9 Mistakes to Avoid When Predicting Business Performance

The “state of forecasting” in today's businesses is such that only 1% are able to achieve 90% forecasting accuracy 30 days out.

I think we can all agree that's sub-optimal, but why is this the case? In this post, we’ll talk at a tactical level about the nine most-common mistakes that might be preventing you from accurately predicting your future business performance.

As you read through this list, consider which ones apply to you. Out of those that apply, which impacts your planning and performance most? What have you tried to correct it?

Here are the nine most-common forecasting mistakes to avoid:

1. Lack of a systematic and process-driven approach.

This is the number one forecasting sin. Many of the mistakes below could be solved by taking an unbiased and replicable, process-driven approach to forecasting, however, a minority of business has achieved a truly scalable and automated approach to forecasting (which should ideally include a complete view of all influencers and drivers affecting all business functions).

2. Taking the easy way out by “peanut-butter spreading.”

In the absence of a process-driven approach, or the computational power required to build forecasts at a very granular level, most staff will default to evenly distributing one high-level forecast across different ...


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