Today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist launches a new series on forecasting! When it comes to forecasting, there are a ton of strategies and tactics you can use to develop a solid background on it. In this episode, Donald discusses the three things you must know about forecasting before starting. But first, what is forecasting?  In essence, it’s your ability to predict what will happen in the future. As a sales professional (and especially as a sales manager), you must be able to estimate how your team will perform throughout the week, month, and quarter.  Without forecasting, you’ll have no idea if you’ll achieve your sales goals! Know your data. How many calls lead to a conversation, a demo, and, ultimately, a sale?  Understanding your sales figures and statistics leads to an accurate forecast. Your pipeline is tied directly to your forecast, and if you put inadequate or insufficient data into a forecast, you’ll get bad predictions in the outcome. Respect the process. Some prospects might want to skip conversations and move directly into a demo, a proposal, or a review. But are they even worthy of a demo, or will the sale benefit them? If they don’t fit the criteria of a client for your company, you’ll be wasting valuable time. Don’t do the demos just because someone is interested; use data-driven forecasting to identify the indicators you need to make that decision.  You need more than you think you need. Even if you’ve done everything perfectly throughout the sales process, a deal still might not close. If the data tells you to close forty deals to meet a target, put sixty in your pipeline. Because while they might all close, you can’t guarantee it.  The takeaway? You need more prospects and a more robust pipeline than you might initially think. Put extra in now to avoid scrambling at the end of the quarter. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn Sales Navigator. The Great Resignation has become the Great Reshuffle, meaning it can be difficult for sales professionals like you to find leads and close deals. Luckily, Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is here for you! Sales Navigator from LinkedIn is the only tool that uses real-time alerts and up-to-date insights to help you know when prospects are ready to buy. And, with over 30 advanced filters, sales professionals can quickly find genuine leads with the intent to purchase. Gain the advantage of accurate, quality lead generation data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. You can get a 60-day free trial of Sales Navigator at www.LinkedIn.com/TSE.  This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. This episode is brought to you in part by mParticle. Are you tired of wading through thousands of open sales positions to find the one perfect for you? Well, look no further. mParticle is one of the leading independent customer data platforms out there, and they’re looking for motivated remote sellers (just like yourself.)  With top-name clients from Spotify and Burger King to Airbnb, we don’t want you to let this opportunity go to waste! For more information and to view open positions, go to https://www.mparticle.com/careers/. This course is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Certified Training Program, designed to help new and struggling sellers master sales fundamentals and close more deals. Help elevate your sales game and sign up now to get the first two modules free! You can visit www.thesalesevangelist.com/closemoredeals or call (561) 570-5077 for more information. We value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete o