• "The necessity of sales forecasting to effectively manage the revenue potential of an organization is significant. Our latest benchmark research on the state of sales indicates that forecasting is the No. 1 most important application in 65 percent of sales organizations. Unfortunately, most people in sales do not realize the limitations and risk of their current approach in using spreadsheets. Our research found that 67 percent of sales organizations use spreadsheets to manage forecasts on a regular or universal basis, with nearly half of them finding that this method makes it difficult to manage sales efficiently. Cloud9’s new application brings together forecasting and pipeline management in a single and easy-to-use application and is a welcome addition to the sales applications market."

  Mark Smith
  Chief Executive Officer and Chief Research Officer
  Ventana Research

"Accurate, reliable forecasts are critical for best-in-class companies’ sales performance. In the Fall of 2011, Aberdeen surveyed 291 organizations to glean best practices and learn about sales performance management - a unified sales forecasting process, combined with solutions to support it, was a common denominator amongst leaders,” said Peter Ostrow, research director for the sales effectiveness practice at the Aberdeen Group. “Sales teams need visibility into their forecast and pipeline to better manage risk and find historical patterns of success or failure. Cloud9’s intelligent sales forecasting solution enables a multitude of best practices to help sales teams maximize resources and ultimately deliver top line results."

Peter Ostrow
VP and Research Group Director, Customer Management and Sales Effectiveness
Aberdeen

"It's a tired and sad story. Sales teams miss their revenue numbers because they are not even aware that the deals in the forecast are not as solid as their gut instinct tells them. Making your number today is all about taking a hard and dispassionate look at the pipeline and forecast and knowing – not guessing – the status of each deal. That means using powerful tools that capture sales data and comparing it with known historic information automatically. Cloud9's sales forecasting solutions give sales teams the tools they need to be successful and increase productivity and most important profitability."

Denis Pombriant
Beagle Research

"There’s one question that haunts every sales leader, ‘Will we hit our number’? We’ve come to accept the uncertainty as part of the job because there hasn’t been a way around it. Cloud9’s new sales forecasting solution aims to change that. The solution supplements a sales manager’s intuition with advanced analysis that uncovers at-risk deals in time to take action. Cloud9 gives managers the visibility they need so they can properly manage pipelines and forecasts, and be more confident in their ability to hit the number."

Nancy Nardin
Founder
SmartSellingTools.com

"Accurate sales forecasting continues to challenge sales managers and frustrate those whose business operations rely on forecasts. Cloud9's intelligent forecasting suite blends historical and dynamic sales data and predictive analytics to give managers the insight they need to allocate sales resources and communicate more accurate forecasts to the business."

Rebecca Wettemann
Vice President, Research
Nucleus Research

Read more from industry analysts