Chapter 1: Understanding Sales Plans
1. Sales Plan vs. Sales Strategy:
• A sales plan is a written document outlining steps to boost sales over a specified period.
• A sales strategy sets long-term goals, whereas a sales plan includes tactical steps to meet monthly, quarterly, or yearly quotas.
2. Types of Sales Plans:
• 30-60-90-day Plan: Useful for onboarding new sales managers.
• Territory Sales Plan: Focuses on geographic locations to boost productivity.
• Holiday or Specific Sales Plan: Targets specific results like improving conversion rates.
• Marketing Alignment Sales Plan: Aligns sales with marketing efforts.
• Sales Budget Plan: Focuses on anticipated expenses and overhead.
• New Product Sales Plan: For launching new products, emphasizing competitive analysis and partner development.
3. Information Needed for a Sales Plan:
• Statistics and metrics.
• Market research.
• Historical performance data.
• Pricing strategies.
• Team structure and responsibilities.
• Sales tech stack and resources.
Chapter 2: The Sales Planning Process
1. Steps to Create a Sales Plan:
• Identify Targets & Goals: Start with annual sales numbers and work backward.
• Do Customer and Market Research: Understand market demand and position your product accordingly.
• Identify Target Market & Audiences: Develop Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) to target specific segments.
• Create Relevant Content: Develop content that addresses prospects’ pain points.
• Develop a Prospecting Strategy: Map out the customer journey and engagement tactics.
• Include Persistence and Rapport: Ensure persistence and rapport in sales interactions.
• Have a Cinch on Value Proposition: Clearly articulate the value your product provides.
2. How to Write a Sales Plan:
• Executive Summary: Brief overview of sales goals and strategies.
• Business Goals and Sales Targets: Tie sales goals to business goals.
• ICP/Buyer Personas: Detailed descriptions of ideal customers.
• Sales Methodology, Tactics, and Playbooks: Outline strategies for marketing alignment and sales methods.
• Sales Team & Resources: List team members and their roles.
• Sales Tech Stack: Include current tools and any planned updates.
• Action Plan: Specific objectives, supporting tactics, and individuals responsible.
• Performance Benchmarks: Metrics to track sales process performance.
• Budget: Detailed budget including payroll, tools, and resources.
Chapter 3: Sales Plan Examples
• Provides various templates and tools for creating a sales plan, including options from HubSpot, BestTemplates, Asana, Venngage, FitSmallBusiness, and Creately.
Chapter 4: Benefits of a Sales Plan
1. Grow Your Business with Strategic Sales Planning:
• Summarizes steps to achieve sales goals.
• Emphasizes the importance of keeping the pipeline full of leads, organizing the sales team, streamlining the sales process, knowing team capabilities, and optimizing performance.
2. Sales Plan as a Tool:
• Helps in setting direction and accountability.
• Ensures team alignment and focused efforts towards achieving sales targets.