It's the start of a new quarter, and you've just arrived at work to a full inbox.
You slurp down your triple-shot coffee, and try to establish what's urgent and needs tending to now, what can be sorted out later, and what can go straight in the trash.
There's an email there from your boss with the subject line "Sales quota Q2".
You open that email, and things don't look good.
The expectation on your team is much higher than you'd expected, and for sure higher than your team is currently capable of producing.
You need a plan.
More specifically, you need a sales plan.
Creating a powerful sales plan is no small feat, that's for sure, but that's why we're here! In this guide, we'll show you exactly what goes in a sales plan and guide you through the 11 steps to creating a killer plan for sales success.
A sales plan essentially details how you're going to go about achieving the targets required for your business to be successful.
It lays out the objectives and goals you want to achieve, discusses high-level strategies and tactics for achieving them, and details aspects such as team capabilities and resources, and actions that need to be taken to extend these capabilities.
An effective sales plan achieves a number of objectives:
You can think of sales planning as similar to creating a traditional business plan, except with reference specific to sales development.
It's pretty well-known that the majority of new businesses fail (around 90%), and a leading cause for this incredibly high number is the fact that many founders fail to craft an effective business plan.
It's why 69% of business investors won't fund a startup without first having seen a thorough business plan.
The same applies to the success of your sales team.
If you don't have a plan of attack, then you're plain and simple far less likely to achieve your goals.
Without a documented sales plan, several problems arise:
Creating an effective plan means you're better able to perform accurate sales analysis, you can motivate and inspire your team (and can gain buy-in from the troops), and you can design strategies for enhancing individual performance.
So what does a sales plan actually look like in practice?
A well-designed sales plan has 10 sections:
Let's look at each in a little more detail.
The executive summary provides a brief description and overview of the entire sales plan.
It should include one to two lines from each of the following sections, meaning the entire executive summary should be less than one page in length.
To maximize the space you have available, consider using bullet points and other design elements.
This is an example of an executive summary from a marketing plan, but a sales plan summary would look fairly similar.
The next section should detail any company objectives you have, as well as the annual and quarterly (or even monthly) revenue targets you have.
Depending on the size and structure of your company, this may be a few bullet points or it may be a comprehensive section that details goals across different teams, for different products or customer segments, as well as information such as revenue, gross profit, and net profit targets.
Creating a plan for success involves having a solid understanding of how your organization has performed in the past.
This means performing a thorough historical sales analysis.
It's impossible to determine how you'll reach a goal of, say, $2m in revenue if you have no data on how much revenue you generated last month.
The aspects of the performance you review in this section should relate directly to your goals and targets set out in the previous section.
For example, if you have a revenue goal that looks like this:
Then your review of previous revenue performance should show what you achieved in the same timeframe last year:
Your team is not selling into a vacuum.
The customers you're targeting exist within the wider context of the economy, and in the more specific context of the industry and market you occupy.
This section should provide readers with an understanding of how the market is operating right now, and any positive or negative indications.
Cover aspects such as:
Here you'll provide a description of the ideal customer your team is looking to target.
You may have one or several customer personas.
If you're targeting different customers for different products, or you have a few different types of buyers (for example some products may be applicable to marketing managers and small business owners alike), then you'll need to include a section for each target customer.
Include these five categories for each persona:
With consideration to the goals and targets you have set, what strategies and tactics are you going to use to get there?
For example, is your team going to take an outbound sales approach, or rely on inbound marketing to drive lead generation?
Will your team be mostly inside sales reps, dialing out on VoIP phones? Or are you going to hire outside sales reps to visit potential customers?
This section of the sales plan can reference sales process documentation, should you have this prepared already.
Here, you'll describe what your team looks like.
It should include roles, costs, and quotas:
|
Rep |
Role |
Salary (incl. commission) |
Monthly quota |
|
Rep 1 |
Sales Development Rep |
$70,000 |
$15,000 |
|
Rep 2 |
Account Executive |
$90,000 |
$50,000 |
|
Rep 3 |
Sales Development Rep |
$70,000 |
$15,000 |
|
Rep 4 |
Sales Development Rep |
$70,000 |
$15,000 |
|
Rep 4 |
Senior Account Executive |
$115,000 |
$75,000 |
You should also include a few paragraphs that describe the capabilities of your team, and shortcomings.
For example, you may have identified that your team is great at prospecting and demonstrations, but struggles to close.
Including this information will help you to build a team and individual development plans to enhance performance and achieve your targets.
What resources do you have at your disposal right now?
This should include aspects such as:
You should also include mention of resources you don't have, and that would be helpful in moving you toward the aforementioned objectives.
Use your breakdown of team capabilities to design action plans for each of your sales reps.
The action plan should detail:
Lastly, your sales plan should discuss the key performance indicators that show that your team is (or isn't) heading toward the core goals you've set out at the start.
For example, let's say you know that one of every five product demonstrations leads to a sale and that your SDRs need to talk to six leads for every demo they manage to book.
You also know that 40% of your calls actually get answered.
So, in order to gain one new customer each week, you need to set a KPI for SDRs to call 75 new leads each week (75 calls at a 40% answer rate means 30 conversations, 5 of which book meetings, and one of those will turn into a sale).
A SWOT sales analysis looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your sales team and organization as a whole.
The idea here is to use the strengths and opportunities you identify to determine the best strategies and tactics to employ as part of your sales plan.
You'll also use weaknesses and threats identified during the SWOT sales analysis process to create individual development plans and to create strategies to improve your resources either through hiring new reps or by implementing specific software solutions.
Next, you need to clearly define your organizational goals.
There are a number of goals your company might look to work towards, for example:
|
Metric |
Example |
|
Revenue |
Increase sales revenue by $1m |
|
Average deal size |
Increase average deal size by $500 |
|
Average deal length |
Reduce average length of sales by 2 days |
|
Win rate |
Increase win rate by 5% |
|
Customer acquisition cost |
Reduce CAQ by 10% |
|
Rep activities |
Increase daily calls to 120 and emails to 150 per day |
|
Email response rate |
Improve cold email response rate by 20% |
Setting clear goals helps you to determine the key metrics you'll track and allows you to assess the importance of various sales tactics.
Your sales plan should be tailored to your target market. Who are you trying to sell to? What are their needs, wants, and pain points? By understanding your target market, you can create a sales message that resonates with them.
This involves conducting market research to gather data on your target audience's demographics, psychographics, and buying behavior.
Answer these questions in your market analysis:
You should also provide an analysis of target customer segments and any changes or specific insights that are relevant to your success in the following year.
Now that you know where you're going and who you're selling to, it's time to map out how you're going to get there. Develop sales strategies that outline your overall approach, and then create sales tactics that detail the specific actions you'll take to achieve your goals.
Consider factors like your sales channels, sales processes, and sales messaging. For example, you might decide to focus on inbound marketing to attract leads and then use a consultative sales approach to close deals.
Even the best sales plans can crumble without proper budget allocation. Identify the resources you'll need—this could be hiring more sales reps, investing in marketing, or upgrading your CRM. You don't want to run out of budget halfway through implementing your sales plan.
Start by looking at your sales analysis from previous years to understand where to allocate funds. And don't forget to allocate resources for unexpected shifts in the market; flexibility is key in sales planning.
You can't have a killer sales plan without the right processes and tools in place. Streamline your workflow by defining your sales process—from lead generation to closing the deal. Make sure your sales team knows exactly what to do at each step. Tools like CRMs play a pivotal role here.
Take Ringy, for example, our CRM. It comes packed with the following features to enhance your sales processes:
Finally, you need to know if your plan is actually working. Establish clear performance metrics to track success. These might include conversion rates, average deal size, or the number of leads generated. Regularly review these metrics and adjust your strategy as needed.
You can't improve what you don't measure! Consider setting up monthly or quarterly reviews to ensure your team stays on track and your sales plan remains relevant in an ever-changing market.
No sales plan is without its hiccups. Even the best-laid plans can face unexpected roadblocks, from market shifts to budget cuts. But the key to success isn't avoiding challenges—it's being prepared to face them head-on.
Let's break down some common challenges in sales planning and explore strategies to overcome them.
Sales planning is all about being proactive, but that's easier said than done. Here are a few obstacles that can catch even seasoned sales teams off guard:
While these challenges are real, they're not insurmountable. The best sales plans are adaptable, with built-in flexibility to address unexpected obstacles. Here's how you can stay ahead:
A well-crafted sales plan is only as effective as its implementation. To truly see results, you need to put the plan into action in a way that ensures alignment, adaptability, and consistent improvement. Here are some best practices for making your sales plan work seamlessly:
You can't just hand over a sales plan and expect magic to happen. Regular communication is key to ensuring everyone is on the same page. Hold weekly or bi-weekly meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and any needed adjustments.
Make sure the sales team is fully aligned with the company's overall goals. There's nothing worse than one team pushing for aggressive sales while another team is working on customer retention without coordination.
Encourage open feedback from the sales team on what's working and what's not. They're on the front lines, so their insights are crucial for refining the plan.
Sales strategies evolve, and so should your sales team. Continuous training ensures that your team stays up to date on the latest tactics, tools, and industry trends. This could be anything from improving negotiation skills to mastering new sales software.
Focus on both product knowledge and sales techniques. A well-informed salesperson is a confident salesperson. Don't just rely on formal training. Implement on-the-job coaching, peer-to-peer mentoring, and role-playing exercises to reinforce learning.
A sales plan should never be set in stone. It's a living document that needs to be adjusted based on real-world performance and market shifts. Use sales data analytics to track progress and spot trends early on. If certain tactics aren't driving the desired results, don't hesitate to pivot.
Collect feedback directly from your target market. If customers are saying that a competitor's product meets their needs better, it's time to reevaluate your approach.
Keep an eye on KPIs like conversion rates, average deal size, and sales cycle length. These metrics will tell you where your team is thriving and where there's room for improvement. With this data in hand, you can make more informed adjustments to your strategy.
As mentioned, a CRM system like Ringy not only streamlines communication and lead management but also provides valuable sales insights to help guide your decisions. Automating tasks like follow-ups or customer segmentation saves your team time while improving efficiency.
Use advanced sales data analytics to track every aspect of your sales process—from lead generation to closing deals. This allows you to identify bottlenecks, improve processes, and capitalize on what's working well.
Consider integrating sales enablement tools that provide insights into buyer behaviors and personalize your outreach accordingly. The more you know about your prospects, the better your chances of closing deals.
A sales plan in and of itself is all well and good, but how do you know if it's actually making an impact?
This is where your metrics and reporting come in.
In an ideal world (scratch that, in a necessary world), you've got a capable sales CRM set up with a robust suite of reporting and analytics tools.
This should allow you to look in regularly and understand:
It's important, then, that you set up some quality KPIs, and establish a regular cadence for reporting.
The best way to do this, and to keep your reps properly motivated, is to get down to the level of behavior.
That means that rather than measuring the effectiveness of your sales plan based on, say, your deal win rate (which you should be tracking too, by the way), you should understand the activities and behaviours your reps exhibit that lead to winning deals.
This might include things like:
If you're able to accurately identify the micro behaviors that lead to success and drive your metrics forward, then incentivizing and measuring those behaviors is your best lever for success.
Then, set up a cadence of sales reporting and stick to it. A good idea is to have a split weekly/monthly cadence.
Provide weekly updates to your team every Monday, and meet with individual reps each week to discuss progress (or lack thereof, and what can be done to put them back on course).
Then, send out a more thorough analysis of sales performance on a monthly basis, and hold a full-time meeting to review and discuss.
One of the challenges sales leaders face is that their plans don't always work out as expected.
And when this happens, it can be difficult to determine whether you simply haven't given enough time for your plan to work, or whether you've made a mistake in the planning process.
Use this process to troubleshoot:
If none of this appears to be the reason, then you may need to go back to the drawing board.
Don't fall victim to the sunk costs fallacy. If you get a quarter in, and you've not made any progress, consider recreating the plan altogether; you might have taken a wrong approach somewhere.
If you've been watching carefully, you'll have noticed that there's one helpful tool that's going to be crucial for sales planning success:
The CRM.
You're going to need a powerful, affordable CRM to access sales insights during the planning process, to manage sales throughout the year, and to perform sales analysis and reporting to check you're still on track.
Guess what? That's us!
Book a demo with one of the Ringy team today, and find out how we can propel you and your team to sales success.