A Sales Plan Defined
Our sales plan should be short, simple and to the point. It's basically our strategic and tactical plan for acquiring new business, growing our existing book of business and making and/or exceeding our sales quota within our sales territory. Typically, a healthy mix would include 75 percent of your sales quota from new business and 25 percent of your quota from add-on business from your existing customers.
There are four basic parts of a sales plan:
1. New business acquisition strategies
2. New business acquisition tactics
3. Existing business growth strategies
4. Existing business growth tactics
Before you start, you need to get a handle on some definitions:
• Sales quota: This critical element of your plan sets the tempo of your efforts throughout the year and provides quarterly, monthly, weekly and even daily sub-goals for you to achieve.
• Sales territory: Refers to the geographic area, list of named accounts or specific market niche you have been assigned to in which you are to sell your products, services and solutions.
• Strategies: The plan necessary to accomplish your goal.
• Tactics: The steps necessary to carry out the plan.
New Business Acquisition Strategies and Tactics
Include the following four strategies in your sales plan. Remember, these strategies are all designed to capture new customers and new market share. Important note: The strategies are numbered and the tactics are italicized.
1. Exceed my quota.
• Send no less than 50 letters of introduction to new prospects each week.
• Make no less than 50 cold calls of introduction to new prospects each week.
• Make no less than 20 face-to-face contacts with new prospects each week.
• Create no less than 10 proposals each week.
• Make no less than five presentations each week.
Important note: Your numbers will, of course, vary. What's important here is that you