How to Calculate Forecast Coverage

This blog post was originally published by Rekener, now a Brainshark company.

Forecast coverage measures your weighted forecast, relative to your quota for a given period of time.

To measure forecast coverage, you take your forecast for a period, and divide by your quota for that same time period.

For example, if a rep is forecasting $120,000 for Q2 and their quota for Q2 is $125,000, then their forecast coverage is $120,000 / $125,000 = 96%.  This rep is projecting to close 96% of their quota.

To measure forecast coverage with Salesforce data,

start by multiplying the value of each opportunity by the historical win rate of opps that have reached the stage that it’s in.  That gives you the weighted forecast for each opportunity.  Then, add the weighted forecast amount for each opp, as long as it has a close date in the period you’re measuring.  This gives you your total forecasted amount for the period.  Then, divide your total forecasted amount, by the quota for that same period.

To measure forecast coverage with HubSpot CRM data,

start by multiplying the value of each deal by the historical win rate of deals that have reached the stage that it’s in.  That gives you the weighted forecast for each deal.  Then, add the weighted forecast amount for each deal, as long as it has a close date in the period you’re measuring.  This gives you your total forecasted amount for the period.  Then, divide your total forecasted amount, by the quota for that same period.

Sales scorecards can calculate forecast coverage automatically,

and can break it down by sales rep, sales team, department, or any other breakdown.  Check out our Sales Rep Scorecard app to see how you can track forecast coverage by sales rep automatically.

Sales scorecards base their forecasting information on your historical close rates by stage.  With scorecards, you can automatically calculate the conversion rates of Salesforce opportunities and HubSpot deals that have made it to each stage, and can dynamically apply these conversion rates against your open opportunities.

Looking for more sales metrics know-how? Our comprehensive Sales Metrics Glossary will show you how to calculate 30 critical KPIs using CRM data.

• Read further on calculating dollar-based renewal rate, sales velocity, and lead conversion rate.