Lessons from the Front: Year-End Forecasted Deals
We have reached the time of the year when sales managers carefully examine the opportunities forecasted to close by the end of the calendar year. Most sales pros are optimistic and often will forecast an opportunity to close by year-end, even if they only had one conversation with the buyer. Most organizations use a sales methodology incorporating milestones or activities to explain an opportunity's stage in the pipeline or funnel. For example, I have used the Miller Heiman sales methodology1 to define where an opportunity is at in the sales funnel, with the activities that occur in each stage, is as follows: ...