Do You Sleep with Your Sales Forecast Under Your Pillow?   By Lonnie L. Sciambi – “The Entrepreneur’s Yoda” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard a thousand times – “the biggest problem with our sales is that we don’t have enough leads in our forecast.” Usually, in my own flip way, I tell them I can help that.  Get me the yellow pages… you get the picture.  It isn’t how many prospects are in the pipeline, it’s how many qualified leads are in the pipeline!   But it just appears that some folks get some level of comfort in seeing $xx millions of potential sales in a forecast.  Kind of sleep with it under their pillow to make them feel better, when if they truly understood what a good sales forecast was, they’d be having nightmares! Sales forecasts are one of the most important elements in a company’s success…and one of the most misunderstood.  First of all, it is above all else a forecast.  In short, what is projected vs. what will actually happen?  Second, its cre ...

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On Sept. 6. reports indicate that President Obama will soon propose huge corporate subsidies to put Republicans in a bind. It's a slick political move, but the American economy needs substantive action, not more politics. For example, how will such politics prevent the fact that the last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, disappointing exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s. We do not need politicians to make empty promises for their parties political advancement in an election year. With unemployment near 10%, or if you believe John Williams of Shadowstats.com, which includes all discouraged workers, that unemployment is 22 percent. (as I do), we want substantive action by our elected officials. Namely an honest and clear focus on incentives for small business so that they can compete on a global scale resulting in growth, and employment. It’s small bus ...

Use your Sales Plan as a valuable written document that should keep alignment between Corporate [CEO & Executive Team] and the Sales Team. There is nothing more disappointing or difficult for a CEO to do then to constantly work around unrealized expectations from the Sales Organization. By definition, this is a living document, and as such, it changes as conditions dictate. Therefore, there will be multiple versions throughout the year. It is also a two-way street. It can't just be dictated from the top down without understanding and negotiation, and it can't arbitrarily be accepted from the bottom up. This commitment from sales will be a cornerstone for the company's success for the year. Certainly revenue generation and timing are always key issues. However, beyond that are numerous other factors that will directly impact the success of the Sales Plan. Here is a list of issues that I have found is often missed in the development of the plan and they can cause disconnects as the year progresses: ...