#463: The 12-Step Revenue Forecast | Kim Clark | Budget Season 2026, Part 3

Most revenue budgets start with a top-down number: add 10%, push sales harder, and hope the math works out. That’s why so many plans collapse by spring. 

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In Part 3 of our Budget Season 2026 Series, I sat down with Kim Clark to break down how to build revenue the right way: from the bottom up. Kim shares her 12-step revenue forecasting process and shows how to build by product, segment, and pipeline. We talk about aligning sales, marketing, and operations so the plan is deliverable — and how to connect the revenue build-up directly into the budget model from Part 2. 
 
This isn’t about sales stretch goals or wishful percentages. It’s about creating a clear, defensible revenue plan that finance can trust and owners can use to make boardroom decisions about hiring, capacity, and cash. 
 
In this episode, Kim and I screen-share and walk through the 12 steps. If you want to see the forecast in action, check out the video version on YouTube or Spotify. 

What We Covered 

• Top-down vs. bottom-up forecasting → why most owners default to “just add 10%” and how that fails. 

• Kim’s 12-step process → very tangible, step-by-step structure owners can follow. 

• Revenue build-up mechanics → segments, products, pricing, pipeline, win rates, seasonality. 

• Operational alignment → connecting sales, marketing, and delivery so revenue forecasts don’t break capacity or margin. 

• Integration with Pat’s model → feeding clean revenue assumptions directly into the budgeting model. 

• Trust & credibility → how finance, leadership, and owners can finally use the same numbers and stop arguing about “whose forecast is right. 

Kim Clark is a sales and marketing strategist who helped scale ITR Economics from a founder-led advisory firm to a professionally managed company that exited at eight figures. As head of sales and marketing, she built the firm’s first CRM, content strategy, and inbound engine—moving the company from personality-based selling to a system built on data, automation, and strategic execution. Today, she works with business owners to build marketing engines that align with their strategy, team, and long-term cash flow goals—so they can grow without chaos and delegate without losing visibility. Her frameworks are directly aligned with the "Predictable Revenue" module within the iBD Ownership Operating System. 

Chapters:  

• (00:00) Overview of the three-part podcast series and revenue buildup process 

• (05:45) Kim's background at ITR Economics and systematic revenue forecasting approach 

• (16:36) Introduction to Kim's 12-chapter revenue forecasting framework 

• (22:29) Chapter 1: Understanding rates of change and business cycle positioning 

• (27:10) Chapter 2: Economic indicators and their impact on business planning 

• (34:55) Chapter 3: Market mix analysis and customer psychology strategies 

• (40:01) Chapter 4: Bottom-up forecasting with averages and historical data 

• (48:38) Chapters 5-12: Competitive analysis, pricing strategy, and execution planning<...

Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Independence by Design
• (00:02:13) - Revenue Forecasting
• (00:06:46) - Board Discusses Revenue Build Up and Capital Spending
• (00:07:30) - Top-Down, Bottom-Up Business Analysis
• (00:08:50) - How to Get to Your Goal?
• (00:10:55) - Timing of Revenue Recognition
• (00:16:41) - The 3-Step Budget Process
• (00:22:29) - The Business Cycle: Starting With Rates of Change
• (00:24:03) - The Business Cycle: A Quick and Easy Way to Understand Where It
• (00:26:36) - Economic Indicators
• (00:28:48) - How to Find Out What The Economic Indicators Are
• (00:33:43) - Understanding Customer Psychology in 2026
• (00:34:48) - Segment by Mindset, Not Industry
• (00:36:41) - Top Down Strategic Forecast for 2021-2026
• (00:40:11) - Compensation Framework for Small Businesses
• (00:46:53) - upper and lower bounds i