LinkedIn·Wednesday, 29 July 2026·28d ago

Three functions. One demand plan. Zero agreement. Sales pushes the demand plan up to make sure the product exists when they've got a…

Horizon Solutions

3,868 followers

Three functions. One demand plan. Zero agreement. Sales pushes the demand plan up to make sure the product exists when they've got a customer ready to buy. Marketing pushes it up too, usually optimistic around new launches. Finance pulls it the other way, favouring a conservative number, especially if they're public and don't want to overstate revenue. That's not demand planning collaboration, it's a negotiation with extra spreadsheets - and it shows up in the results. Meetings run long, decisions get escalated, and the demand plan that comes out reflects whoever won the room, not what the business knows. Companies that do this well build demand plans that run 10-20 points more accurate than the ones that don't - that kind of swing moves real money in inventory and revenue. The ones that do it badly end up worse than the statistical baseline alone - collaboration makes the plan worse, not better. The difference is five rules, not more meetings: 1. Start from the statistical baseline. Contributors adjust it, they don't replace it 2. Every overlay gets a name, a reason, and a number. "Q3 looks soft" isn't an overlay, it's a guess 3. One demand plan, owned by demand planning. Sales and marketing contribute - they don't own the outcome 4. Disagreements get surfaced and settled with data, not seniority 5. FVA gets checked months later, so you know which overlays helped and which ones to stop trusting Follow those five and collaboration adds accuracy. Skip them and it's just a longer meeting. Here's the full breakdown of the five principles and where most teams break them - https://lnkd.in/gDCbfYDT #demandplanning #demandplanningcollaboration #sop