What is sales planning?

What is a sales plan?

Your entire company’s sales operations start with a sales plan.

A sales plan operates as a business plan that features the development of the company’s sales activity with set objectives within a particular time frame. A strategic sales plan carefully specifies sales goals, tactics, challenges, target market, and steps you will take to execute the plan.

Setting well-defined goals and a time frame to achieve them isn’t the only goal. Give the same importance to working out tactics and defining a precise sales strategy. Need some additional guidance on creating a sales plan? Here’s where a sales plan template can help.

Sales planning process

1. Objective setting

Setting goals that are measurable and achievable are the foundation of any sales plan. The objectives should factor in historical sales data, market trends, and competitor activity.

First, take a look at your company goals. Establish long-term objectives and a set of short-term goals that will help you get there. For instance, your longer-term objectives could be increased market share, expansion into new territories, or to reach revenue targets. To achieve these, you can set quarterly targets for your sales team.

2. Market analysis

Stay on top of market and industry trends by doing research. Understand what problem your customers are trying to solve. Analyze what your competitors are offering, and how you can position your product or service effectively. By performing a thorough market analysis, you can identify and validate your product-market fit.

3. Customer segmentation

In today’s market, the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Segmenting your customers helps sales strategies. Group customers based on demographics, behaviors, or pain points to tailor your messaging and outreach, resulting in a more effective sales plan.

4. Sales tactics and channel strategy

Outline your overall sales strategies to reach your target customers. This might include content marketing initiatives, social selling techniques, or participation in industry events. Further define specific sales tactics for each strategy, such as cold calling scripts or email outreach sequences.

5. Resource allocation

Identify the resources your sales team needs to be successful. It’s important to include sales tools, training materials, marketing collateral, and budget allocation.

Build a sales team structure, including roles and responsibilities for each member. This could involve sales reps, sales managers, and support personnel. Clearly define how territories will be assigned and how teamwork can help.

6. Performance metrics and KPIs

Tracking the right metrics allows you to measure the success of your sales plan. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and conversion rate. Regularly monitoring these KPIs will provide insights into what's working well and identify areas for improvement.

7. Sales forecasting

Helps you predict future sales trends based on historical data, market insights, and current sales pipeline information. A sales forecast helps in data-driven decision-making, better financial planning, and budget allocation.

8. Training and development

Sales training plans are critical for ensuring your sales team has the knowledge and skills to succeed. Provide ongoing training on product knowledge and successful selling techniques. If you’re using tools like CRM, ensure high adoption with proper onboarding and training. Investing in your team's development will directly impact their sales performance.

9. Action plan and implementation

A clear action plan and effective implementation are crucial for turning your sales plan into reality.

Establish clear deadlines for achieving key milestones within your sales plan. Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) daily responsibilities and initiatives (DRIs) to track your progress.

10. Review and optimization

Continuous review and optimization are essential for your sales plan’s success. Analyze your performance metrics regularly to identify problem areas. Experiment with new ways of selling, innovative campaigns, and more. Analyze the outcomes and do more of what works.

What is a sales plan template?

A sales plan template is a pre-built framework that helps you create your sales strategy. It acts as a roadmap, guiding you through the essential steps of defining your sales goals, target audience, and the tactics needed to succeed.

These templates often include pre-populated sections to prompt you with key elements like competitor analysis, sales process stages, and performance metrics. Using a sales plan template can save you and your team valuable time and effort.

What goes into a sales plan template?

A well-structured sales plan template equips you with the building blocks for a winning sales strategy. Here are some key components to look for:

1. Executive summary

This is where you state your company’s vision and mission. What is the ultimate sales goal? To reach $X million revenue by Q4, or increase share price to Y amount.

2. Business overview

In your business overview, include background on your company’s founding story, how you got to where you are, and where you want the company to be in X years. Include details on the nature of the business, target market, and key milestones. Have a clear description of your offerings, highlighting their unique selling points (USPs) and how they address customer needs.

3. Set business goals, including revenue targets

You can either set a revenue- or volume-based goal, like having a target of $100 mn Annual Recurring Revenue, expanding your product or service portfolio, or increasing your customer base. Set an achievable revenue or volume target; only then can your sales plan be executed.

4. Target market

Get a clear view of your market position with a thorough competitor analysis, SWOT analysis, industry trend reports, and market research. Having a keen eye for these reports improves your overall sales planning.

5. Customer segmentation

Your entire sales team should always have clarity on who they are selling to. Your sales plan should include the target audience, target industries, and ideal customer profiles that your company caters to with its products and services.

6. Sales strategies and tactics

When it comes to actionable insights, it's best to be data-driven and detail-oriented from the start. If your goal is to achieve $100 million in revenue, what is the sales strategy to achieve this number? Your sales plan should include the following tactics:

• Introduce effective selling strategies

• Decide what technologies to use, such as sales automation

• Based on research and industry standards, decide on sales actions to perform, such as follow-up email and more.

• Tap new markets to increase sales and market presence

• Retarget customers for repeat buys

• Cross-sell products to existing customers

7. Sales channels

Decide on the mix of sales channels that you will use to generate leads and drive sales. Consider where your target audience is present and analyze the cost and benefits of each channel. Also take into account the scalability of the channel to accommodate future demand.

• Direct sales: Selling directly to target customers through your own salespeople website, or physical stores.

• Indirect sales: Partnering with resellers, distributors, retailers, or other intermediaries to sell your products or services.

• Online sales: Using e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, and social media to sell to target customers online.

8. Budgets

An essential element of the sales plan is the budget for the year. How much are you willing to spend to achieve your goals? This would include salaries, bonuses, commissions, training costs, team building activity costs, resources spent, and miscellaneous costs.

If your outbound sales team is running thin, your sales plan should be clear about how many more people are required over a particular period, so that you can still meet sales targets (with a sound outbound hiring strategy in place.

9. Roles and responsibilities

Delegate roles and responsibilities at each and every stage—there should be smooth handoffs and communication. Having a CRM can help bring visibility into the sales pipeline and process for all team members.

10. Sales forecast

There are tools in the market today that can forecast sales for each month, quarter, or year based on past sales data, market conditions, and other factors. Include a sales forecast in your sales plan to plan future budgets, strategize for future quarters, and more.

How to create a sales plan

A sales plan is your roadmap to consistent business growth and success. It outlines your goals, aligns your strategies with your target audience, and gives your team the structure they need to win. Whether you're a seasoned sales leader or building a new team from the ground up, a well-crafted sales plan provides the foundation for maximizing results. Let's dive into how to write the best sales plan for your business.

1. Create a mission statement

Whether you sell software or soap, the operations should be consistent with brand values. According to data from Lucidpress, brands with consistent presentation and clear mission statements have increased revenue by 33%.

2. Define your team's roles and responsibilities

Take the time to define the objective and time a sales team has to achieve them. If you want to drive $10,000 in revenue within a month, make it an official objective.

There are many types of sales teams. Get inspired with these examples:

• The island: Involves an owner and sales representatives responsible for every step of the sales process (generating and qualifying leads, closing deals) on their own.

• The assembly line: A sales force is broken down by functions (e.g., a lead generation team, sales development representatives or prospectors, account executives, and a customer success team). A customer moves to a new team as the sales process unfolds.

• The pod: A team consists of sales development representatives, account executives, and a customer success representative.

3. Identify your target market

The target market is a starting point for working out further tactics. Group your target audience by income groups, like high-net-worth individuals or middle-income groups. You can also group them based on B2B or B2C target customers. Stating your ideal customer profile helps sell a product with minimum costs and maximum effectiveness.

4. Outline your tools, software, and resources

In addition to the number of sales employees and the level of their expertise, you need to factor in the sales tools that you use to increase sales productivity. For instance, CRM, sales intelligence, and other sales software. Also outline the equipment that your team will need: phones, computers, etc.

5. Analyze your position in the industry

A comprehensive market overview and analysis is a key part of any business plan. It’s vital to know where a business, its product, or its service stands. One has to explain the distinguishing features that make the business stand out from others an innovative product, free delivery, convenient location, or more expertise.

6. Plan your marketing strategy

Your marketing plan is the foundation for attracting the right inbound leads and generating interest in your products or services. Start by reviewing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and define detailed buyer personas. With marketing software, choose a mix of channels to reach your ICP, including content marketing (blogs, videos), social media, targeted advertising, and email marketing. Craft messaging that speaks directly to your customers' pain points, highlighting the value you provide.

Set clear goals for your marketing efforts across the sales funnel (e.g., increased website traffic, lead generation) and identify KPIs for tracking success. Develop a realistic marketing budget and determine how you'll allocate resources between content creation, advertising, and tools.

7. Develop your prospecting strategy

The goal of your prospecting strategy should be to consistently fill your pipeline with qualified leads who have a high conversion potential. To achieve this, first identify prospecting channels such as inbound marketing, outbound prospecting, events and partnerships.

Factor in how you will score prospects, what nurture programs you will run, and what tools you will use for prospecting.

8. Create an action plan

Now it’s time to put these best practices into action. List out the steps required for each part of the sales action plan. For example, a sales objective such as a 20% increase in referrals.

• Hold a referral techniques workshop

• Run a contest for referral sales

• Increase commission on referral sales by 5%

There isn't a one-size-fits-all sales plan that perfectly accommodates your team. There will be hurdles along the way, so you can always mold your sales plan until you start seeing favorable results. Remember, it’s better to take your time to identify opportunities and ways to overcome challenges to keep up your sales momentum.

What are the benefits of a sales plan for business?

In pursuing high revenues, sales managers are responsible for rendering an exact sales plan that includes a full picture of team strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks (SWOT analysis). Having an insightful sales plan on hand helps these critical sales activities

1 Clear goals and revenue targets

With an organized sales plan in place, every team member is clear on what they need to contribute to your organization’s success. Good example: your sales goal could be to leverage $5,000 in five new deals within a month.

2 Ways to achieve the target

A sales plan lays out the tactics to achieve sales targets. It helps you define the target audience, marketing tools, and techniques to use in your sales plan.

3 Clear and consistent policies 

All procedures related to your sales teams, campaigns, and employees, form a functional part of your sales plan. These include compensation packages, commission rules, and leave policies, for example, in your sales plan.

4 Ability to effectively track progress

Easily track your sales goals and overall sales progress. If an employee fails to meet the predetermined sales goals, it’s time to rethink the sales approach or provide additional sales training.

5 Discipline and diligence

A sales plan can boost discipline and diligence for your sales reps. For instance, an employee can be more task-oriented once they know they must close five deals per month. 

Types of sales plans

Whether you're onboarding a new sales rep, launching a groundbreaking product, or expanding into a fresh market, there's a sales plan template perfectly suited to guide you toward success.

Let’s detail the various types of sales plans available, helping you choose the one that perfectly aligns with your unique sales goals and circumstances. 

30-60-90 day plan

This short-term plan is ideal for new sales reps, or when launching a new product line. It focuses on establishing key activities within the first crucial 90 days, outlining onboarding steps, initial quotas, and performance benchmarks.

Marketing-alignment plan

Prioritize a seamless collaboration between your sales and marketing teams. This plan outlines how marketing efforts will generate qualified leads for sales, and how sales will nurture those leads into paying customers. It defines shared metrics, communication channels, and service level agreements (SLAs) to optimize lead conversion.

Business development strategic plan

Apart from the 30-60-90 plan, this long-term plan focuses on growing your customer base and expanding your market reach. Identify new sales channels, explore strategic partnerships, and outline how you'll acquire new customer segments. This plan typically has a broader timeframe, encompassing 12-24 months.

Market expansion plan

This plan outlines your strategy for entering a new market, either geographically or demographically. Get a detailed competitor analysis, pricing strategies for the new market, and how you'll adapt your sales approach to resonate with the new target audience.

New product sales plan

Launching a new product calls for a dedicated sales plan. This plan details your target market for the new product, its unique value proposition, and how your sales team will position it against existing offerings. Get sales training on the new product's features and benefits, along with initial sales targets and promotional strategies.

Sales planning tools and software

The world of sales is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of the curve requires the right tools. Sales planning tools and software invite you to streamline your strategy creation, optimize team collaboration, and achieve peak sales performance and offer a variety of features, including:

• Goal-setting and forecasting: Set clear and measurable goals for your team and leverage sales forecasting capabilities to predict future performance.

• Territory management: Optimize territory allocation, visualize sales pipelines across regions, and ensure your team has the resources they need to succeed in their assigned areas.

• Data analysis and reporting: Gain valuable insights from sales data. Identify industry trends, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and make data-driven decisions to optimize your sales strategies.

Sales plan example

Let’s look at the sales plan of Ace Project Software, a SaaS company that sells project management solutions.

1. Executive summary

• About Ace Project Software: We streamline project execution for teams through intuitive software designed for improved collaboration, real-time tracking, and insightful reporting.

• Key sales goals: Increase revenue by 20% year-over-year, expand market share within the tech industry by 5%, and achieve a 95% customer retention rate.

• Top strategies: Emphasize content-driven lead generation, target mid-market deals, and enhance user onboarding to boost retention.

2. Business overview

• Mission: To empower teams of all sizes to achieve their goals through efficient project management.

• Company description: AceProject offers a cloud-based project management suite providing robust Kanban boards, Gantt charts, task management, resource allocation, time tracking, customizable dashboards, and real-time collaboration tools.

• Competitive advantage: Our focus on user-friendly interfaces, user adoption, and flexible pricing plans sets us apart in a market filled with complex and expensive competitors.

3. Business goals and revenue targets

• Revenue target: $2 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

• Market share increase: 5% growth within the sector in two years.

• Customer acquisition: 1000 new paying customers every year.

• Customer retention: Maintain a 95% customer retention rate.

4. Target market

• Industry: We primarily target technology companies, marketing agencies, engineering firms, and consultancies.

• Company size: Our focus is on small to medium-sized businesses (50-500 employees), with potential for expansion into enterprise accounts.

• Decision-makers: We engage with project managers, team leads, department heads, and CTOs who make purchasing decisions.

5. Customer segmentation

To tailor our sales and marketing approach, we segment our customers into four buckets:

• Newbie adopters: These customers prioritize user-friendly interfaces and guided onboarding.

• Feature-focused: Customers in this segment need advanced reporting or specific integrations.

• Budget-conscious: We'll emphasize value-for-money with this segment, highlighting free trials or tiered plans.

• Enterprise-ready: Potential enterprise customers seek customizable solutions and dedicated support.

6. Sales strategies and tactics

Our core sales strategies include:

• Content marketing: We'll produce SEO-focused blog posts that demonstrate our expertise in solving common project management pain points. We'll also develop downloadable resources (eBooks, cheat sheets, templates) and host webinars showcasing AceProject's features and benefits.

• Outbound sales: Targeted LinkedIn outreach to relevant decision-makers and personalized email campaigns with tailored demos.

• Partnerships: Collaborations with consulting firms specializing in project implementation and affiliate programs with industry bloggers and influencers.

• Customer success: Our focus is on proactive onboarding, ongoing support, and identifying upselling opportunities for expanded feature plans.

7. Sales channels

• Direct sales: Our inside sales team will handle lead qualification and closing SMB deals, while field sales representatives will focus on enterprise opportunities.

• Website: We'll ensure our website offers frictionless sign-up, free trials, and clear pricing options.

• Channel partners: Resellers and consultants will expand our market reach.

8. Budget

• Marketing: $100,000 annually for search ads, banner ads, freelancers, etc.

• Sales team: $400,000 annually (salaries, commissions, travel)

• Technology (sales stack): $50,000 annually (CRM, automation, etc.)

• Training programs: $20,000 annually

9. Roles and Responsibilities

• VP of sales/sales director/other sales leaders: Sets strategy, manages team, owns revenue goals.

• Marketing team: Lead generation, content creation, nurturing campaigns.

• Sales development representatives: Qualify leads and book demos.

• Account executives: Manage the sales cycle and close deals.

• Customer success managers: Responsible for customer onboarding, training, and retention.

10. Sales forecast

• Pipeline: We aim for a qualified pipeline value of 3x our target revenue.

• Close rates: Projections will be based on historical context and adjusted by segment.

• Projections: We'll track revenue monthly and quarterly to ensure we stay on track with our goals.

The power of technology in sales planning

A well-crafted sales plan provides the roadmap for success, and technology is the powerful tool that helps you navigate that route and reach your destination. A robust CRM serves as the foundation, centralizing customer data and automating your workflows. Alongside this, tools for sales enablement, data analytics, and seamless communication empower your team with the resources and insights they need to close deals and exceed expectations. By strategically integrating the right technology into your sales plan, you'll gain efficiency, visibility, and the data-driven insights necessary to optimize your strategies and ultimately achieve consistent growth.

Tips for creating an effective sales plan

• Keep it simple: Avoid overcomplicating your plan. Focus on clarity and ensure your goals are quantifiable.

• Communicate effectively: Ensure your team understands the goals, strategies, and their individual roles within the plan.

• Celebrate wins: Recognizing milestones and successes boost motivation and encourage your team to do better.

• Collaborative: Get inputs from sales reps, marketing, and other stakeholders to ensure buy-in and cross-functional alignment.

• Adaptability: The market and customer needs can shift quickly. Build flexibility into your plan to respond to unforeseen changes or opportunities.