If you’re in B2B sales, you know the drill: everyone wants a forecast, nobody trusts the numbers, and the “magic” dashboards mostly collect dust. Most reporting tools promise the moon and deliver a pile of charts you don’t actually use. If you’re hoping to cut through the noise and get forecasts you can actually stand behind, this is for you. I’ll walk you through how to use SureConnect reporting tools to get a grip on your sales pipeline—without drinking the Kool-Aid.
1. Get Your Data House in Order
Let’s be blunt: you can’t forecast accurately if your data is a mess. SureConnect is as good as what you put in, so start here:
- Audit your pipeline: Make sure every deal has a stage, value, close date, and owner. If “TBD” or “unknown” is in any field, fix it.
- Standardize stages: Your sales stages need to actually mean something. “Proposal sent” should be the same thing for everyone.
- Ditch the zombie deals: If it’s been stuck for months or there’s no recent activity, close it out. Don’t let wishful thinking inflate your numbers.
Pro tip: Run a quick report of all open deals with no activity in the last 30 days. If you wouldn’t bet on it closing, neither should your forecast.
2. Understand SureConnect’s Reporting Tools
SureConnect offers a few main reporting tools for forecasting sales:
- Pipeline Reports: Shows open deals by stage, value, probability, and expected close date.
- Forecast Dashboard: A roll-up that estimates revenue by month or quarter, based on weighted probabilities.
- Activity Reports: Tracks calls, meetings, emails—helpful for seeing if deals are actually moving.
- Custom Reports: Build your own with filters and fields. Great, but don’t go overboard.
What actually matters? Most sales leaders get the best results by focusing on pipeline and forecast reports. The rest are nice for spot checks, but don’t get lost in the weeds.
3. Set Up Your Forecast Views (And Ignore the Fluff)
Here’s how to build a forecast you’ll actually use:
- Open the Forecast Dashboard: Start with the default weighted forecast view. This uses deal value multiplied by the stage probability (e.g., 50% for “Negotiation”).
- Adjust probabilities: If your stages are set to default percentages, change them to match your real-world close rates. If “Proposal Sent” only closes 20% of the time, set it to 20%, not 50%.
- Filter by time frame: Focus on what matters. Usually, that’s this quarter or next. Don’t fool yourself with “potential” deals a year out.
- Segment by rep, region, or product: This helps spot where your forecast is strong or weak. But don’t create 30 different views—keep it simple.
What to ignore: Unless you have a huge team, you don’t need to slice data ten different ways. Fancy graphs look nice in meetings but don’t help you close deals.
4. Add a Reality Check: Qualitative Inputs
The best forecasts mix hard numbers with a little human judgment. Here’s how to do it without falling into wishful thinking:
- Weekly pipeline review: Sit with the team and ask the hard questions—what’s changed? Is this deal real, or just hopeful?
- Flag risk deals: If a deal is stuck or the client’s gone dark, mark it as “at risk” even if the software says otherwise.
- Adjust close dates: If a customer says “call me next quarter,” move the date. Don’t let old dates pad your forecast.
Be skeptical: If you or your reps can’t clearly say why a deal is likely to close, it probably won’t. Trust but verify.
5. Track Changes and Learn
Forecasting isn’t set-and-forget. You’ll get burned if you don’t adjust as you go:
- Compare forecast vs. actual: After each month or quarter, look back. How accurate was your forecast? Where did you go wrong?
- Identify patterns: Are certain reps overconfident? Are some stages consistently over/under-performing? Adjust your stage probabilities or process as needed.
- Document surprises: Lost a “sure thing”? Won a deal out of nowhere? Write it down. Over time, you’ll spot the signals you missed.
Pro tip: Don’t just blame the tool if you miss. Usually, it’s the inputs or the process, not the software.
6. Build Accountability Without Micromanaging
People fudge forecasts when they think it’s just a reporting exercise. Here’s how to make it matter:
- Share the forecast in team meetings: Make it part of the routine, not just a monthly fire drill.
- Tie forecast accuracy to performance: Not as a stick, but as a way to get reps thinking realistically.
- Reward good judgment: If a rep is consistently honest—even if it means a lower forecast—that’s worth more than wishful thinking.
What doesn’t work: Threatening people or making the forecast a “gotcha.” That just leads to sandbagging or inflated numbers.
7. Avoid Common Pitfalls
Here are the biggest mistakes I see—don’t make them:
- Chasing “perfect” data: You’ll never get it. Good enough is fine; just keep improving.
- Overcomplicating your reports: More filters and charts don’t mean better decisions. Focus on what you’ll actually use.
- Ignoring deal velocity: If deals are taking longer to close, your forecast will be off. Track how long deals spend in each stage.
8. Keep Improving: Iterate and Simplify
Forecasting is never one-and-done. What works this quarter might not work next. So:
- Review your process every quarter: Are your probabilities accurate? Are your stages meaningful?
- Cut what you don’t use: If a report hasn’t been opened in a month, scrap it.
- Ask your team: What’s working? What’s not? The people in the trenches know best.
Sales forecasting isn’t magic, and it’s not about having the fanciest tool. SureConnect gives you the basics—if your data is clean and your process is honest, you’ll get forecasts you can actually trust. Keep it simple, check your numbers often, and don’t be afraid to call B.S. on your own assumptions. The rest is just noise.