Requirements:
- Salesforce Bulk API Access.
- Users' mailboxes need to be connected to sync to Ebsta: User Management
Forecast Insights help empower sales teams with more accurate and up-to-date forecasts. By analyzing Opportunities in real-time, sales leaders have the confidence to see where they will end the quarter and know what Opportunities are at risk and need prioritizing.
This article covers:
- Access Forecast Insights
- Understanding Forecast Insights
- Pipeline Performance Graph
- Opportunity Flow Chart
- Opportunity Bubble Chart
- What Opportunities should I prioritise?
- Insights Sidebar (including Deal Qualification Guide)
- Opportunity table (including in-line editing of Salesforce)
- Submitting Manual Forecasts
- Rollup Summary
- Forecast Insights Filters
- Get full potential of Forecast Insights
Access Forecast Insights
1. Open up the Ebsta Console by clicking on the following link and sign in with your Salesforce credentials:
2. Select Forecasting > Forecast Insights from the top navigation bar.
Understanding Forecast Insights
There are several elements of the Forecast Insights dashboard, most of which work in conjunction with one another. We will go through each element of the dashboard in turn.
Pipeline Performance Graph
This graph chart tracks your sales pipeline and how it is trending over time. You can assess how the pipeline is progressing against quota and if you’re closing enough business consistently throughout a quarter/month to hit target (pacing line).
By default, Ebsta displays the current quarter's pipeline but you can use the filter at the top of the chart to view a previous or future quarter or a specific month.
There are a number of other filters that can be applied to adjust the insights displayed. To learn more about the other filters please refer to this section of the article:
Above the bar chart, Ebsta displays key financial values for the quarter/month and the trend from the previous period.
Quota* Sales target of sales team(s) for the period
Ebsta Projection Projected Revenue from Opportunities with Close Date in this period based on current Deal Score**.
Closed Total value of Opportunities Closed Won for the period
Commit Total value of Opportunities with Opportunity Forecast Category set as Commit
Best Case Total value of Opportunities with Opportunity Forecast Category set as Best Case
Pipeline Total value of Opportunities with Opportunity Forecast Category set as Pipeline
Next Qtr Pipeline Total value of Opportunities with an expected Close Date in next quarter
* To learn how to set up Quotas in Salesforce, refer to this article:
Enable & Set up Quotas in Salesforce
** Deal Score is covered later in this article.
Hovering over a stack in the chart displays cumulative totals for that 7 days.
Opportunity Flow Chart
This chart gives insight into how your pipeline has changed over a period of time and enables you to understand why.
By default, Ebsta displays the changes to the pipeline that have occurred over the last week but you can use the filter at the top of the chart to change this.
Above the chart, the tiles display total financial values and the corresponding number of Opportunities that make up your pipeline and the trend from the previous period.
Starting is the total value of open Opportunities (and their corresponding number) in the pipeline at the start of the period.
New Opps is the total value of new Opportunities (and their corresponding number) created within the selected timeframe.
Pulled In is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) pulled into the current quarter from future quarters during the selected timeframe.
Added Value is the amount of value added to Opportunities already in the pipeline during the selected timeframe. For example, if an Opportunity's value is increased from £100,000 to £150,000 the added value is £50,000.
From Prev Q's is the total value of Opportunities that are pulled into the current quarter from previous quarters during the selected timeframe.
Decreased is the amount of value reduced from Opportunities already in the pipeline during the selected timeframe.
Slipped is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) that were scheduled to close in this quarter but that during the the selected timeframe have been updated with Close Dates that fall in future quarters.
Omitted is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) with their Forecast Category set to Omitted during the selected timeframe.
Ending is the total value of Opportunities (and their corresponding number) on the end date.
The left hand side of the flow chart denotes the start of the selected timeframe and groups all Opportunities in the pipeline by their Forecast Category (Pipeline, Best Case and Commit) as it was set on this date. New Opportunities, Opportunities from previous quarters and Pulled in Opportunities (from future quarters) that get added to the current quarter during this period are also displayed underneath these.
The right hand side of the chart denotes the end of the selected time frame and groups all Opportunities in the pipeline into one of the following categories:
Won: Opportunities closed Won between the start and end dates.
Trend up: Opportunities where there has been a positive change (i.e. the Close Date has been brought forward, and/or it has moved forward a stage or the deal value has increased) between the start and end date.
Trend Down: Opportunities where there has been a negative change (i.e. the Close Date has been pushed back, and/or it has moved back a stage or the deal value has decreased) between the start and end date.
Idle: Opportunities where there has been no change (positive or negative) between the start and end dates.
Slipped: Opportunities that have been updated with Close Dates that now fall in a future quarter.
Lost: Opportunities that have closed Lost between the start and end date.
You can click on any of the categories (left and right) to update the chart display so that you can focus in on what changes have occurred. For example, by clicking Best Case, I can review the Opportunities that were set as Best Case at the start of the selected time frame and look at how they have flowed through the pipeline over that period.
Hovering over the trend lines displays the detail in a pop up window. So for example, 83 Opportunities in the pipeline that are set as Best Case have Idled.
Clicking on a trend line adds an additional filter to the chart. These filters affect the information displayed in the Opportunity Bubble Chart and Opportunity Table which allow further analysis of these Opportunities.
Opportunity Bubble Chart
To view the Opportunity Bubble Chart, click the bubble chart button in the top right hand corner of the flow chart.
Note: Any filters that were applied to the flow chart will be applied to the bubble chart. To remove these and view all opportunities in the pipeline, click the cross next to each filter.
The Opportunity Bubble chart visually represents Opportunities in the pipeline as bubbles and plots them against Relationship Score and expected Close Date. The size of the the bubble represents the deal value, (i.e. the bigger the bubble, the bigger the deal size). 
If you hover over a bubble, Ebsta will display key information relating to the Opportunity including the Opportunity Name and Owner, the Account it relates to, Deal Value, Close Date and the Relationship Score.
If you click on a bubble it will turn orange and Ebsta update a sidebar on the right to display more detailed insights relating to that Opportunity.
What Opportunities should I prioritise?
Above the Bubble chart, there are a number of tiles which organise Opportunities in the pipeline into different categories so that they can be reviewed in terms of Potential Revenue.
Predicted Deals: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing within the selected timeframe with Forecast Category of Commit or in a late stage with a high relationship score.
Potential Deals: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing in the selected timeframe with a Forecast Category of Best Case or Pipeline or in a late stage and with a high relationship score or an assumed high relationship score (the late stage Opportunities you could close if you increased the relationship score to required levels).
Nurture: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing in the selected timeframe with a Forecast Category of Best Case or Pipeline or in a late stage and with a medium relationship score.
Deals at Low Risk: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing in the selected timeframe with a Forecast Category of Commit or in a late stage and with a medium relationship score.
Deals at High Risk: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing in the selected timeframe with a Forecast Category of Commit or in a late stage and with a low relationship score.
Pipeline: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing in the selected timeframe with a Forecast Category of Pipeline or in a middle stage Pipeline and with a low relationship score.
Possible Slippage: This is the total value of and number of Opportunities closing in the selected timeframe that upon close date will be well below the average sales cycle.
Clicking on a tile filters the chart. Again as before, if you hover over a bubble, Ebsta will display key information relating to the Opportunity and if you click a bubble, Ebsta updates the sidebar on the right to display more detailed insights relating to that Opportunity.
Insights Sidebar
The sidebar provides in-depth insights into your pipeline's performance and highlights what needs attention, and why, to ensure you hit targets. Clicking on insights in the sidebar will adjust the information displayed in the various areas of the dashboard.
The sidebar has two tabs; Insights and Opportunity. By default, the sidebar will be open on the Insights tab.
Insights tab
This is an overview of how you are performing against your goal, what the trends are, what Opportunities to prioritise and a benchmark of your teams' performance.
Measure your goal is an indication of sales performance in relation to your quota.
Understand Trend displays the number of Opportunities where there has been a negative change (i.e. the Close Date has been pushed back and/or it has moved back a stage or the deal value has been lowered) and the number of Opportunities where there has been a positive change (i.e. the Close Date has been brought forward, and/or it has moved forward a stage or the deal value has increased) in the last 7 days along with the corresponding value of those Opportunities.
You can view just these opportunities in the Opportunity Bubble chart (and the Opportunity table below it which will be covered next) by clicking View Opportunities and alert other users to these specific Opportunities via Slack from here.
To find out more about Ebsta's Slack Integration, refer to this article:
Enable Slack integration & Using Slack from Ebsta
Opportunities to Prioritise enables you to identify and prioritize those Opportunities within your pipeline that need attention. For example, those with no scheduled future Activity, those where there has been no activity in last 14 days, those that have spent too long in their current stage compared to average and so on.
Again clicking View Opportunities updates the Bubble chart and table below it to display only those Opportunities so that you can drill down into the detail and again you can alert your team to these Opportunities that need attention via Slack.
KPI Performance gives you a number of metrics that show you how your team has been performing and give you a benchmark for current performance against last quarter.
Average Score refers to the relationship score that the Opportunity held at the point that it was Closed Won.
Average Relationships is the average number of internal relationships related to that Opportunity that your team had between open and close dates where it Closed Won.
Opportunity tab
This displays detailed insights about an Opportunity in the pipeline. The Opportunity displayed in sidebar is the one highlighted orange on the bubble chart. At the top of the side bar the Opportunity name and owner are displayed along with the current relationship score and trend for this opportunity.
The Opportunity tab has several sections. The Insights section displays Positive & Negative Factors. These allow you to gauge how an opportunity is performing compared to the benchmark and identify possible risks on the opportunity being closed lost.
The Activity tab displays an Activity Timeline along with a list of the 10 most recent activities. The timeline is a comprehensive view of how the team is engaging with customers over time. Activities (Calls, Meetings and Inbound and Outbound Emails) related to the Opportunity are plotted along the timeline.
By default, Ebsta displays the timeline for the last 14 days but you can adjust this using the date filter. Along the bottom of the timeline, Ebsta displays the total Activity count for this Opportunity.
Ebsta also displays key deal changes that have occurred. Hover over the icon in the timeline to view the detail.
Deal Qualification Guide
The Qualify section aligns to your sales methodology. Managers can view all the deal qualification information in one place when reviewing the pipeline. They can understand if sales teams have all of the necessary criteria to close a deal or if there are important areas that are being neglected.
The Deal Qualification Guide quantifies a deal under the following sections:
| Metrics | What is the economic impact of this solution? |
| Economic Buyer | Who has profit & loss responsibility for this? |
| Decision Criteria | What are their technical vendor and financial criteria? |
| Decision Process | Then what happens? Define validation & approval |
| Paper Process | What steps need to be taken to get a deal signed & how long will this take? |
| Implicate the pain | What problems are they trying to solve? |
| Champion | Who will sell on your behalf within the company? |
| Competitor | Who are we competing against and why? |
In each section, you can choose a Qualification Status from the dropdown.
You can also adjust the Qualification Score from the Score dropdown.
Notes can be entered into the text boxes. There is no need to save notes as the sidebar will automatically save. All fields are saved at company level so all users will have visibility of the information related to this specific Opportunity.
In each section, you can access the Checklist when you hover over each of the qualification element name.
You'll be able to view the MEDDIPICC Scores of each Opportunity in the Opportunity table.
Opportunity table
This table works in conjunction with the sidebar, bubble and flow charts. The Opportunities that are listed in the table are determined by filters that are applied to the charts above.
If you click on a row, the sidebar updates to display insights relating to that Opportunity.
Note: Use the scroll bar along the bottom of the table to view all of the columns of the table.
The table displays key information about the Opportunities from Salesforce including deal amount, close date, next step and opportunity stage (all of which can be edited directly from Ebsta and will update in Salesforce - covered further on in this article). Ebsta also displays a number of other insightful metrics and information.
Relationship Score is a number between 0-100 that represents engagement. The more interactions your company has with an Account – the higher their Score. It also takes into account the total Activity count and Days Since Last Activity, but it also looks at the type of activity, its direction (inbound/outbound), duration and timing to derive a single engagement percentage metric.
Deal Score is a number between 1-99 which highlights the health of an Opportunity in your pipeline. It is calculated using multiple factors including relationships, deal stage, close date, deal value to indicates how likely the deal is to close successfully.
To learn more about Deal Score, please refer to the following article:
Warnings refer to the number of negative factors that relate to this Opportunity (which display in the sidebar). Click on the row in the table to change the sidebar display.
Projected Amount is a weighted pipeline revenue forecast based on the Deal Score. It is calculated by the sum of the projected revenue for all open opportunities in the current quarter (value x Deal Score %).
Negative and Positive Trends from the previous period are indicated by green and red boxes in the table. Where there has been a negative change (i.e. the Close Date has been pushed back and/or it has moved back a stage or the deal value has been lowered) the information is displayed in a red box. Where there has been a positive change (i.e. the Close Date has been brought forward, and/or it has moved forward a stage or the deal value has increased) the information is displayed in a green box.
If you hover over the Stage, Close Date or Opportunity Amount, Ebsta displays the historical changes that have occurred including when the change was made, who made the change, whether the change is positive or negative and the details of the change.
If you scroll across along the table, Ebsta also displays how long the Opportunity has been in its stage, how many activities related to this Opportunity have taken place in last 7 days, how many colleagues are involved in the Opportunity and the number of contacts you have a relationship with at the company.
Editing Opportunities
You can edit key opportunity values, such as Amount, Close Date, Stage and Next Step directly from the table (changes will automatically sync to Salesforce).
To edit Amount, hover over the row of the Opportunity you wish to edit and a pencil icon will appear and/or the value will be underlined.
Type in the new value and save using the green tick icon. To cancel this change, click the red cross.
To change the Close Date, select a new date using the calendar pop up.
To update Next Step, type directly into the notes pop up window and click Save.
To change Stage, select a new stage from the dropdown menu.
Submitting Manual Forecasts
You can use Ebsta to standardize and streamline your weekly, monthly and quarterly manual forecast submissions process. With Ebsta's Manager Forecast View, managers can review the pipeline, inspect Opportunities and change their reps forecast status as they see fit.
Opportunity Owner/Sales Rep Forecast Submission
1. Use the filters at the top to select the forecast period (current or future, month or quarter) and select your username.
2. Click Submit Forecast in the top right-hand corner.
3. This opens up the forecasting tab in the sidebar.
4. Use the Forecast Status toggle button in the Opportunity table to assign a forecast judgement to your Opportunities:
P means the Opportunity is Pipeline
U means the Opportunity is Upside (Best Case)
C means the Opportunity is Commit.
Note: The red and green background displayed on the toggle button denotes a negative or positive change from the previous submission. The blue background means no change or a manual forecast has not been submitted previously.
5. If you want to add a comment to your submission hover over the toggle button until a + icon appears and then click it to add your comment.
Type your comment into the pop up window and click Update.
To view your note hover over the Note icon displayed in the Forecast Status column.
6. The sidebar displays the forecast submission to be submitted. The Information section displays the user or Team who will be submitting the forecast, the pipeline and reporting period this applies to along with the date of the last submission if applicable.
You can adjust the forecast period* using the dropdown menu.
* Where quarterly and monthly forecast submissions are made, the quarterly submission takes precedent. When there is a quarterly forecast submission for the selected forecast period, the quarterly forecast value will be displayed. When there is no quarterly submission, and only monthly submissions for the selected forecast period, we show the rollup of all the monthly submissions.
Commit Forecast:
Won Opps: Total value of Opportunities closed Won.
Selected Opps: Total value of (and number of) Opportunities labelled C*
Total Amount: Total value of Won Opps and Selected Opps combined.*
Team Rollup: Total sum of all forecasts submitted by each rep in the team or by each manager in the business.
* These values will automatically be calculated as the Opportunities in the table are assigned a forecast using the Manual Forecast toggle button.
Upside Forecast:
Won Opps: Total value of Opportunities closed Won.
Selected Ops: Total value of (and number of) Opportunities labelled U and C*
Total Amount: Total value of Won Opps and Selected Ops combined.*
Team Rollup: Total sum of all forecasts submitted by each rep in the team or by each manager in the business.
* These values will automatically be calculated as the Opportunities in the table are assigned a forecast using the Manual Forecast toggle button.
7. Once each of the Opportunities have been assigned a forecast category, a final forecast figure needs to be inputted in the My Forecast field. If you click on the Total Amount value in the Commit and in Upside sections, these values are automatically copied into the My Forecast field. Alternatively you can input an adjusted figure into the box. Input any relevant extra details, reasoning or evidence in the notes section.
8. If you wish to submit another forecast, check the tick box next to Submit another. When you are happy with your submission, click Submit.
9. The Upside and Commit forecast submissions can be viewed in the pipeline performance graph* and can be reviewed in the Roll up Summary.
* You may need to refresh the page.
Manager Forecast Submission
If you're assigned as a manager in the Forecast Hierarchy in Salesforce, you'll be able to review pipeline, inspect Opportunities and change your reps forecast status as you see fit. The sales reps will have no visibility of any changes made to the forecast status.
In the Opportunity table in the Forecast Status column you will see two toggles. The left-hand toggle is set by the Opportunity owner, the right is set by you the manager. As a manager, this separate forecast status for the Opportunity is only visible to you.
P means the Opportunity is Pipeline
U means the Opportunity is Upside (Best Case)
C means the Opportunity is Commit.
If the Opportunity owner has added a comment to accompany their forecast, a Note icon will display in the corner of the left hand toggle button. Hover over this to view the comment.
To change the forecast status, click the down arrow next to the right hand toggle and select a status from the dropdown menu.
You can add a comment to your forecast by hovering over the Forecast Status column so that a + icon appears. Click this to add comment.
Add your comment and click Update to save.
You can also amend the Close Date and Amount of the Opportunity based on your judgement. Hover over these fields and click the down arrow to edit the manager amount or to select a new date from the calendar.
The Forecast Calculator will prioritise the forecast status set by you and changes, if any, made to the Date and Amount. when calculating your forecasts. Click the Submit Forecast button to enter the submission.
Roll up Summary
Roll up summary gives managers a quick and easy way to track team performance: what teams/reps are ahead of pacing or on target? What teams/rep are behind pacing? How much do they commit to close vs Quota? Does each team have enough pipeline to hit their target?
Roll up summary is accessed by clicking the Teams tab above the Opportunity Flow chart.
To review particular users or teams, use the filters at the top of Forecast Insights.
Ebsta displays insights for each Team selected. To view individual users within the team(s) click the down arrow to expand the view.
Quota Attainment What percentage of their Quota has the Team achieved so far this quarter.
Ebsta Forecast Forecasted attainment of Quota based on Deal Score and Projected Revenue of Opportunities in the pipeline.
Commit Submission is the amount the Sales rep or manager has submitted during the manual forecast submission process. If you hover over this column, a submission history will be displayed.
Upside Commission is the upside amount the Sales rep or manager has submitted during the manual forecast submission process. If you hover over this column, a submission history will be displayed.
Use the scroll bar to view these further insights....
Gap to Quota The amount needed to Close Won to hit Quota.
Total Pipeline The total amount of all Open Opportunities with a Close date in the selected timeframe.
Pipeline Coverage How much pipeline does a team have compared to how much Quota they ned to close.
Required Coverage How much pipeline coverage is needed to reach target based on average win rate.
Pipeline Gap How much more pipeline is needed to reach Quota.
Average Engagement The average number of external relationships of all open opportunities with a Close date in the selected timeframe.
Average Selling The average amount of all open opportunities with a close date in the selected timeframe.
Once managers have reviewed the rollup summary, they can overwrite team upside and commit forecasts by selecting the team in the user filter and submitting a new forecast using the Submit Forecast function as per the steps above.
Forecast Insights Filters
You can apply various filters to control the display of data in all elements of Forecast Insights. There are four main filters: Opportunity, Date, Users, Hierarchy and Product.
Opportunity Filter
Filter data shown by record and opportunity type.
Date Filter
Filter data shown by previous or current week, month or financial quarter.
User Filter
Filter data shown by an individual user.
Hierarchy Filter
With Ebsta's Hierarchy Filter enabled, the data displayed when a user opens forecast insights will vary based on the Forecast Hierarchy set in Salesforce. Users with no direct reports for example will view only their own forecasts while users designated as forecast managers will view the roll up of forecasts of everyone below them in the hierarchy.
To use the Hierarchy filter your Forecast Hierarchy needs to be set up in Salesforce. To learn how to do this, please refer to this article:
Set Up Your Forecast Hierarchy in Salesforce
Product: filter by product(s).
There are also additional filters that can be used to adjust the display of results in the Opportunity Flow and Bubble charts. Click the filter button in the top right-hand corner of either chart.
This opens up the filters sidebar which enables you to filter the results by Stage, Close Date, Deal Value and Relationship Score.
Get full potential of Forecast Insights
At a minimum, users need to have their mailboxes connected to sync to Ebsta. To get the full potential of Forecast Insights however, we suggest:
Bulk API Access
Forecast Insights require Bulk API access which is included with Enterprise, Unlimited, Developer and Performance editions. If you are using Professional edition, Bulk API access can be purchased by contacting Salesforce. Those using Essentials and Group will need to upgrade their edition.
More information about editions with API access is contained in this article from Salesforce:
Salesforce editions with API access