Do you have a sales plan? Are you tired of constantly failing at meeting your sales goals? Or is the confusion of how to create one lingering in your head?

A well-laid sales plan is crucial regardless of the size of the business or industry.

Therefore, the focus of a sales plan should be on your objectives, potential obstacles, and necessary actions at every stage.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, sales executive, or sales manager, developing a sales plan will help you achieve your goals.

So, if your current plan isn’t working, it’s time to conduct a deeper analysis for better results.

Below are the steps you should take to create a plan for your business.

Collect Relevant Sales Data and Study Current Trends

Understanding past data is crucial to creating a compelling future strategy. For example, what were your sales like in the past few years?

Did your previous strategy help you achieve your sales goals? Collecting this information can help you understand the trends in the industry.

Analyzing these trends means diving deep into closed and non-closed sales and company and product performance.  As a result, you will establish an excellent foundation for your upcoming sales plan.

Here are some tips for analyzing sales data and trends:

• Identify the average deal size per team member by dividing the total number of deals by the total amount that comes in. Make it a point to measure this metric monthly or quarterly. It will help you understand if your deals align with the company’s vision and set objectives. You’ll get an idea about potential risks and give relevant insights on larger deals.
• Calculate the percentage of leads that convert into customers. It will help you understand the number of leads required to achieve your business goals. You also get an idea about the quality of leads acquired by the sales team.
• Target specific metrics to ensure you spend time closing the right leads. For example, target the time spent in closing each deal. Understand why it takes longer in specific scenarios.
• Evaluate product performance to ensure you spend your energy selling the products in demand. For instance, research which products are purchased together and analyze the seasonal sales trends.
• Analyze overall company performance to identify new opportunities
• Lastly, ask for feedback from your repeated buyers to understand the trends better.

Set Specific Sales Objectives

Measuring progress becomes difficult without specific objectives.

The sales planning process must begin with setting clear goals or targets to achieve.

Here are some examples of sales objectives you can refer to:

• Increase the monthly or annual revenue by 15%
• Reduce monthly customer churn rate
• Increase the number of units sold in a month
• Boost profit margin by 15%
• Increase customer lifetime value by 20%
• Reduce the customer acquisition rate by 10%
• Increase the number of qualified leads per month by 12%
• Reduce the sales cycle time by 8%
• Increase monthly win rates by 8%

Analyze the current scenario and set specific objectives for areas that need work and have clear goals to ensure smooth execution.

Define Metrics Suitable for Your Business Goals

Identifying the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your specific business is crucial.

What areas can you target to best assess your business’ performance?

There are standard KPIs, including gross profit margins, return on investment (ROI), and conversion rates.

Below are specific sales metrics you can target to achieve substantial growth:

• Annual Recurring Revenue (generally used by subscription-based businesses or software-as-a-service (SaaS) models): revenue generated per customer for each year of a multiyear contract
• Average Revenue Per User: revenue generated per user in a given period
• Quota Attainment: the percentage of sales closed in a specific time frame
• Win Rate: total number of quoted deals turning into sales
• Conversion Rate: percentage of potential customers turning into customers
• Average Profit Margin: the overall sales revenue converting into profit
• Sales Cycle Length: the amount of time required to complete a sale
• Average Deal Size: average dollar generated for every closed deal
• Deal Slip Rate: percentage of commitment-stage deals that don’t close within the estimated time
• Churn Rate: customers who cancel or don’t renew the subscription
• Lead Scoring: evaluating and ranking a lead based on how likely it is to turn into a sale

Analyze Your Current Situation

Understanding your current business situation will help determine if your existing efforts align with your objectives.

Modifying or replacing current sales efforts depends on the depth of your knowledge.

Conduct a SWOT analysis to understand your strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats.

It’s crucial to know your biggest roadblocks before you plan on walking past them.

Have a deep understanding of all the obstacles drastically hindering your success.

It’ll also help you know the processes that work well for you. Keep running them while you modify or create new plans.

Conduct Sales Forecasting

Sales forecasting refers to creating an in-depth report with predictions about how much a particular salesperson, team, or company should sell in a given time frame.

The time frame can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. It’s created based on past performance data.

Managers must ensure their team closes enough deals required to achieve business objectives.

Here are some tips for conducting effective sales forecasting for your business:

• Invest in a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
• It’s crucial to establish a well-laid sales process to ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Focus on setting individual and team quotas based on the discussions with reps and leaders.
• Select an ideal sales forecasting method.
• Obtain information from various departments such as marketing, finance, and product.
• Conduct a session to review prior sales forecasts.
• Make sure you keep your team updated at all times using unified communications systems.

Identifying Current Business Gaps

Identify the gaps in your current processes and employee skills.

Focus on the things your company requires as of now while keeping an eye intact on future needs.

Understand the skills your employees need to achieve intense targets. Devise a plan to improve the areas where they lacking.

Jot Down Your Action Plan to Get Started

After a successful discussion and evaluation, it’s time to work on your action plan.

Focus on breaking down your newly developed process into actionable steps.

Remember that one document isn’t enough, and you must reiterate the process every year.

You should delegate tasks based on the capabilities and capacities of individuals.

Examples Of Sales Plan

Let’s now go through relevant sales plan examples for an improved understanding.

30-60-90 Days Sales Plan

Creating a 30-60-90-day sales plan is crucial to getting new sales reps on track.

A three-month strategy is an excellent training method to ensure employees understand the overall functioning.

This sales plan focuses on achieving a target in a specific time frame.

You can consider taking goals like reduced customer churn rate or set quotas.

Focused On Marketing and Sales Alignment

Marketing and sales are two crucial departments of an organization.

If your business hasn’t yet aligned them together, then it’s time to start.

The plan focuses on developing ideal customer profiles and detailed buyer personas.

Your marketing message must become a core part of your overall sales pitch.

Dedicated To Market Expansion

A marketing expansion sales plan targets the right areas while entering new territory.

It outlines the steps required to address a target market in a new location.

All sales representatives work to understand the differences in the current and targeted market to align their efforts accordingly.

Final Words

Get started with your sales plan today to effectively achieve your business objectives.

Remember that spending considerable time researching and analyzing is crucial to developing a sales plan.

Execute the plan and keep modifying with changing requirements.