Sales Forecast: Definition, Meaning & Guide for Indian Businesses

A sales forecast is the predicted revenue for a future period based on weighted pipeline. Forecasted revenue = sum of (deal value × probability of close) within the period.

What is Sales Forecast?

A sales forecast is your best estimate of revenue for the next month, quarter or year. The two most common methods: weighted pipeline (sum each deal's value × stage probability × confidence factor) and historical run-rate (average of last 6 months × growth rate). Forecast quality depends on data discipline — if salespeople do not update deal stages, your forecast is fiction. A good CRM forecasts revenue commit (deals salesperson is confident on), best case (everything in the pipeline closes), and worst case (only deals at >70% close). Variance between these three tells you how predictable your sales cycle is.