Grow Your Business with Improved Opportunity Forecasting in Salesforce

Fusion Forecasting & Planning Sales Operations

Improved Opportunity Forecasting in Salesforce Blog Header

A study by CSO Insights found that 60% of forecasted deals do not close as predicted.

This discrepancy is often due to fragmented, inaccurate business data. If leadership cannot see the complete picture, they cannot plan accordingly and support the business effectively.

The Importance of Accurate Forecasting

Accurate forecasting helps to reduce needless overhead and leverage revenue flow more optimally, in order to grow. Without it, businesses will leak revenue and develop strategies that do not fit the needs of the business.

Without a reliable CRM system serving as a single source of truth for sales and pipeline data, forecasts can be unreliable or resource-intensive to manage. This hinders a business’ ability to make the best possible decisions in the short and long term. It also undermines the investment made in systems like Salesforce, when critical data never makes it in or software limitations make it difficult to view and analyze the data.

Challenges with Forecasting in Salesforce

Sales teams often face significant hurdles when managing their pipeline data due to reliance on manual processes and disconnected tools. This leads to outdated and inconsistent information, resulting in poor forecasting and decision-making. Addressing these challenges requires a clear understanding of the revenue impacts due to poor forecasting and the specific frustrations encountered during the transition to Salesforce.

Enhanced Opportunity Forecasting for Salesforce

Accurate sales forecasting is crucial for business growth, but native Salesforce tools fall short in certain areas.

Valorx Fusion addresses these challenges by enhancing data accuracy and introducing powerful features that build on Salesforce's own capabilities.

Data Reliability with Advanced Editing

Valorx Fusion seamlessly integrates Salesforce with Excel, enabling live, bidirectional data updates. This ensures data consistency and reliability across both platforms. Key features include:

Bulk Editing: Update multiple records at once, reducing maintenance time.
Excel Formula Module: Perform concise series of edits using calculations.
Conditional Formatting: Highlight critical data points for easy identification.
Pivot Tables and Formulas: Use advanced Excel tools for comprehensive data analysis.
Data accuracy: users make data entries and updates, supported by Salesforce validations and security.

Enhancing Forecasting Insights with Advanced Features

Fusion expands Salesforce's capabilities, offering more detailed and customizable analysis options:

Multi-Object Reporting: Manage and report on multiple Salesforce objects simultaneously.
Real-Time Data Interaction: Work with live Salesforce data in Excel without exporting/importing.
Advanced Analytics: Utilize Excel's powerful analytical tools for deeper data insights.
Data modeling: Effectively visualize data for improved decision making.

Using Fusion, Excel serves as the interface to work with live Salesforce data to manage your forecasts. The data never leaves Salesforce, updates are reflected instantly, and the settings that govern data access and editing within Salesforce is extended to the Excel interface, preventing editing errors and discrepancies. As a result, this system of accessing and managing Salesforce data drives Salesforce user adoption, as users are less likely to export data and manage it offline; and it encourages timely updates by streamlining the overall editing experience.

How Fusion Enhances Opportunity Forecasting

Empower Your Sales Strategy
So, what does this mean for opportunity forecasting? If your team currently updates or predicts pipeline figures using custom logic in spreadsheets, Fusion is your solution. We take your complex spreadsheet tools and map the data outputs directly to Salesforce.

Fusion users benefit from the ability to view all opportunity records in a single spreadsheet, make changes using familiar spreadsheet features like cut and paste, formulas, and filters, and then sync those changes into Salesforce with a single click. For example, sales teams can use Excel to highlight upcoming close dates that are unlikely to be met, allowing Account Executives to update the opportunity stage or adjust close dates accordingly.

Before using Fusion, many of our customers manually navigated and updated records individually in Salesforce. This painstaking process could take Account Executives hours or even several days each week, resulting in data that was almost never timely or accurate.

As a result, managers lost confidence in the Salesforce data and reverted to directly contacting Account Executives for updates. With Fusion, Account Executives can focus on key fields and records, making updates in minutes.

The Most Popular UI in the World - Now for Salesforce

When it comes to managing high volumes of data, Excel is unparalleled. The flexibility a spreadsheet offers is why your sales teams still use it to track their accounts and opportunities.

We’re not just talking about advanced functions or formulas, even basic functions like expanding columns, drag and drop, and copy-paste operations can be leveraged and impact productivity.

With Fusion, you can maintain the flexibility of Excel while ensuring data accuracy in Salesforce. This integration transforms your forecasting process, making it faster, more reliable, and ultimately more effective. Don’t let poor data quality undermine your forecasts—embrace the power of Valorx Fusion and elevate your sales strategy today.

Valorx Customer: Western Digital

Western Digital solved its complex forecasting challenges with Valorx Fusion. They have streamlined their forecasting processes, reduced manual data entry, and improved accuracy across varying time periods. By connected Salesforce to Excel, Western Digital could manage high volumes of live forecasting data and collaborate across teams in a single, unified experience.

They drove forecasting efficiency while minimizing errors and data discrepancies, leading to improved, long-term planning for the business. You can read about their story below.

See Case Study