Sales Planning and Sales Consulting Articles
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Does it ever seem strange to you that so much time and effort goes into your company's strategic planning process, yet your salespeople often spend too much time responding to questionable leads and less than stellar business opportunities? Most companies take planning quite seriously. Multi-year growth plans, with specific sales and profit objectives, lay out the direction the company is going and determines how they are going to get there.
So what's your sales force doing with this information? How do you clearly communicate goals to every salesperson? Do all salespeople have a detailed plan on how to sell the business that the company has targeted?
Suppose that you could ensure that every salesperson knows exactly the type of business to pursue? How do these priorities mesh with those of the company? Given the challenge of finding enough time for face to face calling, where do the salespeople place their emphasis? Do they have a system that guarantees that their focus is the same as that of management? If they don't, the answer may lie in having each salesperson develop a yearly business plan.
If you were to start a new venture, your banker, colleagues or other investors would expect a detailed plan specifying what you're going to do, and when and how you intend to accomplish it. The principle is the same for a salesperson's business plan.
This plan examines competitors' strengths and weaknesses, the salesperson's strategy and tactics, and specific activity goals (i.e., calls, trade shows, networking, expense management, etc.). It also identifies the prime target customers or prospects and assigning them a priority for solicitation. You can't achieve victory without a plan of attack.
Before the start of the new selling year, ask salespeople to assess the current sales environment, their performance to date, what factors impact their ability to sell, company strengths and weaknesses, along with how those of the competition influence their ability to succeed. This current year review is an excellent forum to illuminate whatever issues they may have. Then have the salespeople commit to and define specific sales objectives and identify a finely targeted group of top priority customers or clients, whether current or prospective. The next step is to identify the specific sales strategy and tactics they need to follow.
Formalizing salesperson planning, and providing your sales group the necessary time and guidelines to properly complete it, yields many dividends. While it is clear that the salesperson can benefit tremendously from coherent planning and a focused sales effort, the biggest winner in territory planning is the company. A comprehensive plan calls upon the resources of the company and its people. It eliminates confusion or conflict. It defines the type and location of targeted, priority business. In choosing the customers or prospects salespeople will call on, they should coordinate with all those who have a real stake in the sales process. Buy-in by the managers who support the sales process is essential. Good planning saves time and miscommunication; Rifling in on specific goals is more effective.
Implemented properly, will be a culture shift in your sales organization and virtually guarantee more sales at a higher profit. You target only the better business, and then have every salesperson develop a plan to effectively sell it. Planning means going on the offense.
The tough part is to commit to the process, plan it well in advance, and give it a high profile. For the people who expect excellence in sales and marketing, here is a guaranteed way to achieve it.
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