The impact of poor forecasting and how to solve with the right CRM

All businesses want three things: increased sales, increased profit, and to be able to reliably predict both. For government contractors, that means being able to win more of the right contracts more reliably. But a strong proposal alone won’t win government contracts. Success comes from strategy – having the right KPIs aligning with the right goals – and a well-managed sales process and pipeline. These inform your understanding of the market and the opportunities to pick, which in turn increase your probability of win (PWIN).  

In an industry where margins are tight, having the right software solution to match your business needs can mean the difference between winning and losing. That’s where a modern, project-based client relationship management (CRM) system can really make a difference in helping your business better forecast its sales and profits. Let’s take a closer look at how – when implemented with the right KPIs in mind – a CRM can have a massive impact on your ability to forecast successfully.   

How the right CRM improves collaboration 

Competition in the GovCon industry is relentless. Teams that communicate well and keep their pipeline organized have a better shot at winning.  A CRM designed for project-based businesses gives you that advantage. 

Too often, business development, finance, and operations are stuck in their own lanes. Winning contracts takes a fully aligned team. When teams fail to connect, deadlines get missed, resources go to the wrong places, and valuable opportunities disappear. You might also pick the wrong contracts to pursue. Too often, teams operate in silos, leading to redundant work and conflicting priorities. 

The right CRM allows teams to focus on the right things at the right time, ensuring they track opportunities, share insights, and stay coordinated – all critical for improving PWIN.  

Your CRM as a single source of truth 

Disconnected spreadsheets and outdated systems make it tough to see the full picture. This lack of visibility leads to:  

• Choosing the wrong opportunities 

• Increased sales costs from inefficient communication 

• Increased opportunity costs from time spent collecting, cleaning, and aggregating data 

• Lower PWINs 

• Missed revenue targets 

Your success as a GovCon depends on your access to accurate and timely data. But when information is spread across spreadsheets and disconnected systems, your teams struggle to make informed choices. This can lead to inaccurate forecasts and lost opportunities. 

A preconfigured CRM keeps all contract-related information in one place, giving teams the insights they need to win – such as insights into implementation costs. It can also help identify trends, performance, challenges, and opportunities – if you have good data, which is now the new gold. When you have the right relationship and past performance data to pull from, you can leverage your CRM to successfully deliver and help you become more profitable.  

Focus on driving performance 

GovCons often struggle with process as many don’t know what they should be solving for. They don’t have KPIs or goals aligned with their continued growth. Some GovCons even hesitate to adopt a CRM, worried about cost and complexity. This leads to many of them staying with a low-performing system because they don’t fully understand the real value a CRM can provide. But the most successful CRMs – the ones that deliver the best value –  are ones designed specifically to drive greater performance – increased sales and profits, done in a predictable way.  

For example, Unanet pre-built its system to support the key requirements associated with project-based GovCons. This means you’ll have all your client relationships and their associated history – communication and other activity – tied to each client and prospect. That helps you avoid confusion for instances where you might be a prime, subcontractor, or competitor with the same company depending on the contract.  

Having this kind of organization and clarity makes it easier to learn and encourages widespread adoption. Everyone is working from the same set of information in the same system, making it easier for all your teams to get better results and ultimately perform at a higher level.   

Once you’ve chosen the right tool and aligned it with your goals in mind, having the right training and coaching leads to stronger implementation. This is where it helps to have a clear plan in place with guided support.  

Your next step toward winning more of the right contracts 

If your teams are struggling with meeting sales goals and inaccurate forecasting that’s affecting your sales and overall profitability, it’s time to evaluate your CRM and CRM strategy.  

Take action today. Assess your current processes, identify gaps, and explore how a CRM purpose-built for GovCon can help your business and improve your bottom line.  

Unanet can help you evaluate the issues you’re experiencing as it relates to your use of CRM and the impact those issues are having on their business. Interested in learning more? Schedule an assessment today.    

Key takeaways you can use 

• All businesses strive for three things: increased sales, increased profit, and to be able to reliably predict both 

• Customize your CRM’s dashboards to fit your capture process and business structure 

• Regularly audit and clean CRM data to maintain accuracy. Train teams on how to generate and interpret custom reports to drive better decisions 

• Standardize CRM adoption across all teams. When all your teams are aligned on the tools they use, it paves the way for stronger collaboration, which leads to stronger performance.  

• If implementing a new tool, use a well-thought-out change management plan to ensure everyone understands the timeline for adoption as well as the benefits. In addition, having mobile tools and email integrations makes it easy for more people to add the data quickly, instead of relying on end-of-week or overtime data entry 
  
  
• Integrate your CRM with your project management tools to create a seamless workflow. Regularly review pipeline KPIs to ensure alignment with growth goals