Most people can see the numbers better in charts. Particularly with forecasting, in which common sense and judgement are important inputs, make sure to take a good look at your numbers. Business charts are much more than just pretty pictures; they are excellent tools for understanding and estimating numbers. You should always create charts to illustrate your sales forecast, then use them to evaluate the projected numbers.
When you view your forecast on a business chart, does it look real? Does it make sense? It turns out that most humans sense the relative size of shapes better than they sense numbers, so we see a sales forecast differently when it shows up in a chart. Use the power of the computer to help you visualize your numbers.
You can look at this next sample chart of a 12 month sales forecast and immediately see the ebbs and flows of sales during the year. Sales go up from January into April, then down from Spring into Summer, then up again in the Fall. When you look at a chart like this, you should ask yourself whether that pattern is correct. Is that the way your sales go?
The next sample chart shows a comparison of three years of annual sales. Here again, you can sense the relative size of the numbers in the chart. If you knew the company involved, you'd be able to evaluate and discuss this sales forecast just by looking at the chart. Of course you'd probably want to know more detail about the assumptions behind the forecast, but you'd have a very good initial sense of the numbers already.
Sample charts from Web Strategy Pro.
