Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

When asked the question if they know how to make sales projections, most business owners and managers look at you dumbfounded, with no ability to answer.

The great majority of small business owners and managers don't have any idea how to make sales projections in any way, usually they will throw out a number that is simply wishful thinking based upon a whim.

This may be one of the main reasons that there has been such a failure among new businesses historically.

While you shouldn't be intimidated by these realities, neither should you ignore them. Here are some ideas to help you understand how your business will operate in sales this year.  

How can you grow your business faster than the average within your specialty and industry? Here one major thing to consider:

The fastest and easiest way is to take market share from your competitors. Especially when your business is local, there will be only a certain amount of potential consumers that will demand your product or service. As a result all possible customers are already buying a product that has some similarity to yours.

What you need to know is that if you're going to sell more, your competitors will have to sell less. The important idea is that you need to really understand who your competitors are, how they price products or services similar to yours and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Knowing the ways you can adjust what you offer to win these consumers, simply by doing your homework, you can then add these percentages into your projections for the quarter, half or year.

Will this give you exact numbers? No, yet it is far more consistant than throwing out generic numbers you hope you can hit, and it is based upon results from your research. Make sure that you include a competitive analysis as a foundation of not only your sales projections, but your business plan as well.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three