When you’re compiling your sales business plan, what should it include? Here is a very simple sales business plan outline.
Mission Statement and Goals: It is critical to clearly define the purpose of your company, create the vision, and state the broad goals you expect to achieve. These will serve as the benchmark for all of the company’s commercial activity.
Market Analysis: Define your target market. Describe the market your product or service is aimed towards and what type of customers your product/service suits. What is the demographic i.e. location, gender, age and race? Is there market growth potential for your product or is the market already saturated? What is unique about your product or service that will allow you to create your market share?
Marketing Strategy: What is your company’s marketing plan? Define how will you reach out to your existing customers and attract new ones. Include details of market research, advertising, SEO etc., basically anything and everything that you will be doing to promote your business both now and in the future.
Resources: Discuss your operational plan in terms of both personnel and financial resources. Outline the duties and responsibilities of your marketing team and how they will be organizationally structured. Define how your financial resources will be utilized to support and implement your marketing strategy.
Sales Strategy: You need to write in detail about your (i) strategic and tactical approach, (ii) existing and future customers, and (iii) prospect analysis.
Time line: Develop a time line for achieving intermediate goals. These goals should be the stepping stones for accomplishing the broader goals stated in the mission statement section.
Training and qualifications: What qualifications do your personnel need to possess to successfully fulfill the stated goals? Do they already have these qualifications or will they require training? How will this training be implemented and to whom?
Financial: Include the company’s current financial picture showing both its assets and liabilities. Detail the earnings potential of the plan when implemented, and show the expected revenues as each of the intermediate goals are reached. Explain the financial resources needed to carry out the above plan and describe how the company will obtain these resources if it doesn’t already have them in hand.
The sales business plan outlined above is just a brief guide and, naturally, the actual business plan will be complex and detailed and individually tailored to your own particular business.
