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Most small businesses are not sales-minded. Sales forecasting is often a low priority, and it can be challenging to find the right template that’s relevant for your business. Keep reading to learn how you can make the most of these templates!
A sales forecast template is a customizable document that may assist you in forecasting future sales for your company. Online templates are primarily built for Excel or Google Sheets and vary in price from free to around $100. We’ve produced a collection of 15 templates intended for a range of commercial use cases to help you narrow down your search.
Online templates, such as spreadsheets, are fantastic for flexibility and convenience of use, but accuracy necessitates regular maintenance. Customer relationship management (CRM) software like Pipedrive, on the other hand, can automatically build estimates using your sales data, assisting you in planning and making better choices.
The Importance of Sales Forecasting
Because it is a crucial indicator of how the firm is operating, sales forecasting is critical to the sales management process. It provides you with an estimate of how much income you may anticipate over a specific period of time. You may also use sales projections to see whether you need to concentrate on sales acceleration or lead development techniques. Businesses utilize this data to make critical financial choices like whether or not to grow or take out a small business loan.
We’ve compiled a selection of forecast templates for you to utilize when forecasting sales for your company:
1. Template for a 3-Year Sales Forecast
Best for: Funding-seeking startups and enterprises.
Vertex42’s three-year revenue estimate
This three-year projection template is excellent for long-term sales forecasting. It’s a great option for startups or enterprises looking for financing since investors and banks will want to know how you expect to generate money in the long run. Simply enter your sales information, and the formulae will compute your sales estimate and provide graphs to match.
2. Sales Forecast Budget Template
Best for: Startups and enterprises that want a clear picture of their spending.
Template for forecasting sales budgets
This quarterly budget template is ideal for small firms that want to see their sales predictions and budget in one place. It’s a useful template if you want to see how your sales income will pay your costs from quarter to quarter.
3. Sales Forecast Template for 12 Months
Best for: Companies who want to keep track of month-to-month sales by product.
Template for a 12-month sales estimate
Because it offers a monthly breakdown of projected revenue, the 12-month template above is a suitable option for sales forecasting. Because sales are separated out per product, this design is ideal for product-focused enterprises. All you have to do now is enter your monthly product and sales data.
4. Sales Forecasting Template Based on Deals
Best for: B2B companies wanting to manage sales by opportunity.
Forecasting sales based on deals
This is a sales prediction for the quarter that focuses on sales transactions. Sales are broken down by business, opportunity, money amount, sales representative, and the likelihood of closing. It’s perfect for sales managers who want to anticipate sales depending on how transactions are going through their pipeline. It may also be used as an effective team-building technique.
5. Sales Forecast Template for Multiple Products
Ideal for: Multi-product businesses.
Template for forecasting multi-product sales
This sales template is a 12-month multiproduct template that breaks down the forecast by product, which is ideal for firms with many goods. For example, if your firm offers multiple distinct laptop models, you may predict each model separately using this template. All you have to do now is fill in the predicted sales data for each product category.
6. Sales Forecast Template for B2B Leads
Ideal for: B2B companies that rely on lead generation.
Sales projection based on B2B leads
This quarterly template is organized by leads, stage, and the possibility of closing. If you anticipate your sales by quarter and allow the stage of your prospects to drive your sales estimate, that’s fantastic. It’s also great for business-to-business sales. Simply enter your lead or prospect’s details as well as the lead’s stage.
7. Template for a Retail Sales Forecast
Ideal for: Retail establishments.
Template for forecasting retail sales
This is a yearly sales prediction template that incorporates retail-specific variables like foot traffic as well as daily sales. It’s ideal for brick-and-mortar stores, but it can also be modified for internet stores. Enter crucial information such as foot traffic, the proportion of consumers who make purchases, and the amount they spend to utilize it.
8. Sales Forecast Template for Hotels
Best for: Hotels and vacation rentals.
Template for forecasting hotel sales
The sales projection above was prepared with the hotel sector in mind. The annual sales projection contains essential hotel indicators like occupancy rates. To utilize it, just enter data particular to your hotel or rental property.
9. Sales Forecasting Template Based on Subscriptions
Best for: Subscription-based companies. 
Template for a subscription-based sales forecast
This subscription-based sales template tracks month-to-month subscription sales and income. Important data like turnover rate are also taken into account. It’s ideal for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies as well as other subscription-based enterprises like periodicals and subscription boxes.
10. Template for a 1-Year Opportunity-Based Sales Forecast
Best for: Businesses that predict based on pipeline deals.
Template for a one-year opportunity-based sales forecast
This one-year opportunity-based template is organized by each opportunity and sales rep and is based on sales transactions. It’s a great tool for sales management experts who want to project concluded transactions by sales reps, and it can also be utilized for coaching. Fill in the blanks with your deals’ monetary worth and the likelihood of closing.
11. Graphed Monthly Sales Forecast Template
Best for: Companies who wish to generate monthly sales estimates.
Template for a monthly sales projection with graph
This template’s sales prediction is for one month. It’s ideal for small firms who want to keep focused on their monthly projection without being distracted by data from prior periods. Simply enter your beginning date and monthly prediction.
12. Sales Forecast Template for New Products
Best for: Companies who are releasing new items and need to anticipate sales.
Template for forecasting new product sales
This is a Template for forecasting new product sales showing yearly projected sales over a five-year period. It’s a useful template if you launch new products and project yearly revenue and income. Add your company-specific new product sales projections.
13. Sales Forecast Template for Startups in Google Sheets
Best for: Startups and enterprises in need of capital.
Sales projections for new businesses
This template includes monthly sales and expense figures as well as a three-year outlook. It’s ideal for projecting revenue and expenditures on a monthly and longer-term basis. It’s perfect for startups or enterprises who utilize Google Sheets and are looking for financing since this information is crucial to getting started. Simply enter your sales and expense figures.
14. Template for a High-Level Sales Forecast
Best for: Funding-seeking startups or organizations.
Template for a high-level sales forecast
High-level sales data that aren’t broken down by product, opportunity, or sales rep are sometimes all you need. This is where this template may help. It compares your actual sales to your sales prediction month by month. It presents the data on a trend line graph and does the same thing with conversions.
15. Sales Forecast Template for Food Trucks
Best for: Food Trucks.
Template for forecasting food truck sales
This sales projection template was created exclusively for food truck owners. It provides analytics for meals, beverages, and foot traffic that are exclusive to food trucks. All you have to do now is add metrics that are particular to your food truck company.
How to Make a Sales Forecast of Your Own
While ready-made templates are convenient, you may need to make your own at times. Determine the goal of your sales forecast, examine your historical sales, evaluate industry data that may affect your estimate, and choose the time range you want to cover are just a few of the stages involved in producing your own sales forecast. More information on the six phases required in building your own sales estimate can be found below:
- Determine the goal of your sales forecast: The first step is to figure out what your goal is. It’s simpler to build a sales forecast that offers you and senior management the answers you need after you’ve identified why you’re doing it.
- Examine previous sales: It’s simpler to forecast future sales when you have a good grasp of your previous sales. For example, if you see an uptick in sales during the summer months, you may account for it in your sales prediction.
- Collect industry data: Sales are often influenced by industry data and trends. Taking this into account improves the accuracy of your sales prediction. If industry sales are down by 3% annually, for example, add this into your sales prediction if you believe it will affect your firm.
- Identify essential business activities: If your organization plans to spend on lead generation, indicate an increase in sales as a consequence of your sales forecast.
- Define your scope: Your sales forecast should only include the data you care about. If you’re simply interested in sales for the next year, for example, you won’t need to anticipate sales for the following five years since it’s out of scope.
- Create your layout and generate your forecast: Sales predictions may be presented in a number of ways. Make one that suits you best and use formulae to compute your prediction.
Conclusion
Sales projections are an important tool for all firms, but they’re a lot simpler to make when you start with a template. Examine the alternatives offered here to determine which is the greatest fit for your company. Before you make your decision, look through the procedures for producing a sales estimate to help you figure out which option is ideal for your company.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you write a sales forecast for a business?
A: This will depend on the business and industry. For example, many companies have annual forecasts that are updated at this time of year to align with their fiscal calendar.
What is a sales forecast sheet?
A: A sales forecast sheet is a document that uses past data to predict future trends. It looks at historical information on the number of units sold, brand awareness and cost per unit, which helps in determining how many products should be released for each season.
