Within 0.002%: A RevOps blueprint for forecast accuracy

I've been in revenue operations for years now, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that most of us were thrown into forecasting without any real training. We figured it out as we went along. Some of us got good at it. Others are still struggling to get within shouting distance of their actuals each month.

When I started my career at a large asset management firm in Boston, forecasting was this mysterious thing that happened on a floor I never visited, handled by people I never met. I didn't even understand what forecasting really was back then. It felt completely disconnected from the actual business of selling.

That disconnect bothered me, so I moved to a tech startup selling marketing automation. There, sales ops still didn't own the forecast. We sat a few rows away from the sales team, watching them update these massive whiteboards with deal names and their commitments.

You know the ones. The deals would look great all quarter long, then in the final week, they'd start dropping off the board one by one. The forecast would fall apart. That company ended up in a fire sale after I left.

My next role was at another marketing automation company, this time focused on entrepreneurs and SMBs. Mountains of data everywhere. My first move was to build out a proper forecast. The sales leader from my previous company had joined too, and when I told him I was taking ownership of the forecast, he just said, "It's yours. Go for it."

We built something we could be proud of. We had someone focused on partner forecasting, others on outbound and marketing attribution. Over six years, we evolved that forecast as we moved upmarket, adapted it for mid-market, and then enterprise.

The company went public. Was it because of my forecasting? Well, I'm not saying it was. But I'm not saying it wasn't either.

Now I'm at Sentient Jet, where there was no forecast when I arrived. I've spent the last year building one from scratch. Last month, my forecast came in within 0.002% of actuals. That's not luck. That's process.

Why forecasting matters more than you think

Here's what nobody tells you when you start in RevOps: forecasting isn't just about predicting numbers. It's about giving your business a clear view of where growth opportunities exist.

What's working. What isn't. You're telling a story with data, and that story empowers leaders to act with actual foresight instead of just reacting to whatever happens.

When you get forecasting right, everything else falls into place. Leaders can make better hiring decisions because they understand the trajectory of the business.

They can allocate budget more effectively because they see what's driving results. Most importantly, they can build investor confidence, whether you're a startup trying to raise your Series A or a public company reporting quarterly earnings.

The business runs on your forecast. Or at least, it should.