Sunday, October 10, 2010

Understanding The Future...

"Knowledge is the only meaningful resource today."
~ Peter Drucker


If we are to understand the future, we need to be well-informed
about matters related to what we wish to foresee, from past to
present. For today's marketers, executives, and entrepreneurs,
it is important to make a careful and near-accurate estimate of
the current market size of their respective industries, their
various
market segments, the competing products, their current
sales,
and market potential. For example, the future market
growth
for the over-the-counter and proprietary drug products,
may be
related to the growing tendencies of health-conscious
people
toward self-diagnosis and self-medication practices. It is
highly
imperative then that in today's highly computerized
marketing
environment, we are able to measure and forecast
the ranging
impact of these practices into quantifiable terms
with respect
to product demands and market growth potential
for certain
products so that timely and responsive marketing
decisions can
be implemented in full force with ease and
confidence.


See, successful small, medium, and large-scale businesses
periodically prepare product forecasts in units and absolute
amounts. The forecast analysis is broken down into semestral,
quarterly, and monthly targets based on several factors in the
internal and external environments. These forecasts or targets
are further divided into specific market segments and smaller
segments by region, area, or territory or by type of outlets or
customer classifications. Market outlets practically do the
same
in forecast demand for certain products that are fast
moving,
slow, or moderate, non-moving or non-saleable items.
Thus,
they can effectively implement marketing approaches to
significantly meet forecast demand.

Got it? So, sales forecasting is an educated estimate of sales
a company expects to make in a given period of time based on
socio-political-economic indicators; it can also be an educated
guess of the projected consumers' demand for the product.
Simply stated, sales forecasting is the art of anticipating what
buyers are likely to do under certain conditions for the
purposes
of adjusting production and marketing plans
accordingly.


"When the whale comes to the surface and spouts,
that's when he gets harpooned." - John Livingston Weinberg

How "futuristically" accurate are you? Can you boast of a track
record that you would not even really need to be in networking
sites as opportunities just flock to you? We all need help.

It's time to fix your aim and join hands. The future is a moving
target yet understanding the future is in how you position
yourself,
and in this case, how well-coordinated your company is.

Take note...
"Big companies are small companies that succeeded."
- Robert Townsend

No comments:

Post a Comment