Answer to Question #188188 in Management for PAS

Question

Differentiate between following:

(a) Market forecasting and Sales forecasting ( Please give at least 8 points for difference)

(b) Sales quota and Sales target. ( Please give at least 8 points for difference)

Answer 1

(a)   Market forecasting and Sales forecasting

Sales forecasting is the process of estimating future sales while market forecasting refers to a process where analysts project the future numbers, characteristics, and trends in your target market for analysis. Secondly, the market forecast is the prediction of how much of all brands in a product category will be sold in a given time, while sales forecasts predict sales of a single brand. Market forecasting focuses to determine the ease of entry of new producers or firms while sales forecasting focuses on where the company should capitalize based on sales analysis of the products. Market forecasting determines the demand and supply of the market while sales forecasting determines the demand and supply of specific company products.

(b) Sales quota and Sales target.

Sales quota refers to a time-bound sales target set by management for a particular region, sales team while sales target is a goal set for a salesperson or sales department measured in revenue or units sold for a specific time.

Sales targets relate to overall company objectives and long-term growth while sale quotas point specifically to revenue achieved by a certain date. Sales targets can include expanding into new geographic regions, acquiring a certain amount of customers, or building and implementing referral programs to retain and recruit clients while sales quotas are based on factors such as customer purchases, hiring, advertising revenue, or company expansion.

With sales targets, sales teams may create a sales campaign to improve performance or set tactical goals including a number of cold calls and prospects generated within a specific period of time while with Sales quotas ales executives and managers also look at past sales performance, the cumulative skills and experience of sales reps and as the state of the marketplace. Sales representatives may be assigned different quotas based on their seniority or individual performance in previous fiscal quarters.