Operations with Sean Lane How to Forecast within 5% with Paul Shea and Chris Lowry
Apr 5, 2024
Paul Shea, an expert in operational strategies, teams up with Chris Lowry, a seasoned professional in sales forecasting, to unpack the intricacies of accurate forecasting. They discuss the crawl-walk-run approach to building effective forecasting models and tackle the often tricky conversations between Sales and Operations. The duo also reflects on the vital balance of qualitative insights and quantitative data in dynamic markets, emphasizing the importance of clean data management and collaboration to achieve forecasts within 5% accuracy.
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Understanding the Business
- Understand the business's ideal customer profile and sales cycles.
- Spend time with sales leaders and reps, analyze Salesforce data, and balance data with human insights.
Data Accuracy
- Ensure data accuracy by involving sales ops, managers, and enablement.
- Make sure everyone in the company takes ownership of data cleanliness.
Early Forecasting at Drift
- Drift's early forecasting involved weekly sales leader meetings and spreadsheets.
- They transitioned to an analytical model, supplementing leadership calls with data-driven insights.