Selling has been your profession for years! You are a true expert by experience. You have even grown to become a sales manager and lead a club of motivated and ambitious sales talents. In practice, you spend less time on sales yourself. And that can sometimes be difficult, as our previous example shows blog. And yet you are expected to be able to manage your team from a management perspective. Writing an annual sales plan brings the best of both worlds together. A piece of practice, as well as a way to manage your team. What is it? We're going to tell you!

What is a sales plan and why is it important?

Your department is going well! The customers are satisfied and the deals are being won. You know the trick. The people in your team are motivated and talented. So you would think that there is nothing wrong with the air. If sales manager however, you need to look ahead. Your market is changing and you need to respond to this. You have to guide your team and think further ahead. It is therefore very wise to draw up a sales plan once every six months or year, for example. In that plan you describe the ideal target group for your company at that time, but you also look at the positioning of your organization in the competitive field. So you really create a vision for your sales organization in the medium/long term. Something that strangely enough most organizations do not do. Yet it is crucial for the future of your department.

What is in a sales plan?

A sales plan can consist of various parts. There is no fixed order or structure that you should follow. The sales plan is largely your own interpretation. However, certain components are always wise to include in your plan.

The ideal customer profile

Your organization is developing. But so does your customer! The customers that your organization has focused on in the past period may no longer meet the ideal customer profile. So periodically draw up a new ideal customer profile, in which you describe variables such as industry, number of employees, order size, organization type, etc.

Issue

The main way to acquire new customers is by offering an attractive and appropriate answer to your customer's problem. Sounds simple, but it is very difficult. It requires enormous empathy and good knowledge of your customers and target group. Periodically evaluate your current customer portfolio to determine their main problem and apply this to your sales plan. So respond to changing needs.

Competition

Your organization positions itself in relation to the competition. But the competition is not standing still. It is very wise to thoroughly analyze your competitors every now and then. How do they market themselves? Are they moving towards you or away from you? And why do they do that?

Positioning your product & USPs

If you know your competitors and also have a clear idea of ​​what problem you can solve for your customers, your positioning can be worked out more and more clearly. Especially in the case of young or innovative companies in new markets, the positioning can change significantly. So do not hold on to the positioning of the past if your analysis shows that a different positioning better suits the position of your organization or the market in which you operate.