Sales department development plan example. Sales department development plan. Go outside your region

“If you don’t know where you are going, then you will get there,” - a quote from a famous person revised by me.

It fully reflects the main problem of the business. Entrepreneurs are looking for more money, more profit. But no one knows exactly which figure.

And if the leader of the company himself does not know this, how can employees know it? That's right - no way.

Therefore, it is very important to set goals for yourself and your employees. One of the goal setting tools is a sales plan. Nowhere without him.

Reality, not a fairy tale

At one of my speeches for Alfa-Bank, I asked those sitting in the hall: "Who has a sales plan in the company?"

I hoped to see the forest of hands, because this is not just the basis of a successful company, it is an integral part of it, I saw a different picture, my hands raised only 10-20% percent.

Businessmen do not understand the whole necessity of setting a plan and refer to “We cannot define a sales plan”, “We did. It doesn't work for us ”or“ The sales are too different and we can't predict them ”.

These are just basic objections. I would even say excuses to make a sales plan.

In order not to grind this topic for a long time, we will highlight the main reasons why drawing up a sales plan should be mandatory, and then we will move on to several techniques for setting it up. So, the main pros:

Clear and understandable;
Motivational scheme from specific achievements;
Forecast of actions and resources.

There are many more benefits to write out, but these are the main ones. Everything else is derivatives. I think that the formation of point B is necessary, it is clear.

Salespeople cannot exist without purpose. They will work (earn) exactly as much as they are comfortable (necessary).

“Want more ?! This is already your problem. Enough for me, ”they think, working without a sales plan.

Important. In order for you to see the effect after the implementation of the sales plan, you need to link it with the employee motivation scheme. Otherwise, everything was done in vain.

Everybody gets in the way

When you decide that you need to create a sales plan, there are a huge number of factors to consider.

And this must be done before you start putting it. Because, you can form an excellent plan, but it will not work, due to the fact that you have not foreseen external and internal factors.

Seasonality.It is rare to find a company whose sales are at the same level or are growing smoothly throughout the year.

We usually see sharp up and down jumps depending on the month or quarter. Such races can be called “season / off season”. You need to pay attention to them and make adjustments to the plan.

Command.With a lot of staff turnover, you will always have different indicators. Alas, this is a fact.

This is due to the fact that a new employee always needs time to adapt. And if it so happens that your team is new or incomplete, then revise your final figures.

The situation in the world.I don't really like to talk about the eternal crisis in the world. But it is likely that your sphere is now sinking due to the situation on planet Earth.

This can be caused by both sanctions and general behavior of people. This must be taken into account.

Competition.It is foolish to neglect other companies that are fighting for your customers.

The most obvious example is the arrival of a federal player on the market. In such cases, it usually takes away a large number of clients. Therefore, your sales will naturally fall.

In order not to go through all the possible factors, just grasp a simple idea for yourself - your sales plan does not only depend on how much you sold last year.

There are many reasons why you can sell both more (new premises, more advertising channels, sales trainings) and less (office renovation, site relocation, manager on vacation).

Plans are different

When we talk about a sales plan, we are thinking about one thing. But this is wrong. The types and forms of a sales plan are different, both for different purposes and for different people.

We will analyze all this now in parts. At the time of reading, determine what you will have at the beginning of the journey.

Measurement

The sales plan needs to be measured in money. And the point. But I think differently. You can also measure your sales plan in units or actions.

Although at first glance this is stupidity, the most important thing in business is the amount of money received in the cashier. But not all businesses need to count only money.

We have a car dealer in our clients and we have set a sales plan for managers in cars. Because there was no point in putting it in money.

Since there was a personal sales plan, additional bonuses were provided for additional motivation to sell an increased configuration.

In the same salon, there was a plan for the number of actions, namely the number of test drives carried out, which indirectly influenced the implementation of the plan.

How to measure

Duration

With a long period, from 5 years, it is difficult. Especially in the context of the situation in the world. I call this planning more a forecast. This is a better word.

But the definition of a sales plan for the year, week and day is imperative. For the year, you put a plan first of all for yourself.

But for a week and a day for employees. This has a very good effect on efficiency, since your colleagues see every day whether they made a plan for this day / week or not.

And as a consequence, they make a decision that it is necessary to "plow" before the month comes to an end, in order to avoid non-fulfillment of the sales plan.

Duration

Important.How to set a sales target for long lead cycles? You put a plan in money not for one month, but for two, three.

And in order to make it easy to control, you need an “Action” plan for each of these months.

Personalization

Some companies have, in addition to general, personal sales plans. This situation is easy to see in those companies where everyone is “for himself”. It's good.

Indeed, in addition to a team game, you also give each of the employees to stand out from everyone else and earn more by overfulfilling the sales plan.

And it's even better when your entire sales department is divided into groups (shifts / directions).

Thus, besides the fact that there is a general sales plan for the company, there is a personal sales plan for everyone personally, so also each of the groups / shifts has a separate plan.

As a result, everyone fulfills their personal sales plans, if someone does not have time, then the group helps him.

And if some group from the entire department is threatened with non-fulfillment of the sales plan, then it helps them to reach the common cherished goal.

Personalization

Accuracy

Returning to our belief that “the sales plan consists of all the money that has come to the company”.

And again, we can divide this moment into different actions in order to raise the performance in the direction we need. For instance:

For new clients;
For old clients;
By product;
On accounts receivable;
Upon the return of departed customers.

Thus, we show our employees what is very important to us. And then, as a rule, they focus on one thing.

And most often it is either attracting new clients, or (worse) working only with old ones.

At this point, they forget that you need to work with receivables, that you have a new product that needs to be sold, since it has a high margin, etc.

Indicators

plan setting techniques

Now you have a question in your head, not “What?”, But “How?”. How to calculate a sales plan? There are not only different types of plans, but also different development methods.

I know them only 5. But if you make a general cut of the classic business, then two approaches will be enough, which I will tell you about now.

If in your case they do not fit, then write in the comments, we will help you with advice for free.

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From the fact

The easiest way to develop a sales plan is from the past. If we have a history of the company's development over the past time, then we do everything based on it.

By history, I mean a completed sales plan. Ideally, this also includes conversion, average check, number of sales and other indicators.

First of all, you need to understand the dynamics on the basis of the graph, whether you are falling or growing.

Then you need to measure this dynamics in numbers in order to understand what kind of natural increase you will get if you work at the same level.

This height is different for everyone. The younger the company, the larger it is, when the “adult” companies are more and more stable.

Then you either leave this dynamic or add 5-30% to it. It all depends on how easy or difficult the past periods were.

If in the last month an analysis of the fulfillment of the sales plan showed that you added 15% to the plan and they even exceeded it, then you need to increase the plan by 30%.

If, on the contrary, the plan was not substantially fulfilled, then you need to lower it. But do not forget to analyze external and internal factors.

Sales plan from actual indicators

From desire

There is a technique of breaking down goals into parts, it is called a sales plan.

It will help a lot if there is no data for the past. For example, you either did not lead them, or you have a new direction. In this case, let's go from the opposite, from what we want.

Naturally, we can want more than we can. That's why I'm talking about the decomposition of the sales plan.

Example. You want to make a company's turnover of 10 million rubles per month. To understand whether this is real or not, we break down the whole process into parts. We determine what we need to do to get this amount (numbers from the head):

100 trades with an average check of 100,000 rubles.
1000 applications with 10% conversion to purchase

This is the most primitive and simple example. But already from it it is clear how to act. Thanks to these values, we can estimate the chances of success.

Or adjust the goal, if we realize that in our area this will be impossible to achieve.

For example, an average check of 100 tr. for us it's a fairy tale. Based on this, we need to either increase the conversion from a request to a purchase (for example, by implementing it in), or build a more serious one.

Interesting. Decomposition is not only a tool for planning sales, it is also suitable for calculating the potential of any action. Including for evaluating the advertising channel.

Successful plan rules

Before drawing up a sales plan for your company, whether it is a plan "From the fact" or "From desire", check through decomposition.

Thus, you will not only make sure once again that it is real, it will be useful for your employees as well. So that they can see how many actions need to be done to get the result.

In addition to dividing actions into parts and taking into account important indicators (average margin, transaction cycle, customer acquisition cost, etc.), you also need to consider a few more main points when calculating a sales plan.

I will tell you about the most important ones that we celebrate during our practice.

Show daily execution.Employees should see who has done how much every day.

This once again reminds them of the need to comply with the standards. It also creates healthy competition among all sales managers.

All this can be implemented both in the form of a table on an A4 sheet, and on a TV in the center of a store or office, or in online format.

Pay exactly according to plan. If you pay 1-2 times to an employee not according to plan, referring to the fact that he works and everything will work out for him, then you have failed the idea. Since next time your employee will hope for the same outcome. And he will even be offended if this does not happen.

Make the plan real.The point is obvious. But a large number of executives suffer from this.

They make plans for their salespeople that NO ONE in life will do. Therefore, approach this matter responsibly and thoughtfully.

Don't discuss the plan.When approaching, it is customary for the team to discuss all actions. The only pity is that this does not apply to the sales plan.

And maybe fortunately, since employees will always be unhappy with the distribution of amounts by month. They will always say, "That's a lot." But sometimes there may still be exceptions.

Check resources and activities. You must also estimate the resources and actions needed to successfully achieve the result. After all, not everything depends on the sales department.

You must also have everything in place, you must have a product in stock or a sufficient number of hands to produce it. Everything should be in abundance on all sides.

Briefly about the main

It is imperative to set a plan. This is not discussed if you are planning to build a stable and fast growing company.

We also figured out how to exhibit correctly. This is not difficult to do. The main thing is not to complicate the content of the sales plan. After all, there are many ways to write a sales plan, and some of them are based on complex formulas.

I am not saying that the two methods discussed in this article are ideal. They are enough for a classic business.

More and more sophisticated options and a far-reaching strategic sales plan are needed in a case when high turnover and a large company with a huge number of processes are at stake.

The well-being and stability of the company is directly related to the work of managers and the productivity of management. Before you start upgrading, you need to work out the policy of this unit. A well-thought-out action plan to increase sales will help structure the workflow and achieve incredible heights.

A sales plan is a comprehensive document that formulates the basic directions, principles and methods of achieving specific goals within the overall commercial strategy of the company.

The primary reasons for developing a development plan for the sale of a product include:

Creation of a sales department.
Lagging behind the existing sales plan.
Moving from hot clients.

The absence of a sales development plan is not critical for small-sized companies, because often employees perform the functions of several specialists. A couple of schematic diagrams or graphs are enough to reflect the sales of a product.

The lack of a sales development plan is not critical for small companies, where employees often perform the functions of several specialists.

For large organizations with an impressive customer base, having a plan is a must. In them, the sales department is engaged not only in finding potential buyers, but also in the execution of contracts and other services. Thus, the corporate strategy of the company is implemented, which provides for the promotion of the brand and the capture of a partial market share.

Primary requirements

In order for the document drawn up to be useful and cost-effective in work, its creation must be approached with due attention and attitude. Key aspects of a sales growth plan include:

Assessment of the situation. Based on macro- and microeconomic market trends, problem areas of the company are presented that require immediate intervention from the sales department.
Goal setting. The new strategy is determined according to the company's global business plan.
Choosing a strategy. A new tactic of work is introduced, aimed at improving the situation and adjusting the existing principles and methods of developing the sales department.
List of actions. A clearly formulated list of tasks is developed, contributing to the operational achievement of the goal, both monthly and quarterly. Responsible performers are appointed.
Determination of chronological frames. The deadlines for completing each task separately and the period for the implementation of the entire plan in particular are written. This is usually 3-5 years.
Objective analysis. The presented algorithm of actions should be adequate and commensurate with the time, numbers and capabilities of the company.
Search for the best means. To implement the sales plan, the most effective methods and tools are selected (planning meeting, reports, etc.).
Staff planning. The required number of personnel and its compliance with the professional level are determined.
Process automation. In order to save time and simplify work, the possibility of upgrading hardware or software is foreseen.
Plan approval.

An example in practice

There are many options for the development of work on the sale of goods. A brilliant example of optimizing the sales force of one organization can be successfully applied to another with similar goals. Two situations will serve as a rough sales development plan.

The first strategy is a clear division of the areas of responsibility of all managers, where each is assigned a specific task in the intended direction. The second tactic is a strict demarcation of the sales department into two separate structures, each of which is engaged exclusively in its own field of activity: either searching for potential customers or serving attracted customers.

The first strategy is a clear division of the areas of responsibility of all managers, where each is assigned a specific task in the intended direction.

The specificity of developing a sales development plan lies in the fact that for its preparation it is important to have special knowledge, to understand the issues of optimizing each tool in the advertising environment, and to analyze marketing components. From the choice of the development strategy of the sales department, the strategic direction of the company, the opportunities and risks of selling the goods are determined.

"For a ship that does not know where to sail, no wind will be fair."

Seneca.

"The essence of active sales: sales must be manageable and predictable!"

I think there is no need to explain the importance and necessity of planning. Planning is like a goal, a reference point and a place to move. It is plans that help us go forward and conquer new peaks and cities.

Each department, organization has its own specifics and characteristics that must be taken into account when building a development plan for the sales department, such as seasonality, experience, competition, etc. But there are also common points that help and that must be taken into account when building a sales line for the future.

First of all, the development plan of the sales department proceeds from the profitability of the enterprise, which shows us a sample and an example of the numbers necessary for a break-even existence of the enterprise. Therefore, this figure is lowered to the sales department as an indicator for a year, and then a monthly distribution is already taking place.

When the company has been operating for several years, it is necessary take into account the rise in inflation and also lay this percentage to the previous period in the plan. Well, further we consider assortment innovations and distribution of plans by product groups.

Must be noted planning the development of the sales department by product groupsrather than overall sales. This will eliminate sales in the main only popular, popular positions with customers (HotLine).

All these points will help to build the planned figures for the department. But there are a number of features to consider when planning.

- Potential number of clients.

There are large and medium-sized players among our clients who do not work with you as a supplier at full capacity. AND only take certain groups goods. These are the clients that make up reserve for the manager... It is the work for such clients that needs to be planned individually and work with them is constantly monitored. It is necessary to find out why they do not work for the rest of the groups and make an appropriate proposal.

- Assortment analysis. We compare the sold and not very product groups by direction and manager, compare them to the number of customers selling the assortment falling in sales and prepare offers and plan an increase in these groups. Control of these actions is required.

Breakdown of sales development planning into shorter periods will allow you to quickly influence the situation, a sample can be a week.

Below is a typical weekly sales development plan.

Managing a sales department is a difficult and demanding task. The correctness of the actions of the sellers and the effectiveness of the management of this division affects not only the profit, but also the image of the company.

It is difficult to fulfill the sales plan qualitatively at all stages of the department's work.

At the initial stage, it is difficult to find a good team, then you have to spend time training it, and then it becomes even more difficult to motivate it to look for new clients. In order for salespeople not only to carry out interesting tasks, but also to implement a corporate strategy, a competent plan for the development of the sales department is necessary.

Prerequisites for creation

A plan focused on the development of a sales division is a comprehensive document that defines the main directions, principles and ways to achieve global goals within the framework of the company's overall strategy.

The development of the sales department must be planned by every company that is interested in the effective sale of its goods.

Neither good advertising, quality products, nor thoughtful after-sales service will keep a company in the position it needs in the market if the sales force is not doing its job properly. Typical reasons for developing a development plan are:

the need to create;
the need to strongly motivate his employees for the best result;
constant lag behind the sales plan with an already formed department;
subdivision transition from active sales mode to working with regular customers.

Plan objectives

The development of a document providing for the development of a sales department is aimed at solving several important problems. With it you can:

get big profits;
improve work efficiency;
orient salespeople to attract strategically important customers;
improve business processes and schemes of interaction of various departments.

The lack of a development plan for the selling division may not be too critical for a small company. Here, employees are usually forced to perform the functions of several specialists (an example of typical tasks related to sales is shown schematically in the diagram). The planning and evaluation of the work is often done by the director or owner.

And the sales department not only looks for new clients, but also prepares all documents for the transaction and further services.

To get decent wages, sellers of such organizations have to actively attract new buyers all the time, since small firms value each client.

In larger companies, at a certain stage of development, a fairly large base of regular customers appears. This allows sellers to receive good wages by re-issuing old contracts. The strategy of a large firm is usually to capture a certain market share.

A limited circle of clients hinders active brand promotion.

Optimizing the work of the sales department can fix this problem. In large companies, it is necessary, because without it there are:

problems with controlling the work of the selling division;
transition of specialists to competitors;
loss of regular customers;
deterioration in the quality of service, etc.

Development and writing

Creating a good sales plan requires a responsible attitude. In order for the developed document to be useful in work, due attention must be paid to preparation. Its key stages include:

goal setting (the need to make changes to any business processes should be determined by the strategy);
creation of an objective analysis system (adjusting sales patterns can increase work productivity only when there is an example of effective execution of tasks with measurable indicators);
finding the best means to achieve the goal (it is important to choose the appropriate way to implement the plan that is most suitable in terms of speed of implementation, level of impact, cost, etc.);
assessment of the current situation (without understanding the current problematic and promising areas of work, it is impossible to develop a development plan that will significantly improve business processes and schemes);
choice of strategy (strategy affects the principles and methods of development of both the sales department and the company as a whole);
defining a list of specific actions (a detailed list of tasks will allow you to more quickly get the results you need).

The process of developing a plan for the development of a sales department can be represented as a sequential execution of a series of actions. To optimize the main processes as successfully as possible, you need:

define the role of the sales department in the implementation of corporate strategy(the development plan of the department must correspond to the general plan of the company);
mark chronological frames (you need to indicate the time period required for the implementation of the entire plan and schedule a deadline for each task; usually it is planned for 3-5 years);
find out the suitability of the existing staff and outline the main ways to improve the situation(the company's strategy can be correctly implemented in the presence of the required number of specialists and the condition of the required professional level of employees);
consider the possibility of standardizing business processes (the development plan should provide for work according to uniform standards, which will increase efficiency and improve the quality of service);
think over the automation of certain stages of interaction of the sales department with internal and external customers (modernization of existing equipment and improvement of software will help save time and pay more attention to directly working with customers);
prescribe the stages of performing tactical and strategic tasks, as well as their performers and controllers(the development plan of the department should be scheduled monthly or quarterly; it is advisable for each stage to indicate the specialists responsible for the tasks, and employees who check the correctness and timeliness of the performers' actions).

Implementation example

There are many options for improving the work of the sales department.

A good example of optimizing the sales department of one company can be successfully applied in another, which has similar goals:

the first good example is a clear delineation of the areas of responsibility of all employees of the department, in which each specialist is assigned to work in a certain direction;

the second no less good example is the division of the selling division into 2 separate structures, one of which is engaged exclusively in active search (sales department), and the second is responsible for maintaining and servicing already attracted customers (client department).

Which example to choose for the development of a selling division is determined by the company's strategy, its financial capabilities, the time allotted for the implementation of the plan. Understanding the importance of optimization and a responsible approach to solving this issue will help you find the most appropriate tools and methods.

To make up sales development plan and implement changes, you need to understand what exactly needs to be changed to get the maximum effect. To do this, you need to use the Pareto principle.

The world-famous Pareto principle states the importance of focusing your attention on actions that give the maximum effect. These actions represent only 20% of your efforts and give 80% of the result.

20% of your assortment provides 80% of turnover
20% of buyers purchase 80% of your products
20% of sales generate 80% of profits

Development plan: analyzing your business

Development plan: setting indicators

Once you understand which employees, channels, customers bring you 80% of the result, you need to set tasks in numbers.

What indicators can be included in the development plan for the sales department:

Profit size
Managers' performance
Number of calls
Conversion of incoming traffic
Customer share
Number of strategically important clients
Efficiency of business processes
Customer base growth

These indicators need to be formed, taking into account your weak points. If you do not work well with current clients, you need to set a development plan to increase your share in current clients. If you are not converting new customers into selling well, put in the development plan the indicators of work with the incoming stream or cold traffic.

Sales department development plan: consider daily activity

The development plan of the sales department should include measures for the analysis of its current structure and, as well as their correction, if necessary.

The principles to be followed when correcting mistakes in the sales department are fairly simple and at the same time very effective.

1. If you do not have a competent department manager with relevant sales experience () in the right field, then you can be sure that you, as an owner, are wasting money and time. You are losing money because you simply cannot keep track of everything that happens in the commercial structure. You are wasting time, because you have to deal with strategic business development, and not operational. While you are drowning in the routine of everyday worries, competitors are bypassing you.

2. Always remember about the rate of handling. One person is simply not able to manage more than 7 subordinates. This is an immutable law of effective management.

3. If the company practices the “everyone does everything” approach, then most likely chaos reigns in the department, and the owner does not understand at all how his salespeople are doing the result.

The commercial structure of the company has 3 main functions:

lead generation - customer search,
primary - sale to a new client,
maintenance of the current base.

It is desirable that the listed functionality be distributed among different persons. Do not allow a situation in which the seller finds a buyer himself, then sells, and then takes on routine maintenance.

4. In addition to the functional division and with the proper level of business development, it is necessary to begin to allocate employees for individual special tasks and projects. There can be at least 3 reasons for this.

The products are too different and their implementation does not fit well in the hands of one seller. Deeper specialization required
The target audiences are very different from each other.
Sales methods in different territories differ dramatically.

5. Use divide and conquer. So, if the sales department already has more than 6 employees, then they must be divided into 2 groups. The second group will also need an EPR. Such a step will have the most favorable effect on revenue. First, you will have a full-fledged alternative structure, and this is insurance against plan failure. Secondly, people will start competing with each other, that is, doing business.

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