2.  A sales forecast is projected revenue based upon two things: the trends that sales managers and executives have observed and the estimates of individual sales representatives.  Companies use a sales forecast to create other important company documents such as departmental and individual sales goals, budgets for all departments and growth forecasts for investors.

3.  1- Research a profile of your target market so you can develop a report on their trends.  2- Gather historical data on how much revenue the company generated from similar products with a similar target market. Use this information as a guideline for expected sales revenue for the new products.  3- Target your geographic selling location.  4- Scrutinize the competition in your selling areas and determine how much of an impact that will have on your revenue. Compare your products to your competition.  5- Compile sales forecast information for the coming year from your sales associates.

4.  Nestle, the world's biggest food company, reported a 2011 sales growth that beat analysts' estimates and forecast higher 2012 earnings as it introduces products such as the Nescafe Alegria coffee-maker. NestleNescafe  Sales rose 7.5pc excluding acquisitions, disposals and currency shifts, the Swiss company said yesterday. That beat the 7pc average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Nestle forecast higher underlying earnings per share at constant currencies in 2012.SwissNestle  Nestle has developed cooking aids and smoothies to counter weakening consumer sentiment in North America and Europe. The company has also passed on higher raw material costs to consumers in the form of increased prices.North America  Sales from its Americas unit gained 6.2pc, helped by the introduction of products such as pizzas.  Nestle shares closed at 55.60 Swiss francs, the highest closing price since late 2010.  Another Swiss company, Danone, which is the world's largest yogurt maker said yesterday that like-for-like sales will rise 5pc to 7pc in 2012 but warned that European consumer sentiment won't improve.

5.  The following is a summary of analysts' forecasts for Nestle SA (NSRGY) first-quarter sales results, based on a poll of 10 analysts conducted by Dow Jones Newswires (figures in million francs, dividend and target price in franc, growth in percent, according to IFRS). Earnings figures are scheduled to be released April 20.  ===  Real  Organic internal  1st Quarter Sales growth growth   AVERAGE 21,244 6.6 2.8  Prev. Year 20,261 6.4 4.9  +/- in % +4.9 +3.3 -43   MEDIAN 21,244 6.5 2.8  Maximum 21,592 7.2 3.7  Minimum 20,855 5.8 2.1  Amount (a) 10 10 9  Barclays Capital 21,592 7.1 3.0  Credit Suisse 21,188 6.4 2.6  LBBW 21,151 6.4 2.9  Liberum Capital 20,855 5.8 3.7  Mirabaud 21,077 7.1 2.8  Morgan Stanley 21,075 6.9 2.7  UBS 21,300 7.2 --  Vontobel 21,504 6.2 2.8  Zuercher Kantonalbank 21,355 6.5 2.5   Target price Rating DPS 2012   AVERAGE 58.09 positive 2 AVERAGE 2.05  Prev. Quarter 56.15 neutral 7 Prev. Year 1.95  +/- in % +3.5 negative 0 +/- in % +5.1   MEDIAN 58.00 MEDIAN 2.05  Maximum 62.00 Maximum 2.10  Minimum 55.45 Minimum 2.00  Amount 8 Amount 6   Barclays Capital 57.50 Equalweight 2.05  Credit Suisse 58.00 Neutral 2.05  LBBW 57.00 Hold --  Liberum Capital -- Hold 2.00  Mirabaud 58.80 Neutral 2.05  Morgan Stanley 62.00 Overweight --  UBS 58.00 Neutral --  Vontobel 58.00 Hold 2.10  Zuercher Kantonalbank 55.45 Outperform 2.05

6.  Standard deviation is one toll of measurement that is mostly associated and used in the field of statistics and probability. Standard deviation measures the degree of variability or diversity among studied elements or variables. Standard deviation is based on the average mean of variables, whereby it accounts how dispersed the data is from its resulting mean.  Nestle has a maximum prediction of sales of 21,592 and a minimum of 20,855. Since the difference between both quantities is not great in this case, it is not absolutely necessary to use the standard deviation because we can be sure that Nestle will make at least 20,855. If the range was wider, Nestle should analyze furthermore to avoid uncertainties in the profit prediction.