A sales plan can be considered as an established guide for the commercial department of a company, which determines the actions that are required to achieve the sales objectives.
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Do you know how to get those sales you have in mind? o How can you close deals with those specific clients you are looking for? Surely you have many ideas about how to achieve your goals, however sometimes they can remain ambiguous if you do not give them an adequate structure or do not reduce them to a detailed document.
That document is the sales plan, which will mark specific actions that must be followed by the commercial area to reach the objectives set. Keep reading and go ahead and build yours.
What is a sales plan?
A sales plan can be considered as a guide established for the commercial department of a company, which determines the actions required to achieve sales objectivesas well as the necessary resources and the strategies to follow in specific cases foreseen in the commercial strategy.
Creating one allows you, among other things:
- Have a detailed view of sales strategies.
- Achieve an income projection in a given period.
- Determine the customer profiles you have or are looking for.
- Plan the resources you need to achieve sales goals.
- Increase your income.
Difference Between Sales Plan and Business Strategy
A commercial strategy addresses all the activities that will be carried out in order to position your company and its products in a specific area. It allows you to visualize the alliances you must have and the resources you require to position yourself, sell and be a profitable business.
It is created from a financial analysis and takes into account various aspects such as sales, brand positioning, strategic partners and other points that you can review in this article that tells you how.
A sales plan is more specific and focuses on how you are going to sell. When you make a strategic sales plan, you do it thinking about what your sales force will need to reach certain customers, what specific agreements you will need with each one, for example payment plans or credits, when to cross-sell, etc.
In the sales plan you will define which strategy suits you best and what will be the best ways to close certain businesses and it goes within a commercial strategy. It is like a next step where specific actions are defined for specific cases.
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Sales plan and promotion plan
Now let’s talk about how these two plans help each other and how to take advantage of each by using them together. Although the sales plan may include the creation of promotions among its strategies, a promotion plan has more to do with how the services or products that we have will be offered and is usually created by the marketing area.
In a promotion plan, the objectives can range from achieving brand recognition, to finishing selling all the stock of a lagging product, through customer loyalty or increased sales; but a sales plan will always have as its main focus, to sell more.
How to make a sales plan?
You can structure in a document all the elements that a sales plan must have, I will list them below, and make a kind of log where the progress and scope achieved in each stage of your plan is monitored.
To make a structured sales plan, consider the following questions:
What should a sales plan have?
- Objectives aligned to the business objective and mission.
- Profile and data of your target customers.
- Well-defined strategies according to the market.
- The period of time in which the strategies will be carried out.
- Responsible for each activity.
- Required resources (internal or external).
- Metrics.
When to make a sales plan?
The answer may be, when you do your periodic planning. In other words, a sales plan can be developed on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis depending on how you organize your goals, but what you should always consider is that it has a constant review period to be able to analyze if you are reaching your goals. Or do you have to make any changes?
You can also make your strategic sales plan when you are about to launch a new product or specifically looking to enter a market segment. The search for specific clients that you have never reached before also gives you the opportunity to plan your strategy better.
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How to use the sales plan in my online business?
You can use it to establish your specific customer service strategies through social networks, define your digital marketing strategy, establish your budget for digital media and to project the increase in conversions of your website. Include all the actions that have to do with generating and increasing your sales.
It is important that you also take into account technical aspects to improve your customers’ experience in your online business and achieve your sales goals.
For example:
- That your online store is optimized to receive the largest number of visitors.
- Do not have a problem with payment methods.
- That you have enough stock.
- If your page is not a store but you use it to generate leads, use a good CRM.
In addition to these considerations, you can use technology and include it in your sales resources, for example, use chatbots to attend to a specific campaign or generate campaigns on social networks focused on a specific segment of people.
📌Note: If your business is not yet online, we recommend you take a look at the one published by and see the opportunities that e-commerce represents in Mexico.
Example of a sales plan
To start your document you can include a cover and then an index that you can develop on each page according to its order. Example:
Objectives of the plan ………………………………. two
Objective 1: Reach a sales quota of X at the end of the second quarter of the year.
Objective 2: Contact 10 high ticket clients by the end of the semester.
Clients (Profiles and characteristics) …………… 3
– Purchasing managers of companies dedicated to _______ looking for suppliers that invoice within 30 days.
– Distributors in CDMX who need an independent supplier of X product.
Strategies and tactics …………………..………. 4
Prospect acquisition strategy.
Up-selling strategy.
Cross-selling strategy.
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Scheduling and responsible ………………. 5
Strategy Responsible Period Prospecting strategy Sales1 December-January Cross selling strategy Sales1 January-March Network promotion strategy Marketing January-March Up-selling promotion strategy Salesperson April-June
Required resources and budgets ………… 6
Personnel Budget Periodicity Total annual Seller 1 $10,000 monthly $120,000.00 Seller 2 $10,000 monthly $120,000.00 Accountant $18,000 monthly $216,000.00
Item Budget Periodicity Total annual CRM $2,000.00 monthly $24,000.00 Sales course $7,000.00 quarterly $28,000.00 Leadership course $15,000.00 one-off $15,000.00 Travel expenses $20,000.00 monthly $240,000.00
Indicators and notes ……………………………… 7
In this section you can include an open space for comments and updates from your sales team. It is also the section where you will include your most relevant KPIs according to the objectives set.
This is just an example that you can use to create your first sales plan, it all depends on your goals, budgets and resources. We hope it will serve as a guide to continue improving your business.
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Summary
In this article we saw key points for your sales plan. I leave you a small summary to synthesize the information.
What is a sales plan?
A sales plan is an established guide for the commercial department of a company, which determines the actions required to achieve the sales objectives.
Difference Between Sales Plan and Business Strategy
We can note that a sales plan is part of a business strategy and would be like a next step where specific actions are defined to achieve the highest number of sales, while the strategy covers other areas such as brand promotion and positioning.
Sales plan and promotion plan
The sales plan can include the creation of promotions among its strategies, while a promotion plan has more to do with how the services or products that we have will be offered and is usually created by the marketing area. A sales plan will always have as its main focus to sell more.
How to make a sales plan?
- Align your business goals and mission.
- Analyze the profile and data of your target customers.
- Develop well-defined strategies according to the market.
- Delimit the time frame to carry out the strategies.
- Assign responsible for each activity.
- Distribute the necessary resources (internal or external).
- Set the metrics to consider.
When to make a sales plan?
A sales plan can be developed on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis depending on how you organize your goals.
How to use the sales plan in my online business?
Use it to establish your specific customer service strategies through social networks, define your digital marketing strategy, establish your budget for digital media and to project the increase in conversions on your website.
Ready to make your first sales plan? We invite you to start yours and improve the points you consider. We also leave you the invitation to try and create your online store easily.🙌
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