A Data-Driven Approach to Accurate Sales Forecasting 

Predicting and forecasting sales is essential for business success. But we all know that forecasting is, by its nature, an uncertain practice – part art and part science.

In the past, sales forecasting relied more on a sales leader’s art, based on experience, intuition, conversations with sales reps, and assumptions. As the need for more precise sales forecasts has grown, so has the science
side of sales forecasting. Now, sales and revenue leaders have access to key data sources and AI to help them call their sales numbers with precision.

Data is the foundation of an accurate sales forecast. However, the data has to be clean and the pipeline has to be healthy for the number to be accurate. That said, forecasting is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, and you can and should fine-tune your processes with data that’s unique to your business.