Sales Forecasting Training Course (1 day / 7 hrs)

Overview

This one day forecasting course provides an engaging introduction to sales forecasting.  It explains the alternative approaches to forecasting and goes on to cover the important subject of seasonal analysis, then a number of the most useful sales forecasting methods.  Course material is backed up with worked examples in Excel, but is geared to be useful regardless of any specialist software that the company may have in place.

Course level:

Basic or Intermediate

Price:

Please request a fixed price quotation by email or through the form here, giving the number of delegates.  Courses are currently delivered online only , usually through the Zoom platform, and are hosted throughout by the expert trainer / consultant.

Course Dates:

Courses are arranged for individual companies in order that they can be tailored to give the most relevant content and best experience for the delegates.  Dates are simply agreed by Forecast Solutions and the participating company.  Bookings are a provisional only until payment for the course has been received. 

Who should attend:

The one day workshop is ideal for anyone wishing to gain a good background understanding of methods for sales forecasting and who wishes to get hands-on with a selection of the most popular methods.  It is attended by managers and technicians with a wide range of job roles from demand planning, marketing, operations and supply chain departments, to name just a few.  Delegates have come from a wide range of industries spanning consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, high tech, financial sevices and industrial sectors.

Learning Outcomes:

• Appreciation of the alternative approaches that may be useful for sales forecasting.

• Understanding of the need for the best possible seasonal analysis and some practical ways of dealing with seasonality.

• Insights into the challenges of forecasting for new products and for promotions.

• Detailed knowledge of a number of the most useful forecasting methods.

Typical Course Content:

1. The purpose of forecasting, short-term and medium term.  Alternative approaches to demand forecasting including subjective methods, causal analysis and time series projection.

2. The importance of a good seasonal analysis.  Different ways of dealing with seasonality.  Example of a simple way to calculate a set of seasonal indices and make use of this in forecasting.

3. Curve fitting as a way of projecting the sales trend.  This covers straight line fitting plus a few other basic methods that are available in Excel.  Choosing between different types of curve and measuring goodness of fit.

4. Explanation and illustration of the use of moving averages in forecasting, including situations with intermittent sales.

5. Example of simple exponential smoothing and related methods available to include a linear trend in the projection. 

6. Explanation of further developments in exponential smoothing including the new Forecast Sheet tool in Excel.

7. If promotions are a feature in the company's business, coverage of some practical methods for dealing with promotions.  The need to cleanse historical data of promotions prior to statistical forecasting.

8. Outline of the six steps that can often form the basis for a successful forecasting process.  Discussion of forecasting process as applicable to the specific company.

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Alternative forecasting courses

An even more popular course is the Demand Planning and Forecasting Workshop (2 days) and for those who specifically wish to consider using Excel for forecasting there is the Forecasting in Excel Course (1.5 days).  Please visit the main Training Page for a summary of all our demand planning and forecasting training and links to individual course details.