How to make a sales plan?

Any organization engaged in the sale of goods and services, first of all strives to increase sales volumes. For this reason, the main document is the sales plan. This document is not an imaginary document with the content of the data that the manager has arranged in the table, based on his desires and preferences. This document is considered very important in the organization, it is able to balance the planned and real income from the sale of goods and services. Such indicators are compiled individually for each staff member or for the entire department.

When making a sales plan, many managers make a number of gross shortcomings. The most common mistake can be attribution of such indicators, which it is impossible to cope with any of the employees, even with a huge desire. This puts pressure on employees and causes stress in the team.

Other entrepreneurs tend to believe that making a sales plan is a waste of time for a manager. They simply trust this business to their employees, who in the process of work decide on their own how much sales should be made. There are such managers who initially incorrectly recruit employees to the sales department, and this leads to disastrous consequences.

Such approaches negatively affect the organization. An individual sales plan should be developed for each individual employee. These should not be just numbers. The head of the first thing should focus on the abilities of his staff, on work experience. If a new person is hired in the state, then for him the indicators should be lower. At first, he must get used to it, understand the essence of the work, and only then can indicators be gradually increased.

When compiling indicators, all organizations should pursue certain goals and objectives that are set in the course of work:

• Systematize each working day. Regardless of the functions performed, the employee has a clear idea of ​​what is expected of him at the end of the month. In such cases, he develops a work schedule for himself throughout the entire working day. Also, everyone knows what he faces when the plan is not fulfilled, which is able to discipline.
• Motivation. Each specialist knows his plan, which is issued for a certain period. Such data motivates performance and the result, since everyone knows that the implementation of the plan entails the receipt of a bonus. It helps to interest. A specific goal and aspiration helps to work better.
• Business development is possible only when each employee adheres to his individual plan, fulfills it. From this, the organization receives the desired profit, which allows it to grow and develop.

All staff should be aware, looking at the plan, that it is within his power, that he will be able to fulfill it and ultimately will receive encouragement. It is also worth considering the fact that the organization will not be able to conduct its activities fully and successfully without the competent development of such a document.

Sales Requirements

Being the head of the sales department is a very responsible business. Indeed, the level of profit and the image of the organization is completely affected by the effectiveness of the sellers. It’s quite difficult to carry out a plan of a sales department qualitatively.

It is problematic to choose a good team at the initial level, it needs to be constantly trained, and most importantly, motivated to achieve results.

Each company plans to develop a sales department. Not a single competently implemented advertising campaign is able to make a profit and develop. All this depends only on the employees and their work.

The development of a sales department plan allows us to solve the following problems:

• increase sales;
• get more profit;
• increase efficiency;
• motivate employees to attract large customers.

For small companies, the lack of a plan has no effect. In most cases, employees carry out the work of several specialists, and the effectiveness of the work done is evaluated by the head of the business.

Large enterprises produce a database, which helps to increase regular customers. In this case, it is possible to make a profit by reissuing old contracts.

Implementation of a plan

Implemented sales plans are different. Tasks are objective and unrealistic. About 90% of employees believe that their plans are overstated, and at the same time do not ask questions about how to implement it. The remaining percentage of managers perform the tasks assigned to them. This is what speaks of an understated bar, or it is installed in such a way that it does not require much effort to be completed.

To implement the sales plan, each employee must answer a number of questions:

1. What guided the head in drawing up the plan? The first step is to understand how the boss sees the fulfillment of duties. If an algorithm of all actions and the necessary tools for this have been prepared in advance, then you need to test the method. If after this the result is not achieved, then you can ask the head for help and clarify what you did wrong.
2. What to do to find customers? For cold calls, you need to consider the effectiveness. If you make up to 50 calls daily, then you can not fulfill the established plan. At the same time, calls need to be increased. In the event that the plan is completed, in no case should you stop at the search for potential customers.
3. Where to look for customers? Finding a client is the most important moment when working as a manager. Clients that are almost impossible to reach are the most profitable. This item is the most difficult, especially if the organization sells business plans. No need to dwell on failure. After all, this is the beginning of the dialogue. You always need to know that many surrendered at the first refusal, so you need to make every effort and make the consent of the refusal.
4. Make calls to customers who are refused. This will allow you not to lose the skill in cold calls. As practice shows, with a second call you can get the consent of the client.
5. Increase the cost. If you have regular customers, you should try to offer them other services at the highest cost. Many clients do not know the list of those services that the organization provides, some have no idea that it will be useful to them.
6. To not give up. Even if the client refused, you need to continue the dialogue.
   

Planning

To begin with, this item is extremely important to achieve the goal. The preparation of a sales plan for products must be approached, taking into account the performance of competitors. It is worth considering that it is extremely difficult to fulfill the plan 100%. This is due to accidents and unforeseen circumstances that are possible in the conduct of activities. For a competent and clear plan, the following data should be considered:

• Assess the political situation in the country - this will make it possible to forecast the expected changes. The study of economic indicators will not be superfluous. All this will help in the preparation of the annual plan.
• Make an analogue of the market situation. In this case, we study the demand for goods sold in the same category as yours, competition. It will not be superfluous to pay attention to the plan of the previous year and how it was implemented.
• Department data for the previous year. Be sure to keep a record of all transactions conducted over the past few years. Scheduling indicators by year and month, as well as the average sales volume, will not hurt.
• Take into account seasonality. You need to consider at what time there was a decrease in demand for goods and services. The decrease in profit may be due to the dismissal of the employee, with the crisis or with seasonality. This is especially true if the organization sells business plans.
• Specialist Sales Report. This helps to analyze the work of the department and find out the average indicator for each specialist and the entire department.
• Profit from regular customers. You need to find out the frequency of contracts concluded with them and the goods that are popular with them.
• The number of customers attracted. For each new customer, the cost of the average bill should be calculated.
• Discuss planned sales with staff. The completed sales plan is a sample of the results of the work, which is discussed at a meeting with employees. It shows the achieved goals and identifies possible shortcomings.

If the plans are to increase indicators in contrast to the previous ones, then you need to think about changing the scale of work. It should be borne in mind that opportunities do not depend on production, but on demand.

Varieties of planning

The basis of any monthly sales plan is the fact that the company sets a framework for minimum and maximum sales. For start-up organizations, the most important thing is to sell the minimum value that will allow you not to work in the minus, but to reach at least zero. There are several types of planning:

1. Promising. The longest-running plan that makes coverage for the next 10 years.
2. Current. Developed for 1 year. Periodically adjusted.
3. Operational. Developed for a short period of time. Mostly for 1 month.

The choice of planning depends on the plans of the entrepreneur and his preferences.

Problems completing the plan

In most cases, failure to fulfill a sales plan depends on motivation. To do this, you need to consider some rules:

• When drawing up a plan, the leader does not take into account the needs of employees.
• There are times when the motivation is floating, constantly stops - this is unable to interest the staff in productive work.
• Motivation should be simple and intelligible. It should be understood not only by the entrepreneur, but also by subordinates.
• To achieve these goals, the manager should not get out of his skin to achieve results. The plan must be affordable and feasible.
• In those cases, if the income depends on the volume of sales, you must be able to properly motivate.

There are a number of additional reasons:

• the warehouse does not have the most sought-after goods, and difficulties arise with its purchase;
• on sale there is something that is not popular with consumers;
• the staff is not properly qualified;
• the organization’s warehouse is completely empty;
• the goods sold have no price;
• the goods sold are unfamiliar to the buyer - this is due to the lack of advertising;
• The declared price does not correspond to the quality;
• the price quoted is much higher than that of competitors;
• the product is not located correctly on store shelves.

To increase the flow of customers, you will need to attract advertising, but you will need to spend a significant amount on it. The most popular option is the Internet, outdoor advertising, television. The development of a sales plan needs to be approached responsibly and take into account all the nuances that may affect it.

Sales volumes

When planning a sales volume, several steps need to be considered.

Stage 1. Determine how quickly the organization will return the funds invested in the development of the business and begin to earn on sales. For this break-even analysis is used:

• The amount of fixed costs. Regardless of activity and income, each organization has fixed costs. At the same time, they only increase with sales growth.
• To determine the break-even point, you need to build a graph and draw two lines. One reflects fixed costs, and the second variables. The third line displays the amount of profit received. In the case when all three lines converge at one point, the organization is break even.

2 stage. At this stage, the sales volume is determined. For its calculation take into account:

• market saturation with a similar product;
• level of need;
• average cost of goods sold;
• number of potential consumers;
• conducting an advertising campaign, and how effective it is.

Market situations tend to constantly change, so the manager must constantly motivate staff to increase sales.

Sales development

Many are inclined to assume that a sales development plan is the most important in a business. But it is not so. In cases where the sales system is well-designed and at the same time functions efficiently, the development of the sales plan occurs automatically. Thus, it affects the sales department:

• there is an improvement in marketability;
• the manager receives proper training;
• business processes are improving;
• employees begin to work better to attract customers.

Many tend to ask the question - what to do for the development of the organization. This question can definitely be answered only after the sales funnel has been studied. When a small number of clients are added to the database, then you need to work on attracting. There are times when sales are lame due to problems with the service or due to the slow work of employees. Then you need to improve the workflow.

You can plan an increase in sales when everything else works without interruption. Initially, you need to pay attention to the performance of employees. Only after that move on to increase sales.

Why do I need a sales plan?

It is safe to say that every person connected with the business at least once asked this question. There is currently controversy as to why planning should be used.

• Why do sales managers need a plan? Let everyone sell the maximum quantity.
• Making a plan is problematic without proper statistics.
• This increases employee stress. Since motivation increases the volume of work, and an approved plan can be unnerving.

But it must be borne in mind that the plan must be established real, which can be implemented. When drawing up a plan, the following data should be considered:

• Based on past months
• analyze the performance of each employee individually;
• take into account the competitive environment;
• focus on the needs of the enterprise.

Do not forget that each of the above methods is not perfect.

Past performance can be significantly underestimated, which helps employees easily fulfill it. Therefore, the leader will remain unaware that there is an opportunity to sell much more.

Performance analysis can be subjective. For example, the best employee in an organization may be the worst among competitors. In each working group, the presence of strong and weak workers is observed. Work depends entirely on the group.

Finding information about competitors is quite difficult, and it may not be suitable for a specific activity. The best option for finding information is to invite former or current employees for an interview. This will help to find out all the necessary information.

Employee Planning

When developing a sales plan for a year or more, you need to consider the number of department employees. There is nothing difficult in this matter, the main thing is to take into account the capabilities and scale of the organization. To do this, you can build several business options that use a different volume of goods / services sold. This will help determine the desired sales volume and the number of employees that will be required to implement the plan. Only one thing needs to be taken into account - an increase in sales should occur smoothly, without sharp jumps. Such jerks can affect the activities of the entire enterprise.

The correct formulation of goals

“If people don’t laugh at your goals, then your goals are too small,” said Azim Premji, an Indian businessman and philanthropist.

Before you make a sales plan, you need to clearly formulate and set goals. For example, when developing a plan, you need to set a goal to increase existing sales figures by 20%. No need to set a goal to get as much profit as possible.

Each goal must be measured. No matter what. It can be a percentage or a cash equivalent. This will allow you to evaluate the result.

Achieving the goal is possible with the availability of resources. Suppose, if a store sells goods for 15 thousand rubles a month, then you should not try to get 150 next month. Not only an employee, but also a manager should understand their capabilities.

Everything should be tied to a specific date on which the entrepreneur wants to see the result of the plan he developed.

Having a properly drawn up goal plan and a planned list of the number of employees, you notice a strong increase in overall productivity, as well as an increase in the efficiency of each employee individually. Particular attention should be paid to communication between the employees themselves, as well as to communication between superiors and their colleagues.

In conclusion, it should be said that the implemented sales plan is an example of well-coordinated and clear work of the entire team. You should never neglect it. It is also worth considering the fact that sometimes the sales plan cannot be implemented, and both subordinates and superiors, that is, the entire team as a whole, can be to blame for this.