Professional sales tools have become increasingly dependent on sales forecasting software. However, let's be honest - the market is overwhelming. In a world where dozens of tools promise similar features, how do you decide which will be most useful to your business? Which features should you prioritize? What is the value of those premium features?
Our team spends a lot of time researching SaaS products, diving deep into their features, and talking to users. As we've learned over time, we can tell the difference between genuinely useful capabilities and flashy marketing hype.
What Is Sales Forecasting Software?
Software that forecasts sales is designed to predict demand for a company's products based on data. In these programs, sales estimates are created based on historical data and the current sales pipeline.
The purpose of sales forecasting software is to help companies predict how much money they will make and when they will make it. It looks at things like:
-
Retail sales spike in Q4 every year, and B2B sales slow down in summer.
-
Current opportunities in your pipeline (including deal size, stage, and probability).
-
Market trends and seasonal patterns.
-
Performance history of sales reps.
-
Buying behaviors and cycles of customers.
-
Market conditions or economic indicators are external factors.
Take the case of a software company, for example. Enterprise deals typically take 90 days to close, have a 40% higher close rate when they begin with a product demo, and slow down during budget season in Q4. Using all these patterns, it can make more accurate predictions about when and how deals will close.
Benefits of Sales Forecasting Software
Revenue targets are the most obvious benefit. For most organizations, this is a major challenge.
According to Xactly's 2024 Sales Forecasting Benchmark Report, four out of five sales and finance leaders missed their quarterly sales forecasts at least once - and over half missed them multiple times. (Yikes!)
Missing sales targets is not the only consequence of inaccurate forecasts. As a result, inventory shortages, poor resource management, inaccurate staffing, and so on ripple throughout the organization.
That's why sales forecasting software is so important. The fact that it's more efficient than manual forecasting (goodbye, endless spreadsheets!) is great, but I'm especially excited about three key advantages:
-
The data we collect can now be trusted. Data entry and calculation errors that we have all made at some point are drastically reduced by the software. The right data would make delivering accurate forecasts a lot easier, according to 97% of sales and finance leaders.
-
Throughout the forecast period, we have access to real-time insights whenever we need them - no more waiting until the end of the quarter to realize we're off track.
-
We have more time to focus on selling. As David Beitler, Director of Solution Architecture and Head of RevOps at Atrium.ai, explains, “Forecasting tools should reduce friction for sellers. It isn't a salesperson's favorite task to update forecasts, so choose software that integrates seamlessly with existing sales data and tools. Instead of manually entering forecast data, this allows sellers to focus on selling."
It is possible to plan effectively if you can predict accurately. In my experience as a business owner, this is the key to making informed decisions and adjusting my strategy before things get out of hand.
The 10 Best Sales Forecasting Software
1. Hubspot Forecasting Software
With HubSpot's forecasting software, teams can forecast future revenue and monitor pipelines. Using this tool, you can track your progress towards your forecasted goals.
Sales Hub provides AI-powered tools for sales engagement, deal management, reporting, analytics, and CPQ.The platform's AI-guided selling tools stand out here - they optimize efficiency through AI-powered deal summaries, email follow-up generation, and task prioritization.
Moreover, HubSpot's App Marketplace offers seamless integration with more than 1,600 tools.
Our favorite features:
-
Business forecasts on a monthly or quarterly basis.
-
Forecast planning made easy with a user-friendly interface.
-
Sales, service, and success teams can have efficient 1:1 meetings.
-
Integrated with HubSpot's suite of tools seamlessly.
How Forecasting Works
HubSpot's forecasting tool is simple to use. Here are four easy steps you can follow to make accurate predictions.
1. Select your preferred "forecast deal amount."
There are three default forecast deal amount options in the forecast tool, which determine how deal amounts are displayed. There are three types of amounts: the total amount, the weighted amount, and the forecast amount.
2. Create an indicator for forecast submission status.
When users do not update their forecasts within a certain period of time, this will alert them.
3. Create forecast categories for your pipeline.
To forecast revenue, this tool uses deal stages by default. However, you can edit your deal stages and create custom forecast categories.
Toggling the "Automate forecast categories" switch will also automatically update categories when a deal moves to a new deal stage.
4. Set revenue goals for your team.
This feature allows you to track how close you are to reaching your monthly, quarterly, or annual goals.
HubSpot's forecasting tool is integrated with a powerful CRM, enabling it to directly leverage the platform's sales analytics. Consequently, if you currently use or are planning to use HubSpot as your sales CRM, you can use fully customizable sales reports to build more accurate, advanced forecasts.
Pricing
Forecasting is only available in premium editions of the Sales Hub and Service Hub. Prices vary by tier and number of users:
- Free: $0/month
- Starter: $20/month per seat
- Professional: $100/month per seat
- Enterprise: $150/month per seat
Revenue forecasting solution Notice Predict promises an accuracy rate of 98%. AI-driven pipeline insights are used to create highly customizable forecasts using this tool.
Core features:
-
AI engine for time series data.
-
The WinScore Insights platform predicts the chances of successfully closing a deal and suggests levers that could influence it.
-
Scenario forecasting allows you to incorporate "what if" scenarios into your forecasts. To account for variables, best-case, likely, and worst-case forecasts are typically created.
It is clear from the amount of data Notice provides users that it takes a very data-driven approach to revenue forecasting.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon request.
With Salesforce Sales Cloud, sales teams can improve their efficiency by leveraging data, automation, and artificial intelligence.
Forecast management is included in this suite to help teams improve prediction accuracy.
Core features:
-
Forecasts that take product families into account.
-
With the ability to switch between four types of forecasts, each with its own quotas and adjustments.
-
By leveraging artificial intelligence, forecast accuracy can be drastically improved.
If you're looking for a simpler, more affordable tool, you might be better off with another option on this list instead. Overall, it's an advanced platform that can help large companies, but if you're looking for a simpler, more affordable tool, another option might be better.
Customers can use the Sales Cloud AI, Einstein, to determine new and existing opportunities that are likely to close during the current forecasting period. Reps can also access insights into how and why Einstein assigned the score.
Pricing
To access forecasting features, you’ll need an enterprise plan or higher.
- Enterprise: $165/user per month
- Unlimited: $330/user per month
- Einstein 1 Sales: $500/user per month
In its suite of performance management features, Zoho offers forecasting. Zoho has been used by our clients for project management before, and they have found it to be quite straightforward and easy to use.
Based on conditions specified in your CRM, the platform allows you to build custom forecasts. Forecasts can also be monitored (achieved deals, pipeline deals, pipeline shortages), and automatic reports can be generated.
Core features:
-
Users are alerted to discrepancies in their forecasts, such as sales target mismatches and pipeline shortages.
-
Monitoring pipelines and performance with drill-down analysis.
-
Predictive forecasting and recommendations based on artificial intelligence.
-
The platform includes contact management, sales funnels, workflow automation, task management, and more.
Zia, Zoho's predictive AI, can be configured to make custom predictions. The possibilities are endless if the prediction matches one of the supported data types (e.g., date/time, number, currency), and the user provides 200 records to "train" Zia.
Pricing
Prices start at $14/user each month.
Note: Forecasting is only available in professional, enterprise, and ultimate plans.
Hence the name, Pipedrive focuses on building a healthy pipeline.
Revenue forecasts can be set up and monitored using the platform's revenue forecast view. Forecast reports allow users to generate reports based on conditionals such as forecast periods, deal status, pipeline, probability, and team.
Core features:
-
Drag-and-drop sales pipeline editor with a visual interface.
-
Sales reps can improve performance with AI-powered insights and activity recommendations.
-
Tracks activity and encourages teams to complete specific actions (calls, emails, meetings) that increase sales.
-
Integrated communication tools (email and calling).
There is no learning curve with Pipedrive. It is a powerful platform, but most users on G2 find it to be very intuitive - which is one area where advanced sales tools fall short. You'll also enjoy the deal tracking component of the platform if you're a visual learner.
Pricing
- Professional: $64/month per user
- Power: $79/month per user
Note: There are less expensive plans but revenue forecasting is only available in professional and enterprise plans.
Freshworks CRM is a popular CRM with powerful AI capabilities, built-in communication tools, and flexible automation options that are particularly popular with small and mid-sized businesses. Freshservice (an IT and operations platform), Freshdesk (a customer service platform), and others are all part of the suite.
Its sales forecasting feature is Freshsales. In addition, Freddy, an AI assistant, runs across the entire CRM.
Core features:
-
A unified database that provides a 360° view of your leads in real-time so you can easily customize your interactions with them.
-
Sales workflows and sequences.
-
Tools for scoring leads.
-
Kanban-style board views.
Freshales' AI-based commit suggestions are unique. Using historical data, Freddy recommends deals that are likely to convert within a set period of time. In comparison to some other platforms, we really like the simplicity of Freshsales.
Pricing
-
Pro: $39/month per user
-
Enterprise: $59/month per user
Note: Forecasting Insights by Freddy AI is only available at the enterprise level.
Outreach is a leading sales engagement platform that focuses on improving sales productivity by automating and optimizing communication workflows.
Core features:
- Accurately measuring coverage using AI that analyzes past shortages and surpluses.
-
AI that monitors over 100 signals to proactively identify at-risk deals.
-
A scenario planner that can prepare your team for best- and worst-case scenarios.
Several features in Outreach are very proactive - historical coverage analysis, scenario planning, deal signals, etc. As a result, it's a great tool for maintaining a healthy pipeline and achieving revenue goals.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon request.
Gong provides sales conversation analytics and revenue intelligence. Salespeople can predict, deliver, and defend reliable forecasts with its forecasting solution.
This forecasting feature is an added bonus to Gong's ability to analyze and transcribe sales calls and meetings.
Core features:
-
Conversation analytics.
-
Identify potential risks and deal health in real-time with deal intelligence.
-
Based on conversation data, opportunity scoring assigns a score to each deal based on its likelihood of closing.
-
"Deal Boards" provide a customized view of your pipeline, including metrics, insights, and the most important deals.
Gong offers users a reality-based approach to forecasting. With Gong’s insights, you can understand where you realistically stand with every opportunity in your pipeline.
Pricing
Pricing is available upon request.
What to Look for in a Sales Forecasting Software
Test out what works for you, don't pay for features that you don't need, and have a plan for implementing it.
What is the biggest trend in sales software right now? As the AI hype spreads, the "dynamic landscape" is "evolving rapidly." (Sorry, had to!)
AI-powered solutions will boast a "revolutionary" AI assistant that will "transform" all of your processes. Be careful not to get distracted by shiny objects.
To that end, here are some key things to look for:
-
Analyses that are accurate and predictive.
-
Integrated with your tech stack (CRM, finance software, etc.).
-
What-if scenario forecasting - to address what-if scenarios.
-
Dashboards that your team will actually use.
-
Data updates and alerts in real time.
-
A clear ROI tracking system.
Rather than chasing the latest buzzwords or trends, choose software that solves your specific challenges. A well-known or expensive product does not necessarily mean it's the best.
In addition, we always emphasize the importance of implementation. Training your team properly and maintaining the data quality will go further than any sophisticated software.
Choosing the Right Sales Forecasting Software
We understand how challenging it can be to find the best sales forecasting tool for your team. Start by listing the features that are most important to your business. Based on your unique needs, sales processes, and team structure, you can choose a platform.
In addition, we love to hear from other users, whether that's through G2, Reddit, online communities, LinkedIn, etc. Find out what your peers are using by reaching out to your network. The landing page of a product won't give you much insight. Consider things like where this platform falls short, what frustrations users have, and what imperfections are revealed after adoption.
If you're ready to test a few, check out HubSpot's Sales Hub to learn more about our powerful forecasting tools.