The risks and opportunities method for sales forecasting is a tool used in the field of sales management to identify, assess, and manage potential risks and opportunities associated with a sales forecast.

This method is designed to help sales managers and their teams anticipate and mitigate potential risks while also identifying and capitalizing on opportunities that may arise during the sales forecasting process.

Why Is This Method so Good?

By using the risks and opportunities method for sales forecasting, sales managers can increase the accuracy and reliability of their sales forecasts and reduce the potential for negative outcomes.

This method involves analyzing various factors that may affect the accuracy of a sales forecast, such as market conditions, competition, customer demand, and internal resources.

Additionally, It involves developing strategies to mitigate potential risks and capitalize on opportunities and regularly monitoring and updating these strategies as needed.

Therefore, this is one of my favorite methods to perform a quick forecast. Especially if only a few events are impacting your forecast vs. your budget.

Steps of The Risks and Opportunities Method

Here are the steps of the method:

1. Identify significant events for your business.
2. Estimate for each of them their impact on the key figures (commercial, EBIT, cash).
3. Add them to your budget to obtain your forecast.

PROS

• No need to recalculate all the details
• Fast method to reforecast

CONS

• Prone to the omission
• Only limited to a few significant impacts

Here is an example of the risks and opportunities method.

Conclusion – Use The Risks and Opportunities Method for Achieving Goals

Try the risks and opportunity method to achieve quick but good estimates!

Furthermore, this method can ultimately lead to more successful sales planning, and execution and help organizations achieve their business goals. Moreover, let me know if you have been using this method and how you are using it.

I teach this method as well as many other budgeting methods in my course. If you want to become a more valuable finance professional, you can take my course. In other words, it could be what you need to bring your finance career to the next level.