The Gray Cat Blog

A comprehensive collection of blogs designed to assist small business owners and multiunit operators.

Gray Cat Unleashed Episode 15: Sales Forecasting

Jan 27, 2025
 

A while back, a gentleman that wanted help selling his company approached me.  I asked him “So, what do you hope the purchase price to be?”  He looked at me and said “$5 million”.   I then asked, “How did you come up with that figure?”  He looked at me and said with a straight face “It is a nice round number”.  I paused and said, “So is $100 million.”

The point of the story is he had no idea what the value of his company was, and the $5 million number was a guess.  

I liken this story to several sales forecasts that I consistently come across that are swags, round numbers, or guesses.  Anyone can come up with a number – the question is whether it is legitimate or vaporware.  In this course, I will overview several tips to consider that will make your sales forecasting much tighter than “a nice round number”.

John Matthews, President & CEO, Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc.

John Matthews is the Founder and President of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc. a Raleigh, NC-based management consulting company. Gray Cat specializes in strategic project management and consulting for multi-unit operations; interim executive management; and strategic planning. Mr. Matthews has over 30 years of senior-level executive experience in the retail industry, involving three dynamic multi-unit companies. Mr. Matthews experience includes President of Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches; Vice President of Marketing, Merchandising, Corporate Communications, Facilities and Real Estate for Clark Retail Enterprises/White Hen Pantry; and National Marketing Director at Little Caesar's Pizza! Pizza!