Regional sales - sales of goods or services in a separate region remote from the main one . In this article I will tell you where to start regional sales, how to find regional sales managers and managers, how to draw up an effective plan and build a sales department management system.

Algorithm for conquering regions:

• 1) Formation of business processes in the existing sales department
• 2) Determining the priority of regional expansion
• 3) Sales testing by existing sales department
• 4) Formation of an algorithm for remote development of the region
• 5) Search for a regional representative
• 6) Formation of a plan for the region
• 7) Opening of a regional office

STEP 1: business structuring at the central office

The central office can show passable results even without a well-functioning system, but! The heads of the units are nearby, the owner or top manager can personally monitor the work of at least every employee. But when a company has a regional representative office associated with production or a warehouse in the central office, it is impossible to do without clear formalized business processes. It is best to roll out and debug the processes at a nearby sales department, and then replicate the processes for regional sales. I wrote about how to properly manage business processes in this article.

STEP 2: identifying regions of presence

Which regions should I start with? From the largest? Perhaps this is optimal for your business, but I would practice on cats - small regions where there is a need for your goods or services.
How to find out the demand for services? There are two very simple criteria to analyze:

STEP 3: testing

Our theory needs to be confirmed by practice. We appoint one of the managers responsible for the development of the regions, launch Yandex Direct, or begin to actively call our customers in the region. Within two to three months, we will have a real picture of our capabilities in the region, and we can move on to the next step.

STEP 4: forming a strategy for conquering the region

Depending on what results the tests showed, we determine the share of the pie that we are able to bite off and formulate a business plan for the development of the region, taking into account the data obtained at the first stage of our work, the formed business processes, and the results of our testing.

The most important factor of remote control is employee reporting and control system involved in the development of the region. No Excel or other reports compiled manually will allow us to understand the reality of what is happening in the region. Therefore, only CRM or ERP systems, call recording control systems, strict adherence to established regulations and daily control of the person responsible for regional development will allow you to really manage remote employees.

STEP 5: Find a remote regional representative

If we understand our enormous prospects, or our finances for development are not limited, we can afford to immediately open a representative office or branch, but if resources are not endless, it would be optimal to find a regional sales manager who will carry out the assigned tasks on the spot. This does not mean that we found an employee, gave him our booklet and let him into the fields. The same methods of monitoring sales managers should be applied to him., as for the rest of the department, it must be provided with all sales tools, it must be trained on an ongoing basis, and all its activity and efficiency must be monitored.

A few words about what a regional manager or sales manager should be like. There is no need to hire a person with several Harvard degrees and huge ambitions; managers will need to be selected later. Now the person must SELL and have minimal organizational skills, so we are not selecting a branch manager, but a regional manager, or simply a sales manager.

STEP 6: creating a sales plan

Of course, we will already have initial sales plans by this time, but only now do we have sufficient information about the market, we have a representative and an understanding of his scope of work. We can predict with certain accuracy the actions of the representative and the planned sales volume.

STEP 7: opening a representative office or branch

Hello! In this article we will talk about how to create a sales plan.

Today you will learn:

• Why is a sales plan needed?
• How to calculate and formalize it;
• How to get employees to fulfill the plan.

Why do you need a sales plan?

Do you need a sales plan for your enterprise? The answer is unequivocal - yes. And not only for those who sell specific goods, but also for workers in the service sector, it is also simply necessary.

1. For labor organization. The enterprise must function as an established mechanism, when each employee has a goal for his work and knows what he must do to achieve it. Employees must have clear ideas about what awaits them after the sales plan is met or not met.
2. To increase profits. Try transferring the seller from fixed line wages at a minimum rate and a bonus for fulfilling the plan, and you will see how the employee’s motivation will affect the company’s income.
3. For development. fades if it stands in one place. Setting a goal and achieving it is the task for successful entrepreneur. Otherwise, he will be overtaken and crushed by more ambitious businessmen.

Types of planning

The basis of any sales plan is an understanding of the minimum and maximum quantities of goods the company must sell in order to exist.

The most important thing for beginning entrepreneurs is the minimum acceptable value; it marks the “bottom” below which it is no longer possible to function. For companies that have embarked on the path of growth and development, achieving maximum plans is more important.

There are several types of planning:

• Promising – long-term strategy for 5-10 years;
• Current – ​​developed for the year, clarifies and adjusts long-term planning indicators;
• Operational and production – tasks are divided into shorter periods (quarter, month, etc.).

Rules for creating a sales plan

The volume of possible sales depends on many factors. When creating a plan, you need to take into account all the points that are important to your area.

For example, these could be:

• Seasonality;
• Dynamics of development and trends in the market;
• Reasons for the decline in past periods;
• Changes in politics, economics and legislation;
• Changes in assortment and prices;
• Sales channels and potential buyers;
• Employees;
• Advertising.

Procedure for developing a sales plan

A complete annual plan, based on in-depth analysis, takes several months to create.

To get an adequate result and not miss anything you need to:

1. Analyze trends in politics and macroeconomics. How does the country's GDP change? What is happening to oil and gas prices and exchange rates? It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the opinions of experts and leading economic media.
2. Study the market situation. Will demand increase or decrease? Have new competitors and potential customers emerged?
3. Display sales statistics for past periods. For the year in general and for each month in particular.
4. Analyze the causes of decline and growth. This may be seasonality, changes in company policy, new assortment, personnel changes. When making a plan for the next year, be sure to rely on significant points.
5. Compile sales statistics separately for sellers and departments. It will be too optimistic to focus on the leaders, but try to bring the average value a little closer to them.
6. Form a base of regular customers. How much profit do they bring, how often and what goods do they come for? Of course, this stage does not apply to companies focused on one-time sales.
7. Set a goal. Based on the analysis done earlier, it is already possible to imagine what sales were last year, and how much they can be increased in the future. It is better to set two goals: feasible and ideal. It is the presence of the second that will remind you that you should not stop there.
8. Discuss the plan with subordinates. Set deadlines and personal instructions.
9. Make a budget. Having a clear sales plan makes it easier to calculate how much you will have to spend on purchases, advertising, and employee bonuses.

Methods for calculating the sales plan

When calculating planned sales, you can use the following methods:

1. Subjective: surveys, questionnaires, decisions based on the entrepreneur’s experience;
2. Objective: test sales, analysis of early periods, demand statistics.

There is no universal method for developing a sales plan for any company. Each enterprise chooses its own method, based on the needs and characteristics of its activities.

There are many methods, but you don't have to know them all. It is enough to select several that are suitable for a specific business and use them together.

Let's take a closer look at several basic methods used in calculating the sales plan.

Time series analysis

Moving average

Using the moving average method, projected sales in the future period will be equal to the sales volume for past periods of time. This does not take into account any other factors. The more periods are taken into account, the more accurate the forecast will be, which is why this method not effective for young companies.

Example. The stationery store sold 2700 ballpoint pens in 2016, 3140 in 2015, 2900 in 2014. Forecast for 2017: (2700+3140+2900)/3=2910.

Exponential smoothing

A method for creating short-term forecasts based on the analysis of historical data. Convenient for predicting development retail sales. Allows you to calculate how much goods will be needed in the next similar period (month, week).

The smoothing constant (SC) can be from 0 to 1. At an average sales level it is 0.2-0.4, and during growth (for example, holidays) – 0.7-0.9. The most appropriate value of the KS is determined empirically - the value with the smallest error over past periods is selected.

Formula:KS * Actual demand for the current period + (1-KS) * Forecast for the current period.

Example. During the month, the stationery store sold 640 notebooks against the previous forecast of 610, KS - 0.3. Forecast for the next month: 0.3*640 + (1-0.3)*610= 619.

Decomposition and seasonality factor

The decomposition consists of seasonality, trend and cyclicality. In practice, many entrepreneurs stop at using the seasonality coefficient. It is used to create a sales plan based on historical income for a business whose turnover depends on seasonality.

Step 1. Determination of seasonal dynamics. A clear digital indicator here is the seasonality coefficient.

1. Take last year's total sales and divide it by 12. This will give you the monthly average.
2. Divide the sales amount for each month of the accounting year by the average.

Example. Over the past year, the store made sales of 850,000 rubles. Of these, 44,000 in January, 50,000 in February, and so on. Average monthly value 850000/12 = 70,830 rubles. Seasonality coefficient for January: 44000/70830=0.62, for February: 50000/70830=0.71.

As a result, each month will receive its own coefficient. For reliability, it is worth calculating such coefficients for several past years and leaving their average value for further actions.

Step 2: Define your goal. For example, let's say you set a goal to increase sales by 20%. The calculation is simple: you need to add 20% to the amount of sales for the previous year.

850000+20% = 1,020,000 rub.

Step 3. Make a sales plan for the month. The general plan for the year must then be divided into smaller periods - in our example, these are months.

1. Divide the annual goal by 12 to get an average plan for the month.
2. Multiply the average plan by the seasonality factor for each month.

Example. Average monthly plan: 1,020,000/12 = 85,000 rubles. Plan for January: 85,000*0.62 = 52,700 rubles, plan for February: 85,000*0.71 = 60,350 rubles.

The result will be a sales plan for each month. If the monthly plan is fulfilled, then the common goal to increase sales for the year. It is much easier to monitor the implementation of the plan over short periods of time and take prompt measures than to try to catch up with the goal in the last months of the year.

Preparation of a sales plan

The sales plan as a document consists of several points.

Let's list all the main ones in order:

1. A header consisting of a title (“Department Sales Plan...”) and an indication of the author (“Compiled by...” then the position and full name of the person who compiled the plan).
2. The first point is employees and achievements. Here it is worth listing all employees of the department, indicating the need for new personnel, if any, and also mentioning key achievements over the past period.
3. The second point is the results of the past period. For clarity, you can include in the document a graph of sales growth and decline, provide total values ​​not only for the department as a whole, but also for each employee in particular, and indicate in percentage terms how much the previous plan was overfulfilled or underfulfilled.
4. The third point is a plan for the future period. The plan amount is indicated, the main planned transactions are listed, clients who are ready to enter into a contract and other points that ensure a guarantee of profit in the new period.
5. The fourth point is necessary measures. Further, we are talking about the actions that have yet to be performed to achieve the goal. It could be changes pricing policy, advertising campaigns, updating the company’s technical base and many others.
6. Date and signatures of the managers who approved the plan.

All employees of the company should familiarize themselves with the resulting document. Only after collective discussion and approval can the plan be officially recognized as the “compass” along which the company will move in the new year, quarter or month.

Structuring the plan

A sales plan is a map for the development of any business that sells goods or services. Without this map, things run the risk of getting lost, going in circles, or even moving in the opposite direction. And the more detailed the map, the easier it is for the traveler not to go astray.

Based on the features, set goals in several directions at once:

• Regional and macro market share;
• Overall sales volume;
• Financial profit.

If possible, break down each large plan into more specific ones. For each direction, product, number of clients, and so on, depending on your business.

The larger the company, the more plans you will have to make. In addition to the general sales plan common to all employees, each branch, division, department, manager and ordinary seller should have their own goals.

Such detailed planning is necessary for every enterprise.

Structuring the plan should ideally occur across all available sections:

• Regions (where and how much will be sold);
• Sellers (who will sell and how much);
• Products (how much of what will be sold);
• Time (when and how much will be sold);
• Sales channels (to whom and how much will be sold);
• The nature of sales (how many sales are guaranteed and how many are only planned).

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1. Sales forecast instead of plan. The forecast can be part of the sales plan, but cannot in any way replace it. The forecast only describes a situation that may or may not occur in the future.

The plan contains a description of the goal that needs to be achieved and the conditions that will need to be met for this. It implies a set of specific tools with which the result will be achieved: promotions, employee training, price reductions.

Mistake 2. The plan is based only on last year's achievements. Sales plan analysis must take into account everything important factors. It is unacceptable to discount the economic situation in the country and region, competitors, new technologies and other changes that will certainly affect sales.

Error 3.Uniting all customers into one whole. Even the little ones trading enterprises There are certain groups of buyers. They can be united according to various criteria: those who buy the same category of product, regular customers or new customers who make random purchases at a retail outlet or find your products on the Internet. When forming a plan, you need to consider what you can offer each of the groups and what you can get in return.

Error 4. The plan does not indicate deadlines and responsible persons. In the sales plan, everything should be clear: what is the goal, when it should be accomplished, by whom and using what tools.

Mistake 5. The plan is not structured enough. Each department and seller in particular should have its own individual plan. Agree that when not own plan, the temptation is too great to place all responsibility on colleagues.

Mistake 6: The plan was not discussed with the sales people. The plan will never be fully developed if it was drawn up by one manager, guided only by reports and graphs. Frontline salespeople should at a minimum have the opportunity to discuss the plan with management, and better yet, be directly involved in creating the sales plan.

Be sure that you made the plan correctly if, at the end of the period, it turned out to be 85-105% completed.

How to achieve the plan

It's one thing to make a plan for yourself. This can be done by an entrepreneur seeking to increase profits or a manager aimed at career growth.

But the situation is completely different with plans for subordinates. You should not severely punish for every failure to fulfill the sales plan and keep employees under a tight rein - this is ineffective.

It’s better to listen to the advice of experienced entrepreneurs:

1. Briefly, but as completely as possible, formulate what you want from your employees. It is better to convey this to them in writing.
2. Incentivize financially. Best employees worthy of a prize.
3. Set bonuses not only for 100% completion, but also for each passing of a certain minimum threshold (for example, 60%). The employee may not have fulfilled the plan, but it is clear that he tried.
4. Fine for systematic violations.
5. The entire vertical of employees (from an ordinary salesperson to a top manager) must be financially dependent on the implementation of plans.
6. Respect and value your employees and strive to ensure that they love their place of work and are interested in the development and prosperity of the company.

It is impossible to manage a sales department without a clear plan - it’s like moving in an unclear direction, relying only on “maybe”. There must be a plan, especially if you are going to create your own sales department from scratch, if you already have a department, but it is lagging behind on all counts, or if you are going to slightly retrain your “sales people” - for example, from active sales to working with regular customers. In a general sense, any company that wants to succeed in the market and make a profit needs a plan.

A plan is a document that defines the principles, directions and methods of achieving goals within the framework of corporate strategy.

What happens if you work without a plan?

It's okay if your company is very small - literally just a few employees. In small firms with a small number of employees, one employee is usually assigned the responsibilities of several specialists, and the role of planner and estimator is assigned to the director. Small businesses are constantly searching for new clients and retaining old ones, because the loss of even one partner can have an extremely negative impact on the future of the company.

The situation is different in large companies with established client base. Sales managers in large companies both renegotiate contracts and are engaged in winning back part of the market where they can promote and consolidate their brand. If this is not done, the company will very quickly go from a large company to a small one.

Such an enterprise needs planning. If the director can control several employees himself, receiving daily oral reports, then in a large one a number of problems immediately arise:

• The sales department cannot be controlled; there is not enough time for this;
• the quality of service decreases, and as a result, customers leave;
• talented managers move to work for competitors.

Sales department development planning: preparation

1. Setting a goal.

2. Development of an analysis system.

3. Search for means that will help achieve the goal.

4. Assess the situation in which your sales department currently finds itself.

5. Selection of the optimal strategy.

6. Selection of specific actions that will help quickly and effectively solve the assigned tasks.

Sales department development planning: writing a plan

1. Determine what role the sales department plays in the overall corporate strategy. Yes, the company should also have a corporate strategy, and the development plan should not be in opposition to it, but as if complementing it and serving a common goal.

2. Assign a time period during which each of the tasks must be implemented, as well as the entire plan. Most often, plans are written for the next 3–5 years.

3. Explore personnel composition to understand whether it meets its stated purpose. If not, outline ways to solve the problem, hire new specialists or improve the skills of existing ones.

4. Standardize processes - whenever possible. A single standard allows you to work more harmoniously, calmly, and more efficiently.

5. Automate the process of interaction between the sales department and other departments, as well as with clients and partners.

6. Draw up specific stages for completing specific tasks, assign performers for them and those who will supervise the performers. It is advisable to schedule the stages quarterly or monthly.

Any business that does not have a sales department is at great risk of going bankrupt, because without a well-functioning sales department there is nothing to do in a 21st century business. Competition, quality of service, quality of goods is growing every day, and those who sell more successfully conquer markets, while others also successfully leave them.

Over the past 2 years, we have seen a very sad picture - hundreds of thousands of companies across Russia are closing because they are experiencing financial difficulties. If we look at their internal organization, then in most companies we will see that they did not have a well-established marketing or sales department, because the managers were confident that “word of mouth” was the best sales channel and it would allow the company to grow into a crisis. But the reality is completely different: the sundress no longer works as effectively as it did 10-15 years ago, because the number of companies and competition have grown hundreds of times and the client chooses those companies that stand out from others. Without competent marketing and sales department, this can no longer be achieved. By the way, in the picture above you can see the main basic things that are necessary for successful marketing strategy.

11 main mistakes when building a sales department

• You are not searching for and hiring new sales managers. The sales department is the most dynamic department with the most frequently changing personnel. In this regard, if you do not constantly search and expand your sales department, then sooner or later you will be left without a sales department, which will lead to the loss of the company. Advice: if 3 employees are profitable, then start scaling and recruit 3 more new employees. This will keep the sales department on its toes, because existing managers will feel the competition and will work even more efficiently.
• You don't have scripts for the sales department. You believe that managers themselves will develop their own effective scripts, which they will apply in practice. You do not identify the features of the scripts of the most effective managers. As a result, this will lead to the fact that the most effective ones will sell more and will feel that your business depends on them, and therefore they will dictate terms to you. Also, the lack of proven scripts will not allow you to effectively expand your sales department, since there will be no training system for new managers. If effective managers leave you, then you will not be able to quickly train new recruits. Sales scripts are a distillation of the best techniques that allow you to work effectively with your clients.
• No sales plan. Every manager must clearly understand how much he should sell. The sales plan must be feasible, otherwise managers will lose incentive.
• No plan for the day. If you don't set a plan for the day, then most managers will make a minimum number of new contacts, which will lead to their ineffectiveness. In most business segments, the minimum manager call plan per day is 40. If your managers make fewer new contacts, then sales effectiveness will be minimal. It is worth noting that this does not depend on the manager’s skills, because even a beginner, making a given number of calls, will be able to fulfill the plan in a month. If a manager does not make a plan for the day, then he will not receive a salary.
• The seller has extra responsibilities other than sales. If you distract a sales manager with other tasks, then he will do everything except sales. Do not combine purchasing and sales departments under any circumstances.
• The sales manager accompanies the client after concluding an agreement with him. This is one of the most common mistakes that managers make when, instead of selling, the manager continues to accompany clients and receives a percentage of each transaction for this. This should not happen in the right sales department. You should separate the sales department and the support department. The sales department manager receives interest only on the first transaction; the remaining contracts with the current client must be concluded by the support department managers. Otherwise, the sales manager will work with 10-20 of his existing clients and will not bring in new ones. The sales department's job is to work with new clients.
• Payment of salaries and bonuses even if the sales plan is not met. Very often, managers believe that if the manager is paid the entire salary with bonuses, even if the manager did not cope with the plan, then he will work more efficiently next month. No. This won't happen. The manager will work the same or even worse, because he will understand that he will still be paid good salary and bonuses.
• Large salary and small interest on the transaction. Never tie a manager's salary to a high salary, otherwise you will deprive him of motivation. Motivation is exactly what allows a manager to be stimulated. If a manager receives a large salary and small percentages, then he has no incentive to sell more. You can make a higher salary for the first two months (subject to fulfillment of daily plans) and a smaller percentage of the transaction, and in the 3rd month transfer to a standard salary +% of transactions, because in 3 months the manager will be able to gain the necessary experience and close the required number of transactions.
• Non-transparent system for calculating bonuses and interest. It often happens that a company has developed a calculator that allows a manager to calculate his salary independently. This calculator is often opaque and illogical. I remember a case when a manager came to us and told us that previous work the more you had to work, the lower the salary. Also, the salary was reduced if the working day fell on the last day of the month, and therefore none of the sales people wanted to go out on that day. Management also could not explain the logic behind salary calculation.
• Lack of training and mentoring in the sales department. If you haven't developed a system of training and mentoring, then new sales employees will be ineffective. Managers often assume that managers will train themselves and will sell effectively.
• It takes a long time to fire ineffective managers. Very often, heads of companies or sales departments expect miracles from newcomers or existing “burnt out” managers who do not fulfill the plan and, often, do not even pay for themselves. This is a very big mistake, because if a manager does not pay for himself within 2 months, then he should be fired without hesitation, because in the end such managers disorganize more productive employees and bring losses to the company. Also, if a manager after employment does not show the necessary indicators even in the 3rd month after being hired, then this is also a reason to think about his qualifications.

Sales department plan

Having a plan in the sales department significantly increases sales and also allows you to monitor the effectiveness of managers. What is the reason for this, since each manager is personally interested in his effectiveness, because he receives a percentage of sales? Unfortunately, if a manager does not understand how much he needs to sell, he will sell less. Only a few managers exceed the “plan”.

How to set a realistic sales plan?

• Based on business needs (business plan). You must make up detailed business plan, which reflects all costs, which will allow you to clearly understand how many goods or services need to be sold in order to start earning money. Unfortunately, very often managers do not know the company's costs and estimate only the gross profit, thinking that this is enough. But gross profit is "dirty" money that has nothing to do with the company's profit.
• Once you have your sales team up and running and are profitable, you can evaluate your best salespeople and set a more realistic plan. You shouldn’t set a plan based on indicators best managers, because in every company there are always stars and outsiders. It is recommended that the plan be approximately 50%-70% of the best sales figures.

What difficulties did you encounter when forming a sales department? How do you formulate a plan? Write in the comments.

“If you don’t know where you are going, then you will end up there,” is a quote from a famous person that I have adapted.

It fully reflects the main problem of the business. Entrepreneurs go for more money, for profit growth. But no one knows to what exact figure.

And if the leader of the company himself does not know this, then how can the employees know this? 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. There is nowhere without him now.

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 for the company?”

I was hoping to see a forest of hands because it's not just a base successful company, this is an integral part of it, I saw a different picture, only 10-20% raised their hands.

Businessmen do not understand the necessity of setting a plan and refer to “We cannot determine a sales plan,” “We set it. This doesn’t work for us” or “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 dwell on 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 advantages:

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

There are many more benefits that can be listed, but these are the main ones. Everything else is derivative. I think that the formation of point B is necessary, that's clear.

Sales people cannot exist without a goal. They will work (earn) exactly as much as they feel comfortable (necessary).

“Do you want more?!” This is already your problem. I have enough,” they think, working without a sales plan.

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

Everyone is in the way

When you decide that you need to create a sales plan, you must take into account a huge number of factors.

And you need to do this before you start installing it. Because you can formulate an excellent plan, but it will not work, due to the fact that you have not provided for external and internal factors.

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

We typically see sharp up-and-down swings depending on the month or quarter. Such races can be called “season/out-of-season”. You need to pay attention to them and make adjustments to the plan.

Team. With a high 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 not complete, then reconsider your final numbers.

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 sagging due to the situation on planet Earth.

The reason for this may be both sanctions and the general behavior of people. This needs to 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 possible factors, just understand a simple thought - your sales plan depends not only on how much you sold last year.

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

Plans vary

When we talk about a sales plan, we think about one thing. But it's not right. There are different types and forms of sales plans, both for different purposes and for different people.

Let's look at all this now in parts. As you read, determine what you will have at the beginning of your journey.

Measurement

The sales plan must be measured in money. And period. But I think differently. You can also measure your sales plan in units or actions.

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

We have a car dealer among 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 upgraded equipment.

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

How to measure

Duration

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

But defining a sales plan for the year, week and day is absolutely necessary. For the year, you set a plan primarily 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 have completed the plan for this day/week or not.

And as a result, they decide that they need to “plow” before the month comes to an end in order to avoid failure to meet the sales plan.

Important. How to set a sales plan for long deal cycles? You set a money plan not for one month, but for two or 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 ones, also personal plans sales This situation is easy to notice in those companies where everyone is “for themselves.” This is good.

After all, in addition to team play, you also allow each employee to stand out from everyone else and earn more by exceeding the sales plan.

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

Thus, in addition to the fact that there is a general sales plan for the company, there is a personal sales plan for everyone personally, and each group/shift also has a separate plan.

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

And if any group from the entire department is in danger of not meeting the sales plan, then it helps them reach their common cherished goal.

Accuracy

Let's return to our beliefs that “the sales plan consists of all the money that comes into the company.”

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

1. For new clients;
2. For old clients;
3. By product;
4. By accounts receivable;
5. To bring back lost clients.

In this way, we show our employees what is very important to us. Otherwise, as a rule, they focus on one thing.

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

At this moment they forget that they need to work with receivables, which you have New Product, which needs to be sold because it has high margins, etc.

plan setting techniques

Now the question in your head is not “What?”, but “How?”. How to calculate a sales plan? There is not only different types plans, but also different development methods.

I know only 5 of them. But if you take a general overview of classical business, then two approaches will be enough, which I will tell you about now.

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

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

From the fact

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

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

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

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

This growth is different for everyone. The younger the company, the larger the scale, while for “adult” companies everything is more stable.

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

If last month an analysis of the implementation 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 significantly fulfilled, then it should be lowered. But do not forget to analyze external and internal factors.

From desire

There is a technique for breaking down a goal into parts, it’s called a sales plan.

It will be very helpful if there is no data for the past period. For example, you either didn’t lead them, or you have a new direction. In this case, let's start 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 turnover of 10 million rubles in a 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 our heads):

• 100 transactions with an average bill of 100,000 rubles.
• 1000 applications with conversion to purchase 10%

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

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

For example, the average bill is 100 thousand rubles. For us it's a fairy tale. Based on this, we need to either increase the conversion from application to purchase (for example, by introducing in ), or build a more serious one.

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

Rules for a successful plan

Before you create a sales plan for your company, whether it is a “Factual” or “Desirable” plan, check through decomposition.

This way, you will not only be convinced once again that it is real, it will also be useful for your employees. So that they can see how many actions need to be taken to get a result.

In addition to dividing actions into parts and taking into account important indicators (average margin, deal cycle, cost of attracting a client, etc.), you also need to take into account a few more basic points when calculating your sales plan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

They set plans for their salespeople that they will NEVER do in their lives. 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.

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

Review resources and activities. You also have to figure necessary resources and actions to successfully achieve results. After all, not everything depends on the sales department.

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

Briefly about the main thing

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

We also figured out how to exhibit it correctly. It's not difficult to do this. 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'm not saying that the two methods discussed in this article are ideal. They are enough for classic business.

Increasingly complex options and a far-reaching strategic sales plan are needed when high turnover and a large company with a huge number of processes are at stake.