Steps to Create a Sales Plan for New Salesmen

For sales staff, especially newcomers, achieving sales goals and targets can be a significant challenge that may lead to discouragement. To easily reach high targets, detailed sales planning is crucial. However, not everyone knows how to create an effective sales plan. Below is a step-by-step guide for new sales employees.

1. Concept of a Sales Plan

A sales plan consists of strategies that organizations and businesses develop to enhance the effectiveness of their products and services in the business environment. To create a perfect sales plan, understanding the business situation and establishing an appropriate direction is extremely important. This is a key factor in a business strategy that helps the company grow robustly and achieve consistent profit growth.

2. Benefits of Creating a Sales Plan

• Clear Goals: A sales plan helps define roles, objectives, activities, control points, achievement levels, responsibilities, collaborators, and many other aspects. With a sales plan, sales employees can clearly identify target customers and select effective approaches.
• Increased Confidence and Efficiency: Planning allows sales staff to focus their efforts positively. Activities include time management, customer prospecting, scheduling appointments, selling, negotiating, presenting, and other crucial tasks. Thorough preparation for these activities is essential as it boosts sales employees’ confidence, knowing exactly what they are doing and what they need to achieve.
• Optimized Time Management: A sales plan helps sales employees allocate time reasonably between prospecting new customers and caring for existing ones. A study from Salesforce indicates that sales staff with a specific work plan who spend at least 20% of their weekly time building relationships with current customers can increase sales by over 18% compared to those without a specific plan.

3. 8 Steps to Create an Effective Sales Plan

Step 1: Set Sales Goals

To start a successful sales plan, it is crucial to clearly identify short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals focus on specific objectives achievable in the near term, while long-term goals establish direction and strategy. This ensures the business is on the right path, using its budget effectively within the set timeframe.

Sales goals should be set specifically according to the SMART principle:

S – Specific: Goals need to be clearly defined. Instead of saying “Increase sales,” a specific goal would be “Increase sales of Product A by 20% in Q3.”

M – Measurable: Goals should be measurable to track progress. For example, if the goal is “Attract 50 new customers in August,” this number can be counted and evaluated.

A – Achievable: Goals should be set at a feasible level, in line with current capabilities and resources. For instance, if an average sales employee closes 10 contracts per month, setting a target of closing 12-15 contracts is achievable.

R – Realistic: Goals must reflect the actual situation of the market and the business. If the market shows signs of saturation, setting a target for breakthrough growth may be unrealistic and put unnecessary pressure on employees.

T – Time-bound: Goals need a clear timeframe to ensure tasks are completed on time. For example, “Achieve 1 billion VND in sales from the new product within 6 months” is a goal with a clear deadline.

Step 2: Identify Target Customers

Identifying the target customer group is the next crucial step. Understanding who your potential customers are, what they need, and what they expect from your products or services helps focus energy and resources on reaching and attracting the most promising customers.

Analyzing customer needs and purchasing behaviors is essential to understand them better. Knowing what customers are looking for and how they usually buy helps tailor the sales plan accordingly and attract the attention of target customers.

When analyzing target customers, consider the following information:

• Collect customer data such as gender, age, occupation, geography, shopping preferences, etc.
• Build an overall customer profile and categorize into smaller groups such as loyal customers, potential customers, those needing support, those needing consultation, and those not fitting your business model.

Step 3: Analyze and Survey the Market

To build an effective sales plan, market analysis and surveying are indispensable. This way, you can gain deeper insights into the business environment, new trends, opportunities, and challenges. Competitive research helps businesses understand what competitors are doing, what they have successfully accomplished, and what they haven’t.

Understand the market deeply, analyze competitors, and consumer trends. Assess opportunities and challenges in sales. Conduct large-scale surveys based on automated scenarios and distribute messages to each potential customer segment.

Step 4: Learn About the Product or Service

Before starting sales, it is crucial to have thorough knowledge about the product or service you will be selling. This ensures you can provide accurate and detailed information to customers, thereby increasing your ability to advise and persuade them to make a purchase.

First, you need to understand your company’s products, including their functions, benefits, and the value they bring to customers. This way, you can address all inquiries and reflect the product’s credibility.

Next, you need to understand how to sell that product. This includes how to approach customers, sales methods, and transaction processes. Equipping yourself with the necessary knowledge and skills to communicate and advise customers is very important, as this ability will help you build better relationships and increase successful sales opportunities.

Step 5: Develop a Sales Strategy

Developing an effective sales strategy involves determining the positioning of your product/service, which is one of the most crucial steps. Positioning your product/service helps you know exactly where it stands in the customers’ minds. This includes clearly defining the core value your product/service provides and how it differs from and attracts customers compared to similar products/services in the market.

Choosing distribution channels and advertising strategies is another important part of the sales strategy. You need to identify the distribution channels your target customers use and focus on those channels to reach them. This may include using traditional media channels like television advertising, print media, and radio, as well as digital channels like social media and email marketing.

Finally, you need to establish pricing strategies and promotional policies, including determining prices that align with the product/service’s value, while also creating attractive promotional policies to attract customers and boost sales. This may include using discount strategies, promotions, or special offers to stimulate customer demand for the product.

Step 6: Develop a Contingency Plan

Developing a contingency plan is the next step and also an important part of the sales planning process. This is the step where you identify specific actions you will take to achieve your sales goals.

First, set specific sales goals and measurement indicators. You need to clearly identify the specific objectives you want to achieve and how to measure your performance in reaching those objectives. Second, establish a clear schedule for sales activities and delegate responsibilities to your team members to ensure tasks are executed accurately and on time.

Step 7: Implement and Evaluate the Plan

After completing the sales plan, the first step to take is to communicate this information to the sales team through the following methods:

• Communicate KPIs: Employees, especially the sales team, often react negatively to changes that affect personal interests. In this situation, the leadership’s role is vital in encouraging and communicating the benefits and value of achieving the set KPI targets.
• Reward and Penalty Policies: To make communication effective, leadership needs to clearly share the salary, bonus, allowances, and payment timelines. This helps sales employees easily adjust their activities.
• Implementation Roadmap: A specific and clear implementation roadmap will help sales employees visualize the necessary tasks, contributing to the business’s development.

Then, proceed with the implementation and evaluate its effectiveness to adjust and improve during the execution. Specifically:

• Implement the sales plan by carrying out planned activities, communicating and advising customers, managing time, and tracking progress towards the goals.
• Evaluate effectiveness by comparing results achieved with the set goals, analyzing strengths and weaknesses, and adjusting strategies as necessary.

Step 8: Adjust and Improve

Finally, to ensure the sales plan remains effective and relevant to changing market conditions, you need to regularly adjust and improve the plan. To do this, businesses should:

• Monitor and frequently evaluate sales activities and competitors’ moves.
• Update sales strategies based on feedback from customers and employees.
• Adjust marketing and distribution strategies to align with changes in customer needs and priorities.

4. Conclusion

Creating a sales plan is not only an important starting step but also a decisive factor for success in sales. When you master the guiding steps and apply them effectively, you will see a significant difference in your work results and your business’s growth.

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• Integrate Sales Processes: Connect sales activities from planning to execution, ensuring synchronized and efficient management.
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• Track Goals and Performance: Provide tools to track progress towards goals and employee performance, allowing for timely adjustments to sales strategies based on real data.
• Optimize Processes: Improve operational efficiency, enhance coordination between departments, and increase the ability to meet customer demands.

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