Learning objectives
Explain why businesses need sales forecasts and how they feed into production, staffing, cash flow and marketing plans.
Calculate a four-period centred moving average from quarterly sales data to identify the trend.
Apply the moving-average trend to forecast future sales and assess the reliability of the forecast.
Explain qualitative forecasting methods such as expert opinion, the Delphi technique and sales-force estimates.
Evaluate how far managers should rely on quantitative and qualitative forecasts when making decisions.
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