V Skill HF-D8.1-007 cross-sector 11 skills
Sales forecasting and pipeline management
Records ongoing sales opportunities by stage, estimates probability and revenue and translates this into a forecast for the coming period.
How hrmforce measures this
- Assessment method
- Work sample test · rho 0.33 (SD 0.09)
- hrmforce instrument
- Work sample test, Knowledge test (client-specific)
- Competency (50-framework)
- Progress monitoring
- Trainability
- high
- Demand outlook 2026 to 2030
- rising
The candidate performs a representative work sample under standardised conditions.
Behavioural anchors
| Level | Behaviour at this level |
|---|---|
| N1 Guided | Updates the status of own sales opportunities in the customer system and reports which opportunities have lapsed. works under supervision and follows instruction · routine, one variable at a time · own task |
| N3 Proficient | Substantiates the own monthly forecast with opportunity stages and historical conversion and explains deviations from the previous forecast. sets own approach and seeks input proactively · several variables, some ambiguity · own team or process |
| N5 Leading | Sets up the forecasting method for the whole sales organisation and uses the outcomes for capacity and investment decisions. sets the standard and the policy · strategic, under high uncertainty · organisation, value chain or profession |
N2 and N4 are deliberately not anchored. Raters place them between the anchors, following the O*NET convention.
Underlying skills
These skills inherit the assessment route and the behavioural anchors of this construct.
| T | Skill | Definition | Demand outlook 2026 to 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| V | Running a pipeline review Pipeline review | Discusses status, next step and risk per opportunity and cleans up the pipeline. | rising |
| V | Building a sales forecast Sales forecast | Estimates expected revenue for the coming period based on stage, probability and history. | rising |
| V | Analysing the sales funnel Funnel analysis | Analyses where opportunities drop out of the funnel and names the cause per stage. | rising |
| V | Calculating stage conversion rates Stage conversion | Calculates which share of opportunities passes each stage and compares this with earlier periods. | rising |
| V | Scoring deal probability Win probability scoring | Assigns a weighted win probability to an opportunity on the basis of fixed criteria. | rising |
| V | Keeping CRM data clean CRM data hygiene | Removes duplicate records, completes missing fields and closes outdated opportunities. | declining |
| T | Building a sales dashboard in Power BI | Builds a dashboard with revenue, funnel and targets from CRM data for the sales team. | rising |
| V | Allocating sales targets across the team Quota allocation | Distributes a revenue goal across accounts, regions and staff and makes the split traceable. | rising |
| V | Shortening the sales cycle Sales cycle reduction | Identifies delaying steps in the sales process and shortens the time from first contact to order. | rising |
| V | Analysing lost deals Win loss analysis | Finds the reason behind lost opportunities and translates findings into changes in offer or approach. | rising |
| V | Monthly sales closing report Monthly sales close | Closes the sales month with realised revenue, deviation from target and explanation per team. | rising |