Sales Forecasting Model vs Vendor Evaluation

Sales Forecasting Model

By Mohit Agarwal (PM Skills)

Build a structured sales forecast from your pipeline with stages, conversion rates, and scenarios.

Vendor Evaluation

By Mohit Agarwal (PM Skills)

Compare suppliers with weighted scorecards and get a recommendation on who to buy from.

Sales Forecasting Model

• Builds a stage-by-stage pipeline model with conversion rates and cycle times
• Generates upside, base, and downside revenue scenarios from current pipeline
• Calculates pipeline coverage ratio to assess forecast confidence
• Creates an assumption log documenting deal size, close rates, and seasonality
• Runs activity-based sanity checks to confirm targets are achievable with current capacity

Vendor Evaluation

• Creates a weighted scorecard with criteria like functional fit, pricing, implementation difficulty, and vendor stability
• Generates specific questions to ask each vendor about their product, pricing, support, and security
• Scores each vendor against your criteria and calculates a total weighted score
• Delivers a recommendation with the winner, runner-up, key risks, and contract terms to negotiate
• Includes reference check questions to ask existing customers of each vendor

Reach for Sales Forecasting Model when…

• You're preparing a quarterly revenue forecast for board or investors
• You need to assess whether your pipeline is strong enough to hit targets
• You're a founder building your first structured sales forecast
• You need to defend your forecast with scenario analysis and documented assumptions

Reach for Vendor Evaluation when…

• You're comparing software tools or service providers and need a systematic way to decide
• You're running an RFP process and need to score multiple vendors fairly
• You need to justify a vendor choice to your team or leadership with data
• You're evaluating suppliers and want to avoid missing important criteria or risks