Explanation: To improve CK's ability to forecast by footwear line (Product Family), the best solution is to configure a new Forecast Type on the Opportunity Product level that is grouped by Product Family. This approach allows CK to view forecasts segmented by each footwear line instead of a single combined Expected Revenue forecast.
Salesforce Sales Cloud offers different types of forecasting, and one of the flexible options is to use custom Forecast Types that leverage the Opportunity Product level. Here’s why option B is the most suitable:
Forecast Type on Opportunity Product: Configuring a Forecast Type on Opportunity Product allows CK to break down forecasts at a more granular level than the Opportunity itself. Since CK is using Product Families to categorize their products, they can leverage this structure to get distinct forecasts for each family.
Grouping by Product Family: Salesforce supports using Product Family as a grouping field in forecasting. By doing so, CK can easily view and manage forecasts specific to formal and athletic footwear lines separately, which aligns with their business model of distinct product lines.
Salesforce Best Practices: As per Salesforce best practices, when a business uses distinct categories of products (like Product Families), it is beneficial to forecast based on these categories to get more accurate insights and sales expectations. This approach is especially effective when different product lines have different sales trends and targets.
Forecasting Features: Salesforce Sales Cloud documentation outlines that Forecast Types can be configured to display forecast data based on Opportunity Products, and they can be grouped by custom fields like Product Family. This setup provides CK with the segmented view they need, as opposed to combining all products in a single forecast.
References: For further details, Salesforce's documentation on Forecast Types and Product Families can be referred to, which explains how to set up and manage forecasts at different levels, including Opportunity Product and how to leverage Product Family in forecasting. You can access more information in the Salesforce documentation on Forecast Types and Product Families.
In summary, configuring a Forecast Type on Opportunity Product grouped by Product Family (Option B) aligns with Salesforce Sales Cloud best practices and provides CK with the most effective solution to achieve separate forecasts by their distinct footwear lines.