How to make a successful sales plan for your business

 

What is a sales plan?

A sales plan is a guide of actions to take to help you reach your sales goals for the year. In it, a monthly forecast of the expected level of sales is made, as well as the strategies to achieve it.

It takes into account past sales, market trends, customer niches and how to reach them, interact with them and guide them through their sales funnel until they close.

If you do it right, this is a tool that will allow you to optimize your response times to the client and have everything outlined to facilitate the closing work.

In addition, with the information you collect within your plan, you will be able to better identify high and low seasons. This will allow you to take the appropriate actions and make adjustments.

Therefore, in this article we are going to show you how to make a sales plan step by step.

1. Set realistic goals

To create your plan, you must first set an end goal. This is a number, be it closures, new clients, etc. This will allow you to determine if the plan was ultimately successful or not.

The key is to define this number realistically. That is, depending on the size of the market, company objectives, the resources you have, your sales team, trends, among others.

Start by reviewing the results of the previous two years and seeing the real growth you have had.

To establish these numbers you can consult your sales team. They know the customer, his opinions and tastes, as well as the seasons in which he sells more.

Make sure forecasts are always based on market trends. If it seems that the market is decreasing, it would not be logical to forecast an increase in sales. But if the trend you see is upward, you can forecast a percentage increase.

Once you've set your goals, ask someone with experience, like an accountant or salesperson, for help. Review the document before submitting it as an official plan.

Important:

The objectives that should be fixed. Do not change them because you see that they were not achieved at the beginning. This should serve as a reference and so you can improve in the future.

Remember that if it is the first time you make a plan, it is normal to make mistakes in some projections. But the important thing is that you document all this so that in your next plan you can make the required adjustments.

2. Define deadlines and milestones

The objective or total number of sales must be divided and distributed in installments. This way you can better see if the goal is realistic.

Again, start with the previous year's figures, if you have them on file. Look at the history of income and expenses that your company has had annually. Compare your company with others in the industry.

Talk to your sales team about how they have distributed their time in the work week: receiving calls, prospecting, follow-ups and closings.

Check out how much they are currently doing and how much room they actually have to do more. This will give you a more realistic view of what you can achieve. If they are full with pending orders, deliveries, etc. do not increase the load too much. It would be better to consider hiring a couple of new elements.

Reviewed the above, set milestones for each person. These should have clear objectives and deadlines.

For example, increase the customer base by 25%, close 20% more sales of a certain product, increase the number of calls by 30%, etc.

Whatever it is, make clear what the expectations are and set a hard deadline for the team.

It also stipulates individual milestones, taking into account differences between vendors. For example, if someone makes a lot of calls but doesn't close sales, give them a milestone to increase their conversion rate.

Or if, on the other hand, someone is good at closing but doesn't make many new contacts, set a milestone to reach out to more prospects.

3. Choose a specific niche

Now that you know what you want to achieve, you must use what you know about your market and define what niche you are going to occupy to position yourself properly.

What is a market niche?

It is the space that your company occupies with its products, content, corporate culture, brand or brands and messages for the public. It is the way people identify with you and prefer you over your competition.

To determine your place in the market, some questions you can ask are:

•       How big is the market?
•       Is there a demand for what you sell?
•       What is your current position in the market and what are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
•       Who are your competitors and what are their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

Make a list of your strongest interests and passions. Choose a field where the odds are already in your favor. Where you have more experience to offer, more contacts and people who can help you.

4. Understand your target market

Once you know your niche, do as much research as you can about your target customer so you can sell to them:

Geographic information, industry, age range, interests, any important characteristics of your best clients or the clients you would like to have. You want to make sure you share a similar culture and vision as theirs.

With this information you can create an ideal customer profile. It will help you sift through new potential customers and weed out the ones that aren't, before you spend months wasting your sales efforts.

Once you have determined who your ideal clients are, start making a presence where they are:

Enter the social networks where they are, write a blog, be invited to podcasts, participate as a speaker at events. Simply put, add value to the lives of your potential customers before you sell to them.

The more visibility you have, the more chances you have to achieve your goals. Choosing the niche you will be in will help you focus your strategy.

5. Plan your sales funnel

The next part of your sales plan is to determine how those ideal customers will turn into actual customers. How you will guide them down the sales path to closing.

Some basic questions are:

• What does the customer want our product to do for him?
• What characteristics are important to him and why?
• What is your budget?
• What product do you currently consume?
• When was the last time he bought something similar to what you offer?
• Was it a good or a bad experience and why?
• How did you make the purchase decision back then?
• How did you evaluate the different offers?
• What were the deciding factors that made you choose that particular product or solution?

If they had a good previous experience, think of ways to align your presentation with that experience and differentiate yourself with your unique value proposition. Instead, if their experience has been negative, explain to them how you would remedy that situation.

Get your prospect to define their own roadmap by asking what needs to happen to become a customer. If he gives you an objection, ask what will happen when that's taken care of.

Putting the prospect in a forward-thinking frame of mind can make them visualize buying from you.

In addition, this technique allows you to identify what are the obstacles that may arise and how to eliminate them to speed up the closing process.

Make sure you address the entire customer journey from before to after the sale.

6. Define your value proposition

If you already know your client and the roadmap to sell to them, you must show your competitive advantage. That which differentiates you from your competitors and that gives value to your client.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• 1. Why do customers buy from me?
• 2. Why do customers buy from my competition and not from you?
• 3. Why do some potential customers not buy anything?

It's important to remember that customers buy benefits, not features. You should not talk about yourself or your product, but rather what it will do for your customers.

Focus on the value, not the features of what you offer.

This competitive advantage is an integral part of your sales plan and a tool that will determine what you do in the future, from your digital marketing to the launch of new products.

7. Make a list of potential clients

Now that you know your ideal type of customer and how to sell to them, it's time to create a list of prospects to get started.

A prospect list is a kind of directory of real companies or people that you think would benefit from your product.

You should use your ideal customer profile to start finding them:  You can search, for example, in social networks relevant to your target audience, especially in the most relevant groups within said networks.

Another good strategy is to attend events and meetings to network, get contact cards and exchange information. On the other hand, you can also do searches directly on the internet or in directories related to the area.

Depending on your niche, a good network to search for is LinkedIn.

Search for several people from the same organization to be able to address them. It does not matter that you are not the one who directly makes the purchase decision, because you can do this later. You will have more possibilities than if you do it cold.

However, remember that this is not a massive list, but something based on your research for the sales plan. A good sales plan qualifies the best prospects before you even talk to them.

Once you have the list, start following up with your leads. You can use a CRM to keep better control so that everyone knows who their assigned prospects are and there is no duplication of contact.

8. Take advantage of your current customers

Of course, it's not just about finding new customers, but about getting the most out of the ones you already have. And this does not only refer to sales, remember that a satisfied customer is your best advertisement.

To start, you can ask your most loyal customers if they know someone who would benefit from your product or service (you can offer them a referral bonus or a discount for bringing a friend).

Make sure you do it the right way. Ask your client if they would be comfortable with that and what they consider the best way to contact the referral. Also ask them to make sure it's okay for the other person.

Then you can even include these referrals in your newsletter to stay in touch.

Also remember to give small benefits to your customer even when they cannot buy from you, such as gifts, samples, etc. Thus, you will retain them even more.

9. Look for strategic partners

A good sales plan must include strategic partners. These are companies or people that reach the same customers as you, but offering something different.

These are also known as ancillary service providers (CSPs), because they are not competitors. Rather, they offer complementary products or services to yours.

For example, if you are a manufacturer of hygiene products, you can partner with a pharmacy, where these types of products are offered. Or if you're a screen printer, you can look into business with event planners to offer the customer personalized details for an additional cost.

That way, you can reach more customers indirectly.

10. Put your plan into action

Once you have everything ready, it's time to start your plan. Remember that this is a guide of actions to take, but that you should consult it regularly to see if it is working, if your objectives are being met.

You must establish regular meetings to review how the plan has been developed, align activities, review the work done by each team and get feedback on what is working.

These meetings should be held at least monthly in order to take action, either with campaigns, with a stronger prospect acquisition strategy or others, depending on the situation.

Remember to write down the actual results versus the original plan to assess if your predictions were correct. Learn from your mistakes and successes and make the necessary adjustments for your next plan.

Remember that you can always enlist the help of an accountant to review projections before implementing any sales strategy or predicting sales volume.

Lokasi:

Berbagi :