Sales forecasting predicts your future sales by using existing information/conditions. It is a key component of proactively planning your upcoming sales strategy for the new year.
Whether you prefer to use sales forecasting software or peer into a crystal ball, your sales forecast should be a top priority for next year.
Here we’ve compiled ten sales forecast quotes to help inspire you as you plan your new year. We hope these forecast quotes will keep you moving forward in 2023.
10 Sales Forecast Quotes
Paul Saffo is a Silicon Valley-based forecaster that explores long-term technology trends and their impact on society. Saffo currently teaches at Stanford and advises organizations worldwide.
Saffo’s sales forecast quote serves as an important reminder for any business owner that forecasting is valuable to businesses because it not only predicts the future, but it gives you the ability to make informed business decisions and develop data-driven strategies that can impact your business today.
Carl Eschenbach is a partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in seed-stage, early-stage and growth-stage investments in private companies across technology sectors.
Eschenbach’s forecast quote speaks to the fact that all the fancy new sales forecasting software and tools in the world cannot replace your sales manager's knowledge about your sales cycles and deals. When you combine the data and the history of the data, you have more accurate forecasting.
This sales forecast quote reminds us that every day, in business and life, we encounter situations when we must predict future outcomes based on previous knowledge. However, there is no guarantee that our predictions are accurate and we must be prepared to explain why things didn’t go as planned.
Edgar Feilder was an American economist who served as Vice President of The Conference Board and as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy (1971 - 1975) during the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. He also authored the book The Roots of Stagflation.
Fielder’s sales forecast quote cautions businesspeople that predicting future trends in business and economics is full of uncertainty. A good businessperson relies heavily on economic forecasts (which can be similar to a crystal ball), so they quickly learn to toughen their resolve and harden their stomach to deal with these uncertainties (sort of what eating ground glass will do to your digestive system).
Warren Buffet is an American business investor, magnate and philanthropist. He is currently the CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and is one of the most successful investors in the world. He has a net worth of over $97 billion as of September 2022, making him the world's seventh-wealthiest person.
Buffet’s forecast quote indicates that a sales forecast often reflects more about the person giving the estimates. For instance, someone with a “glass half full” mentality will provide a more optimistic forecast, while someone with a “glass half empty” mentality may give a more negative one.
Nate Silver is an American statistician, writer and poker player who analyzes baseball, basketball and elections. He is a Special Correspondent for ABC News and the founder and editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight.
Silver’s sales forecast quote is an essential reminder that while quantitative forecasting methods produce precise numbers needed to make crucial decisions, they can lack intuition and experience. This type of sales forecasting does not allow you to account for external factors only experience can reveal.
Irving Khan was an American investor and philanthropist. Kahn began his career in 1928 and continued to work until his death in 2015.
Khan’s words are an essential reminder that you can’t use recent or current data to accurately predict future prices.
John Kenneth Galbraith, also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, public official, diplomat and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through to the 2000s.
Galbraith’s forecast quote drives home the fact that sales forecasting is an illusion of knowledge. No one can accurately predict the future, and few are reluctant to admit that.
Michael J Gleb is the world's leading authority on applying genius thinking to personal and organizational development. He is a pioneer in creative thinking, innovative leadership and executive coaching. His clients include DuPont, Emerson, Genentech, KPMG, Merck, Microsoft, Nike and YPO.
Gleb’s quote reminds us that successful people know that there is no such thing as failure and that we learn from our mistakes. His words also remind businesspeople that you can forecast all you want but, in the end, you have to be willing to take chances, do it and see what happens.
John Naisbitt was a business analyst and prognosticator whose 1982 book “Megatrends” projected trends in society and business, became a bestseller, and made him an adviser to prime ministers, presidents, and corporate giants.
Naisbitt’s quote is a reminder that the best way to forecast the future in sales is to learn from current data and trends.
Final thoughts
We hope these sales forecast quotes have inspired your New Year plan. Even if 2022 might have presented you with a slew of uncertainties, you should be looking ahead in confidence moving into 2023.
