting and spending decisions for the whole company. If forecasts are inaccurate, businesses may overspend (putting themselves in a risky spot), and set unreachable quotas (which is demoralising for reps).

To understand why sales forecasting is so important to business health, think about two example scenarios: one with a car manufacturer and another with an e-commerce shop.

In the case of a car manufacturer, cars take a long time to build. The manufacturer has a complex supply chain to ensure every car part is available exactly when they need to build cars, so the number of cars available to purchase will meet demand.

When you buy something online, whether that’s from a large marketplace or a small boutique, you get a delivery estimate. If your delivery comes a day or a week after it’s promised, that’ll affect your satisfaction with the company — and decrease your willingness to want to do business with them again.

Sales forecasting is similar in both cases. Sales forecasts help the entire business plan resources to ship products, pay for marketing, hire employees, and beyond. Accurate sales forecasting yields a well-oiled machine that meets customer demand, both today and in the future. And internally on sales teams, sales revenue that delivers in its estimated time period keeps leaders and collaborators happy, just like a shipment that arrives on time.

If forecasts are off, the company faces challenges that affect everything from pricing to product delivery to the end user. Meanwhile, if forecasts are on point and  sales quotas  are met, the company can make better investments, perhaps hiring 20 new developers instead of 10, or building a much-needed new sales office in a prime new territory.

Each organisation has its own sales forecast owners. These are some of the teams who are usually responsible:

• Product leaders:  They put a stake in the ground for what products will be available to sell when.
• Sales leaders:  They promise the numbers that their teams will deliver. Depending on the seniority of the leader, how they forecast varies. For example, first-line managers forecast collections of opportunities, where third-line managers consider a wide set of numbers and traditional close rates to come up with an overall forecast.
• Sales reps:  They report their own numbers to their managers.

No matter how a company calculates its sales forecasts, the process should be transparent. And at the end of the day, sales leadership has to be responsible to call a number. Whether met, exceeded, or missed, the forecast responsibility falls on them.

Sales forecasts touch virtually all departments in a business. For example, the finance department uses sales forecasts to decide how to make annual and quarterly investments. Product leaders use them to plan demand for new products. And the HR department uses forecasts to align recruiting needs to where the business is going.

At some level, sales forecasting affects everyone in the company.

The main objective of sales forecasting is to paint an accurate picture of expected sales. Leaders are looking to these numbers when they’re building out their operational roadmap and budget. If they’re confident in the projected growth, they can get to planning.

They could decide to staff more customer service touchpoints, fund more external marketing events, or invest more in the community. They could get ahead of purchasing new equipment or upgrades that get more expensive the longer they wait. Without a sales forecast, leaders are making critical spending decisions in the dark. If sales don’t go as planned, it could lead to cutting workforce, reducing support, or halting product development.

Sales forecasting is a muscle, not an item to check off your to-do list. While you should absolutely design a framework for your sales forecasting plan each year, you should also change up your strategies from time to time so new muscles develop.

Craft a sales forecasting plan with your team by focusing on three primary activities:

• Calculating number and time period:  Your plan should explain how you’ll calculate the estimated monetary amount and what the timeframes will be. See the section on  how a CRM can help with forecasting  later in this guide for more on the sales forecasting tools you can use to do this.
• Reviewing and revising:  You should also plan to review the forecast at key milestones and revise it if necessary. Most sales leaders track progress against their forecast daily! But you’ll also want to schedule designated check-ins throughout the quarter. Make sure you’re reviewing the latest numbers with  sales automation tools  that sync your CRM’s forecast data.
• Breaking the patterns:  Even the best sales organisations need to shake up their  sales process  once in a while. Breaking your patterns can help you find new ways of crafting even more accurate forecasts. Try skip-level forecasting, ask different questions, have executive sponsorship reviews, and take different angles on the data.

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What happens to sales forecasts in unpredictable times?

Unpredictable events have an enormous impact on your sales forecast. Extreme weather or economic crises all dramatically change your forecast. What you thought you knew about expected revenue growth can be suddenly flipped on its head.

As soon as an extraordinary event hits, sales and finance leaders at your company will quickly want to know:

• How’s our  sales pipeline  looking today?
• What are the best- and worst-case scenarios?
• How has the forecast changed from a week or a month ago?

Your forecast implicates resourcing, headcount, and more (see the section on  sales forecasting objectives ). So although things may be changing quickly, you don’t want to give up on your forecast.

Rather than attempt to recalculate your forecast based on dubious estimates or conjecture, your best bet is to  rely on a CRM solution  to get an accurate view of deal status and pipeline in real time.

During a crisis, reps need to feed their CRM with data as events unfold so leaders have clear visibility into the rapidly evolving pipe. That data enables those leaders to support their reps with corporate-level decisions about where they should be focusing their time — and craft the new forecasts. Your forecast is only as good as the data coming into it from your sales teams.

In uncertain times, quick access to sales data and the ability to pivot  sales territory  and resource deployment accordingly can make the difference between business continuity and dissolution. There’s no silver bullet to forecast perfectly in a crisis or unforeseen scenario. But vigilantly updating what’s in the pipeline and analysing sales data more frequently than usual will help you see trends and retool your forecast accordingly.

Empathy and care are always fundamental, but this is especially true in these situations. Empathising with your customers’ challenges and caring for your own sales reps should come before anything else. Build trust with internal and external partners. That trust will help you grow again in the future. Learn more about  maintaining customer relationships as a sales leader .

Only 45% of sales leaders are confident in their organisation’s sales forecasts,  according to Gartner . While it’s natural for sales reps to bring in some intuition to their sales forecasts, that’s where room for error can creep in.

This brings us back to embracing a  strong data culture . To get a more accurate forecast, everyone in the sales cycle — from reps to managers to execs — should have a stake in making sure those numbers reflect the latest reality. Reps can keep all prospect info up to date, managers can track pipeline progress, and leaders can review how all teams are tracking toward those forecast numbers, with AI playing backup to spot any inaccuracies or chances to adjust along the way.

A  CRM  gives sales leaders a real-time view into their entire team’s forecast. The tool forecasts revenue by giving you:

• An accurate view of your entire business.  Comprehensive forecasts in a CRM come with a complete view of your pipeline.
• Tracking of your top performers.  See which reps are on track to beat their targets with up-to-the-minute leaderboards.
• Forecasting for complex sales teams.  Overlay splits allow you to credit the right amounts to sales overlays, by revenue, contract value, and more.

A forecast is based on the gross roll-up of a set of opportunities. You can think of a forecast as a rollup of currency or quantity against a set of dimensions: owner, time, forecast categories, product family, and territory. You can collaborate on forecasts with all the necessary people to see how opportunities are stacking up. Drill down into opportunities by sales leader, operating unit, manager, and individuals.

We also love a CRM with  reports and dashboards . These highlight where the business challenges are, in plain and simple terms. It could be that four of five selling teams are at the right growth rate, and we just need to focus on another one. It could be that a certain product is challenged. The data opens up new doors to grow sales and see what could be working more effectively.

Another thing that’s great about a CRM is the guidance from AI. An  AI for sales  tool offers a neutral perspective on what’s actually happening in sales. For example, AI might note that an opportunity has been pushed out three quarters in a row — a finding that would’ve taken an individual reviewing the data longer to discover. Think of AI as your personal data scientist , taking your forecasting and entire sales operations to a new level.

Predictive AI tools take a look at historical sales data to give you a glimpse of what you might expect in the future. The AI will analyse factors like win rate or number of customer meetings. It takes some of the guesswork out of sales forecasting and helps you get to more accurate numbers. Try to analyse sales data for at least 12 months. Otherwise, there may not be enough data to get accurate sales predictions.

Sales forecasting is significantly more accurate when using a CRM instead of a spreadsheet. When a company is just starting out, sales teams usually rely on spreadsheets or back-of-the-napkin ways to calculate their sales forecasts. This may work for a while, but eventually, you’ll find this doesn’t scale.

The reality is, selling is more complex than ever. It involves everything from how demand generation campaigns are performing to how your phone calls to prospects are landing. The more you want to sell, the more you’ll want to  rely on a CRM .

See how Salesforce manages forecasts with confidence

The secret to an accurate forecast? Reliable, well-maintained pipelines. See how we manage both efficiently (with the help of the right technology), and use our best practices in your business.

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Paul Bookstaber is a writer at Salesforce. He has a decade of experience in content marketing in B2B tech. Before that, he published a magazine and ran a tabloid blog. Today, he splits his time between Florida and the Mountain West, and loves to hike, ski, and watch Bravo. He is in a polyamorous ... Read More relationship with Luke and Roger, who are cats.

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Blog Business How to Create a Sales Plan: Strategy, Examples and Templates

How to Create a Sales Plan: Strategy, Examples and Templates

Written by: Aditya Rana Mar 25, 2024

The difference between a company struggling to drive sales and one that’s hitting home runs often boils down to a well-crafted sales plan.

Without knowing how to write a sales plan , your sales reps will lack vision, not understand the market, and be ineffective at engaging potential customers.

Most businesses fail in sales planning because they don’t focus on their unique value. If you’re struggling with sales, here’s what you need to do: define your goal(s), create customer personas, and create an action plan for success.

One of the best ways to organize this information in one place is to use sales planning templates . In this post, I’ll show you how to write a sales plan (…with plenty of template examples included of course!).

Click to jump ahead:

What is a sales plan?

Benefits of a sales plan, how to create a sales plan, sales plan example, sales plan templates.

A sales plan is a strategic document that outlines how a business plans to convert leads into sales. It typically details the target market, customer profile, and actionable steps that must be taken to achieve revenue targets.

Here’s a great example of a sales plan that includes all these elements neatly packed into one document.

Every company needs a sales plan, but have you ever wondered why?

Why should businesses invest time and resources in creating sales plan when they could…well…be focusing on sales?

Sales plans are worth it because they tell sales employees what to do.

Without a sales plan, your sales efforts will end up becoming a disorganized mess. Let’s explore the benefits of sales plans in detail.

Help you identify and target the right market

A sales plan helps you figure out the target market that’s most likely to be responsive to your messaging.

I mean do you really want to waste your time trying to sell to someone who has no need for your product or isn’t interested in your offering?

But if you know who your customer is, you can target their pain points.

Help you set goals

All great sales plans require you to set goals that are actually attainable and budgeted for.

Without goals, your sales team essentially operates in the dark unsure of what success looks like and how to achieve it.

One of the best ways to set goals is by conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to understand the market landscape.

Help you forecast sales

Since sales plans require you to study historical sales data , you have the ability to understand trends, seasonality, and customer buying patterns.

This information can be used to accurately forecast future sales performance.

And when you chart it out visually like in this example, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your sales strategy.

Help you identify risks

Because sales plans require you to study the market, you’ll be able to uncover risks such as market saturation, competitors, and shifting customer needs.

With this knowledge, you have the ability to be flexible in your approach.

Besides market risks, sales plans also help you pinpoint risks within your company such as a lack of qualified leads or unclear communication between departments.

Improve customer service

It may sound counterintuitive but creating a sales plan also actually improves your customer service.

Researching and trying to understand customer needs means new insights that you can share with the customer service team which allows them to tailor their approach.

You’ll also be able to train sales service reps to anticipate questions and concerns so that they can communicate effectively.

Increases sales efficiency

Sales plans help standardize sales tactics and ensure sales reps follow the same best practices to reduce inconsistencies and improve effectiveness.

One of the best ways to standardize practices is to use a flowchart like in this example to make sure everyone knows what to do when facing a decision.

Increases your profits

Sales plans generally guarantee a boost in profits because it allows sales team to laser-focus on high-value opportunities instead of being headless chickens.

Reducing wasted effort and a higher frequency of closed deals is a win in my book any day.

One of the best ways to measure changes in profits is to use a simple template to review performance like in this example.

Help you understand customer needs

Contrary to what you might think, sales plans aren’t just about selling but also about understanding customers at a deeper level.

The process of creating a plan forces you to analyze customer data, buying habits, and pain points, all of which will help you understand what makes your customers tick and build trust and loyalty.

Here’s a great example of a customer persona you can edit to include in your sales plan.

A sales plan is a document that helps you maximize profitability by identifying valuable segments and outlining strategies to influence customer behavior.

Common elements most sales plans include:

• Sales goals : Information on revenue, market share, and more.
• Sales strategy: Information on how to reach potential customers and convert them.
• Target audience: Information on ideal customers and their needs.
• Metrics : Methods to track progress.
• Resources :  Tools, budget, and personnel needed to achieve sales goals.

Let’s take an in-depth look at how to create a sales plan.

( Note : You don’t need to include each of these points in your sales plan but I recommend you cover most of them to build a plan that’s well-rounded).

Define your business mission and positioning

Before you jump into tactics, build a strong foundation by defining your company’s mission and positioning.

Here’s why this step is a must-do:

• Your mission statement defines your company’s purpose and values and gives your sales team and customers something to relate to.
• Your positioning statement defines how your product or service meets a specific need and sets you apart from the competition.

Trying to sell without any alignment to company values will lead to inconsistent messaging and damage your brand reputation.

Here’s a great example of a sales plan template you can customize with your own brand’s mission and positioning statements.

Define your target market

Unless you think you can sell to every person possible, you’ll need to define your ideal target market.

Study your customer base and ask questions like: do most of the customers belong to a specific industry? Or do they all face the same pain point?

Also, keep in mind that target market can change over time due to changes in your product, pricing, or factors out of your control, so it’s important to review and update your target market frequently.

Understand your target customers

This step often gets mixed with the previous one, so pay close attention.

Your target customers are those who your business wants to target because they’re most likely to make a purchase.

You can figure out who your target customers are by creating customer profiles by breaking down your target market into smaller groups based on geography, behavior, demography, and more.

Here’s a great sales plan template where you can edit in your own customer persona.

When making your buyer personas, make sure you answer the following questions.

• Motivations and challenges:  What are customer pain points? What drives purchasing decisions?
• Behaviors and preferences:  How do customers research products? What communication channels do they prefer?
• Goals and aspirations:  What are your prospective customers trying to achieve? How can your product or service help them get there?

Define sales objectives and goals

Setting clear, measurable goals gives you a method to measure performance of your sales strategies.

More importantly though, they give your sales team targets to aim for which then allows them to work in a structured and focused manner.

Your sale goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This is to make sure they’re realistically achievable within a set timeframe.

Here’s a comparison of good sales goal setting vs a bad one.

• ✅Drive $100,000 in sales of product X by Y date using Z tactics
• ❌ Increase overall sales in each product line

You can organize this information using a template like in this example, especially if you have multiple product lines.

Define your value proposition

Your value proposition is a concise statement that explains why a customer should choose your product or service over the competition.

Here’s an example of a value statement:

“For busy small business owners, we provide a user-friendly accounting software that saves you time and money, allowing you to focus on growing your business.”

Here are some tips on defining your value proposition:

• Identify customer needs:  What are the core challenges and pain points your ideal customer faces? Understanding their needs allows you to position your offering as the solution.
• Highlight your unique benefits:  What sets your product or service apart? Focus on benefits you deliver that address the customer’s needs.
• Quantify the value:  When possible, quantify the value you offer. Can you demonstrate a cost savings, increased efficiency, or improved outcomes?

Map out the customer journey

Unless you’re extremely lucky, no one is going to purchase from you during the first interaction.

That’s why it’s crucial for you to know the steps a customer takes from initial awareness to purchase. Mapping out their journey allows you to personalize messaging and influence behavior.

Here are some tips on how to create a customer journey map :

• Identify the stages:  Break down the journey into distinct stages, such as awareness, consideration, decision, and post-purchase.
• Define touchpoints: Pinpoint the different touchpoints where your customer interacts with your brand (example: website, social media, customer reviews).
• Understand customer needs at each stage: What information are they looking for at each stage? What are their concerns and motivations?
• Identify opportunities to engage:  Identify opportunities to engage with your potential customers and move them along the buying journey.

Want some help creating customer journeys?

This customer journey map template is an excellent way to bring customer journeys to life.

Gather existing sales data

This step involves collecting and analyzing all available data on past sales performance.

This data is critical in helping you spot trends, patterns, and areas for improvement in your sales operations.

Perform sales forecasting

Sales forecasting is the practice of estimating future sales which can be presented as a report highlighting expected sales volume weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

Though not always 100% accurate, sales forecasting is key to writing sales plans because it’ll provide you with a clear picture of the ground reality which leads to better decisions on budgeting.

Here’s a template you can use to perform sales forecasting to makes the sales planning process effective.

Define your sales KPIs

KPIs are a fancy way of saying that you need to set metrics to track effectiveness of your sales strategy and team’s performance.

Some example KPIs you can include in sales plans are:

• Number of sales
• Sales revenue
• Average deal size

This sales report template is a great example of how you can include KPIs in your meetings to test performance and adjust strategy.

Identify gaps in the sales process

This step is all about analyzing your current sales process to figure out gaps and/or potential obstacles preventing you from achieving goals.

When you identify a gap, brainstorm potential solutions so that you can create a specific action plan.

Understand the sales stages

When writing a sales plan, make sure you cover each stage of the sales cycle. If you’re unsure of what the sales stages are, here’s a quick recap.

Prospecting

This is the foundation of the sales process where you identify potential customers who might be a good fit for your product or service.

Preparation

Once you have a list of prospects, you need to research their needs, challenges, and buying habits.

This is all about how you contact and communicate with prospects.

Presentation

This section is your opportunity to showcase the value proposition of your product or service. Tailor your presentation to address the prospect’s specific needs and demonstrate how your offering can solve their problems.

Handling objections

Identify common objections your sales team might encounter related to price, features, competition, or need. Develop clear and concise responses to address these concerns proactively.

Equip your sales team with effective closing techniques to secure commitments from prospects who are interested but might hesitate.

Plan your follow-up strategy based on the prospect’s decision timeline and the stage of the sales cycle. For longer timelines, periodic updates and information sharing through digital sales rooms can maintain engagement and provide valuable resources conveniently.

Organize the sales team

Organizing the sales team entails defining roles and responsibilities clearly to cover all aspects of the sales process effectively.

This might involve segmenting the team based on product lines, customer segments, or territories.

Here’s an example of how it might look:

Sarah — Sales Director — will lead the sales team, set overall strategy, goals and direction. Michael and Jessica — Business Development Executives — will focus on prospecting new leads. They will research potential customers, identify those who might be a good fit for the product, and qualify leads by gathering information and assessing their needs. William — Sales Development Manager — will manage the business development executives and ensuring they follow best practices. Chris and Lisa — Account Executives — will handle qualified leads. They build relationships with potential customers, present product demos, address objections, and close deals.

Using an org chart like in this example is a great way to visualize this information.

Outline the use of sales tools

Sales tools play a crucial role in streamlining the sales process and enhancing productivity.

Make sure you outline the tools your team will use, how they fit into different stages of the sales process, and any training required to maximize their utility.

This ensures that your team has the resources needed to engage effectively with prospects and customers.

Set the budget

Setting the budget involves allocating resources efficiently across various sales activities to achieve your objectives without overspending.

This includes expenses related to personnel, marketing initiatives, customer entertainment, and tools like CRM software, automation, cybersecurity solutions, and even a corporate travel platform .

A well-planned budget balances investment in growth opportunities with the overall financial health of the business.

Create a sales strategy and action plan

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork of what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it, it’s time to bring it all together into a single view.

Create an action plan which not includes your strategy but also concrete steps.

Your action plan should outlines specific activities for each stage of the sales funnel from prospecting (lead generation channels) to closing (structured process and follow-up strategy with timelines) and everything in between.

Performance and results measurement

Last but not least, your sales plan should present a clear and quantifiable means to track the effectiveness of sales activities.

How are you going to measure outcomes against predefined targets?

Performance measurement is key because it builds accountability and allows you to always have a pulse on customer behavior, preferences, and trends that’ll help you make decisions based on data.

If you’ve made it this far, give yourself a pat! I’ve covered A LOT on elements that you can include in a sales plan.

However, in most cases, you don’t always need to go that in-depth and instead should aim for brevity so that anyone in your team can stay up-to-date without having to worry about the nitty gritty details.

Here’s a sales plan example that’s brief but highly effective. It includes a summary of all you need in one document, a target market analysis, a customer profile, and an action plan.

Want even more sales plan templates for design inspiration or to customize and make your own?

This 30-60-90 day sales plan provides a great way to organize goals, priorities, performance goals, and metrics of success over three three timeframes: first 30 days, first 60 days, and first 90 days.

This sales plan is structured around key components that drive the sales process: objectives, strategies, tactics, and key metrics. It emphasizes a multi-channel approach to sales,, with a strong focus on measuring performance through metrics.

This sales roadmap is a great way to visualize activities such as defining strategy and generating leads to more advanced steps.

Conclusion: Save time on designing and updating sales plans and focus on growing your business with Venngage templates

Though there’s no secret formula for effective sales plan design, it’s good practice to include the basics or information on the target market, a customer persona, and a strategy on how you plan to sell.

What you definitely shouldn’t do is write a sales plan and then never look at it again.

And trust me, I know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be to edit your sales plan especially if you don’t have design skills. One small change might make the icons or numbers go all out of whack.

That’s why I recommend customizing our sales plan templates instead so that you can focus your energy on strategy.

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