Graphics as Forecasting Tools

Chapter 11: Forecast Your Sales - Page 11.4

Graphics as Forecasting Tools

Business charts are an excellent tool for understanding and estimating numbers. Use them to evaluate the projected numbers. When you view your forecast on a business chart, does it look real? Does it make sense? It turns out that most humans sense the relative size of shapes better than they sense numbers, so we see a sales forecast differently when it shows up in a chart. Use the power of the computer to help you visualize your numbers.

For example, consider the monthly sales chart below. You can look at this chart and immediately see the ebbs and flows of sales during the year. Sales go up from January into April, then down from Spring into Summer, then up again beginning in September. When you look at a chart like that, you should ask yourself whether that pattern is correct. Is that the way your sales go?

Monthly Sales Chart

This chart shows planned sales for each month of the first 12 months of the plan.

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