Every Business Needs a Sales Plan
Businesses with a Sales Plan sell more. Operating your business without a sales plan is like setting off to drive from Brighton to Edinburgh with no sat nav. and all the road signs covered up! a long and scary journey ahead. Your sales plan is the HOW to your WHY, it is the road map to achieve your targets, set out in your business plan. If you do not have a business plan are you really serious about growing your business?
If you still need convincing check out this report from early 2024 with some interesting stats. 67% of businesses (2000 surveyed) have no marketing action plan whilst more than half don’t even have a business plan.Unsurprisingly less than one in three could claim that they generate enough leads to meet their business growth goals. This reports focuses on Marketing planning, however, it is probably safe to assume that if a business has no marketing plan, then it is unlikely to have a sales plan.
Bring Your Team On Your Sales Planning journey
The good news is it is not difficult to create a sales plan but you will see the benefits from day one. Involve your team in the process, every member of staff should have a basic understanding of what you are striving to achieve and how they are involved. Include an abbreviated version in the induction process, make reference during appraisals. A sales plan gives you peace of mind that everyone in the organisation is pulling in the same direction.
You should involve all departments in the planning process, often it is those at the customer facing end of your business who have the deepest insights in. With this knowledge you can save time on research, making your plan business relevant from the outset.
Writing Your First Sales Plan
If you do not already have a sales plan, your first will take a little longer. You will need to:
- Get REALLY clear on your product or service
- Complete research on competitors, target market, market conditions
- Understand why people should buy from you – Why are you different from the competition
- Identify price points and profitability
- Discover and asses marketing tools – We also suggest getting a copy of The One Page Marketing Plan
- Map out your 7 step process
Then simply complete a monthly review to ensure you are on track.
Writing a Sales Plan is fun
Sales planning is the fun part. As you start to work through the sections you may be surprised at just how much you know already. Equally you could just discover the one thing that turns your business in to the success you know it can be.Along the journey you will discover more about the unique selling points of your product or service. You will gain a deeper understanding of your competition. You will also spend time researching and selecting the right marketing tools, this element can save you so much time and money going forward.
Ready to Start Your Sales Plan?
If you are ready to tackle your plan join our 90 minute workshop where we will give you all the tools you need to create your plan including:
- Pre-Course Preparation – Ensuring you are ready to get the most out of our session
- 90 Minute Workshop, delivered live, over Zoom
- A Sales plan template, with notes on completing
- Review of presentation, as a reminder
- Follow up 1-2-1 to see how you are getting on with your plan
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