article thumbnail

Helping Startups Understand Salespeople & the Sales Culture

Both Sides of the Table

Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. I boil it down to this: sales people are sales people.

Sales 382
article thumbnail

How to Forecast Sales

Up and Running

First, allow me to deal with a very common problem: Business owners are often afraid to forecast sales. It doesn’t take spreadsheet modeling, much less econometric modeling, to estimate units and price per unit for future sales. New product or not, your sales forecast won’t accurately predict the future.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Improving Sales: The Excuse Departement is Closed

Both Sides of the Table

Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. I boil it down to this: sales people are sales people.

Sales 316
article thumbnail

6 Ways to Increase Holiday Sales and Engage Your Customers

Up and Running

Black Friday is just around the corner, and this is a great time to review your sales forecast goals and develop a strategy to meet them through your holiday campaigns. Here are 6 ways your business can build holiday marketing campaigns that help you increase holiday sales this season! Offer special discounts to loyal customers.

Sales 92
article thumbnail

Speed in Sales at Startups

Austin Startup

I had to throw out my desire to build a perfect strategy and forecast for the business. In the world of startups, the idea of speed is often mentioned alongside shipping products and executing company-wide sprints but rarely is it discussed explicitly within the function of Sales. Many startups underinvest in sales training.

Sales 64
article thumbnail

The Key Elements of the Financial Plan

Up and Running

Sales forecast. A typical profit and loss statement should include: your revenue (also called sales), followed by. your “cost of sale” or “cost of goods sold” (COGS)—keep in mind, some types of companies, such as a services firm, may not have COGS. That might sound like sales, expenses, and profits, but it’s not.

article thumbnail

14 Tips for Starting a Successful Business

Up and Running

With this information, you can forecast the viability and profitability of the business. To truly stay on top of your finances, you should start creating financial forecasts as early as possible. You can reference industry benchmarks or make educated guesses on your own. Recommended Reading: How to forecast cash flow.

Forecast 154