| Abstract: | It is difficult to avoid errors in sales forecasts for new industrial products, especially when the forecasts are made at the new product screening stage. But if managers are aware that a forecast is likely to be in serious error, they can take steps to deal with the uncertainty. A research project analyzed 185 new product projects to develop four major indicators of sales forecast error. The indicators can be derived for specific firms from typical project screening questions and can be used to alert new product managers to special development problems that may be present. |
