For many organizations, end-of-year planning is a crucial time. It’s a time when leadership, operations, sales and marketing can come together to plan for next year’s sales success.
This article outlines what a good plan looks like and offers key steps to develop and implement the plan.
Why Is Sales Planning Important?
Sales planning provides an opportunity to ensure that all members of the organization are working toward the same objectives and are prepared to deal with changes in the market. It helps your team better understand their roles, responsibilities, target markets and methods for prospecting and closing work.
Importantly, annual planning prepares management, marketing and the business development (BD) team for an effective response when it’s time to execute under pressure.
What Does A Good Sales & Marketing Plan Look Like?
Your sales plan should be an extension of your overall business plan, laying out how you will achieve the revenue goals set for your overall organization. While your business plan may look out three to five years, your sales plan should have a nearer focus. A good plan looks out one to two years, sets sales goals and identifies steps to meet them. Most importantly, it breaks down the next 12 months into specific, measurable and actionable goals for each team member, ensuring alignment with the overall business strategy.
A good sales and marketing plan is more than just a document; it should define your process for how your company will achieve its sales goals and manage changes in the market.
Getting Started
As the third quarter (Q3) progresses, it’s time to start building your sales plan for the next year. This involves getting buy-in and commitment from your leadership team, business development and marketing. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it requires preparation.
The following steps explain how to develop an actionable plan:
Understand where you are today.
- Assess your strengths and weaknesses: Conduct a thorough SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to understand your organization's internal capabilities and external challenges.
- Analyze your success: Collect data about your product offerings, marketing program results, sales scorecards, new customers and social media statistics.
- Research competitors: Identify your competitors' strategies, strengths and weaknesses to better position your offerings.
Identify industry trends: Get an update on market trends, emerging technologies and regulatory changes affecting your industry. - Make a customer list: Look at your list of past and current customers. Pay attention to what makes a good customer for your organization.
- Understand customer needs: Collect feedback from your customers to understand what they value about your services and areas where you can improve.
Define where you want to go.
- Define what success looks like: Look beyond revenue goals to define your ideal customer and key market sectors.
- Set SMART goals: Establish specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART) goals for your team.
- Assign responsibilities: Clearly define who is responsible for each task and set deadlines to ensure accountability.
- Use scorecards: Implement scorecards to track progress toward your goals and identify areas that may need adjustments. Regularly review these scorecards to stay on course.
Draft a plan to achieve your goals.
This is the tactical phase of your planning and lays out specific actions to be taken.
- Develop action plans: Outline specific actions required to achieve your goals, including marketing campaigns, sales strategies and customer engagement initiatives.
- Consider alternative scenarios: Prepare for best-case, worst-case and most-likely scenarios to ensure flexibility in your plans. Discuss potential changes in circumstances and develop contingency plans to maintain stability and performance under pressure.
- Get everyone involved in sales: Look beyond your BD and marketing teams and integrate your project team into the business development structure. Consider the knowledge and skills needed to acquire and retain new customers' business.
Execute the plan.
One of the biggest frustrations for business owners is that, after the planning meeting ends, nothing happens. Lists of to-do items may sit idle and the plan never reaches fruition. Or worse, it fails to produce the desired results.
Prioritizing action items is crucial to ensuring progress toward your goals. Instead of creating a lengthy list of tasks, segment and prioritize action items based on their impact.
Define where you want to go.
- Areas of deficiency: Make a list of actions to address weaknesses and threats identified in your SWOT analysis to strengthen your position.
- Gaps: Identify and implement actions that bridge the gap between your current situation and your goals for next year.
- Opportunities: Focus on opportunities identified in your SWOT analysis that align with your strategic objectives.
- Aspirational results: Don’t forget to make a list of action items that inspire and motivate your team to achieve exceptional results.
Prioritize each action item in terms of the impact on your business.
- Must-do: Critical actions that are essential for achieving your goals.
- Nice-to-do: Beneficial actions that can be pursued, if resources allow.
- Not this year: Actions that are less urgent and can be deferred to a later time.
Create a final list and commit.
- Focus on “must-do” items and prioritize these critical actions.
- Designate a responsible person for each action item to ensure accountability and follow-through.
- Schedule quarterly progress reviews and adjust the plan to reflect current market conditions.
Starting your sales planning process in Q3 positions your organization to meet its goals and manage economic uncertainties. A well-prepared sales and marketing plan provides direction and focus, ensuring that your team's efforts align with the overall business strategy. By prioritizing actionable items and maintaining flexibility, you can navigate shifting market conditions and achieve your sales objectives.
