It’s the data stupid.
When a little known governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, put together a campaign to unseat the incumbent President George H. Bush, the Clinton campaign strategists tried to come up with a simple, clear message that would resonate with the American public. As a team, they came up with three core messages….but history only remembers one……”It’s the economy, stupid.” And, it worked – Bill Clinton went on to win the 1992 election and unseated the incumbent Bush.
(Actually, the original point was “The economy, stupid” but history rewrote it into all of our memories as “It’s the economy, stupid.”)
The resonant point with the American people was that the only thing worth talking about in politics was “the economy.” At the time the economy was lagging and the country was in the midst of a recession.
Well, with similar clarity, and with similar singularity of purpose, as it pertains to your sales forecast – we want the resonant point to be:
“It’s the data stupid.”
In today’s world of CRM, Sales Productivity and Business Insights, it’s easy to get caught up in the desire to “click a button and get an accurate forecast.” We see advertisements and website promises to accurately forecast your sales pipeline. Gone forever are the days of looking stupid in front of your boss because you missed your forecast. Just “click this button” and our math algorithms will spit out your REAL forecast numbers.
Well, we are here to tell you and to remind everyone else – that it doesn’t matter how good your algorithms are; it doesn’t matter how smart your machine is learning; and it doesn’t matter how intelligent your computers are………if your CRM data is junk – then your forecast is going to be junk too.
It’s the data stupid.
“At the root of an inaccurate sales forecast is often a lack of good data. Afterall, your forecast is only as good as the data that is in your CRM and that depends entirely on how often your sales reps update that CRM data.”
So we encourage you to think twice about the tools, methods and processes you are using to generate your forecast. Are you relying on a regression analysis of your sales and pipeline history to extract an accurate future forecast? If so, we encourage you to think about the quality of your data. You know the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.”
Many of the sales forecasting and pipeline management tools on the market today focus on the math and the regression – but they don’t focus on the data (nor do they focus on the process your reps are using to update/manage their CRM data).
To quote Bill Clinton again, “We feel your pain.” We know that asking your reps to do more data entry is an uphill battle. But without the right tools – your CRM data is going to be junk. One of our core messages here at SalesDirector.ai is about the data, and we want it to resonate with you.
It’s the data stupid.
It is the single most important part of your forecast: the data.
As you go through the rest of the quarter – just be mindful of the tools you are using and look at them with a critical eye – because if they are not addressing the core issue of your data – then your forecast is going to be amiss – again.
It’s the data stupid.
