Handle streamlines ETC sales forecasting by automating data collection, saving time, and ensuring accuracy with customizable workflows.
Forecasting is key to sales management, but it’s challenging for most organizations because you can’t simply pull quotes to create forecasts.
Here’s why:
- Salespeople have a quote with multiple units on it, but they will only sell a specific one.
- Salespeople create more than one quote with different configurations.
The end result is the same – quote logs do not reflect accurate forecasts.
Rather than sorting through this manually, imagine your salesperson going into the system and seeing a clear list of all the items they’re currently discussing with customers. With minimal clicks, they can open a record and add it to the forecast, transferring all of the information without reentering or retyping it. Management then goes in, quickly pulling the forecasts for further review and manipulation, without having to reenter the data.
This is how Handle does forecasting. So instead of:
- Relying on painstaking, often inaccurate manual reporting.
- Consuming valuable time to collect all the data needed from multiple sources.
- Relying on quoting logs that may not be accurate.
- Complicating things because there are multiple units on one quote.
- Duplicating data as different people pull in the same information.
- Requiring you to know what’s likely to close and when.
Handle removes the guesswork and manual data entry from forecasting.
- Centralized Data: Information consolidated in a single place.
- Minimal Entry: Data is synced for your team without re-entry.
- Data Accuracy: Data is cross-referenced to add and verify specific values.
- Time Savings: Salespeople only need a quick review with minimal updates.
- Configurable Workflow: Set it up to align with your workflows, automations, and metrics.
- Reliable Forecasts: Your forecasts will be based on real, trustworthy data.
Automated ETC/Forecasting Records
By using Handle’s costing and quoting worksheets or integrating your quoting application with Handle, you can automate forecasts and estimate-to-cash (ETC).
The system pulls data from Quotes, combines it with your business system data, and automatically produces records for your team to quickly review. This makes it easy for your people to create accurate forecasts on demand, with minimal data entry.
Automated Data Collection
ETC automatically gathers the information you need for forecasting, so the salesperson never has to reload the data. Details about the stock unit or order are transferred straight from the quote, including the comps and any other data you might need.
We can also reference the stock number and pull in specific values for other fields from J.D. Quote.
Typically salespeople will check a checkbox if the deal should be included in the forecast. This prevents random quotes or deals from being added erroneously.
Salespeople can check a box in a deal record to include it in their forecast.
The system then pulls from the quote to create the ETC record (forecast record) and consolidates all the data related to the deal. The salesperson only has to verify the deal stage and set the probability to close.
With ETC, 90% of the data needed for forecasting is automatically populated, saving salespeople both time and frustration.
Verifying Reports
A tab can be created in Handle that shows the salesperson what is currently in or out of their forecast.
They can click into any record to see the information the system has consolidated, including any related data it pulled from your business system. They can then indicate whether that deal should be in the forecast and add the probability of closing and the estimated close date.
Click a record to add probability of close and close date.
Management Dashboard
The system pulls in all of this information and calculates the values needed for forecasting. Management can then roll this data into reports.
The management dashboard is completely customizable. You can break down your data by new vs. used or any other way you need.
The tiles give you a high-level overview of the data you’re tracking, and you can click on any tile to look more closely at the details.
Customizable tiles give you an overview of the data you’re tracking.
Adding a Record Manually
If needed, data can also be entered manually. This is important if you base forecasts on things other than quotes.
For instance, you may want salespeople to estimate sales activity for the coming quarter/year based on the customers they’ll be targeting to flip their machines.
In this scenario, you don’t have a quote yet to trigger the automation. The salesperson will add their estimates to the system by clicking the “Add New” button and entering the records manually.
Click “Add New” to add a record manually
You can use this same approach to break down your forecast by, say, category of equipment or some other criteria. This can give you more accurate lists of what’s likely to happen in the coming months.
Customizable Workflows and Automations
You can pull data from any source to create your forecasting reports.
If salespeople are manually uploading records, you could allow them to create those records from an inventory unit to a specific unit and then transfer the make and model and other details. This minimizes the time they spend on data entry and avoids potential mistakes.
This pulls forecasting data from an inventory list rather than a quote. It would pull the actual model, the category, and the dollars you think you’ll spend.
Estimate to Cash (ETC) for Your Business
Determine your criteria for your forecast-to-delivery automated reports. For example, have your salespeople select the records that they believe should be in the forecast, when they expect to close them, and their likelihood of closing / probability.
This can then be used to create reports in Handle or a reporting database that you can connect your reporting tool of choice to — so you can generate the reports you want. A common choice for reporting is Power BI. It is also possible to display other reporting tools like Power BI inside of Handle.
Ready to get started? For more information, reach out to https://texadasoftware.com/support/