Creating an effective Sales Plan requires a lot of planning and a firm understanding of the market strategy for the product that you are selling. Depending on your go to market strategy there are a number of variables that need to be considered as you structure your sales organization, set goals, and finalize the overall plan.
Most sales plans have a similar form and can be read and understood easily by upper management and implemented effectively by the rest of the teams. In general a plan is structured similar to that of other Business Plans; with an executive summary followed by a short and easily understood document.
To provide an outline of a sales plan example, it will typically cover the following two topics, and be structured in a way that leverages the strengths of the organization.
1. Strategies and tactics for new business acquisition
2. Strategies and tactics to convert existing business
Within the document itself, the general structure is similar to that of other business plans. It will typically have the following structure:
1. Executive Summary
2. Organizational goal & strategy, inclusive of sales forecast and expectations for each tier of the team.
3. Overview of sales management structure
4. Goals for each tier of sales management
5. Goals, activities and expectations for each tier of sales management
6. Sales compensation plan.
This structure does vary depending on who is drafting the document. In some sales organization, individual sales representatives are responsible for creating their own plans. In this instance the above structure may be foregone and a brief tactical plan may be developed in its place. By comparison, if the VP of Sales is drafting the plan, it may be much more strategic and adhere to the more traditional format.
Within the business acquisition strategy portion of the plan, great thought must be put into the overall goal and what overall strategy may best accomplish the goal. This strategy should take into account the market position of the products as well as the specific skill sets and organizational structure of the this part of the organization. For executives, this strategy really is the go to market strategy for the organization. For example, if your company is heavily dependent on an outside sales force, then your strategy may focus on the most efficient utilization of those teams to get in front of new customers. By way of contrast, if you rely on inside sales and marketing to drive new business, then your this component of your sales plan may focus heavily on demand generation and the efficient qualification of new leads.
From your strategy, different tactics should be developed. Sadly this is where most organizations fall down. They develop tactics instead of creating a strategy. Each of your business acquisition tactics should support the overall business development strategy developed in your plan. Care must be taken to limit tactics that support your overall strategy without going too far afield. All too often tactics are created that distract from the strategy which confuses the sale people and may hinder the overall goal.
Your strategies for growing new business should focus on the best use of your resources to provide the biggest overall return on investment. If you have outside sales people, this truly is where they should spend the bulk of their time. There is a saying that existing customers make the best customers. It costs less to sell them more and their potential for growth is much greater simply because your teams already have a relationship in place that can be leveraged. As you develop your strategy you should keep this in mind.
From a tactical standpoint, examples of different sales plans include the use of incentives, preferred pricing, contractual cross- selling and many other tools to get your existing customers to buy more. Overall these tactics include a lot of what your sales teams already do effectively, but it is always good to formalize techniques on paper and to share best practices.
