Planning is important. No second thoughts about that. Right?
When it comes to organizational management, sales planning is one of the top-tier requirements of corporate governance to amplify its growth.
As we all know, sales generate revenue for a business organization. Hence planning its flow and forecasting its outcomes is crucial for any enterprise.
When I started writing this article, I decided to divide it into 4 sections:
What is Sales Planning?
Why is Sales Planning required?
How to create a Sales plan?
How to Plan Weekly Calendar?
Let us start with the basics.
What is sales planning?
Planning is done at various stages of the sales lifecycle around the fiscal year.
All business corporations set monthly or quarterly sales targets and to achieve this, a lot of planning and execution is required. A set of steps and strategies are designed to achieve these targets and this is called Sales Planning.
In other words, Sales planning is a skill where the following steps are generally followed:
- Current situation of the company is evaluated
Knowing what is your present position is predominant for making plans for the future.
- The market conditions are studied
The market is ever-changing. So orienting your sales plan accordingly is required.
- New revised targets are defined
Short term planning is necessary for this step and most companies miss this.
- Strategies required to achieve the targets are determined
When new targets are set, making changes to the task plan is subsequently needed.
- Finally, resource allocation for the same is done.
Issuing the required time, money, people for the new target accomplishment is to be undertaken.
Why is Sales Planning required?
“Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.” ― Stephen Keague, author
To increase the efficiency of every task, it’s important to pre-plan the logistics, resources, and activities associated with it well in advance. It is almost impossible to achieve any important objective without planning.
Now, this planning can be done on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. Planning at all three levels is required.
Firstly, the yearly targets are set and then the goals are further segregated in smaller time brackets.
Weekly sales planning is an important practice because here the work for a very short span of time i.e. a week is allocated therefore new changes can be introduced to the plan according to the performance in the previous week.
Below are some of the ways in which planning helps in achieving the deliverables:
Saves you From Getting Overloaded
Sales is one of the busiest sections of any organization.
Salespeople are often on the run or on calls. Meeting the targets does become overwhelming and exhaustive at times if the tasks are not streamlined.
When you plan your work for the week you can save yourself from getting overburdened. It is a great way of capacity planning.
Rather, I have observed that when proper task management is followed, our salespeople have found additional time on hands to make the extra calls and arrange quick meetings.
Risk Mitigation
If you don't invest in risk management, it doesn't matter what business you're in, it's a risky business. -Gary Cohn, Risk & Governance Advisory Board member of Starling
Every business needs accurate capturing and monitoring of its risk factors. Sales is no exception.
With proper planning and response strategies, your company can survive and even thrive through adverse events, but many companies go unprepared.
Planning not only helps in the smooth execution of the task but also helps to predict any potential risks and layout an action plan to mitigate them.
Better Strategy
According to Forbes, 57% of sales professionals miss their annual quotas.
Experts attribute much of this underperformance to a lack of insightful strategic planning of sales in alliance with the market needs.
Gathering market knowledge is an important part of planning. It gives you a clear picture of the market condition and trends.
Considering them it becomes easy to take a decision for your company’s benefit.
Building Future Capabilities
When the work is planned in advance you get enough time for having quality discussions with your team. Collaborating with team members becomes easy when every task is known and planned out.
Also, after the week’s work, you can share your learnings within the team which can be helpful for the business.
Work-life Balance
A happy employee relates that happiness to customers. And the best way to ensure this is to provide them with a work-life balance.
On a personal note, this is definitely the foremost importance of planning for me.
Weekly planning of the work has helped me to strike a good work-life balance.
Now, how is that?
When my work plan of the week is ready, I am aware of the volume of the work to be accomplished. So, I smartly divide my work for all the days of the week and still get buffer time for my personal accomplishments. Be it pursuing a hobby or spending time with family.
The absence of planning makes it a daunting work-centric week and we tend to overlook the other important and much-needed aspects of our life.
I know most of you will agree with me on this.
How to create a Sales Plan?
Planning + Execution gives guaranteed success. For the sales to proceed normally, meticulous sales planning needs to be done. A thorough sales plan sets out sales targets and tactics for your business and identifies the steps you need to take to achieve your goals.
Here are some steps that will be helpful in creating a sales plan.
The first step to create a sales plan is to understand the market. The salesperson must segment his audience on various aspects like
- your target market segments
- the types of people in that market
- the numbers in each market segment
- segment classifications according to previous sales volume or potential sales volume.
Based on your market research, explain:
- why there is a demand for what you're selling
- your current market position — including any strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats
- your competitors' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
You can also add forecasts and analyses based on your sales plan.
The next step is to jot down smart goals that can be achieved in the quarter. Setting S.M.A.R.T (Smart. Measurable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-bound) goals is a vital part of creating a sales plan.
If you are unaware of what exactly is S.M.A.RT. goals, then read this in-depth article on What S.M.A.R.T goals are and how to achieve them.
How to Plan Weekly Calendar?
The best approach followed in the market for Sales planning is called the Plans, Progress, Problems method.
Plans, Progress, Problems method abbreviated as PPP is a technique in which 4-5 plans for the week for every individual are defined. It gives clarity of work to everyone working in the team and the lead or the person who is managing the team.
After the week the activities which are completed as per the plan are moved to the progress bar and the ones with any issues are moved to the problems bar.
This method of working is very convenient and smart.
If things don’t go according to the plan, you can make changes to the existing plan to introduce a completely new plan for the next week. This lets you work on your mistakes at an early stage without any losses.
Want to know the simple tips to plan your calendar for an effective day? Check it out here.
Conclusion
I have tried to cover the importance of sales planning and some easy ways to plan your weekly sales through this article.
Every organization has its unique ways to plan its sales. Would you like to share your insights on sales planning? Share your thoughts with us and we will share them with our sales community.
Also, your feedback on this article is much needed.
