Business – 8.1 Marketing analysis – Sales forecasting | e-Consult
8.1 Marketing analysis – Sales forecasting (1 questions)
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Sales‑force opinion is gathered by consulting the company’s own sales representatives about their expectations of future sales, often through meetings, questionnaires, or informal discussions. Their frontline experience provides insight into customer intentions, upcoming orders, and competitive activity.
To incorporate it, a business might:
- Collect individual forecasts from each salesperson.
- Aggregate the data, weighting forecasts by territory size or salesperson reliability.
- Adjust the aggregated figure for known biases (see below) before finalising the forecast.
Two common biases:
- Optimism bias: Salespeople may over‑estimate sales to appear successful or to secure larger bonuses.
- Territory bias: Representatives tend to favour their own region’s performance, potentially ignoring broader market trends.