The term ‘sales management’ refers to the coordination of people and resources to successfully produce the desired outcome. These long-term goals can cover a vast spectrum however, generally speaking, these are:
- Increased sales volume,
- Contribution to profits, and
- Continuous growth.
To achieve these deliverables, sales managers have numerous responsibilities. These include, but are not limited to:
- Demand/sales forecasting,
- Establishing quotas/objectives,
- Budgeting,
- Organisation,
- Recruitment,
- Training,
- Compensation, and
- The evaluation of sales performance.
What is demand/sales forecasting?
The difference in forecasting product demand and product sales boils down to real numbers versus practice and instinct. Forecasting product sales usually involves more mathematical calculations as opposed to gauging product demand as the latter relies more strongly on economic conditions and consumer confidence in the market. Both methodologies leave room for error and are far from being an exact science.
How to forecast product demand
Predicting demand for a product is a type of sales prediction. Forecasting demand is a kind of macro sales forecasting which looks at gauging consumer interest in a specific product across the entire market. Macro forecasting emphasises the existing level of demand for a product.
This forecasting technique also looks at how the current demand for products shapes demand in the future. Predicting demand necessitates detailed sales figures that are gathered from the current market in addition to numbers from past years. Evaluating future demand without previous sales figures, to make informed projections, is difficult but not impossible.
