sales planning is that sales forecasts are conditional. They normally must be prepared prior to management decisions or plans in such areas as plant expansion, price changes, promotional programs, production scheduling, expansion or contraction of marketing activities, and other resource commitments. The initial forecasts and there should usually be more than one to indicate probable sales under various alternative assumptions are an important source of in formation in the development of managerial strategies and resources commitments.
The confusion between forecasting and planning was emphasized by one author as follows:
When the leader of an organization says that he would like a forecast, what he often means is that he wants a plan. He wants to make something happen, and he uses this plan as a target for people in his organization.