Want more accurate forecasts? Here is a low cost and FUN way to capture the benefits of crowd sourcing to improve your sales forecasts. When you need to place your inventory bet on new products or promotional sales, consider creating a contest!
Give your store managers, store associates or inventory analysts the chance to give you their best guess at what sales will be for an upcoming new item launch or holiday sale. Do it over and over. Give an award to the person or team that is closest to the pin.
Then dive in and analyze: Who is consistently near the actual? Find out how they estimate. Then integrate their approach into your “official” forecasting techniques.
This method has been positive for many organizations who decided to loosen up their Father-knows-best approach and dive into Moneyball results. Plus, it creates an authentic “let’s make work fun” activity everyone can embrace.