Planning Sales for 2010

It is the beginning of the year - a traditional time for setting sales and business targets. When running your own business, the task of setting sales targets is your own. Sometimes it is hard to know where to start.
How often are you in the following situations?

  • Spending a disproportionate amount of time chasing and servicing lower value business
  • Sales fluctuating with "peaks and troughs" in your figures
  • It is not getting any easier each year to hit your sales targets
  • You just feel in a "rut", looking for a way out

All of these are symptoms of not planning far enough ahead.

Now more than ever before, you need an effective plan. Markets are tougher; customers are more demanding and the competition is stiffer. The days of "opening shop" and waiting for the phone to ring appear to be over.

Becoming a "Strategic Business Person"

In order to compete for sales in today's economy, you need to prioritise your selling activities; spending more time with customers you identify as offering you the best sales potential; and less time calling on customers through history or habit.

The key to making this change is to be able to stand back from the everyday happenings and problems, to take a view of "the bigger picture". You must adopt a complete view, taking into account both short and long term sales objectives. Always be aware that markets and competition change all the time; and success depends on your ability to respond to these changes.

Sales Planning - A 4 Step Process

Sales and/or territory planning should follow a simple 4 step process.  Here are the stages to help you plan:

1)  Analyse your current situation
What is your current position? What does the current mix of customers and products tell you about your business? What is your ideal customer profile?
Where are your strengths and where are you vulnerable? In which accounts (or in which markets) do you need to protect your current business? 
What are your best business opportunities (they might be market specific or related to a particular product and/or service advantage you have)? How well are you placed against competitors to win that business?

2)  Establish your "vision" of the future 
What are you trying to achieve in your business?  What is the corporate strategy & purpose of the business? What are the types of work the company wants to attract?
In other words - what is the "big picture"?
When you have this vision, it is easier to set the sales objectives you need to achieve, to make this "big picture" a reality.

3)  Prepare your action plan
Having analysed your current position and decided what you want your sales future to be, you are ready to begin to develop action plans for achieving your objectives.
Any action plans you set should contribute towards the strategy and purpose of your business. They should also target the opportunities you identified as the best for you at the "Analyse" stage.
All stages of an action plan need to be thought through so that objectives you set are achieved and met on time. For this to happen, the plans also need to be realistic as over ambitious action plans can become demoralising if they are unachievable.

4)  Implement and monitor progress
Once your plan is set, it is now a matter of making it happen! For your plan to become reality, you should measure your progress regularly to ensure you remain on track.

You need to follow through with the action plans you make and measure your successes against the business objectives you set yourself.
This means taking a regular step back to review your plan and taking any corrective action necessary.

Summary

The process of sales planning is fairly simple - you just need to make time for it. It is subtly different to a business plan as it focuses on what you will do to make the numbers happen. But don't stop there. Sales plans are not meant to be written and left "on the shelf to gather dust". It is only of value if you consider your plan carefully and then put it into practice.

Next month we will look at 3 key elements of a successful sales plan.

Article by Mike Dawson - Managing Director
Mysalesplan Ltd. - www.mysalesplan.co.uk


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