GONG RECIPE BOOK

Driving an Efficient
Forecast Rollup Process

Ingredients: Forecast page

What is it?

Accurate forecast rollups give revenue leaders an overview of their opportunities and where they stand. Gong provides a way to improve revenue predictability by providing a complete picture of deal health and pipeline risk based on the actual substance of customer interactions. This enables companies to improve their forecast accuracy and base them on reality, what customers say, read, and engage, making the process more transparent.

Who is it for?

Gong helps revenue leaders to roll up well-informed forecasts and track the reps’ quota attainment and pipeline coverage to make informed decisions and strategies to increase revenue. With Gong, leaders can establish a complete forecast rollup process and make it part of their workflow.

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How does Gong help out?

Gong provides a single platform made up of a forecast board in which sales reps can update their forecast, along with dedicated analytics reports to increase forecast accuracy. Gong’s out-of-the-box functionality for forecasting includes:

A forecast board that is automatically aggregated for managers to validate and roll up the forecast.

A manager’s view of both collective and individual progress, which provides information on the committed deals, warnings, activity timelines, and decreased velocity to understand what is at risk so they can make informed decisions and adjust the forecast and eventually settle on final numbers.

A collaboration tool for sales reps and managers to work together on forecasts, including updating CRM data, adding notes, and tracking changes over time.

Analytics showing trends and changes in the forecast and pipeline, providing insights into how accurate the forecast is and what changed over a selected time period.

Insights on forecast accuracy, including data on types of deals that are being closed, the stage of the deals, why deals are lost, and so on.

Slack reminders to update numbers, document changes to deals, and keep forecasts up to date.

How does it work?

1. Set up a forecast board (approx. 1 hour)

2. Review a Pipeline (typically weekly)

Leaders or sales operations team members should set up a forecast board for each line of business and include all the applicable forecasting categories, including targets for each individual and manager.

3. Have sales reps enter their numbers

Invite your team to Gong Forecast, and ask them to submit their forecast numbers regularly. Reps will receive notifications reminding them to roll up their forecast numbers based on the forecast cadence set during setup. They can enter both their forecast and deal amount using the CRM integration and can also add notes for future reference.

4. Review your forecast snapshot regularly

Gong will provide forecast snapshots to make it possible to analyze forecast changes and trends. Managers can review their own forecast trends regularly, with drill-down capabilities to assess their deals, any changes in velocity, warnings, and so on to adjust the forecast numbers.

5. See how the forecasts are trending and find coaching opportunities

Once they’ve reviewed the forecast, managers can add notes to the team on what they should do (such as increase prospecting when relevant) and identify coaching opportunities based on trends and behaviors. They can direct sales reps to additional resources directly within Gong, such as calls they can review on a specific topic, or use comments and scorecards to provide tailored feedback.