Excel Sales Forecasting For Dummies
by Conrad Carlberg
Excel Sales Forecasting For Dummies
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Copyright 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005920365
ISBN: 0-7645-7593-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Author
Conrad Carlberg is the author of more than ten books about Microsoft Excel. As a multi-time recipient of Microsofts MVP designation for Excel, he is a nationally recognized expert on that application.
Carlbergs Ph.D. in statistics involves work in forecasting, as does his work in telecommunications and the health-care industry. He used the techniques in this book to reduce a crushing $24 million inventory owned by a Baby Bell to under $10 million in 18 months. The carrying costs for $24 million in equipment are significant. The point: This forecasting stuff works.
As preparation for starting his consultancy, Carlberg spent two years as a sales engineer for a Fortune 500 company. He lives near San Diego, where he tries his best to keep from crashing into other sailboats.
Dedication
For Joe Frazier, Mike Kobluk, and Chad Mitchell: Show me a pretty little number.
Authors Acknowledgments
I want to thank Kathy Ivens, who suggested my name to Wiley for this book and who has been the best coauthor one could hope for on our prior books; Tom Heine, the acquisitions editor who had the idea for this one; Elizabeth Kuball, the development editor, copy editor, project manager, and coach who has brought the book about; and, of course, the technical editor for this book ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the Excel Trickster, Bob Umlas.
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Introduction
Y ou wouldnt have pulled this book off the shelf if you didnt need to forecast sales. And Im sure that youre not Nostradamus. Your office isnt filled with the smell of incense and your job isnt to predict the date that the world will come to an end.
But someone perhaps you wants you to forecast sales, and you find out how to do that here, using the best workbook program around, Microsoft Excel.