Sales forecasting software is a type of software that helps businesses predict future trends. This software is typically used by businesses to make strategic decisions about where to allocate resources. Sales forecasting software uses data analytics to identify patterns and trends in data sets. This information is then used to make predictions about future events.
The forecasting software is used in a variety of industries, including finance, marketing, and manufacturing. Businesses can use forecasting software to make decisions about inventory, pricing, marketing, and other areas of their business. It is often used in conjunction with other business intelligence tools, such as data mining and data visualization.
What are the Benefits of Sales Forecasting Software?
Enhances Business Planning
You can plan your sales effectively if you have accurate forecasts. Your business’s success ultimately depends on how well your sales perform. Knowing how your business will turn out in the future will help you plan activities like marketing and promotions that will be successful.
Maintain Inventory Costs
With the help of sales forecasting software, you can purchase a lot more precise quantity of materials rather than waste money on surplus inventory. Accurate inventory levels help you avoid overspending and underspending while also having a favourable impact on other operational aspects, like lowering warehouse expenses.
Simplify Labour Management
It takes a lot of work to deploy the right individuals at the correct time and location. Labour scheduling is significantly influenced by variables like unpredictable demand, seasonality, holidays, etc.
You can hire employees who are qualified for the position and only schedule and pay for labour hours that are absolutely essential by using forecasting software.
Maintain Stock Level
Your production schedules must be changed when your inventory levels are low or unavailable, which eventually reduces your manufacturing capacity and raises your costs. On the other side, locking up excess inventory in your warehouse prohibits you from investing in other lucrative areas of your company.
You may decide on the ideal stock levels to save warehouse space and cut operational expenses with the aid of IoT-based demand forecasts.
Helps in Performance Tracking
You can estimate future projects accurately and support decision-making regarding your resources, budget, and timeline by compiling historical data on the performance of your team. By taking into account factors you might have missed, you might reduce risk.
What Features To Look For In A Sales Forecasting Software?
- Pipeline – You must be able to monitor pipeline activity so that you can see how leads are developing and spot any possible bottlenecks that require attention.
- Third-Party Integration – To produce more precise projections that match the present selling environment, make sure the forecasting software integrates with seasonal trends, and data from third parties.
- Tracking Progress – To track progress toward your sales goals, make sure the forecasting software can input the actual sales data from your accounting systems.
- Reporting and Analytics – Ensure that the forecasting software can generate a number of reports, such as forecast accuracy reports, projected revenue reports, and final forecast reports.
- Revenue Reporting – The ability to forecast revenue by combining historical data with current sales prices in order to match revenue forecasts with demand estimates.
Best Sales Forecasting Software
Here is a brief overview of the top sales forecasting tools –
Salesflare
Salesflare is easy to use but effective. It is simple to use, visually appealing, and automatically maintains your customer data so you can concentrate on your clients and making sales.
Customers’ website visits, email openings, and clicks are all automatically tracked. Additionally, it has the ability to send automated email sequences, allowing for simple mass personalization at scale.
Features
- Sales Forecasting
- Sales Pipeline Management
- Pipeline Management
- Sales Trend Analysis
- Segmentation
- Marketing Automation
Pricing
Growth plan: 35 USD/user/month
Pro plan: 55 USD/user/month
Spotio
SPOTIO’s Sales Tracking Software makes field sales performance more predictable so you can make intelligent choices and hit your goals. For thorough and accurate sales projections, SPOTIO collects and tracks all the sales data needed by your company.
Get thorough, up-to-the-minute insights regarding how well your sales staff is performing. At the rep, team, territory, and organization levels, you can keep an eye on crucial sales activities, evaluate pipeline trends, and manage income data.
Features
- Interaction Tracking
- Leaderboards
- Third-Party Integrations
- Territory Management
- Collaboration Tools
- Customizable Reports
Pricing
- TEAM: $39/ user/month
- BUSINESS: $69/ user/month
- PRO: $129/ user/month
- ENTERPRISE: Contact the vendor for pricing details.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive works as a CRM and sales pipeline management tool. Pipedrive sets up leads so that you always have a clear picture of sales and are forced to concentrate on the key opportunities first. Pipedrive makes space for you to concentrate on what you do best.
Pipedrive keeps your actions on-point, not off-target, and your goals realistic, not idealistic because the pipeline serves as your beginning point.
- Forecasting
- Marketing Automation
- Mobile Access
- Opportunity Management
- Pipeline Management
- Quotes/Estimates
- Referral Tracking
- Sales Trend Analysis
- Essential – $12.50/month
- Advanced – $24.90/month
- Professional – $49.90/month
- Enterprise – $99.00/month
Apollo
Apollo is a comprehensive sales intelligence platform with capabilities to assist you in prospecting, engaging with customers, and generating more money. Apollo helps sellers and marketers find more potential clients, connect with contacts, and develop a cutting-edge go-to-market plan.
- Campaign Management
- Communication Management
- Engagement Tracking
- Real-Time Data
- Real-Time Reporting
- Reporting/Analytics
- Social Media Integration
- Free
- Basic: $49/month
- Professional: $99/month
EngageBay
EngageBay is a tool that makes it easy for users to build email campaigns, automate sales funnels, and assist organizations in acquiring, engaging, nurturing, and closing prospects.
The cloud-based platform can help with lead generation, the creation and automated distribution of email marketing content, and the management of client relationships utilizing integrated CRM.
- Document Storage
- Email Management
- Reporting/Analytics
- Workflow Configuration
- Customizable Fields
- Workflow Management
- Free
- Basic: $10.39/month
- Growth: $19.99/month
- Pro: 39.99/month
Key Feature Comparison
| Features | Salesflare | Spotio | Pipedrive | Apollo | EngageBay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Automation | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Pipeline Reports | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sales Pipeline Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Lead Generation | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Document Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Communication Management | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Performance Metrics | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reporting/Analytics | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Conclusion
To summarize sales forecasting software helps business owners to make better-informed financial decisions and improve company performance by enabling them to forecast their sales. It is vital for the planning, decision making and growth of any business.
Forecasting software finds various sales forecasting techniques and automatically calculates the result along with providing a trending report for the past years. As you can see, there is some rather complex and detailed sales forecasting software out there that is meant just for businesses.
You can also find plenty of online or mobile sales forecasting software on the market, but they aren’t as powerful or advanced as these are meant for businesses. Try each one of the software and see what suits your business the best.
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