Pipeline vs. forecast: What's the difference?

Is there a difference between the pipeline and the sales forecast? Yes, there is a difference, and yes, it does matter. Sales people sometimes use these words interchangeably without giving it a lot of thought, or they may have worked for other organizations that had differing definitions of these terms.  Regardless, understanding what both mean and using them correctly is important for a number of reasons. Sales forecasting, in the general sense of predicting future revenues, can be divided into three types of process structures: