Sales Plan: How do you build a solid foundation for success?

David Lorbiecke_3

Your sales plan is a roadmap that outlines how you’ll hit your revenue targets, who your target market is, the activities needed to achieve your goals and any roadblocks you may need to overcome along the way. It is the first step towards defining your sales strategy and what your sales goals are.

An effective sales plan must communicate the following information:

1. Company mission and positioning: Why does your company exist and what is your position in the market?
2. Sales organization structure: What will your sales team look like? What expertise do they need to deliver results?
3. Goals and targets: What are your revenue goals? How will you break those goals down by quarterly and monthly quotas?
4. Target audience and customer segments: What are the characteristics of your target market? Which target accounts will you pursue?
5. Sales strategies and methodologies: How will you prioritize sales activities? Which sales methodologies and playbooks will you adopt to guide your reps?
6. Sales execution plan: How will you act on this data? When will specific projects and activities be executed?
7. Measuring performance and results: What metrics and KPIs will your team be measured on?

 When creating your sales plan, you can either apply a single plan that covers the entire sales organization or dedicate sales plans for each function (sales development, account management, etc.) The direction you choose will depend on your headcount and how complex each function is.

Sales processes should be treated as a system with steps that can be optimized. If reps are doing wildly different things, it’s hard to uncover what’s working and what’s not. A good sales plan can keep them on track using repeatable systems.

When you do the work to build a solid foundation, you equip your reps with everything they need to succeed.

Does your business implement a single sales plan or multiple sales plans specific to each function, and how have your sales reps benefited from having a solid foundation in place?