Sales forecasting is the bane of every sales leader’s existence. Yet, why, in the annals of sales history, was it not the source of consternation that it is across business-to-business selling organizations today? It all starts with Alec Baldwin’s character, “Blake,” from the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross.” In the movie, he outlined “A-I-D-A” — Attention, Interest, Decision, Action — as the four stages that all buyers go through during a potential purchase. But then, starting in 1993 with the first true corporate-worthy CRM system from Siebel, followed by Salesforce in 1999 and an entire host of others, each were configured for staging and forecasting based on seller activity, not buyer activity. It’s no wonder forecasting is so hard when it relies on what a buyer might buy based on what a seller is doing.  

Todd Caponi is an acclaimed author, speaker and sales leadership professional. He is CEO and founder of Sales Melon LLC, teaching companies’ salespeople and leaders. Previously he was Chief Revenue Officer of PowerReviews, and prior to that held sales leadership roles in three tech companies. His book The Transparency Sale, was named Best Business Sales Book from the American Book Awards and Best Sales and Marketing Book from the Independent Press Awards. His new book, The Transparent Sales Leader (IdeaPress Publishing, July 5, 2022), challenges long-held sales leadership standards. Learn more at toddcaponi.com.