HubSpot forecast software: The crucial indicator for management

Discover what HubSpot's forecasting software is, how it measures sales and customer service department results and manages sales team metrics.

One of the great benefits of HubSpot is the ability to manage commercial areas, such as marketing, sales, and customer service, through tools that provide reports, data analysis, performance, and indicators to assess the results of the metrics objectives and goals proposed by the departments. Within its sales module, better known as Sales Hub, there is a tool responsible for analyzing, quantifying, and providing traceability to the sales metrics of executives or sales representatives called Forecast.

This tool will enhance the management and control of management objectives regarding sales, goals by departments such as commercial, sales, telemarketing, wholesale, and finance, among others. 

It is a set of processes necessary to measure management objectives and establish strategies to help sales teams achieve their goals. 


In this lecture, we will concentrate on what the powerful HubSpot forecast software is; as aspects to analyze; we will consider the following topics:

• What is HubSpot's forecast software?
• Essential elements to contemplate when setting up a forecast in your company.
• Features to evaluate if your company serves B2B customers.
• Features to estimate if your company serves B2C customers.
• Why is it crucial and essential for management to set up a forecast?
• Step by step on setting up a forecast within HubSpot and establishing metrics per executive.

Business forecasting is a set of strategic tools, methodologies, and techniques that seek to determine the feasibility, estimation, and prediction of four crucial areas: 

• Evolution of business by sales teams.
• Each executive or sales team won the number of sales or closed businesses.
• Measurement of losses or expenses.
• Recorded revenues.
  
  

The primary goal or purpose of a forecast is to develop strategies focused on the company's objectives to achieve, estimates, or predictions according to the reality of your organization. For this, it is crucial to establish the following rules in your company:

• Metrics.
• Key indicators.
• Techniques to use by the teams in your forecast.
• Objectives.

Essential elements to contemplate when setting up a forecast in your company.

It is clear that many companies, depending on their industry, have a different installed capacity (they have many departments or few). Some do not have an exact picture of their management or team objectives. According to the company's scalability, the type of customer segments can change the purposes and dreams. 


Therefore, below we will classify some of the crucial elements that your organization should consider to establish a forecast structure according to your company, management, and team objectives:

Features to evaluate if your company serves B2B customers:

• Recorded revenue or profit indicator.
• Fee per executive.
• Fee per department.
• Scheduled meetings per executive.
• Business opportunities registered.
• Businesses registered.
• Calls made (can apply to both sales and customer service teams).
• Estimated average ticket resolution time (applies to customer service teams).
• Estimated average ticket response time (applies to customer service teams).
• Estimated number of closed tickets (applies to customer service teams).

Features to estimate if your company serves B2C customers:

• Recorded revenue or profit indicator.
• Fee per executive.
• Quota per department.
• Recorded business opportunities.
• Calls made (can apply to both sales and customer service teams).
• Estimated average ticket resolution time (applies to customer service teams).
• Estimated average ticket response time (applies to customer service teams).
• Estimated number of closed tickets (applies to customer service teams).
  
  

Why is it crucial and essential for management to establish a forecast?


Regardless of their level, most companies need to establish stages, methods, and control points to generate traceability, establish results reports, and define the AS-IS and TO-BE processes that will continue to exercise the company and provide an adequate follow-up. 


Also, Forecast tracking demonstrates trust, generates constant communication between teams, strengthens productivity, among other essential aspects that you can analyze in the following articles:

Harvard Business Review: How to Make Your Sales Forecasts More Accurate?

HubSpot Blog: How to Do Sales Forecasting in HubSpot CRM 

Step by step on setting up a forecast within HubSpot and establishing metrics per executive.


Suppose you do not have experience using and implementing HubSpot CRM and its different modules. In that case, HubSpot has a tool designed to establish different types of forecasts according to your company's management objectives.


Note to consider:


It is important to note that HubSpot's Forecast tool is only available with Sales Hub Professional and Enterprise or Service Hub Professional and Enterprise licenses.

In the following HubSpot Knowledge Base link, you can find more information about the types of forecast configurable in each licensing:

HubSpot Knowledge Base: How to use HubSpot's forecast tool?

Configuration steps: 

• Step 1: To get started, you must first go to the top of the HubSpot module bar and click on the sales module.
  
  
  

• Second step: Within the sales module menu, enter the forecast tool. If you use the CRM, it will appear with the name forecast.

• Third step: Once inside the tool, users with access will be able to view their objectives, filter their goals based on a specific channel type, designate team members, edit their goals, and even create a report based on their results.
  
  
  
  

• Fourth step: To set the objectives, you must click on the configure objectives button, and this will transfer you to the configuration properties, where you will be able to filter specific goals, teams designated to those objectives, assign them by the type of pipeline they belong to and additionally, establish filtering based on a fundamental characteristic such as the year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Fifth step: Once the type of commercial team designs the goals, it is necessary to designate the kind of management, pipeline, and users involved in the configuration.
  
  
  
   
  
  
  

HubSpot allows you to set up forecasting and goal designation for sales and service teams.


In the following HubSpot knowledge base link, you can find more information on how to set up forecast goals, reports, and metrics in HubSpot:


HubSpot Knowledge Base: How to create forecast goals?


Additionally, I am sharing a video guide on how to set up forecasting in HubSpot by CRMCrew:


How to use Forecasting in HubSpot CRM

Schedule a meeting with a consultant if you are interested in learning how to set or improve forecasting goals for your customer service and sales teams and how HubSpot can help you automate these business processes in your organization.