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Blog Business How to Create a Sales Plan: Strategy, Examples and Templates
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How to Create a Sales Plan: Strategy, Examples and Templates
Written by: Aditya Rana Mar 25, 2024
![basic sales business plan how to create a sales plan: strategy, examples, templates](https://venngage-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/03/how-to-create-a-sales-plan-strategy-examples-templates.png)
The difference between a company struggling to drive sales and one that’s hitting home runs often boils down to a well-crafted sales plan.
Without knowing how to write a sales plan , your sales reps will lack vision, not understand the market, and be ineffective at engaging potential customers.
Most businesses fail in sales planning because they don’t focus on their unique value. If you’re struggling with sales, here’s what you need to do: define your goal(s), create customer personas, and create an action plan for success.
One of the best ways to organize this information in one place is to use sales planning templates . In this post, I’ll show you how to write a sales plan (…with plenty of template examples included of course!).
Click to jump ahead:
What is a sales plan?
Benefits of a sales plan, how to create a sales plan, sales plan example, sales plan templates.
A sales plan is a strategic document that outlines how a business plans to convert leads into sales. It typically details the target market, customer profile, and actionable steps that must be taken to achieve revenue targets.
Here’s a great example of a sales plan that includes all these elements neatly packed into one document.
![basic sales business plan Colorful Food Retailer Sales Action Plan](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/e5c6d99a-22e2-42e8-b4f6-1db73422fd8c.png)
Every company needs a sales plan, but have you ever wondered why?
Why should businesses invest time and resources in creating sales plan when they could…well…be focusing on sales?
Sales plans are worth it because they tell sales employees what to do.
Without a sales plan, your sales efforts will end up becoming a disorganized mess. Let’s explore the benefits of sales plans in detail.
Help you identify and target the right market
A sales plan helps you figure out the target market that’s most likely to be responsive to your messaging.
I mean do you really want to waste your time trying to sell to someone who has no need for your product or isn’t interested in your offering?
But if you know who your customer is, you can target their pain points.
![basic sales business plan Cream Purple Customer Range Pictograms Charts](https://cdn.venngage.com/template/thumbnail/small/2c2d54ef-d7ad-4ed3-8bc4-1b1775493de1.webp)
Help you set goals
All great sales plans require you to set goals that are actually attainable and budgeted for.
Without goals, your sales team essentially operates in the dark unsure of what success looks like and how to achieve it.
One of the best ways to set goals is by conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to understand the market landscape.
![basic sales business plan Sales SWOT Analysis](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/e43ab6af-ab37-4811-b731-33f8a3ef54a9.png)
Help you forecast sales
Since sales plans require you to study historical sales data , you have the ability to understand trends, seasonality, and customer buying patterns.
This information can be used to accurately forecast future sales performance.
And when you chart it out visually like in this example, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your sales strategy.
![basic sales business plan Sales Projections Line Chart](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/2fa8e45d-c4ba-403c-92f8-786cbb078feb.png)
Help you identify risks
Because sales plans require you to study the market, you’ll be able to uncover risks such as market saturation, competitors, and shifting customer needs.
With this knowledge, you have the ability to be flexible in your approach.
Besides market risks, sales plans also help you pinpoint risks within your company such as a lack of qualified leads or unclear communication between departments.
![basic sales business plan Risk Management Plan Templates](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/0abe98b3-16f6-4fd1-ae8a-3b2f3dd63635.png)
Improve customer service
It may sound counterintuitive but creating a sales plan also actually improves your customer service.
Researching and trying to understand customer needs means new insights that you can share with the customer service team which allows them to tailor their approach.
Incorporating tools like a VoIP cellphone service can enhance communication, enabling sales service reps to anticipate questions and concerns so that they can communicate effectively..
Increases sales efficiency
Sales plans help standardize sales tactics and ensure sales reps follow the same best practices to reduce inconsistencies and improve effectiveness.
One of the best ways to standardize practices is to use a flowchart like in this example to make sure everyone knows what to do when facing a decision.
![basic sales business plan Sales Flowchart](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/2eb75ac4-f2af-4920-81af-2756f46a4546.png)
Increases your profits
Sales plans generally guarantee a boost in profits because it allows sales team to laser-focus on high-value opportunities instead of being headless chickens.
Reducing wasted effort and a higher frequency of closed deals is a win in my book any day.
One of the best ways to measure changes in profits is to use a simple template to review performance like in this example.
![basic sales business plan Free Bar Graph Template](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/56161138-adbe-4082-bbd6-9e4548645c9c.png)
Help you understand customer needs
Contrary to what you might think, sales plans aren’t just about selling but also about understanding customers at a deeper level.
The process of creating a plan forces you to analyze customer data, buying habits, and pain points, all of which will help you understand what makes your customers tick and build trust and loyalty.
Here’s a great example of a customer persona you can edit to include in your sales plan.
![basic sales business plan Purple Persona Guide Report](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/36854129-bf9f-4849-a345-37a17c68abfa.png)
A sales plan is a document that helps you maximize profitability by identifying valuable segments and outlining strategies to influence customer behavior.
Common elements most sales plans include:
- Sales goals : Information on revenue, market share, and more.
- Sales strategy: Information on how to reach potential customers and convert them.
- Target audience: Information on ideal customers and their needs.
- Metrics : Methods to track progress.
- Resources : Tools, budget, and personnel needed to achieve sales goals.
Let’s take an in-depth look at how to create a sales plan.
( Note : You don’t need to include each of these points in your sales plan but I recommend you cover most of them to build a plan that’s well-rounded).
Define your business mission and positioning
Before you jump into tactics, build a strong foundation by defining your company’s mission and positioning.
Here’s why this step is a must-do:
- Your mission statement defines your company’s purpose and values and gives your sales team and customers something to relate to.
- Your positioning statement defines how your product or service meets a specific need and sets you apart from the competition.
Trying to sell without any alignment to company values will lead to inconsistent messaging and damage your brand reputation.
Here’s a great example of a sales plan template you can customize with your own brand’s mission and positioning statements.
![basic sales business plan Dark Sales Action Plan](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/f7e4750f-ee1c-4cf1-9582-ebb050b65345.png)
Define your target market
Unless you think you can sell to every person possible, you’ll need to define your ideal target market.
Study your customer base and ask questions like: do most of the customers belong to a specific industry? Or do they all face the same pain point?
Also, keep in mind that target market can change over time due to changes in your product, pricing, or factors out of your control, so it’s important to review and update your target market frequently.
![basic sales business plan Market Infographic](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/0bb7a1f9-9c58-4253-bee9-0591f44b6a5d.png)
Understand your target customers
This step often gets mixed with the previous one, so pay close attention.
Your target customers are those who your business wants to target because they’re most likely to make a purchase.
You can figure out who your target customers are by creating customer profiles by breaking down your target market into smaller groups based on geography, behavior, demography, and more.
Here’s a great sales plan template where you can edit in your own customer persona.
![basic sales business plan Food Customer Sales Action Plan](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/856e01d8-e123-43a0-849c-3c513a7b9db6.png)
When making your buyer personas, make sure you answer the following questions.
- Motivations and challenges: What are customer pain points? What drives purchasing decisions?
- Behaviors and preferences: How do customers research products? What communication channels do they prefer?
- Goals and aspirations: What are your prospective customers trying to achieve? How can your product or service help them get there?
Define sales objectives and goals
Setting clear, measurable goals gives you a method to measure performance of your sales strategies. To further refine your approach and ensure that your sales goals align with broader strategic imperatives, consider integrating the MEDDPICC methodology into your planning process
More importantly though, they give your sales team targets to aim for which then allows them to work in a structured and focused manner.
Your sale goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This is to make sure they’re realistically achievable within a set timeframe.
Here’s a comparison of good sales goal setting vs a bad one.
- ✅Drive $100,000 in sales of product X by Y date using Z tactics
- ❌ Increase overall sales in each product line
You can organize this information using a template like in this example, especially if you have multiple product lines.
![basic sales business plan Vintage Food Retailer Sales Action Plan](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/13a9f3a3-0ebe-4aca-a00e-d156ca623a5a.png)
Define your value proposition
Your value proposition is a concise statement that explains why a customer should choose your product or service over the competition.
Here’s an example of a value statement:
“For busy small business owners, we provide a user-friendly accounting software that saves you time and money, allowing you to focus on growing your business.”
Then, it doesn’t matter if you own a restaurant, have developed a bike rental service, run a gym, or created hotel management software . Your value proposition must clearly convey unique benefits and show how your product stands out.
Here are some tips on defining your value proposition:
- Identify customer needs: What are the core challenges and pain points your ideal customer faces? Understanding their needs allows you to position your offering as the solution.
- Highlight your unique benefits: What sets your product or service apart? Focus on benefits you deliver that address the customer’s needs.
- Quantify the value: When possible, quantify the value you offer. Can you demonstrate a cost savings, increased efficiency, or improved outcomes?
Map out the customer journey
Unless you’re extremely lucky, no one is going to purchase from you during the first interaction.
That’s why it’s crucial for you to know the steps a customer takes from initial awareness to purchase. Mapping out their journey allows you to personalize messaging and influence behavior.
Here are some tips on how to create a customer journey map:
- Identify the stages: Break down the journey into distinct stages, such as awareness, consideration, decision, and post-purchase.
- Define touchpoints: Pinpoint the different touchpoints where your customer interacts with your brand (example: website, social media, customer reviews).
- Understand customer needs at each stage: What information are they looking for at each stage? What are their concerns and motivations?
- Identify opportunities to engage: Identify opportunities to engage with your potential customers and move them along the buying journey.
Want some help creating customer journeys?
This customer journey map template is an excellent way to bring customer journeys to life.
![basic sales business plan Purchase Customer Journey Map](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/0b82c8a9-49f5-4c16-8de2-ac46bef0af95.png)
Gather existing sales data
This step involves collecting and analyzing all available data on past sales performance.
This data is critical in helping you spot trends, patterns, and areas for improvement in your sales operations.
![basic sales business plan Blank 5 Column Chart Template](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/3a4fcfa4-53d0-4ed5-b6a7-805c8e013af9.png)
Perform sales forecasting
Sales forecasting is the practice of estimating future sales which can be presented as a report highlighting expected sales volume weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Though not always 100% accurate, sales forecasting is key to writing sales plans because it’ll provide you with a clear picture of the ground reality which leads to better decisions on budgeting.
Here’s a template you can use to perform sales forecasting to makes the sales planning process effective.
![basic sales business plan Monthly Sales Report](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/3a57e0e2-89c1-47d0-9741-538c7ccf5bca.png)
Define your sales KPIs
KPIs are a fancy way of saying that you need to set metrics to track effectiveness of your sales strategy and team’s performance.
Some example KPIs you can include in sales plans are:
- Number of sales
- Sales revenue
- Average deal size
This sales report template is a great example of how you can include KPIs in your meetings to test performance and adjust strategy.
![basic sales business plan Weekly Sales Report](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/8fc89e53-9c2b-4eb4-8bf4-66055b996a3b.png)
Identify gaps in the sales process
This step is all about analyzing your current sales process to figure out gaps and/or potential obstacles preventing you from achieving goals.
When you identify a gap, brainstorm potential solutions so that you can create a specific action plan.
Understand the sales stages
When writing a sales plan, make sure you cover each stage of the sales cycle. If you’re unsure of what the sales stages are, here’s a quick recap.
Prospecting
This is the foundation of the sales process where you identify potential customers who might be a good fit for your product or service.
Preparation
Once you have a list of prospects, you need to research their needs, challenges, and buying habits.
This is all about how you contact and communicate with prospects.
Presentation
This section is your opportunity to showcase the value proposition of your product or service. Tailor your presentation to address the prospect’s specific needs and demonstrate how your offering can solve their problems.
Handling objections
Identify common objections your sales team might encounter related to price, features, competition, or need. Develop clear and concise responses to address these concerns proactively.
Equip your sales team with effective closing techniques to secure commitments from prospects who are interested but might hesitate.
Plan your follow-up strategy based on the prospect’s decision timeline and the stage of the sales cycle. For longer timelines, periodic updates and information sharing through digital sales rooms can maintain engagement and provide valuable resources conveniently.
Organize the sales team
Organizing the sales team entails defining roles and responsibilities clearly to cover all aspects of the sales process effectively.
This might involve segmenting the team based on product lines, customer segments, or territories.
Here’s an example of how it might look:
Sarah — Sales Director — will lead the sales team, set overall strategy, goals and direction. Michael and Jessica — Business Development Executives — will focus on prospecting new leads. They will research potential customers, identify those who might be a good fit for the product, and qualify leads by gathering information and assessing their needs. William — Sales Development Manager — will manage the business development executives and ensuring they follow best practices. Chris and Lisa — Account Executives — will handle qualified leads. They build relationships with potential customers, present product demos, address objections, and close deals.
Using an org chart like in this example is a great way to visualize this information.
![basic sales business plan Simple Corporate Organizational Chart](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/3c861564-d493-45eb-9899-e08885c2bfdd.png)
Outline the use of sales tools
Sales tools play a crucial role in streamlining the sales process and enhancing productivity.
For example, incorporating digital account opening into your sales strategy can simplify the onboarding process for new customers, reducing friction and increasing conversion rates.
Make sure you outline the tools your team will use, how they fit into different stages of the sales process, and any training required to maximize their utility.
This ensures that your team has the resources needed to engage effectively with prospects and customers.
Set the budget
Setting the budget involves allocating resources efficiently across various sales activities to achieve your objectives without overspending.
This includes expenses related to personnel, marketing initiatives, customer entertainment, and tools like CRM software, automation, cybersecurity solutions, and even a corporate travel platform .
A well-planned budget balances investment in growth opportunities with the overall financial health of the business.
Create a sales strategy and action plan
Now that you’ve laid the groundwork of what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it, it’s time to bring it all together into a single view.
Create an action plan which not includes your strategy but also concrete steps.
Your action plan should outlines specific activities for each stage of the sales funnel from prospecting (lead generation channels) to closing (structured process and follow-up strategy with timelines) and everything in between.
![basic sales business plan Vibrant Sales Action Plan](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/1b04e71c-afc3-437c-a356-9ec27f8279d8.png)
Performance and results measurement
Last but not least, your sales plan should present a clear and quantifiable means to track the effectiveness of sales activities.
How are you going to measure outcomes against predefined targets?
Performance measurement is key because it builds accountability and allows you to always have a pulse on customer behavior, preferences, and trends that’ll help you make decisions based on data.
If you’ve made it this far, give yourself a pat! I’ve covered A LOT on elements that you can include in a sales plan.
However, in most cases, you don’t always need to go that in-depth and instead should aim for brevity so that anyone in your team can stay up-to-date without having to worry about the nitty gritty details.
Here’s a sales plan example that’s brief but highly effective. It includes a summary of all you need in one document, a target market analysis, a customer profile, and an action plan.
![basic sales business plan Red Customer Sales Action Plan](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/236d1f4e-d62a-4614-8b91-e06fd73b8b2b.png)
Want even more sales plan templates for design inspiration or to customize and make your own?
This 30-60-90 day sales plan provides a great way to organize goals, priorities, performance goals, and metrics of success over three three timeframes: first 30 days, first 60 days, and first 90 days.
![basic sales business plan 30 60 90 Day Plan Template](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/45eb9b68-9763-4087-8fb7-88a3883a6002.png)
This sales plan is structured around key components that drive the sales process: objectives, strategies, tactics, and key metrics. It emphasizes a multi-channel approach to sales,, with a strong focus on measuring performance through metrics.
![basic sales business plan Territory Sales Plan Template](https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.venngage.com/template/95b4142d-7fa6-4878-a382-6d5384fcad7b.png)
This sales roadmap is a great way to visualize activities such as defining strategy and generating leads to more advanced steps.
![basic sales business plan Blue and Orange Sales Roadmap](https://cdn.venngage.com/template/thumbnail/small/a9d15ada-73e5-4a7d-8c26-c62909a3a426.webp)
Conclusion: Save time on designing and updating sales plans and focus on growing your business with Venngage templates
Though there’s no secret formula for effective sales plan design, it’s good practice to include the basics or information on the target market, a customer persona, and a strategy on how you plan to sell.
What you definitely shouldn’t do is write a sales plan and then never look at it again.
And trust me, I know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be to edit your sales plan especially if you don’t have design skills. One small change might make the icons or numbers go all out of whack.
That’s why I recommend customizing our sales plan templates instead so that you can focus your energy on strategy.
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How to create a sales plan in 7 Steps
![basic sales business plan Sales plan](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/sales-plan-illustration.png)
A sales plan is the first step toward defining your sales strategy , sales goals and how you’ll reach them.
A refined sales plan is a go-to resource for your reps. It helps them better understand their role, responsibilities, targets, tactics and methods. When done right, it gives your reps all the information they need to perform at their highest level.
In this article, we outline what a sales plan is and why it’s important to create one. We also offer a step-by-step guide on how to make a sales plan with examples of each step.
What is a sales plan and why create one?
Your sales plan is a roadmap that outlines how you’ll hit your revenue targets, who your target market is, the activities needed to achieve your goals and any roadblocks you may need to overcome.
Many business leaders see their sales plan as an extension of the traditional business plan. The business plan contains strategic and revenue goals across the organization, while the sales plan lays out how to achieve them.
The benefits of a sales plan
A successful sales plan will keep all your reps focused on the right activities and ensure they’re working toward the same outcome. It will also address your company's specific needs. For example, you might choose to write a 30- , 60- or 90-day sales plan depending on your current goals and the nature of your business.
Say your ultimate goal for the next quarter is $250,000 in new business. A sales plan will outline the objective, the strategies that will help you get there and how you’ll execute and measure those strategies. It will allow your whole team to collaborate and ensure you achieve it together.
Many salespeople are driven by action and sometimes long-term sales planning gets neglected in favor of short-term results.
While this may help them hit their quota, the downside is the lack of systems in place. Instead, treat sales processes as a system with steps you can improve. If reps are doing wildly different things, it’s hard to uncover what’s working and what’s not. A strategic sales plan can optimize your team’s performance and keep them on track using repeatable systems.
With this in mind, let’s explore the seven components of an effective sales plan
1. Company mission and positioning
To work toward the same company goals, everyone in your organization must understand what your organization is trying to achieve and where in the market you position yourself.
To help define your mission and positioning, involve your sales leaders in all areas of the business strategy. Collaborating and working toward the same goals is impossible if those goals are determined by only a select group of stakeholders.
Recommended reading
![basic sales business plan https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/Sales-Goals.jpg](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/Sales-Goals.jpg)
How to set sales goals that improve team performance (with examples)
To get a handle on the company’s mission and positioning, take the following steps:
Collaborate with marketing: Your marketing teams live and breathe the positioning of your company. Take the time to talk to each function within the department, from demand generation to performance marketing to learn what they know.
Interview customer success teams: Customer support reps speak with your existing customers every day. Interview them to find common questions and pain points.
Talk to your customers: Customer insights are a foundational part of any positioning strategy. Speak directly with existing and new customers to find out what they love about your product or service.
Read your company blog: Those in charge of content production have a strong understanding of customer needs. Check out blog articles and ebooks to familiarize yourself with customer language and common themes.
Look for mentions around the web: How are other people talking about your organization? Look for press mentions, social media posts, articles and features that mention your products and services.
These insights can provide context around how your company is currently positioned in the market.
Finally, speak with the team in charge of defining the company’s positioning. Have a list of questions and use the time to find out why they made certain decisions. Here are some examples:
What important insights from the original target audience research made you create our positioning statement?
What competitor research led us to position ourselves in this way? Does this significantly differentiate us from the crowd? How?
What core ideals and values drove us to make these promises in our positioning statement? Have they shifted in any way since we launched? If so, what motivates these promises now?
How to communicate mission and positioning
In this section of the sales plan, include the following information:
Company mission : Why your company exists and the value you’re determined to bring to the market.
Competition: Who your direct competitors (those who offer similar products and services) and indirect competitors (brands who solve the same problem in different ways) are.
Value propositions: The features, benefits and solutions your product delivers.
![basic sales business plan https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/Brand-Positioning.png](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/Brand-Positioning.png)
What is brand positioning: The ultimate guide with 4 examples
2. Goals and targets
Define your revenue goals and the other targets sales are responsible for.
As mentioned earlier, sales goals are usually aligned with business goals. Your boardroom members typically establish the company’s revenue goals and it’s your job to achieve them.
Revenue goals will shape your sales strategy. Use them to reverse engineer quotas, sales activity and the staff you need to execute them.
Break your big-picture revenue goal down further into sales targets and activity targets for your team. Activities are the specific actions you and your reps can control, while sales targets are the results provided by those activities.
9 steps to creating the perfect sales strategy (with free template)
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![basic sales business plan https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/predictable-revenue-hacks.png](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/predictable-revenue-hacks.png)
10 predictable revenue hacks to grow your sales
Use data on sales activity and performance from previous years to calculate sales targets. You should break this down by pipeline stage and activity conducted by reps across all functions.
For example, how many cold emails does it take to generate a deal? What is the average lifetime value (LTV) of your customer?
Breaking down these numbers allows you to accurately forecast what it will take to achieve your new revenue goal.
This part of your sales plan might include setting goals like the following:
200 total cold emails sent per day
200 total cold calls made per day
25 demos conducted per day
5 new sales appointments made a day
100 follow-up emails sent per day
Breaking down your goals into specific activities will also reveal the expertise needed for each activity and any required changes to your organizational structure, which will come into play in the next step.
How to communicate goals and targets
Within this section of the sales plan, include the following information:
Revenue goals : Reverse engineer the boardroom revenue goals to identify achievable sales goals and the number of staff needed to reach them. Sales targets : Use data on sales activity and past performance to define quotas and metrics for each stage of the sales pipeline.
Expertise needed for each activity: What qualities and attributes do your staff need to achieve these predefined activities? How much experience do they need vs. what can be learned on the job?
3. Sales organization and team structure
Identify the talent and expertise you need to achieve your goals.
For example, a marketing agency that depends on strong relationships will benefit more from a business development executive than a sales development representative (SDR) .
Use the targets established in the previous section to identify who you need to hire for your team. For example, if the average sales development rep can send 20 cold emails a day and you need to send 200 to achieve your goals, you’ll need around ten reps to hit your targets.
Include the information for each team member in a table in your sales plan. Here is an example.
![basic sales business plan Sales development representative role](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/sales-development-representative-role.png)
Visualizing each role helps all stakeholders understand who they’re hiring and the people they’re responsible for. It allows them to collaborate on the plan and identify the critical responsibilities and qualities of their ideal candidates.
You want to avoid micromanaging , but now is a good time to ask your existing teams to report on the time spent on certain activities. Keeping a timesheet will give you an accurate forecast of how long certain activities take and the capacity of each rep.
How to communicate your sales organization and team structure
Team structure: These are the functions that make up your overall sales organization. The roles of SDR, business development and account teams must be well-defined.
Roles and responsibilities: These are the roles you need to hire, along with the tasks they’re responsible for. This will help you produce job descriptions that attract great talent.
Salary and compensation: How will the company remunerate your teams? Having competitive salaries, compensation schemes and sales incentives will attract top performers and keep them motivated.
Timeline: Attempting to hire dozens of people at once is tough. Prioritize hiring based on how critical each role is for executing your plan. Take a phased hiring approach to onboard new reps with the attention they deserve.
![basic sales business plan https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/Building-a-Sales-Team.png](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/Building-a-Sales-Team.png)
Building a sales team: How to set your group up for success
4. Target audience and customer segments
A sales plan is useless without knowing who to sell to. Having clearly defined customer personas and ideal customer profiles will help you tailor your selling techniques to companies and buyers.
Whether you’re looking to break into a new market or expand your reach in your current one, start by clearly defining which companies you’re looking to attract. Include the following criteria:
Industries: Which markets and niches do you serve? Are there certain sub-segments of those industries that you specialize in?
Headcount: How many employees do your best accounts have within their organization?
Funding: Have they secured one or several rounds of funding?
Find out as much as you can about their organizational challenges. This may include growth hurdles, hiring bottlenecks and even barriers created by legislation.
Learn about your buyers within those target accounts, learn about your buyers. Understanding your buyers and personalizing your sales tactics for them will help you strengthen your customer relationships.
These insights will change as your business grows. Enterprise companies may wish to revisit their personas as they move upmarket. For small businesses and startups, your target audience will evolve as you find product-market fit.
It’s important to constantly revisit this part of your sales plan. Even if your goals and methodologies are the same, always have your finger on the pulse of your customer’s priorities.
How to communicate target audience and customer segments
Profile: Include basic information about their role, what their career journey looks like and the common priorities within their personal lives.
Demographics : Add more information about their age, income and living situation. Demographic information can help tailor your message to align with the language used across different generations.
Attributes: Assess their personality. Are they calm or assertive? Do they handle direct communication themselves or have an assistant? Use these identifying attributes to communicate effectively.
Challenges: Think about the hurdles this persona is trying to overcome. How does it affect their work and what’s the impact on them personally?
Goals: Analyze how these challenges are preventing them from achieving their goals. Why are these goals important to them?
Support: Use this insight to define how your product or service will help these people overcome challenges and achieve their goals.
![basic sales business plan https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/behavioral-segmentation-marketing.png](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/behavioral-segmentation-marketing.png)
Behavioral segmentation: What is it and how can it drive engagement and loyalty
5. Sales strategies and methodologies
Define your sales approach. This includes the strategies, techniques and methodologies you’ll use to get your offering out to market.
This part of your sales plan may end up being the largest. It will outline every practical area of your sales strategy: your sales stages, methodologies and playbooks.
Start by mapping out each stage of your sales process. What are the steps needed to guide a prospect through your deal flow?
9 essential sales stages
Traditionally, a sales process has nine sales stages :
Prospecting and lead generation : Your marketing strategy should deliver leads, but sales reps should boost this volume with their own prospecting efforts.
Qualification: Measure those leads against your target account criteria and customer personas. Ensure they’re a good fit, prioritizing your time on high-value relationships.
Reaching out to new leads : Initiate emails to your target customers to guide new leads into the sales funnel. This outreach activity includes cold calling and direct mail.
Appointment setting: Schedule a demo, discovery call or consultation.
Defining needs: After the initial meeting, you’ll understand your prospect’s problems and how your product or service can solve them.
Presentation: Reveal the solution. This can be in the form of a proposal, custom service packages or a face-to-face sales pitch .
Negotiation: Dedicate this stage to overcoming any objections your prospect may have.
Winning the deal: Turn your prospects into customers by closing deals and signing contracts.
Referrals : Fostering loyalty is an organization-wide activity. Delight your customers and encourage them to refer their friends.
Not all of these stages will be relevant to your organization. For example, a SaaS company that relies on inbound leads may do much of the heavy lifting during the initial meeting and sales demo . On the other hand, an exclusive club whose members must meet certain criteria (say, a minimum net worth) would focus much of their sales activity on referrals.
Map out your sales process to identify the stages you use. Your sales process should look something like this:
![basic sales business plan Sales process diagram](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/sales-diagram-process_200527_150548.png)
To determine your sales methodologies, break each sales stage down into separate activities, along with the stakeholder responsible for them.
With your sales activities laid out, you can do in-depth research into the techniques and methodologies you need to execute them. For example, if you sell a complex product with lengthy sales cycles , you could adopt a SPIN selling methodology to identify pain points and craft the best solution for leads.
Finally, use these stages and methodologies to form your sales playbooks . This will help you structure your sales training plan and create playbooks your reps can go back to for guidance.
How to communicate sales strategies and methodologies
Within this section of the sales plan, include the following:
Sales stages: The different steps required to convert prospects into paying customers.
Sales methodologies: The different practices and approaches you’ll adopt to shape your sales strategy.
Sales playbooks: The tactics, techniques and sales strategy templates needed to guide contacts throughout each stage of the sales process.
6. Sales action plan
You have the “who” and the “what”. Now you must figure out “when” to execute your sales plan.
A well-structured sales action plan communicates when the team will achieve key milestones. It outlines timeframes for when they’ll complete certain projects and activities, as well as the recruitment timelines for each quarter.
The order in which you implement your sales action plan depends on your priorities. Many sales organizations prefer to front-load the activity that will make a bigger impact on the bottom line.
For example, when analyzing your current sales process and strategy, you may find your existing customers are a rich source of qualified leads . Therefore, it would make sense to nurture more of these relationships using a structured referral program.
You must also consider how recruitment will affect the workload in your team. Hire too quickly and you may end up spending more time training new reps and neglecting your existing team. However, taking too long to recruit could overload your existing team. Either can make a big impact on culture and deal flow.
To complete your sales action plan, get all stakeholders involved in deciding timelines. When applying this to your sales plan, use GANTT charts and tables to visualize projects and key milestones.
A GANTT chart shows you the main activities, their completion dates and if there are any overlaps. Here is an example:
![basic sales business plan GANTT Chart](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/GAANT-Chart.png)
By prioritizing each activity and goal, you can create a plan that balances short-term results with long-term investment.
How to communicate your sales action plan
Key milestones : When do you aim to complete your projects, activities and recruitment efforts? You can map them out by week, month, quarter or all of the above. Let your revenue goals and priorities lead your schedule.
Short- and long-term goal schedules: With a high-level schedule mapped out, you can see when you will achieve your goals. From here, you can shape your schedule so that it balances both short- and long-term goals.
7. Performance and results measurement
Finally, your plan must detail how you measure performance. Outline your most important sales metrics and activities, how you’ll track them and what technology you’ll need to track them.
Structure this part of your plan by breaking down each sales stage. Within these sections, list out the metrics you’ll need to ensure you’re running a healthy sales pipeline.
Performance metrics can indicate the effectiveness of your entire sales process. Your chosen metrics typically fall into two categories:
Primary metrics act as your “true north” guide. This is commonly new business revenue generated.
Secondary metrics are those that indicate how well specific areas of your sales process are performing. These include lead response time and average purchase value.
The metrics you select must closely align with your goals and sales activities. For example, at the appointment setting stage, you might measure the number of demos conducted.
Each team also needs its own sales dashboard to ensure reps are hitting their targets. Sales development reps will have different priorities from account executives, so it’s critical they have the sales tools to focus on what’s important to them.
Finally, research and evaluate the technology you’ll need to accurately measure these metrics. Good CRM software is the best system to use for bringing your data together.
How to communicate sales performance metrics
Sales stage metrics : Identify the metrics for each specific sales stage and make sure they align with your KPIs.
Chosen sales dashboard: Explain why you chose your sales dashboard technology and exactly how it works.
Performance measurement: Outline exactly how and what tech you will use to measure your team’s activities and metrics.
![basic sales business plan https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/1164x609-1.jpg](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/blog-assets/1164x609-1.jpg)
How to track, measure and improve your team’s sales performance
Developing a sales plan involves conducting market research, assessing current sales performance , identifying sales opportunities and challenges, setting measurable goals, creating a sales strategy, allocating resources and establishing a monitoring and evaluation framework.
To write a sales business plan, include:
An executive summary
A company overview
A market analysis
A target market description
Sales strategies and tactics
Financial projections
A budget and timeline
Make sure that you clearly articulate your value proposition, competitive advantage and growth strategies.
Final thoughts
An effective sales plan is an invaluable asset for your sales team . Although you now know how to create a sales plan, you should remember to make one that works for your team. Writing one helps with your sales strategy planning and aids you in defining targets, metrics and processes. Distributing the sales plan helps your reps understand what you expect of them and how they can reach their goals.
Providing supportive, comprehensive resources is the best way to motivate your team and inspire hard work. When you do the work to build a solid foundation, you equip your reps with everything they need to succeed.
![basic sales business plan basic sales business plan](https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=70,format=auto/https://www-cms.pipedriveassets.com/brand-photos/Advanced-plan-thumbnail.jpg)
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How to Create a Sales Plan: Tips, Examples & Free Sales Plan Template
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Tactics and strategies are great. But when you create a sales plan, you set a clear path to success, with each step mapped out ahead of you.
The Internet is full of people who will tell you all about the success they’ve found from their strategies, whether it's personalizing a newsletter subject line or changing the color of the 'Buy Now' button.
But, news flash—these tips and tricks aren’t actual sales strategies .
To create real, lasting growth for you and your company, you need to create your own grand strategy. And that starts with a solid sales plan .
So, what’s your plan? How do you build it (and stick to it)?
We’re about to take a deep dive into sales plans. By the end of this guide, you’ll be completely equipped to win the fight for business growth. And we can't recommend it enough—grab our free sales plan template here in the Sales Success Kit today:
GET THE SALES SUCCESS KIT →
What is a Sales Plan? (And What Makes for Successful Sales Planning?)
Armed with the information you'll compile within your sales plan, you can quickly identify any upcoming problems, sales droughts, or opportunities—and then do something about them.
If done correctly, the right sales plan template empowers you to spend even more time growing and developing your business, rather than responding reactively to the day-to-day developments in sales.
Sound exciting? Let’s jump right in.
Download Your Free Sales Plan Templates Today
Want to build your own sales plan template that'll clarify your business plan and accelerate your growth? Grab the Sales Success Kit , including...
...and more to help you set up strategic sales planning and quotas for your team.
Want to stand out in the competitive market? Explore the insights of challenger selling .
What’s in a Sales Plan? 6 Elements Every Sales Plan Needs
In basic terms, a sales plan template includes:
- Sales forecasting and goal-setting
- Market and customer research
- Prospecting and partnerships
Each part of the sales plan naturally works itself into the next, starting with your high-level goals, then considering market factors, and finally looking at who you know, and how to find more prospects to help hit your sales goals .
Here are the key elements to include in your plan:
1. Mission Statement
What gets your sales reps out of bed in the morning? What’s the clear mission that pushes your team to keep fighting for that win?
Your mission statement is a concise statement of the ‘big picture’—the main idea and goal you want to achieve. Think about your company mission and how the sales team forms part of that overarching goal.
2. Sales Goals and Revenue Targets
A sales plan must include achievable sales goals and the targets your sales reps will be working to reach. Use previous years' results to tell you what's reasonably possible for your team to do. Include specific metrics and KPIs , how these are performing currently, and what you plan to do to improve them.
This may also include information about your product’s pricing , planned discounts, and how your team can focus on the right customers to get the most revenue possible. Link these sales goals to the business goals your company is working to achieve.
3. Analysis of the Target Market
Your plan should clearly identify your ideal customer profile and information about the target market and demographic you plan to sell to. Are you breaking into a new market? Are you targeting small business or enterprise customers ? Give a concise description of your target audience and the stakeholders you’ll need to sell to.
4. Sales Strategy Overview and Methods to Reach Target Customers
This should include a brief overview of the customer journey , pain points , and how your salespeople will engage and follow up with new prospects throughout their journey to purchase. You'll likely outline specific sales activities you'll focus on, such as improving referral numbers, testing new cold-calling email strategies, or dipping your toe in social selling.
You may also include information about the marketing strategy and lead generation methods used to gather new leads and how sales managers will support the team.
5. Use of Resources and Sales Tools
How much does it cost your team to close a new deal? What is your budget for the sales team, or for sales tools ?
Inside your plan, list the resources you have available to you, and how you plan to use them during the year. This includes monetary resources, as well as human resources.
Next, show how your resources will be used. For example, how much will you spend on sales tools? Which CRM software is your team depending on? Briefly explain how you plan to use each tool and why you’ve allocated resources in that way.
6. Sales Team Structure
The structure of your sales team includes which reps are available during what times of the year, their specialties and skills, and where they focus in the sales process .
Also, include information about the sales managers, their teams, and the incentives you offer your reps.
The Benefits of Sales Planning: Why You Need a Sales Plan
Creating a sales plan from scratch can be daunting, even with the right sales planning template. So, why should you have your sales strategy written down and ready to act on?
Let’s talk about the benefits of sales planning to attract new business and grow your market share.
Clear, Time-Bound Goals Help You Reach Revenue Targets
There’s a reason they say, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
If you want your sales team to execute on and accomplish your sales goals, you need to have a plan in place. When targets are linked to specific timeframes and actions, your whole team will see how their individual work is involved in reaching your sales goals.
Prioritize Time and Resources
Without a specific action plan in place , your team won’t be able to prioritize their time with the right sales tactics and strategies to hit their targets.
With a clear outline of the tactics that bring the most significant ROI for your team, each rep can get the best results for the time they spend selling.
Clear Action Plan to Reach Your Goals
With an action plan in place, each team member knows what they’re supposed to be doing, and why they’re doing it. This keeps them motivated and helps them see how their individual efforts make a difference.
4 Types of Sales Plans (How to Choose Which Planning Style is Right for Your Sales Team)
It’s difficult to templatize a good sales plan since every plan is unique to the business and team it applies to. So, what are some examples of the types of sales plans you might create, and how can you choose between them?
- Revenue-based sales plan: If you’re aiming for a specific revenue goal, this type of sales plan will be focused on in-depth sales forecasting and specific actions to improve conversion rates and close more deals.
- Sales plan based on the target market: If you’re selling to vastly different markets, you may want to create a different sales plan based on the market you’re targeting. For example, your sales plan for enterprise companies would differ from your sales plan for selling to SMBs.
- Sales goals plan: A plan that’s focused on goals (other than revenue) may include hiring and onboarding, sales training plans, or plans to implement a new type of sales activity into your process.
- New product sales plan: When launching a new product, it’s a good idea to develop a specific business plan around its launch and continued promotion. This plan may include finding and contacting strategic partners, building a unique value prop in the market, and creating new sales enablement content for the team to use when selling this product. This type of sales plan can also apply to launching new features in your SaaS product.
How to Choose the Right Sales Planning Style
Ultimately, this will depend on factors such as:
- Your revenue goals
- The resources at your disposal
- Your sales team’s abilities and bandwidth
- Your personal commitment to seeing this plan through
When you’ve determined who is involved in sales planning, how committed they are, and the resources you can use to make this plan happen, you can start building your own sales plan.
9 Steps to Create a Sales Plan to 10x Your Sales Team’s Results
It may seem like a lot of work to develop a sales plan at this point. But once you do, you’ll be in a place to take your sales (and brand) to the next level.
Let’s break down this process, step-by-step, so you can start achieving greater results.
1. Define Your Sales Goals and Milestones
With a sales plan, we begin at the end: an end goal.
Start by choosing the sales metrics that matter most to your overall business. This could be:
- Annual or monthly recurring revenue (ARR or MRR)
- Retention or churn rates
- Average conversion time
- Average conversion rate
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
It doesn’t matter so much which metric you choose —the important point is that it can tell you whether your work has succeeded.
Next, look at last year’s forecast and results . Were you being realistic? How did sales revenue increase annually? How does that compare your company to the industry standards? Use this information to determine what realistically you can bring in based on the size of the market, your company goals, and the experience and resources available to your sales team .
After setting clear sales goals, it’s time to set milestones . This involves breaking that big number down into smaller expectations with strict deadlines. These should challenge and motivate your sales team , without being so difficult they kill morale.
Lean on your sales team during this process. After all, they’re in the trenches with you and probably have the best knowledge about your customers. Learn about what they do during the workweek to close deals. Ask how much they’re currently doing, and how much bandwidth they have to do more. This will give you a real, frontline take on what goals and milestones to set in your sales plan template.
Finally, create specific targets with clear deadlines . For example, to achieve a sales goal of increasing revenue by 15 percent YOY, you might set the milestone of increasing your customer base by 20 percent, or increasing sales by 50% for a specific product.
Brought together, these milestones inform and support your overall sales plan, giving you a clear, actionable workflow to hit your overall goals for the year.
2. Clearly Define Your Target Market or Niche
You need to know the market you’re in and the niche you’re going to occupy so you can properly position your business for growth.
What’s a business niche? It’s more than just what your business specializes in—a niche is the space your business occupies with your products, content, company culture, branding, and message. It’s how people identify with you and search you out over the competition.
As serial entrepreneur Jason Zook explains: “ When you try to create something for everyone, you end up creating something for no one. ”
Don’t do that.
Instead, start by looking at a niche and asking yourself these questions:
- How big is the market?
- Is there a built-in demand for what you're selling?
- What’s your current market position?
- Who are your competitors? What are their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
If you’re stuck, start by going back to your own strengths . List out your strongest interests and passions. Pick a field where the odds are already in your favor—where you have a proven track record, more expertise to offer, an extensive contact base, and people who can provide you with intros.
These kinds of strategic advantages will help you clarify your buyer persona and amplify the results of your planning.
Start with one product in one niche—you can always branch out to a complementary niche later. Sell beautiful, handcrafted tea cups? How about a booming doily business? Or customizable teaspoons?
A niche doesn’t limit you. It focuses you.
3. Understand Your Target Customers
Chasing the wrong customers will only waste your time and money, so don't allow them to sneak into your sales plan.
Your best customers are the ones that are successful with your product and see the ROI of it. Talk to them, and find out what they have in common.
While defining ideal customers depends on your company and market, here are some basic characteristics you’ll want to identify:
- Company size (number of employees, number of customers, yearly revenue)
- Size of the relevant department
- Geographical information
- Job title of your POC
- Buying process
- The goal they’re trying to achieve with your product or service
Also, don’t forget to think about whether they will be a good ‘fit’. If this is a long-term relationship you’re developing rather than a one-night stand, you want to ensure you speak the same language and share a similar culture and vision.
Use this information to build out an ideal customer profile . This fictitious organization gets significant value from using your product/service and provides significant value to your company. A customer profile helps you qualify leads and disqualify bad-fit customers before you waste time trying to sell to them.
Once you know the type of company you want to target with your sales team, it’s time to get inside their head. Start by hanging out where they hang out:
- Are they on social media? What’s their network of choice?
- Are they members of any Facebook or LinkedIn groups?
- Can you answer industry questions for them on Quora or Reddit?
- What podcasts do they listen to, or what resources do they read?
Get in your customers’ heads, and you’ll be in a much better position to sell to them.
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4. Map Out Your Customer’s Journey
The next part of an effective sales plan must address how that ideal customer becomes your customer. Do this by mapping out their journey, including actions and events during the different stages of the sales funnel :
- Consideration
Conduct a customer survey or chat directly with your current, happy customers to gather valuable sales planning insights. Ask them:
- When you became a customer, what did you want our product to do for you?
- What features were important to you? Why?
- What was your budget?
- How did you solve this problem before using our product?
To fully understand their journey as a customer, you can also ask about past buying experiences:
- When was the last time you bought something similar?
- Was that a good or bad experience? Why?
- What was the decision-making process like?
- How did you evaluate different offers?
- Which factors made you choose that particular solution?
Once you’ve identified the awareness, interest, and consideration stages, let your prospects and new customers build the rest of their roadmap by asking them: "What’s next?"
"What needs to happen to make you a customer?"
If, for example, they say they’ll have to get approval from the VP of Finance. Ask:
"Ok, and let's say he agrees that we're the right fit; what's next?"
We call this the virtual close , a way to put your prospect in a future-thinking state of mind that makes them imagine buying from you. Asking this question to several high-quality prospects will tell you those final few steps in the customer journey until they’ve signed on the dotted line.
Finally, piece together the post-sale journey. Once a prospect becomes a customer, what’s next? How do you enable them to use your product and be successful with it? What happened to create your most loyal customers? Understanding this piece of the sales process is essential to managing and increasing customer retention .
5. Define Your Value Propositions
You know your customers. You know their journey. Now, define where you fit in by looking at your competitive advantage . Fully articulating what sets you apart from the competition is a crucial element of your sales plan template.
Start by asking a few simple questions:
- Why do customers buy from us?
- Why do customers buy from our competitors and not us?
- Why do some potential customers not buy at all?
- What do we need to do to be successful in the future?
Remember that customers buy benefits, not features. When describing your value proposition , it’s easy to get caught up in talking about you. What you’ve made. What you do. Instead, flip the script and talk about what your product will do for your customers . A strong competitive advantage:
- Reflects the competitive strength of your business
- Is preferably, but not necessarily, unique
- Is clear and simple
- May change over time as competitors try to steal your idea
- Must be supported by ongoing market research
For example, the competitive advantage of help desk software has nothing to do with its social media integrations and real-time ticket tracking. It’s the fact that it allows its customers to focus on creating a great customer experience.
Here’s the point: Focus on value, not features, in your sales plan template.
Your competitive advantage will inform everything your company does moving forward, from marketing to product development. It’s a great example of where sales can influence the development of a product and the direction of a business.
6. Organize Your Sales Team
The way your sales team is organized can enable them to better serve their customers and bring new revenue into your business faster.
Here are three basic structures for your sales team :
- The island: Individual reps work alone.
- Assembly line: Each sales rep is assigned a specialized role such as lead generation, SDR (qualifier), Account Executive (closer), or Customer Success (farmer).
- Pods: Each sales rep is assigned a specialized role in a pod, or group, that’s responsible for the entire journey of specific customers.
Think about the strengths and weaknesses of your sales team members, and how they will truly thrive as part of the team.
7. Outline the Use of Sales Tools
Now it’s time to think about the tools you’re using. Building out your sales stack takes time and effort, but listing out that stack in your sales plan will help you avoid getting caught up with new tech that may or may not help your sales team.
Basically, you’ll need tools for these areas to cover all aspects of the sales process:
- CRM software (like Close )
- Lead generation and prospecting tools
- Internal communication software
- Engagement and outreach tools
- Documentation software
- Sales enablement stack
Think about how all of your sales tools work together through integrations and where automation comes into play to save your team time, and how you'll drive CRM adoption across your team members.
8. Build a Prospecting List
A prospect list is where we take all the theory and research of the last few sections of our sales plan template and put them into action.
At its core, a prospect list is a directory of real people you can contact who would benefit from your product or service. This can be time-consuming, but it's essential for driving your sales plan and company growth.
First, use your ideal customer profile to start finding target companies:
- Search LinkedIn
- Check out relevant local business networks
- Attend networking events and meetups
- Do simple Google searches
- Check out the member list of relevant online groups
Target up to 5 people at each organization. Targeting more than one individual will give you better odds of connecting by cold email outreach as well as a better chance that someone in your network can connect you personally.
Remember, this isn’t just a massive list of people you could sell to. This is a targeted list based on the research you’ve done previously in your sales plan.
Once you have your list, keep track of your leads and how you found them using a sales CRM. This will keep historical context intact and make sure you don’t overlap on outreach if you’re working with teammates.
9. Track, Measure, and Adjust As Needed
Just because you’ve made a solid sales plan template to follow, doesn’t mean you get to sit back and watch the cash roll in.
Remember what Basecamp founder Jason Fried said about plans:
“A plan is simply a guess you wrote down.”
You’re using everything you know about the market, your unique value, target customers, and partners to define the ideal situation for your company. But yes, try as we might, very few of us actually see anything when we gaze deep into the crystal ball.
Instead, remember that your sales plan is a living, breathing document that needs to account for and adapt to new features, marketing campaigns, or even new team members who join.
Set regular meetings (at least monthly) to review progress on your sales plan, identify and solve issues, and align your activities across teams to optimize your plan around real-world events and feedback. Learn from your mistakes and victories, and evolve your sales plan as needed.
Create a Strategic Sales Plan to Grow Your Business
You’ve just discovered the basics—but I’ll bet you’re ready to go beyond that. Here are some final ideas to take your sales plan from a simple foundation to a strategic, actionable one.
Avoid Moving the Goalpost
Avoid making adjustments to the goals outlined in your sales plan—even if you discover you’ve been overly optimistic or pessimistic in your sales planning. When you're developing your very first sales plan template, it's natural to be wrong in some of your assumptions—especially around goals and forecasting .
Instead of letting it get you down, remember your plan serves as a benchmark to judge your success or failure. As you see places where your assumptions were wrong, carefully document what needs updating when it's time to revise your sales plan.
Invite Your Others to Challenge Your Sales Plan
Never finalize a plan without another set of eyes (or a few sets.) Get an experienced colleague—an accountant, senior salesperson, or qualified friend—to review the document before solidifying your sales plan.
Your sales team is another strong resource for reviewing your sales plan. Ask their opinions, give them time to think about how it relates to their daily work, and agree on the key points that go into your sales plan.
Set Individual Goals and Milestones for Your Sales Team
We talked about creating milestones for your business, but you can take your sales plan to the next level by setting individual milestones for your sales team as well.
These individual goals need to consider the differences in strengths, weaknesses, and skills among your salespeople.
For example, if someone on your team is making a ton of calls but not closing, give them a milestone of upping their close rate . If someone’s great at closing but doesn’t do much outreach, give them a milestone of contacting 10 new prospects a month.
Doing this will help your individual reps build their skills and contribute to their company and career growth.
Ready to Hit Your Sales Goals?
In most sales situations, the biggest challenge is inertia. But with a solid, detailed sales plan and a dedicated team with clear milestones, you’ll have everything you need to push through any friction and keep on track to hit your goals!
All jazzed up and ready to put together your own sales plan? Download our free Sales Success Kit and access 11 templates, checklists, worksheets, and guides.
They're action-focused and easy to use, so you can have your best sales year yet.
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10 Free Sales Plan Templates for an Effective Sales Strategy
Praburam Srinivasan
Growth Marketing Manager
February 15, 2024
Every sales team wants to win more leads and close more deals. But how do you make that happen? With a solid sales plan, of course!
A sales plan gives your team a way to focus on your goals while taking only the necessary steps to get there. It has everything you need to win, which means it’s often a comprehensive guide—and that takes time.
And we’re guessing you’re already pressed for time. ⏲️
Fortunately, creating a plan doesn’t have to be complicated—with the right template, you can simplify the process.
That’s why we’re sharing this list of the best sales plan templates. Not only are these sales strategy templates absolutely free but they’ll also save you time so you can start closing those deals faster. ⚡
What Is a Sales Plan and Why Create One?
1. clickup sales plan template, 2. clickup sales and marketing plan template, 3. clickup sales strategy guide template, 4. clickup sales pipeline template, 5. clickup sales kpi template, 6. clickup b2b sales strategy template, 7. clickup sales calls template, 8. word sales plan template by business news daily, 9. word sales plan template by templatelab, 10. excel sales plan template by spreadsheet.com.
![basic sales business plan Avatar of person using AI](https://images.ctfassets.net/w8fc6tgspyjz/3HpcGsS4tgza39AAiD0iBQ/da83171e45b3e6bb5ab2bd3320e18aba/ai-widget-avatar.png)
A sales plan is your roadmap for how to make sales effectively. Think of it in the same way that a business plan guides the strategy for your company or a marketing plan sets out how you’ll find, reach, and serve your ideal customers.
![basic sales business plan clickup goals feature](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/clickup-goals.png)
A good sales plan sets out your sales goals , objectives, and sales activities. It considers your target audience, brand, products, services, and needs—and covers which sales tactics and strategies you’ll use to close deals, as well as which metrics you’ll use to measure success.
Your sales plan is a practical plan that outlines who’s responsible for what, the resources you’ll need, and the overall goals you’re working toward. Without one, your sales team will feel lost and struggle to connect with your customer base.
With a strategic sales plan, though, the sales manager and the entire team will know exactly what you’re trying to achieve and the steps needed to get there. 📚
How to choose the best sales plan template
There are so many different sales plan templates out there. Some are designed for specific niche audiences, while others are more generic and easier to customize. How do you know which is the right template for you?
When you’re thinking about using a sales plan template, consider the following:
- Ease of use: Is the template easy to use? Will everyone in the team structure and sales planning process be able to understand it fully?
- Customization: Can I personalize the template to match my sales goals?
![basic sales business plan targets in clickup goals](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/targets-in-clickup-goals.png)
- Collaboration: Can my sales team work on this template together?
- Integrations: When I create a sales plan, can I integrate this template with other aspects of my sales pipeline or workflow, like task management?
- Artificial intelligence: Can I use a built-in AI writing tool or copywriting tool to help me complete the template? Are there automation features that speed up the process?
- Platform: Which sales app is this template for? Do I have it already, or should I invest in it? What’s the pricing like?
Asking yourself these questions will help you figure out what your needs are, so you can then choose a template to match.
10 Sales Plan Templates to Help You Close Your Next Deal
Now that you have a better idea of what you’re looking for, let’s explore what’s out there. Take a look at our hand-picked selection of the best sales plan templates available today for Microsoft Word and sales enablement tools like ClickUp.
![basic sales business plan Create and organize tasks by team, deliverable type, priority, due dates, and approval state with the ClickUp Sales Plan Template](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ClickUp-Sales-Plan-Template.jpg)
Smart sales teams use a sales plan to map out their route to success. The best sales teams use the Sales Plan Template by ClickUp to simplify the process and ensure they don’t leave anything out.
This template is designed with all the structure you need to create a comprehensive sales plan that can drive results. Use this template to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) business goals; plan strategies and tactics; and organize all your sales ideas in one place.
The list-style template is split into sections that cover the executive summary all the way through to specific tactics and strategies. Beneath this, you can arrange tasks and subtasks, and see the progress at a glance. View task titles, deadlines, who’s responsible, approval status, and a visual progress bar.
Use this template if you want to consolidate all your sales tasks and initiatives in one area. Add your sales tasks and tactics, then tag team members so you can see what’s happening and hold everyone accountable. ✅
![basic sales business plan Use the Sales and Marketing Template by ClickUp to set goals and collaborate on campaigns](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Sales-and-Marketing-Plan.png)
While sales and marketing teams often work independently, sometimes it’s useful to collaborate on shared goals. With the Sales and Marketing Plan Template by ClickUp , you can organize and run your sales and marketing operations from one location.
Our collaborative template makes it easy to set sales and marketing goals and objectives, visualize your tasks, work together on sales and marketing campaigns, and track your results in real-time. View the status of your sales and marketing projects, adjust your plans, and monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs)—all from one view.
This sales and marketing plan template allows you to split your tasks into sections. The examples in the template include revenue goals, competitive analysis, and action items, but you can customize these to match your needs exactly.
View tasks beneath these categories to see at a glance whether there are any roadblocks when a task is due, and who is responsible for it.
Add this template to your collection if you want to work more collaboratively with your marketing team—especially on preparing assets for sales calls or outreach programs. 📞
![basic sales business plan The ClickUp Sales Strategy Guide Template can help you determine the right way to promote your product by answering predefined questions](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/ClickUp-Sales-Strategy-Guide-Template.png)
Before you can plan your sales tactics, you first need to decide what your overall goals are. The Sales Strategy Guide Template by ClickUp is your go-to resource for determining your approach.
This sales process template explains the benefits of having a well-defined approach and gives you a central place to create, review, and store your own. Everyone on your team can then access your sales strategy guide to help them understand what to do when prospecting and closing deals.
Our sales goals and strategy guide template is presented in a document format. Some sections and headings allow you to split your guide into different areas, making it easier to read and understand.
Use the prompts to fill out your own strategy guide details like your target market, sales strategies, and how you’ll monitor progress.
Use this sales strategy guide template to create a resource for your team. Make it the only destination for everything your sales reps need to know to execute an effective sales plan. 📝
![basic sales business plan Track your leads and deals, applying a consistent deal qualification framework and deal process to increase sales.](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2FBB96A9-1682-436A-9EBC-826A1E749374.jpeg)
Sales strategies are a must-have for any great sales team, but beyond that, you need a way to record and monitor specific tasks or initiatives. That’s where the Sales Pipeline Template by ClickUp comes in handy whether you need a visual into sales forecasting or your specific sales goals.
This sales pipeline template gives you one place to store all your daily sales-related tasks. With this template, it’s easy to work toward your sales goals, track leads, map out each step of the sales process, and organize all your tasks in one place.
You can view a task’s title, assignee, status, due date, complexity level, start date, and department—or customize the experience with your own custom fields.
![basic sales business plan Sales KPIs are essential to measuring the success of your sales strategy.](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CleanShot-2022-07-20-at-15.08.26@2x-1.jpeg)
With ClickUp’s Sales KPI Template , you and your team can create and manage goals surrounding your sales initiatives. See instantly what’s in progress and when it’s due, alongside the task’s impact level.
This allows you to identify high-priority tasks to focus on and to react quickly if it looks like there’s a roadblock.
This sales KPI template includes:
- Custom Statuses: Create tasks with custom statuses such as Open and Complete to keep track of the progress of each KPI
- Custom Fields: Utilize 15 different custom attributes such as Upsell Attempts, Value of Quotes, Product Cost, No of Quotes by Unit, Repeat Sales Revenue, to save vital KPI information and easily visualize performance data
- Custom Views: Open 4 different views in different ClickUp configurations, such as the Weekly Report, Monthly Report, Revenue Board per Month, and Getting Started Guide so that all the information is easy to access and organized
- Project Management: Improve KPI tracking with tagging, dependency warnings, emails, and more
This template gives you a simple way to see which tasks are complete or in progress, so you can monitor the progress of your project and crush your sales KPIs. 📈
![basic sales business plan The ClickUp B2B Sales Strategy Template guides you through the process of creating an effective plan and list of objectives for your sales team](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ClickUp-B2B-Sales-Strategy-Template.jpg)
While there’s not a huge difference in the way we market to business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) customers these days, it’s still useful to have specific templates for niche needs. If you’re driving sales in the B2B space, you need the B2B Sales Strategy Template by ClickUp .
Like our first sales plan template, this one gives you space to communicate your sales objectives and revenue targets, but it also introduces other areas—like market research, stakeholder analysis, customer relationships, buyer persona, and customer pain points.
This document-style template is highly customizable so you can make it match your brand style and sales approach. Fill in each section and use the supplied prompts to complete your B2B sales strategy document even faster.
Add this template to your collection if you’re working in B2B sales and want to approach your process in a more organized way. Use the template to build a strong sales strategy, then share it with the rest of your sales team so they know how to execute against your sales and company goals. 🎯
![basic sales business plan Sales Calls Template offers you a sales calls pipeline that helps you convert prospecting leads to your clients.](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/ClickUp-Sales-Calls-Template.jpg)
ClickUp’s Sales Calls Template is designed to streamline the sales process, from tracking contacts and calls to managing sales opportunities.
The template includes custom statuses for creating unique workflows, ensuring that every call and client interaction is accounted for. It also provides an easy-to-use Sales CRM to manage and track leads, visualize sales opportunities in the sales funnel, and keep all contacts organized.
With additional features like the Sales Phone Calls SOP Template, sales professionals can empower their teams to make every call count and close more deals. ClickUp’s Sales Calls Template is a versatile solution for sales teams, aiding in everything from daily calls to long-term sales forecasting.
![basic sales business plan An example of Word Sales Plan Template by Business News Daily](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Word-Sales-Plan-Template-by-Business-News-Daily.jpg)
We’re big advocates of using ClickUp as the go-to place to store everything about your sales workflow, but if you’re limited to using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, then this template is a great option.
This sales business plan template has sections for your executive summary, mission statement, target customers, sales targets, benchmarks, and more. Each section has useful prompts to guide you on completing your new sales plan.
Use this template if you’re tied to using Microsoft Word and want a comprehensive guide on how to create your own sales plan or sales strategy. 📄
![basic sales business plan An example of Word Sales Plan Templates by TemplateLab](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Word-Sales-Plan-Templates-by-TemplateLab.jpg)
If you want a free sales plan template or want to choose from a variety of options, this collection of Word templates by TemplateLab is a good place to do that.
There’s a wide range of options available including sales process plans, lead generation plans, sales action plans, and sales report templates . Each template works with Microsoft Word, and you can customize the look and feel to match your brand or your sales goals.
Use this resource if you prefer to see a range of templates on one page, or if you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for until you see it. You can easily set your sales goals and the action steps needed to achieve them. 📃
Successful sales strategies need to be integrated with other teams—like your marketing department—to ensure your sales objectives are clear and possibly align with the overall marketing strategy too. Choose your specific sales goals, set revenue targets, and describe everything in detail with these Word sales planning and sales process templates.
![basic sales business plan](https://clickup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-1400x603.jpeg)
The Excel Sales Plan Template by Spreadsheet.com is a comprehensive and user-friendly tool designed to assist businesses in developing effective sales strategies and managing their sales activities.
T his template is crafted with the aim of providing a structured framework for sales planning, enabling organizations to set clear objectives, track performance, and optimize their sales processes.
Reach Sales Goals With Free Sales Plan Templates
A strategic sales plan makes it easier to achieve your goals. Give your team the guidance and support they need with the help of a well-crafted free sales plan template.
If you’re considering making even more improvements in how you work, try ClickUp for free . We don’t just have incredible sales process templates: Our range of features and AI tools for sales make it easy for you to optimize and run your entire sales funnel and CRM system from one place. ✨
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How To Build a Strategic Sales Plan + 10 Examples
- March 28, 2024
![basic sales business plan LinkedIn](https://mailshake.com/wp-content/themes/mailshake/assets/images/social-icon-linkedin-24x24.png)
Every sales team has some sort of plan, even if it’s just “sell more of the product/service that you’re employed to sell.”
A sales plan is a portfolio that includes a layout of your processes, target audience, objectives and tactics. It’s used to guide your sales strategy and predict cost and returns.
Yet without a codified sales plan, it can be difficult to give a sales team the motivation and purpose they need to successfully engage customers and continue to generate revenue.
Not having a sales plan that’s written down and signed off on by stakeholders can lead to confusion around what sales reps should and shouldn’t be doing , which can be demotivating.
It might seem daunting or time-consuming to put together an entire sales plan, but it doesn’t need to be. Here’s how to create a thorough sales plan in 10 simple steps.
What Is a Sales Plan?
A successful sales plan defines your target customers, business objectives, tactics, obstacles and processes. An effective plan will also include resources and strategies that are used to achieve target goals. It works similarly to a business plan in the way it’s presented, but only focuses on your sales strategy.
A sales plan should include the following three components:
- Ideas: If you use specific business methodologies, you may choose to outline key principles and examples of them in action within your sales plan. An example could be conversation tactics when pitching your product to your target customer.
- Processes: In order to streamline productivity and business strategy, you’ll want to make sure your processes are defined within your sales plan. Your sales team should be able to refer to the sales plan when they’re in need of direction.
- Tools and tactics: The most effective sales plans include not only high-level business strategies, but also step-by-step approaches for your sales team to utilize. These tools can include key conversation pieces for your sales reps to use when pitching a product or content to close out a deal.
Solidifying a sales plan is crucial for a strong business model. Taking the time to narrow in on the components above will set you and your business up for success down the road.
Sales Planning Process
![basic sales business plan Sales Planning Process](https://assets.mailshake.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/28132558/sales-planning-process-in-5-steps.png)
It’s important to keep in mind that sales planning isn’t just about creating a sales plan document. A sales plan should be a go-to item that’s used every day by your team, rather than sitting on your desk collecting dust. Creating an effective sales plan requires high-level strategy.
You should:
- Decide on a timeline for your goals and tactics
- Outline the context
- Write out the company mission and values
- Describe the target audience and product service positioning
- Include sales resources
- Draw out an overview of concurrent activities
- Write an overview of your business road map
- Outline your goals and KPIs
- Outline an action plan
- Create a budget
Below we dive into each of these steps to create your ideal sales plan.
1. Decide on Your Timeline
Setting goals and outlining tactics is not going to be productive if you’re not working toward a date by which you’ll measure your efforts.
Determining the timeline of your sales plan should therefore be your number one consideration. When will you be ready to kick-start your plan, and when is a reasonable time to measure the outcomes of your plan against your SMART goals?
Remember that you need to give the plan a chance to make an impact, so this timeline shouldn’t be too restrictive. However, you also want to make sure that you’re flexible enough to adjust your plan if it’s not producing the desired results.
Most sales plan timelines cover about a year, which may be segmented into four quarters and/or two halves to make it a little more manageable.
2. Outline the Context
Use the first page of your sales plan to outline the context in which the plan was created.
What is the current state of the organization? What are your challenges and pain points? What recent wins have you experienced?
Do you have tighter restrictions on cash flow, or does revenue appear to be growing exponentially? How is your sales team currently performing?
While you’ll discuss your business plan and road map later in the document, you can also outline the long-term vision for your business in this section. For example, where do you want to see the business in five years?
Tip: Comparing the current situation with your vision will emphasize the gap between where you are now and where you need to be.
3. Company Mission and Values
It’s essential that you put your mission and values at the heart of your business. You need to incorporate them into every function – and this includes your sales plan.
Outlining your mission and values in your sales plan ensures that you remember what the company is striving for, and in turn helps ensure that your approach and tactics will support these objectives.
Remember: A strong brand mission and authentic values will help boost customer loyalty, brand reputation and, ultimately, sales.
4. Target Market and Product/Service Positioning
Next, you’ll need to describe the market or markets that you’re operating in.
What is your target market or industry? What research led you to conclude that this was the optimal market for you?
Who within this industry is your ideal customer? What are their characteristics? This could be a job title, geographical location or company size, for example. This information makes up your ideal customer profile .
If you’ve delved further into audience research and developed personas around your target market, then include them in here, too.
5. Sales Team and Resources
This step is simple: Make a list of your sales resources, beginning with a short description of each member of your sales team.
Include their name, job title, length of time at the company and, where appropriate, their salary. What are their strengths? How can they be utilized to help you hit your goals?
You should also include notes around the gaps in your sales team and whether you intend to recruit any new team members into these (or other) roles.
Tip: Communicate the time zones your team members work in to be mindful of designated work hours for scheduling meetings and deadlines.
Then, list your other resources. These could be tools, software or access to other departments such as the marketing team – anything that you intend to use in the execution of your sales plan. This is a quick way to eliminate any tools or resources that you don’t need.
6. Concurrent Activities
The next step in creating your sales plan involves providing an overview of non-sales activities that will be taking place during the implementation of your sales plan.
Any public marketing plans, upcoming product launches, or deals or discounts should be included, as should any relevant events. This will help you plan sales tactics around these activities and ensure that you’re getting the most out of them.
7. Business Road Map
For this step, write up an overview of your business’s overall road map, as well as the areas where sales activities can assist with or accelerate this plan. You’ll need to collaborate with the CEO, managing director or board of directors in order to do this.
In most cases, the business will already have a road map that has been signed off on by stakeholders. It’s the sales manager’s job to develop a sales plan that not only complements this road map, but facilitates its goals.
Tip: Highlight areas of the road map that should be touchpoints for the sales team.
Ask yourself what your department will need to do at each point in the road map to hit these overarching company goals.
8. Sales Goals and KPIs
Another important part of the sales plan involves your sales goals and KPIs.
Outline each goal alongside the KPIs you’ll use to measure it. Include a list of metrics you’ll use to track these KPIs, as well as a deadline for when you project the goal will be achieved.
It’s vital to make these goals tangible and measurable.
A bad example of a goal is as follows:
Goal 1: Increase sales across company’s range of products and services.
A better goal would look something like:
Goal 1: Generate $500,000+ in revenue from new clients through purchases of X product by X date.
9. Action Plan
Now that you’ve laid out your goals, you need to explain how you will hit them.
Your action plan can be set out week by week, month by month, or quarter by quarter. Within each segment, you must list out all of the sales activities and tactics that you will deploy – and the deadlines and touchpoints along the way.
Tip: Organize your action plan by department – sales, business development and finance.
While this is arguably the most complex part of the sales plan, this is where sales leaders are strongest. They know which approach will work best for their team, their company and their market.
Budgets vary from team to team and company to company, but whatever your situation, it’s important to include your budget in your sales plan.
How are you going to account for the money spent on new hires, salaries, tech, tools and travel? Where the budget is tight, what are your priorities going to be, and what needs to be axed?
The budget section should make references back to your action plan and the sales team and resources page in order to explain the expenditures.
6 Strategic Sales Plan Examples
You can create different types of strategic sales plans for your company, depending on how you want to structure your sales plan. Here are a few examples.
Customer Profile
A customer profile outlines your ideal customer for your service or product. It will usually include industry, background, attributes and decision-making factors.
Creating a customer profile helps narrow in on the target customer your sales team should focus on while eliminating unproductive leads.
Buyer’s Guide
A buyer’s guide is an informational sheet that describes your company’s services or products, including benefits and features. This document is useful both for your sales team but also for a potential customer who requires more information on the product before purchasing.
30-60-90-Day Plan
This plan is organized based on time periods. It includes outlines of goals, strategy and actionable steps in 30-day periods. This is a useful sales plan model for a new sales representative tracking progress during their first 90 days in the position or meeting quotas in a 90-day period.
This type of sales plan is also ideal for businesses in periods of expansion or growth. It’s helpful to minimize extra effort in onboarding processes.
Market Expansion Plan
A market expansion plan clarifies target metrics and list of actions when moving into a new territory or market. This sales plan model is typically used with a target market that resides in a new geographical region.
You’ll want to include a profile of target customers, account distribution costs and even time zone differences between your sales representatives.
Marketing-alignment Plan
Creating a marketing-alignment sales plan is useful if your organization has yet to align both your sales and marketing departments. The goal of the sales plan is finalizing your target customer personas and aligning them with your sales pitches and marketing messages.
New Product/Service Plan
If your organization is launching a new service or product, it’s best to create a sales plan to track revenue and other growth metrics from the launch. You’ll want to include sales strategy, competitive analyses and service or product sales positioning.
Sales Plan Template
4 additional sales plan templates.
Here are some additional templates you can use to create your own unique sales plan.
- Template Lab
- ProjectManager
5 Tips for Creating a Sales Plan
Now that you’ve seen and read through a few examples and a sales plan template, we’ll cover some easy but useful tips to create a foolproof sales plan.
- Create a competitive analysis: Research what sales strategies and tactics your close competitors are using. What are they doing well? What are they not doing well? Knowing what they are doing well will help you create a plan that will lead to eventual success.
- Vary your sales plans: First create a base sales plan that includes high-level goals, strategies and tactics. Then go more in depth on KPIs and metrics for each department, whether it’s outbound sales or business development .
- Analyze industry trends: Industry trends and data can easily help strengthen your sales approach. For example, if you’re pitching your sales plan to a stakeholder, use current market trends and statistics to support why you believe your sales strategies will be effective in use.
- Utilize your marketing team: When creating your sales plan, you’ll want to get the marketing department’s input to align your efforts and goals. You should weave marketing messages throughout both your sales plan and pitches.
- Discuss with your sales team: Remember to check in with your sales representatives to understand challenges they may be dealing with and what’s working and not working. You should update the sales plan quarterly based on feedback received from your sales team.
When Should You Implement a Strategic Sales Plan?
Does your organization currently not have a sales plan in place that is used regularly? Are you noticing your organization is in need of structure and lacking productivity across departments? These are definite signs you should create and implement a sales plan.
According to a LinkedIn sales statistic , the top sales tech sellers are using customer relationship management (CRM) tools (50%), sales intelligence (45%) and sales planning (42%) .
Below are a few more indicators that you need an effective sales plan.
To Launch a New Product or Campaign
If you’re planning to launch a new service or product in six months, you should have a concrete marketing and sales strategy plan to guarantee you’ll see both short- and long-term success.
The sales plan process shouldn’t be hasty and rushed. Take the time to go over data and competitor analysis. Work with your team to create objectives and goals that everyone believes in. Your sales plan should be updated formally on a quarterly basis to be in line with industry trends and business efforts.
To Increase Sales
If your team is looking to increase revenue and the number of closed sales, you may need to widen and define your target audience. A sales plan will help outline this target audience, along with planning out both sales and marketing strategies to reach more qualified prospects and increase your sales conversion rate.
Now that you’ve seen sales plan examples and tips and tricks, the next step after creating your sales plan is to reach those ideal sales targets with Mailshake . Connect with leads and generate more sales with our simple but effective sales engagement platform.
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How to create a sales plan (and 3 templates that do it for you)
![basic sales business plan Hero image with an icon representing a sales pipeline](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/78pJdCkBjZsYiic9iZFyJV/99ba816f10563563ce61c3fbbca88d89/sales-pipeline.jpg?w=1520&fm=jpg&q=30&fit=thumb&h=760)
There's a 25-year-old "South Park" episode I think about way too often. Working on a presentation with a coffee-addicted classmate named Tweek, the boys see a gnome stealing underpants from Tweek's dresser. They follow him to a cave, where they discover a network of gnomes executing a massive underpants-smuggling operation.
Explaining their business model, the underpants gnomes present this outline:
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 3: Profit
In this post:
What is a sales plan?
A sales plan is a strategic document outlining goals and strategies for reaching predetermined sales targets. For the "South Park" underpants gnomes, it's the glaring question mark standing between their product and their profits.
![basic sales business plan Illustrated list of what a sales plan does, with each item in a dark green box on a light peach background](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/f5r8tU50uihRAEOEftTJj/293fb30010a4ff0e9c7a66645e77cf70/what-does-a-sales-plan-do.webp?w=1400)
What goes into a sales plan (including examples)
A sales plan has the information stakeholders need to establish sales goals, set strategies, allocate resources, collaborate across teams, track goal progress, and measure success. Basically, whatever the stakeholders need to make sound decisions about sales processes.
The specific elements of a business plan differ by factors like sales plan type, industry, product type, goal horizon, and organizational structure. Some may have just a few sections across a page or two, others a dozen or more over several pages.
While your sections may differ in number or phrasing, you can expect some version of these elements to go into most sales plans.
This section is where you set measurable sales goals. (In fact, this section is also called "Goals" in many sales plans.) Depending on your industry, common sales objectives include:
Total revenue growth
Market share expansion
Customer acquisition volume
Adoption rate increase
Obviously, you could just write "$100 billion" here and insert a Dr. Evil meme, then hope for the best. But the real objective of the objectives section is to come to attainable sales goals that align with broader organizational growth goals.
Increase market share by 5-10% this fiscal year
Target market
If your product is a massive eCommerce space with rock-bottom prices and free next-day shipping, write "Everyone" and move on. But since you're probably not Jeff Bezos, you'll need a detailed description of your ideal customer profile.
Project managers of midsized technology companies with distributed teams seeking streamlined collaboration and task management
This is where you'll give the broad strokes of the approach you'll take to achieve your sales goals with your target market. Whether it's for entering new markets, expanding within existing markets, or launching new products, this generalized section communicates the stepping stones that will lead to your objectives.
Improved prospecting, generating more qualified leads, and tailoring sales processes to market research to make existing sales processes more efficient
These tactics are still theoretical and don't have to be set in stone at this phase. But this is a space to describe specifics like customer survey or beta testing methods, social media marketing campaign concepts, new sales techniques, or new ways of utilizing existing sales software and resources.
Leverage social media influencer outreach with influencer-specific promo codes
As anyone who's ever watched a heist movie knows, every great plan needs a crack team. In this section, you'll list either each member of your sales team or the team leads, depending on your team size. Beyond a simple list of names, here are some helpful elements to include about each:
Aptitudes or experience
Certifications or completed trainings
Hourly pay rate (for budgeting and forecasting)
Daily or weekly utilization limits
Associated accounts
This should help you outline a structure for assigning individual roles and responsibilities related to your strategies and tactics, ensuring you've got the people power to get the job done.
John Doe, UX specialist | $100/hour incurred expense | 20 hours/week floating utilization | Manager: Jane Doe | Responsible for analyzing survey data and making recommendations for UI updates
It's possible you may even need new hires, freelancers, additional trainings, certifications, or third-party agencies to do the things you need to do. List those here, so you can incorporate them into your time and expenses.
Stakeholders won't just want to know what you're going to do—they'll want to know how long it'll take. Outline your strategies by breaking them into key milestones and deadlines according to the personnel you have. This should also map to revenue projections as your strategies mature.
2/15: Complete market research | 3/1: Synthesize findings | 3/15: Schedule strategies for Q2 execution
The last thing you want is to create a beautiful, perfectly crafted sales plan and discover that you don't actually have the funds to execute it. Based on entries in the last few fields, you should have a good idea of expenses based on strategy resources, personnel utilization, timelines, and any purchases your team may need.
Chart those here with estimates for any other potential expenses related to marketing, advertising, and sales promotion activities.
Sure, you've been making sales since you started executing your plan. But how do you know you're making enough sales to justify your efforts?
This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) come into play. By setting these during the sales planning stage, you allow stakeholders to measure the success of individual sales efforts, so you can report on how performance compares to sales targets over time.
Potential challenges
If sales were easy, every company would be successful. Even at the planning stage, you should be able to see some possible roadblocks on the horizon.
The best plans are realistic enough to be actualized, so be realistic about what might stand in your team's way. Try to get ahead of challenges relating to things like target market sensitivities, general market conditions, internal resources, competition, seasonality, or campaign effectiveness. Then, come up with contingencies, so you're ready for these obstacles if they do arise.
Free sales plan templates
Here are three templates for the same general sales plan structure to choose from, depending on the level of granularity and presentation you're looking for.
Sales plan template 1: Comprehensive document
![basic sales business plan Image of Zapier's comprehensive sales plan template on an orange background](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/7FzphKjhI1x0ySNhtxMy7j/76dbd9f5e797e72b991e4c165d199719/comprehensive-sales-plan-template-mockup.webp?w=1400)
If you're looking to get buy-in for your sales plan from senior stakeholders, you'll need a document that can organize and communicate your research.
This comprehensive sales plan template includes fields for each of the sections outlined above. Just copy it, rename it to your liking, and then click into each field to start filling in the information outlined in this post. (For sections you don't need, just delete or fill with "N/A" and move along.)
Best for: Communicating every element of your sales plan in full detail with (virtually) unlimited space
Sales plan template 2: Summary document
![basic sales business plan Image of Zapier's summary sales plan template on an orange background](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/36AkXBFVO7x8y6lJZ5J2yo/aa2a2a6edfeff919136038803533107e/summary-sales-plan-template-mockup.webp?w=1400)
Maybe you need a sales plan template that gets the point across quickly. This one distills the gist of a sales plan into six concise, actionable sections, so you can share the most important elements of every sales objective in one document.
If you need room for more objectives, just copy/paste an empty row.
Best for: Quickly sharing the fine points of a sales plan with only actionable takeaways
Sales plan template 3: Project workflow document
![basic sales business plan Image of Zapier's project workflow sales plan template on an orange background](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/1tzzm1sYrAuhuDFsjdQtYE/e4a7f88c3d3d910bfdf5a4545fbb5480/project-workflow-sales-plan-template-mockup.webp?w=1400)
What does your sales plan look like on a day-to-day basis? If you're having a hard time translating that, use this template.
Just include your sequence of objectives and related tasks, include the person they're assigned to, and tweak the date ranges. You can even update the progress graph for each task as you progress through them.
Best for: Organizing tasks, roles, and timelines within a greater sales plan
How to start sales planning
Step 1: Start sales planning. Step 2: ? Step 3: Start selling.
Sales planning may not be that easy, but it doesn't have to be especially complicated, either. It should take enough time and resources to come up with a document that's persuasive and detailed but not so much that it cuts into the real money-making efforts themselves.
Here are a few ways you can set your plan up for efficiency, success, and—maybe most importantly—stakeholder buy-in.
Start with competitor research
You may be tempted to start the sales planning process by outlining your objectives and tactics, but competitor research can go a long way in setting the stage for both. This can show you what works, how well it works, and what doesn't work. It can also show you opportunities to fill market gaps your competitors are missing.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but it can be very helpful to just reinvent what your competition is doing.
Don't shy away from established frameworks and methodologies
Here are a few benefits many of these can potentially bring:
Iterative internal processes
Improved collaboration
Predictable lines of communication between teams
More useful insights from stakeholders
More accurate internal data
More reliable goal-setting
Obviously, the benefits will depend on the types of frameworks and methodologies you use. But the real key to any of them is the ability to standardize some element of the planning process and make collaboration more efficient.
Collaborate with stakeholders to define success
You may have one definition of success, while your stakeholders have a completely different one. Remember that your objectives and KPIs need to have bases in two realities: the market's and your company's.
It's the job of senior stakeholders to align sales efforts with high-level goals that help keep the entire operation afloat. That means they may have goals in mind that conflict with your market research findings about sales potential. The sales team, on the other hand, may need to help align expectations with market realities.
Successful sales plans keep both parties on the same page. As such, it helps to collaborate before setting sales benchmarks to see what success can look like for all involved parties.
Don't forget about operations
S&OP helps align sales teams with operations teams to ensure they have the inventory needed to both keep up with demand and promote maximum stocking efficiency. Since inventory can take time and careful scheduling, it's best to get S&OP underway as early as possible. Demand forecasting, for example, is closely related to both sales and inventory projections, so combining these projections early is worthwhile.
Establish clear lines of communication
If all good plans require a team, then all good teams require sound communication.
Since sales campaigns require collaboration between multiple parties and teams, it helps to have open communication channels during the sales planning process. This could mean adopting an Agile workflow and establishing daily Scrum meetings, hosting regular "office hours," or even just checking in with team leads.
While you're setting up these channels, tap them to get more accurate insights into sales planning elements like budgets, assets, and resource needs.
Types of sales plans
While the sales plan templates in this post are somewhat generically designed for new product or feature launches, there are tons of other types of sales plans you can choose from. Many expand on specific elements already included at a high level in our templates, foregoing some of the other sections that aren't as relevant.
If you know you want your plan to have a more granular focus on specific use cases, you could consider one of these options.
![basic sales business plan Illustrated boxes detailing the different types of sales plans on a light peach background](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/681kTn3MpxM8PC82Jd7Jlr/e14ff9fce96b9130f99cbc897eb28feb/types-of-sales-plans.webp?w=1400)
New product sales plan
This details the introduction and promotion of a recently launched or forthcoming product. Similar to the template and example in this post, it can be for a physical product, digital product, or service. It includes general information without getting too bogged down in details.
Best for: General sales planning for new products, services, or features
Milestone sales plan
Prioritizing timelines, this plan delineates sales objectives and targets to be achieved within specific timeframes. Typically, these timelines fall into weekly, monthly, and quarterly milestones. You can list these in a timeline section for any plan, but this plan is structured around those elements.
Best for: A bird's-eye view of the time a sales campaign will take
30/60/90 sales plan
This sales strategy outlines goals and priorities for the first three months of a new hire's tenure, typically focusing on short-term objectives. This can lean toward onboarding milestones to get the new rep up-to-date on sales processes.
Best for: Bringing on new sales reps
Sales budget plan
As a financial framework, this plan details allocated resources for sales activities and expenses to achieve revenue targets. This gets much more granular about the costs associated with sales, making that element of planning its primary focus.
Best for: Communicating nuanced expense figures
Sales tactics plan
Similar to a sales budget plan, a sales tactics plan is mainly concerned with one area of the sales planning process: the tactics. It takes a comprehensive approach to specifying the methods and techniques required to achieve sales goals and overcome challenges.
Best for: Communicating specific details about sales strategies
Sales territory plan
This one makes me think of classic mob movies—two families hashing out their territories in the Bronx over plates of spaghetti. It's a strategic outline of how you'll distribute sales resources within specific geographic areas or customer segments.
Best for: Segmenting sales efforts geographically
Sales focus area plan
This one highlights specific product lines, customer segments, or markets on which the sales team will concentrate their efforts. It helps align sales team members on their individual responsibilities.
Best for: Setting expectations for sales team roles
Market expansion plan
When you use this sales plan, you're taking a strategic approach to broadening the reach of a product or service by entering new geographical areas or targeting additional customer demographics. You can tailor it to go deep on a range of KPIs that suit your specific goals for saturation.
Best for: Planning specifically for market growth KPIs
Marketing alignment plan
Marketing and sales—one hand (or team) washes the other. To help bump that cleaning sesh along, consider one of these plans. They help coordinate strategies, ensuring a solid connection between sales and marketing efforts.
Best for: Aligning sales and marketing teams
Growth action plan
This strategic roadmap details initiatives and steps to foster business expansion, increase market share, and achieve sustainable growth. It includes actionable strategies for making growth-oriented goals a reality.
Best for: Establishing actionable strategies for growth KPIs
Sales planning tips
As you build out your sales plan, you might find that you need a little help. Here are some of our top tips for sales planning:
Know your audience: The sales plan will either be for stakeholders, team members, or both. Write to their level and with the level of detail they need.
Start with SWOT: A SWOT analysis is a great way to get a quick, relevant picture of fundamental sales plan elements like aptitudes, challenges, and opportunities.
Budget carefully: Not every sales plan style includes budgets by default—but don't let this deter you. It's vital to know what you can afford before you start executing your plan.
Vary strategies: To reduce volatility, try to keep your sales tactics varied. This also helps you find the strategies that work best and back them with data.
Continue monitoring: You can't know if you hit your KPIs unless you monitor according to the benchmarks you're tracking.
Make a (sales) plan to automate
Hopefully this post has you pumped for sales planning—or at least finding a mysterious new three-step business model (or even just watching "South Park").
Related reading:
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![basic sales business plan Bryce Emley picture](https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/2wxxKSR0Gxk4zGE5jGrQvs/9012d63f3a8f48ab229f4c39781c3d77/siege-bryce-emley.jpg)
Bryce Emley
Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. His work has been published in magazines including The Atlantic, Boston Review, Salon, and Modern Farmer and has received a regional Emmy and awards from venues including Narrative, Wesleyan University, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Pablo Neruda Prize. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry.
- Sales & business development
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How to Create a Sales Plan in 8 Steps: Guide + Free Template for 2023
![basic sales business plan Sales Plan](https://elasticsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/sales-plan-1.png)
It can happen to the best of us. We start off the year with big ambitions, certain our sales team is gonna crush it. We’re making lots of calls, selling to new customers, and getting our product out there.
But soon, we wonder: how are we actually doing? Are we on track to meet our revenue goals for the year? Should we focus on building outreach or closing more deals?
This is where a sales plan can make all the difference. Goals and objectives are clearly stated, day-to-day tasks are aligned with company priorities, and sales reps are working towards individual goals. It’s a beautiful thing.
And it doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, we’ve put together this guide to make the sales planning process as easy as following a template. Let’s get started.
What’s a Sales Plan?
A sales plan is a forecast of the sales you expect to achieve and how you’re going to get there. It typically covers important elements like:
- Past performance numbers
- Sales operations strategies
- Sales forecasting
- Current goals and objectives
- An action plan for finding and selling to new customers
Having an action plan in place for your sales process aligns your team’s day-to-day actions with your company’s priorities and business goals.
So, for example, if you’re trying to sell to a very specific target market, your team should focus on account-based selling as opposed to lead generation. If you’re looking to generate new business or break into a new market, you should focus sales activities more on outreach and prospecting.
An action plan also empowers you to spend more time intentionally working towards your revenue targets, rather than getting stuck in reactionary mode dealing with daily hiccups and distractions.
What’s Inside a Typical Sales Plan? (Plus a Free Sales Plan Template)
While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for developing a strategic sales plan, a good plan usually includes the following:
- Company mission and vision statements
- Realistic, time-based goals with action steps to achieve them
- Purposeful tasks and daily activities for your sales reps to achieve
- Proven sales strategies to improve outcomes and get results
- Lead generation tactics for finding new customers
- Metrics you’ll use to see how your team is progressing
Download Your Free Sales Plan Templates Today
Want to build your own sales plan that kick-starts growth? Grab our Sales Success Kit. You won’t only get a sales strategy , you’ll get:
- Templates for sales planning
- Checklists for things like sales calls and hiring
- Worksheets for overcoming objections
- Guides for writing sales scripts
…and more to help you set up strategic sales planning and goals for your team.
8 Steps to Build a Sales Plan that Drives Revenue
In this section, we’ll go over the steps you need to take to build a strategic sales plan that gets the kind of results you’re looking for.
1. Determine Your Primary & Secondary Sales Goals & KPIs
A successful sales plan begins with setting goals. These goals will be the targets your sales reps are working to reach—so it’s important to define them carefully.
When determining your goals, keep the S.M.A.R.T. system in mind. Company goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Here’s an example:
- Bad goal: “Grow sales.”
- SMART goal: “Hit $100k in revenue by the end of the 1st quarter.”
Also, keep in mind that the right sales goals are those at the edge of achievable and challenging. If a goal is too easy or too hard, your team’s motivation will probably plummet.
For example, if you’re a small business or startup that just reached $50k in revenue last year, shooting for $500k is a bit of a stretch, while $60k is probably too easy.
That said, you’ll also want to determine specific metrics and KPIs in this step, including how they’re currently performing, and how you plan to improve them.
Author’s note: If you’re using a tool like Close to manage your sales team and processes, you get a KPI dashboard that looks something like this—so your team can better align and track progress:
![basic sales business plan Activity Overview in Close for Sales Plan](https://elasticsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/sales-plan-4-1024x576.png)
But remember this golden rule when choosing key performance indicators:
You don’t need to track every sales KPI. You just need to track the right ones.
Here are ten benchmarks and KPIs worth tracking that are commonly used by sales teams:
- Monthly sales growth
- Calls and cold emails per rep (daily, weekly, monthly)
- Sales opportunities created
- Monthly onboarding and demo calls booked
- Lead conversion rate
- Sales by contact method
- Average conversion time
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Customer lifetime value (LTV)
- New and expansion monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
2. Find Your Target Customers’ Needs
One of the best ways to find the needs of your target audience is to develop an ideal customer profile (ICP). An ICP is an example of the perfect customer for your business.
Normally used by B2B companies, this profile defines the characteristics of a company that would buy your product or service.
Here are some of the traits to look out for in them:
![basic sales business plan Ideal Customer Profile for Sales Plan](https://elasticsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/sales-plan-2-1024x546.png)
To get started, think of your top ten to twenty customers. These should be customers who say your solution is so valuable, it outweighs the cost.
Then, gather information about each customer and identify traits they have in common. Write a description of your ideal customer that includes data like what we’ve shared earlier:
- General information about the company or customer, such as size, demographics, and industry
- Typical budget and revenue
- Location, if it’s applicable to what you’re selling
- Main challenges and pain points the customer is looking to solve
- Common objections that are raised during the sales process
- Typical purchase process, including decision-makers
- Timelines and deadlines to purchase
By identifying these common traits, you can better target the market that is best suited for your product and really hone in on their needs.
3. Define Your Value Proposition
Now that you know what your customers need, it’s time to explain how your company meets that need. Enter: the value proposition .
A value proposition describes the specific value your company provides to your customers. It should focus on benefits, not features. And it should explain how you stand out from the crowd. For example:
- What problem does your product solve? Is it a new product?
- What does your product do for your customers?
- How does your product stand out?
- What makes you different from the competition?
One of the best ways to nail down your value proposition is to talk to actual customers or prospects. Ask them how they would describe your product to a colleague. How would they sell it to them if asked for a recommendation?
You can also look up reviews on websites like G2 and read what your customers are raving about online. Is there a common thread? What benefits do your customers keep bringing up, especially as it relates to the competition? Is there something your company is doing that others aren’t?
4. Choose a Structure for Your Sales Team
Just as there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to creating a sales plan, there isn’t one right way to structure your sales force. What works best depends on your product, team, and sales processes. Here are three common sales team structures to choose from:
- Island: Individual reps work through the sales process alone. This means they handle everything from cold calling and outreach to closing major deals.
![basic sales business plan Sales Team Structure for Sales Plan](https://elasticsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/sales-plan-6.png)
- Assembly line: Each sales rep is assigned a specialized role such as lead generation, SDR (qualifier), Account Executive (closer), or Customer Success (farmer).
- Pods: Each sales rep is assigned a specialized role in a group that’s responsible for the entire journey of specific customers.
No matter what structure you choose, determine which reps are available during what times of the year, their specialties and skills, and what they’re responsible for in the sales process. It’s also important to include information about the sales managers, other team members, and the incentives you offer your reps.
5. Create a Plan For Execution
At this point, you know what you want to get done. You know your goals, you know your customers, and you know how your sales team will be organized. Now it’s time to come up with a specific plan of attack.
To do this, take a look at your overall goals and figure out how to create milestones. This involves breaking down that big number into smaller expectations with strict deadlines. Milestones should challenge and motivate your sales team , without being so difficult they kill morale.
Involve your sales team during this process. Learn what they do during the week to close deals. Ask how much they’re currently doing, and how much bandwidth they have to do more. This will give you a real, frontline take on what your team can execute.
Then, create specific milestones with clear deadlines. For example, to achieve a sales goal of increasing revenue by 15% YOY, you might set the milestone of increasing your customer base by 20% at the end of Q1, or increasing sales by 50% for a specific product during Q3.
Finally, break these milestones down into action items. If you’re trying to increase your customer base, for instance, your sales team will need to increase prospecting and lead generation activities. How will your team approach this? Assign specific tasks to team members with daily, weekly, or monthly targets.
Here’s an example to show how your goals, milestones, and action items are related to each other:
Goal: Increase revenue by 15% YOY
Milestone: Increase customer base by 20% by the end of Q1
Action items: Each sales rep makes 10 new prospecting calls per week and spends 30 minutes qualifying leads
6. Evaluate Your Existing Sales Tools
In this step, take a look at your existing sales tools. Ask your team the following questions about each one:
- How are we using this tool? What sales tactics does it help with?
- Do we have another tool that does the same thing?
- How much does this tool cost?
- What’s the learning curve with this tool in the short term?
- How easy is it to onboard new team members?
- Is there anything we wish this tool did better?
- What’s customer support like when we have issues?
- Does this tool integrate easily with our other tools?
- How does this tool make our lives easier?
- How does this tool help us close more deals?
- Where does it fit in the sales funnel?
Once you’ve answered these questions for all of your sales tools, decide if there are any you don’t need in your stack anymore. Also, make note of any gaps in your capabilities or areas you feel could be improved with a better tool.
Then, list the resources you have available and how you plan to use them. For example, how much will you spend on your sales tools? Which CRM software or prospecting tools are your sales professionals lost without? Briefly explain each tool’s value and why you’ve allocated resources towards it.
7. Build a List of Dream Clients
If you could close the deal with anyone you wanted, who would it be? Write it down. Then, go back to your ideal customer profile and find more companies that fit the bill.
Using this strategy is called target account sales or account-based selling. It’s a sales strategy where every prospect is handpicked and matched to your ICP. This means you know their pain points , their competitors, and how you’ll sell to them—long before you pick up the phone.
Using the target account method will help you fill your pipeline with high-value leads that are a perfect fit for your product. It’s also a great way to build confidence with your reps since they can do a lot of legwork before making a call.
8. Schedule Progress Checks
A sales plan is a living, breathing document that needs to adapt to the dynamic world around it. New features, new marketing campaigns, new team members—all of these things can change the game.
With that in mind, the last step in creating your sales plan is to set regular meetings (at least monthly) to review progress towards hitting your sales targets. At each meeting, plan to identify and solve any new issues and re-align activities across teams to adapt to real-world events and feedback.
That said, try to avoid moving the actual goalposts—even if you discover you’ve been overly optimistic or pessimistic in your forecasting . Instead, carefully document what needs updating so you’re prepared when it comes time to make your next sales plan.
5 Best Practices for Creating a Profitable Sales Plan
Now that you know how to build your plan, here’s a list of best practices to make sure you’re successful.
1. Touch Base with Existing Customers
Existing customers can be a huge source of knowledge when building your sales plan. After all, they’re using your product and can provide valuable feedback on what’s working and what’s not.
But knowledge isn’t the only thing existing customers have to offer. They’re also a goldmine for generating new leads. In fact, according to SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin , “At least 20% of your new customers should come from referrals and word of mouth.”
If you’re still in the early stages of business development, use your sales plan to show your team how to leverage their own network to get introductions to new prospects. If you’re at a later stage, build a referral program for customers that refer new leads.
2. Get Input From Colleagues Outside of Sales
It’s easy to get caught up in our little sales bubble and forget the outside world. But you’d be doing yourself and your company a disservice if you don’t get input from people on the outside.
Getting a different point of view can open doors you didn’t even realize were there. Or keep you from wasting time going down a road to nowhere.
So reach out to colleagues in other departments (i.e. marketing, tech support, human resources, etc.) Ask them to look over your sales plan and give you feedback. What have they heard from customers? Is there a marketing strategy that could work in tandem with your efforts? You may be surprised at what they have to offer.
3. Include Your Sales Team in the Planning Process
As we mentioned earlier, your sales reps can be super helpful during the planning process. They know your customers and they know the daily grind. So they usually have valuable insight in terms of realistic goal-setting, how customers may respond to certain strategies, and more.
Plus, including your sales team in the process is a great way to get buy-in. People are way more likely to get on board with a plan if they were involved in its creation. On the flip side, if you just drop a plan on your team without getting their input, you’ll likely face some pushback.
So get your team involved early in the process. Schedule planning meetings and quick brainstorming sessions. Explain why the plan matters and why you want their participation.
4. Compare Plans with Strategic Partners
Strategic partners or stakeholders are usually other businesses that benefit in some way from your success. These can be suppliers, retailers, or companies with complimentary products or services (also known as Complementary Service Providers, or CSPs).
If you have a good working relationship, ask them to compare notes. You take a look at their sales plan and have them look at yours. After all, you’re typically targeting the same type of customers.
Maybe they’ve tried something you’re planning to implement and can give you feedback on how it went. Or maybe you’re planning similar strategies and can piggyback off each other or refer leads.
5. Set Individual Goals for Your Sales Team
Finally, take your overall goals and break them down into individual goals for your sales team. Not only will this make your plan more actionable but it’s a great opportunity for professional development if you take into account the differences in strengths, weaknesses, and skills among your salespeople.
For example, if someone on your team is making a lot of calls but not closing many deals, set an individual goal of upping their close rate . On the other hand, if someone’s great at closing but doesn’t do much outreach, give them the goal of contacting ten new prospects a month.
Create a Sales Plan That Drives Growth
Taking the time to create a solid, effective sales plan (or business plan) is always worth it. It gives you the roadmap you need to push through the inertia and stay on track to meet your goals.
We’re here to help. Download our free Sales Success Kit and get access to 11 different templates, checklists, worksheets, and guides. All are action-oriented and easy to use, so you can have your best sales year yet.
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Create a Sales Plan That Actually Works (Tips + Template)
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- January 21, 2021
True success always starts with a plan. And for sales success, nothing beats a strategic sales plan.
Designed specifically to help your sales team drive more sales, a sales plan can show you where you’re at, where you want to be, and even more important, how to get there.
The question, of course, is how to create a sales plan that actually impacts sales. Keep reading for tips and a template to quickly and confidently create a strategic sales plan for your business.
Table of Contents
What is a sales plan, what is included in a sales plan, sales plan examples: there’s no one right way, the benefits of a sales plan, how to write a sales plan, 7 tips to help you create a sales plan, sales strategy template, selling your sales plan, final remarks.
A sales plan is a strategy document that lays out a company’s plan for improving sales results in a specified time period. A sales plan makes it possible for everyone on the sales team to see the big picture, share the same overall objectives, and work the same plan to achieve them.
It usually includes:
- Specific revenue and performance goals for a given period
- The strategies for achieving them
- The resources and activities required to carry out those strategies
A sales plan covers a lot of important aspects of business growth: revenue goals, selling methods and metrics, target customers, current sales force capabilities, and more.
Specifically, it covers 9 pieces of strategic information.
1. Executive Summary and Scope of The Sales Plan
This section gives a short summary of the document, focusing on goals and the strategies to achieve them. It also states the specific period and other parameters covered by the plan.
2. Business Goals and Revenue Targets
This section clearly establishes revenue targets and may include associated business goals (e.g., optimize lifecycle value through customer success programs, etc). Classifying revenue figures based on different categories (such as line and territory) helps clarify the document.
3. Review of Prior Period Performance
This section presents a recap of the prior period’s performance, identifying mistakes as well as decisive actions that led to a positive outcome. The overarching goal is to optimize the sales plan by adopting inputs and techniques that work.
4. Market and Industry Conditions
This section provides a summary of the market trends that have a high likelihood of influencing sales performance.
5. Strategies, Methodologies, and Tactics
This section recommends the best selling techniques, communication sequences, and playbooks for the specific company.
6. Customer Segments
This section cites all the potential revenue-generating, omnichannel opportunities available for the brand, such as the following:
- Cross-sells
- New Prospects
- New Segments
The document should describe new segments of the addressable market when they arise.
7. Team Capabilities, Resources, and Upgrades
This section provides a summary and describes the current state of all production inputs (human resources, tech software, specialized sales team, etc.,) required to process and close sales details.
8. Action Plan For Teams and Individuals
This section assigns tasks, activities, and responsibilities to different teams and individuals. Tasks include prospecting activities, meeting appointments, and product demos/presentations.
9. Performance Benchmarks & Monitoring
This section lays out performance metrics to track the systems and processes that help monitor these metrics.
What usually comes to mind when you think about sales plans?
If you’re like most people, it’s the annual sales plan or weekly sales plan — broad strategic and tactical documents mapping out the plan for everything sales-related.
But there are as many different types of sales plans as there are needs for a sales plan.
We’ll go over a few sales plan examples to get you started in the right direction.
30-60-90-day Sales Plan
There’s the 30-60-90-day sales plan. This is designed to help a new salesperson or sales manager get up to speed quickly in their first quarter on the job. The plan includes milestones they’d need to achieve at the 30th, 60th, and 90th day of their ramp-up.
Generally, the 30-60-90-day sales plan can be broken down into 3 sections:
Day 1 to 30:
Learn and understand everything you can about a company from their processes, customers, products, the competition to procedures.
Day 31 to 60:
Evaluate and put your plan into action. Analyze their current processes and assess changes.
Day 61 to 90:
Optimize and make the plan better. It is time to take action. Initiate an action plan. Implement any new strategies and procedures you’ve come up with.
Sales Plan For Specific Sales
A sales process involves using different tactics to approach and convert a prospect into a paying customer.
Another type of sales plan you’ll see a lot is an individual sales plan for specific sales tactics, such as prescribed call sequences, email follow-up frequency, and meeting appointments. This type of plan is similar to an annual/weekly sales plan, but it focuses on measuring and improving results for just one goal or task.
Territory Sales Plan
Meanwhile, sales managers who oversee a geo-location or region often use territory sales plans to give sales directors and VPs more visibility into their sales efforts.
This is a workable plan used to target the right customers and implement goals to increase the income generated and sales over time.
A good territory sales plan will:
- Make your team more productive
- Reduce operational costs
- Increase the number of generated sales
- Improve your customer coverage
- Improve working relationships between clients and managers
Note: It is essential to work on your territory sales plan and avoid making constant changes. Unnecessary changes can tamper with your productivity and your ‘territory’ in general.
Sales Training Plan
And there are sales plans for every area of sales. Sales Enablement might have a sales training plan, for example, and Revenue Ops might have a sales compensation plan.
A sales training plan can be used as a roadmap for different sales training programs. It can be grouped according to positions held in an organization, assets, sales record etc.
A sales compensation plan is an umbrella for base salary, incentives and commission that make up a sales representative earnings.
Therefore, you can schedule a sales training plan to talk to your sales team about the importance of a sales compensation plan and how they can use it to increase revenue and drive performance.
Sales Budget Plan
Lastly, a sales budget plan gives you a sales forecast for a given period based on factors that could impact revenue — like industry trends and entry to a new market segment. Similar to a traditional sales plan, they cover the staff, tools, marketing campaigns, and other resources needed to generate the target revenue.
A good sales budget plan should include the following:
Sales forecasting:
The process of estimating future sales by predicting the number of units a salesperson or team can sell over a certain period, i.e. week, month, year, etc.
Anticipated expenses:
Include the number of costs your team is likely going to incur. Remember to have even the smallest expenses to estimate the average sales.
Expect the unexpected:
Always leave room for unforeseen circumstances in your sales budget. For example, new packaging expenses, new competitive market strategies etc.
A sales plan does deliver side benefits (such as promoting discipline and diligence), but it’s really about making sure your sales don’t dry up over time. Which means it’s not optional.
The reality is this: Most of us aren’t planners. We talk a good game, but nothing happens until we’re accountable.
Without a written plan, it’s just talk.
So the first benefit of a sales plan is that it helps you execute on all your best ideas. But that’s not all. A good sales plan will also help you:
- Keep your sales team on the same page, aiming for the same target and focusing on the same priorities.
- Clarify your goals and revenue objectives for a given period.
- Give your team direction, focus, and purpose.
- Adopt a unified set of strategies and playbooks to reach your business and revenue goals.
- Know what your team capabilities are and be able to isolate your needs, from tools to talent and other resources.
- Inspire and motivate stakeholders.
- Track your progress and optimize performance over time.
A sales plan is a pretty straightforward document. It doesn’t need to be written in a formal language or pass your compliance review. It just needs to outline your plans for the coming period, whether that’s a year, a quarter, or a month.
While there are 9 sections in the sales plan template, much of the document simply validates your ideas. The most important pieces of information are:
1. Your goals
Setting smart goals for you and your team is an essential part of creating a sales plan. I believe the biggest mistake you can make when setting goals is solely focusing on numbers.
Smart sales goals should be actively focused on. If it helps, use goal-setting and planning frameworks such as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Create goals that stretch your capabilities, but that seems doable based on your new strategy.
![](http://sektorel.online/777/templates/cheerup/res/banner1.gif)
2. Your SWOT analysis
SWOT — short for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats — is one of the best frameworks for analyzing your sales team’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths. It helps you to build a bulletproof wall around your plan.
You’ll be able to address what you’re lacking, the areas that need improvement, identify your USP (Unique Selling Point), come up with Value-Based Selling , and your most vital points and how you can exploit them to your advantage.
3. Your strategy
Your sales strategy should be documented to help position your products and services to differentiate your solution from competitors.
A good strategy will help you address your customers’ needs in every stage of your sales plan. For better sales, you can balance inbound and outbound sales strategies for even higher sales.
4. Your tactics
Be aware, though, it’s not just a wish list or a collection of ideas. Your sales plan should be based on actual field data and only use benchmarks and quantities that are measurable. Be clear. Be specific. Be actionable.
Which brings me to another point: A good sales plan is realistic.
It’s fine to have a 5-year goal of hitting $10B. But what about now? Figure out exactly what your current numbers are, and set your targets based on those numbers.
I already mentioned that your sales plan doesn’t have to be a formal document. But it does need to be clearly written, so all team members and stakeholders understand the plan.
Tip #1: Base it on in-depth and up-to-date research
You need relevant statistics and trends in your niche, industry, and ideal customers. Remember, markets and customers are in a constant state of flux. There’s nothing worse than stubbornly chasing prospects who aren’t a good fit anymore while ignoring entire market segments that show a rising demand for your solutions.
Tip #2: Use data and statistics
Use the data from your in-depth research to identify problem areas, find points of opportunity in your sales process, and validate your assumptions and ideas.
You can also use the data to come up with accurate metrics and figures to help predict your sales plan’s outcome.
Tip #3: Verify your facts
Accuracy matters!
Don’t rush! Facts and figures are essential, especially to stakeholders. One simple mistake and your entire plan come tumbling down.
Ensure you take time to review your facts, figures, and forecasts before finalizing the document.
Tip #4: Get tactical
Break the overall sales action plan into tactical plans for individual areas of sales:
- SDRs and account executives
- Sales operations
- Sales enablement
- Customer success
This may require collaboration with cross-functional teams such as marketing, customer support, and product teams.
Tip #5: Use Historical Performance Data
In sales, you can use the past to dictate the future. Historical data will help you set targets for the current period. For example, what were your previous revenue targets? Did you hit them? Why or why not? This information can help you set achievable goals for your current sales plan and know the mistakes to avoid.
Tip #6: List The Tracking Methods You’ll Use
Highlight the tracking methods you’ll use to keep your plan moving forward. That includes performance metrics, monitoring techniques, software, tools, and selling strategies for your business model.
Tip #7: Build a Strong Case For Your Proposed Budget
Stakeholders and superiors are impressed with cold-hard facts. Therefore, having a strong detailed case for your budget will help your sales plan smoothly sail through.
Not only will you outline your plans for the coming period for your budget, but you’ll also need to detail the costs. Be sure to include an ROI analysis for any new tools or talent you think you’ll need.
Are you ready to write your own sales strategy? Here is a sales plan template to help you get started. Here’s how to use the sales plan template to make it useful to you:
Start by using the Sales Plan Template we’ll give you in the next section. Just follow the prompts in the template, so you know what information is needed in each section. Don’t try to be fancy. Use simple language. Focus on being specific and clear.
Then share information in whatever format works best. That may be text paragraphs, tables, lists, charts, graphics, or screenshots. You can also adapt it as needed to suit your business, your sales team, and your needs.
A sales plan should contain the following sections:
1. Executive Summary
This is your opening ‘statement’. It is a formal summary that sum ups the contents of your strategy.
When writing your executive summary , keep it short, and precise. It should be one page or two. Ensure it gives an overview of what is included in your plan. It should talk about:
- The strategies you’ll implement to achieve your goals
- The time-frame you expect to achieve your plan
- The scope of your plans
2. Business Goals With Revenue Targets
This section talks about the revenue target and associated business goals. You can classify revenue figures according to different categories to clarify the sales strategy.
For example, for each goal, you can enter the current outcome and targeted outcome as illustrated in the table below:
![basic sales business plan sales strategy template](https://gtmnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/sales-strategy-template.png)
3. Review of Past Performance
Take a trip down prior period performance . Note the mistakes that negatively affected the outcome and their strengths which positively impacted the general outcome.
Your goal is to identify the strategies and tactics that work.
4. Specific Strategies, Methods, and Playbooks
List the specific sales strategies, methods, and playbooks you’ll use to achieve the goals listed above.
5. Customer Segments/ Buyers Persona
This section talks about potential revenue-generating streams and different opportunities available for the company and new markets. Remember to include upsells, referrals, and renewals.
6. Team Capabilities and Resources
Here, provide a summary and describe the current production inputs required in the sales process , i.e., human resources, specialized software, sales team, etc.
7. Action Plan
The action plan requires you to set specific strategies and supporting tactics that will be used to achieve a particular goal, i.e. new acquisition. Assign different activities and responsibilities to teams who will run that particular action.
Below is an example of an action plan table:
![basic sales business plan sales plan template](https://gtmnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/action-plan-template.png)
8. Sales Tools
Go ahead and list the tools you’ll use to ensure the sales plan runs smoothly and all sales processes will be managed using these tools.
![basic sales business plan](https://gtmnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/sales-stack.png)
9. Performance Benchmarks
This is the last section of your sales plan. It lays out the performance metrics to track the process systems to help and monitor these metrics.
Also, list and provide links to used sources. Explain how the report will be generated and stored. Finally, talk about how the report will be used to review the progress made.
![basic sales business plan sales plan example](https://gtmnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/sales-plan-example.png)
Okay, your sales plan is written. Great! But you’re not done yet.
Your next step is to present it to the sales team, management, and stakeholders. That’s because you need buy-in to make it happen.
When your sales team is on board, they’ll be pumped about doing their assigned tasks. When management is on board, they’ll be excited about giving you the budget you need to turn your plan into a reality. With buy-in as your top priority, it’s important to be prepared to give a solid presentation. In other words, sell it.
One final note: There are lots of reasons you may not get everything you ask for. There may be plans in the works you don’t know anything about yet. Or the budget may need to favor another initiative.
If you don’t get the budget you asked for, be sure to update your sales plan accordingly. The goal is to stretch your team’s capabilities, not do the impossible.
Sales don’t happen without a good sales plan. Fortunately, they’re not as hard as they might seem.
Take your time identifying your biggest challenges and problem-solving to overcoming them. Once that’s done, your sales plan is simply the document that organizes your ideas.
What’s your biggest hang-up when it comes to creating a sales plan? Have you found any tricks that help? Let me know in the comments below.
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Max Altschuler
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16 Sales Plan Templates to Plan Your Sales Strategy
![basic sales business plan 16 Sales Plan Templates to Plan Your Sales Strategy](https://visme.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/16-Sales-Plan-Template-to-Plan-Your-Sales-Strategy-Projects-Header.jpg)
Written by: Olujinmi Oluwatoni
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Crafting an effective sales plan creates the stage for your sales team to exceed targets and secure those coveted wins.
But let’s face it, it demands hours of meticulous planning. On top of that, time is a luxury that can be hard to find amidst a whirlwind of meetings, pitches and follow-ups in sales.
That’s why sales plan templates come in handy. They streamline your sales planning efforts, enhance productivity and ultimately improve your team’s chances of achieving sales targets.
In this article, we’ve curated a collection of the finest templates out there, designed to rescue you from the time-consuming ordeal of creating your sales plan from scratch.
Let's get to it!
Table of Contents
Benefits of using a sales plan template, 16 sales plan templates you can use.
- How to Create a Sales Plan Template With Visme
- Utilizing a template when creating a sales plan is time-efficient, creates structure and organization, ensures consistency and facilitates communication and alignment.
- To create a sales plan template with Visme, sign up or login to Visme, choose a template, gather all the necessary information you need, customize the template and download or share the document.
- Visme offers a user-friendly interface with a wide range of customizable templates, advanced features and AI-powered tools to help you create stunning sales collaterals, sales enablement content and sales plans that will help you captivate your audience and accelerate your sales growth.
Using a template to jump-start your sales plan creation offers a number of benefits.
Let's take a look at some of the benefits:
- Structure and Organization: A sales plan template provides a structured format, guiding you through essential steps to create a comprehensive sales plan. With a template, you can capture all necessary elements, like setting goals, outlining the target market, sales strategies , timelines and lots more.
- Time Efficiency: Using a template saves time by eliminating the need to create your plan from scratch. You can focus on customizing the template to your specific business needs rather than starting from a blank page.
- Consistency: A standardized sales template ensures consistency across different sales teams or periods. This means you can easily track progress and compare results.
- Communication and Alignment: A well-structured sales plan template aids in communicating goals, strategies and expectations to stakeholders, ensuring everyone is aligned toward common objectives.
Build relationships with customers and drive sales growth
- Reach out to prospects with impressive pitch decks and proposals that convert
- Monitor clients' level of engagement to see what they are most interested in
- Build a winning sales playbook to maximize your sales team's efficiency
Sign up. It’s free.
![basic sales business plan basic sales business plan](https://visme.co/blog/wp-content/themes/blog/img/shortcodes/sales-1.png)
There are so many ways Visme can help you close more sales . For a start, we've carefully selected these pre-made sales plan templates to jumpstart your process. Each template can be fully tailored to suit your business needs.
Here’s what one of Visme's clients had to say about our templates and service:
Now, let’s get to the templates!
1. Sales Business Plan One Pager
![basic sales business plan Sales Business Plan One Pager](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Sales-Business-Plan-One-Pager_full.jpg)
Looking for a way to efficiently communicate the critical information of your sales plan to stakeholders in a concise format without overwhelming details? This sales business plan template is your silver bullet.
It uses a mix of subtle and bold colors to emphasize content, making it visually impactful. You can utilize the template sections to capture your sales tactics, goals, target audience, key performance metrics and more.
Short on time? Try Visme's AI document generator to quickly create your business sales plan or any document. Just input your prompt, offer some context, choose a design and watch it generate your draft in seconds.
2. Sales Employee 30-60-90 Day Plan
![basic sales business plan Sales Employee 30-60-90 Day Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Sales-Employee-30-60-90-Day-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Take advantage of this sales employee 30-60-90 day plan for efficient onboarding of your new sales team members. This minimalistic template features a clean white background with black and grey accents. Each page also boasts engaging visuals that complement the content.
Utilize the template’s sections to outline specific objectives, goals and actionable steps for the first 90 days, including growth strategies, sales targets and more.
Make your sales plan engaging by incorporating animations and interactive elements like animated text, graphics, hotspots, pop-ups and hover effects to reveal additional information. With these additions, your team members can go through the plan in a more engaging way.
3. Company Territory Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Company Territory Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Company-Territory-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Create a strategy to refine your sales efforts within specific territories with this sales plan. It features sections for defining territories, identifying target customers, setting sales objectives, implementing tactics and evaluating performance.
With a vibrant purple color scheme, impressive fonts, icons and a sleek minimalist layout, this template ensures your sales plan stands out.
Easily leverage Visme's AI Touch-Up Tools to fine-tune your visuals, whether it's sharpening, removing backgrounds, or replacing elements, ensuring your images are perfect for the template.
4. Sales Budget Plan
![basic sales business plan Product Sales Budget Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Product-Sales-Budget-Plan-full_1.jpg)
This sales budget plan template is an indispensable asset for businesses aiming to effectively manage finances while optimizing sales strategies .
The template comprehensively covers vital budgeting aspects, encompassing revenue objectives, cost of goods sold, sales expenses and allocation for marketing and promotional endeavors.
Its structured use of color schemes, typefaces, fonts and design elements ensures a coherent and engaging document.
Avoid the hassle of manually incorporating brand elements repeatedly. With Visme's brand design tool , simply input your website URL and watch as it automatically integrates your brand assets into your brand kit.
5. Business Development Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Business Development Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Business-Development-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Need to create a business plan that’ll drive business expansion? This template is your sure bet.
It not only employs a stylish fusion of colors but also integrates captivating visuals, icons and data widgets in each slide.
With sections spanning company overview, launch plan, target market, goals, plans, budget and more, this template simplifies sales planning processes.
Engage your team seamlessly through Visme's collaboration tool , fostering commentary, annotations and idea exchange for refining the plan collaboratively. With Visme's workflow feature, you can effortlessly manage roles, tasks, progress and deadlines in a unified platform.
6. Product Market Expansion Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Product Market Expansion Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Product-Market-Expansion-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Seeking to introduce your products to new markets or expand within existing ones? This product market expansion sales plan template is your best bet.
It features a bold, modern design adorned with vibrant colors, compelling imagery and dynamic graphics, offering a visually engaging way to present your ideas.
This sales planning template features detailed sections covering market analysis, competitive landscape, marketing strategies, distribution channels, sales tactics and performance metrics.
Customize colors and fonts and leverage customizable charts and widgets. You can use Visme’s library of data visualization tools , including charts, graphs, maps, and widgets, to create concise sales pitch presentations .
7. Company Sales SOP Plan
![basic sales business plan Company Sales SOP Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Company-Sales-SOP-Plan-full_1.jpg)
This company sales SOP plan template is an essential asset for businesses seeking to efficiently standardize and streamline their sales procedures.
What sets the template apart is its incorporation of captivating visual elements. The images and graphics elevate the document's visual appeal, while the vibrant color palette sparks emotions and enthusiasm. The layout also ensures a clutter-free presentation and directs focus towards critical aspects of the content.
You can utilize the template’s sections to provide a detailed description of your goals, workflow and protocols for your sales activities.
Leverage Visme’s dynamic fields to effortlessly update information, data and dates across multiple projects with a single click. Dynamic fields enable swift adjustments to company details, results, or sales plan recipients, ideal for distributing multiple proposals to various stakeholders.
8. Consulting Revenue-based Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Consulting Revenue-based Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Consulting-Revenue-based-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
This sales plan example is a specialized framework crafted specifically for consultants and consulting firms seeking to propel revenue growth through strategic sales initiatives.
Designed with a white background, balanced black tones and accents of orange and gray, this template offers a harmonious visual aesthetic that exudes vibrancy.
Dedicated sections within the template focus on client acquisition strategies, service offerings, pricing models, sales pipelines and performance metrics directed towards revenue targets.
Struggling with content creation? Visme's built-in AI writer simplifies the process. This sophisticated tool aids in text creation, modification and proofreading, saving valuable time and energy while ensuring the production of high-quality content. Just input your prompt and watch the tool perform its magic.
9. Sales Cloud Software Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Sales Cloud Software Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Sales-Cloud-Software-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Tailored for software sales managers or sales teams in tech companies, this template is your compass for crafting an impactful sales strategy for your company.
The template features a color palette blending a white backdrop with accents of lemon and black tones. It also employs subtle shadows, clean lines and ample open spaces, which improves readability.
Use the template’s sections to highlight your market analysis, target audience identification, competitive positioning, sales strategies, customer acquisition tactics and lots more.
Your sales plan doesn’t have to be boring. Spice it up with visually appealing images and interactive icons. Simply browse through Visme's vast collection of stock photos, icons and more to choose the visual that suits your needs.
If you cannot find the exact you need, then utilize Visme's AI image generator. This feature allows you to craft unique photos, paintings, pencil drawings, 3D graphics, icons, abstract art and beyond. Just input a precise prompt and begin generating your personalized visuals effortlessly.
10. Sales Business Plan Infographic Template
![basic sales business plan Sales Business Plan Infographic](https://assets.visme.co/templates/blockinfographics/fullsize/i_Sales-Business-Plan-Infographic_full.jpg)
Creating a comprehensive sales plan often entails complex steps, which might pose challenges when presenting to potential stakeholders. This template offers a concise yet thorough way to showcase your plan, emphasizing crucial elements while minimizing excessive text.
Its dynamic presentation, enriched with a captivating fusion of colors and visuals, offers an impactful way to convey information.
The template’s sections allow you to visualize your goals, timelines, market analysis, strategies, performance metrics and more.
You can utilize this template for your sales meetings, strategy sessions, or as a comprehensive reference tool for your sales team.
11. SaaS Product Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan SaaS Product Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_SaaS-Product-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Craft a high-impact sales approach for SaaS products effortlessly with this template. Whether you're a SaaS startup founder, a product manager, or part of a tech company's sales team, this template will help you create a concise plan.
This template has a sleek white background complemented by shades of green and nude tones. Its design elements, coupled with compelling charts and graphics, also make it a breeze to convey your sales insights.
The template’s section covers essential sections such as market analysis, target audience profiling, competitive assessment, pricing strategies and customer acquisition tactics.
What's more, you can download your design in JPG, PNG, or PDF formats for printing or easy sharing with team members for collaborative efforts.
12. Digital Marketing Agency Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Digital Marketing Agency Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Digital-Marketing-Agency-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Designed for digital agency owners, sales managers, or marketing teams, this template offers a structured approach to craft a robust sales strategy.
With a sleek, contemporary design, user-friendly layout and engaging visuals, this template effectively conveys your vision and offers a detailed roadmap to accomplish your agency's objectives.
It covers sections on market analysis, target audience identification, service offerings, pricing strategies, lead generation tactics and performance metrics. Tailor the template to match your brand's style, ensuring a unified and visually appealing plan.
13. Real Estate Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Real Estate Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Real-Estate-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
Tailored explicitly for real estate agents, brokers, or agencies, this template is a great tool to outline strategies to proficiently market properties and close deals. It employs captivating fonts, vibrant colors and graphics that’ll engage your sales team members.
You can utilize the template’s sections to outline your executive summary, sales goals and KPIs , revenue targets, target markets, marketing strategy, prospecting strategy, budget and lots more.
14. Marketing Agency Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Marketing Agency Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Marketing-Agency-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
For your marketing agency's success, a well-organized sales plan is pivotal. This marketing agency sales plan is a great tool to craft a robust sales strategy that attracts clients effectively.
The modern design boasting a harmonious color palette, enriched with images and icons gives the plan a great visual appeal. It includes sections to detail your market analysis, target audiences, service offerings, pricing strategies, lead generation tactics, budget allocation and performance metrics.
For added flair, you can animate this annual sales plan template with illustrations, incorporate characters and integrate clickable interactive icons.
15. Health Insurance Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Health Insurance Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Health-Insurance-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
This specialized health insurance template is crafted exclusively for insurance professionals aiming to optimize their sales strategies, specifically for health insurance products.
The template provides a refined layout while integrating vibrant and compelling imagery. It covers comprehensive sections on market analysis, identifying target audiences, competitive analysis, pricing strategies, lead generation tactics, regulatory compliance and performance metrics.
Effortlessly incorporate data from platforms such as Google Sheets, Excel and various tools directly into your charts and graphs. Once connected to your data sources, your charts and graphs will dynamically adjust to any changes in the external data, keeping your information organized and up-to-date.
This feature boosts the professional quality of your sales plan while simplifying data handling.
16. Customer Product Sales Plan
![basic sales business plan Consumer Product Sales Plan](https://assets.visme.co/templates/banners/thumbnails/i_Consumer-Product-Sales-Plan-full_1.jpg)
This Customer Product Sales Plan template offers a strategic framework designed for businesses seeking to enhance sales by prioritizing the customer's perspective. The striking combination of grey, black, and white gives it a great visual appeal.
From sections like customer segmentation, market analysis, product positioning, sales tactics and more, this template has everything you need to create a comprehensive sales plan.
For detailed tracking of data, leverage Visme analytics . Monitor views, engagement and interactions to gain insights into audience interaction with your visual content. You can easily track your audience’s activities by customizing and saving each document separately with the prospect's name.
How to Create a Sales Plan Template with Visme
With the wide variety of features and templates available in Visme, you can quickly whip up visually appealing and professional sales business plans.
Here’s how to write a sales plan using Visme.
Step 1: Register or Log in to your Visme Account
Create a new Visme account or sign in if you're already a user. Once logged in, you can dive into Visme's impressive array of features and tools.
Step 2: Choose a Suitable Template
Choose a sales plan template that matches your unique needs and objectives. Visme offers an extensive collection of professionally designed templates tailored to your project or initiative.
Step 3: Input Relevant Content
Once you’ve selected your template, the next step is to input relevant information into it. The information you’ll require here depends on the type of sales plan template you’ve chosen.
Simply replace the template’s placeholder content with yours. With Visme's user-friendly editor, you can quickly and easily add, edit, or remove pages and content to suit your needs.
Step 4: Input Your Sales Data By Integrating Visme With Your CRM
A sales plan typically includes various sales data such as target market analysis, sales strategies, product or service details, and lots more.
One of the perks of using Visme to create your sales plans is that it offers seamless integration with CRM tools like Salesforce and HubSpot. This connection enables direct input of your sales data and client information from your CRM into your visual content. This way, you can showcase up-to-date sales data within your sales plan.
The integration also allows easy export of projects created in Visme to your HubSpot or Salesforce storage. When you have all your sales data in one central place, you create a single source of truth for your sales team.
This will aid the effective execution of your sales activities.
Here’s how to set up Visme’s integration with Hubspot or Salesforce:
- Go to the Visme Apps section and click HubSpot or Salesforce
- Log in to your HubSpot or Salesforce account using your credentials to connect your account to Visme.
- Access your HubSpot or Salesforce files within Visme, then select the specific file you want to incorporate into your Visme project.
- When you are done with the project, select the dropdown next to the Download button to export the file directly to your HubSpot or Salesforce storage.
Step 5: Customize the Template
Once you've selected a template and gathered the necessary information for your sales plan, the next step involves crafting the content and personalizing the template to suit your needs.
Simply replace the placeholder content in the template with your own. Visme's user-friendly editor allows you to seamlessly add, edit, or delete content and rearrange design elements across the canvas.
You have the flexibility to modify text by adjusting font size, style, color, alignment and even add animations. Easily tailor section headings, include or exclude sections and ensure the content aligns perfectly with your project or organization.
Earlier, we highlighted several features and design elements within Visme that will assist you in customizing your sales plan templates. Take advantage of these tools and features to craft visually appealing and professional sales plans tailored to your needs.
Step 6: Download and Share
Publish and share the completed sales plan with relevant team members and stakeholders. You can download designs in PDF, JPG, PNG, or HTML5 formats or easily share them via email or a shareable link. Plus, effortlessly publish your content anywhere online by generating a code within the Visme app.
Sales Plan FAQs
Q. what are the 7 steps to creating a sales plan.
Here are 7 steps to create a sales plan:
- Review Sales and Customer Data
- Set Clear Objectives
- Identify Gaps and Opportunities to Improve
- Define Sales Strategies
- Establish KPIs
- Create an Action Plan
- Allocate Budget and Resources:
Q. What Should a Good Sales Plan Include?
A typical sales plan includes the following sections:
- Executive Summary
- Sales Goals
- Target Market
- Competitors Analysis
- Action Plan
- KPIs to Measure
- Team Structure
Q. What Does a Sales Strategy Plan Look Like?
A sales strategy plan typically consists of several key components, including:
- Market Analysis
- Value PropositionTarget Audience
- Sales Objectives
- Sales Channels
- Sales Tactics and Techniques
- Resource Allocation
Q. How Do You Write a Sales Strategy Plan Template?
Follow these steps to write a sales strategy plan template:
- Analyze the Market and Persona
- Define Your Sales Goals
- Analyze Current Position and Opportunities
- Align Sales and Marketing
- Create Sales Strategies
- Define Sales KPIs
- Map Out Your Action Plan
- Evaluate Budget and Resource
- Create a Timeline
Easily Design Captivating & Data-Driven Sales Plans with Visme
A well crafted sales plan will help you focus efforts, allocate resources effectively and adapt to market changes, ultimately contributing to sustainable profitability.
Thanks to Visme, creating your sales plans doesn't have to be overwhelming.
Visme is a comprehensive tool for effortlessly creating engaging and data-driven sales plans. Its broad range of features, customizable options, AI-powered tools, and templates allow for the creation of professional-quality plans.
You can also utilize Visme's real-time collaboration tools and versatile sharing options to seamlessly engage all stakeholders in crafting and conveying your sales plan, irrespective of physical proximity.
Beyond sales plans, Visme can be used to create various business assets, such as sales presentations, infographics, e-books, whitepapers and more.
Ready to level up your company's sales game? Sign up or book a demo to discover how Visme can help your sales team drive tangible results.
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What Is A Sales Plan? | How To Create Your Own + Sample Sales Plan Template
Find out what a sales plan is and learn how to create your own sales plan template with this guide.
RELATED: Marketing and Sales: Why They Need Each Other
In this article:
What Is a Sales Plan?
- Who Creates and Benefits from the Sales Plan?
- Why Do You Need a Sales Plan?
- Where Does the Sales Plan Fit Within Your Business?
- When Should You Create and Update Your Sales Plan Template?
- Mission, Vision, and Background
- Goals and Timeline
- Team Members
- Target Market
- Market Position
- Marketing Strategy
- Prospecting
- Action Plan
Sample Sales Plan Template
Other sales plan templates, how to write a sales plan template.
A sales plan is a strategy wherein you lay out your objectives, tactics, potential challenges, and target market . Here, you also identify what steps you’ll execute to meet your objectives.
Typically, a sales plan template has the following parts:
- Target market
- Revenue and/or volume targets
- Deadlines and Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs)
- Team structure
- Strategies and tactics
- Pricing and promotions
- Market conditions
What Is The Difference Between A Sales Plan And Business Plan?
A business plan describes the financial and operational objectives of a business. A sales plan is similar to a business plan, but it zeros in on the sales strategy.
In other words, a business plan outlines the goals and a sales plan specifies how to reach those goals.
Who Creates a Sales Plan ?
Sales professionals are in charge of creating sales plans. Whatever position you hold, as long as you’re working within sales, it’s essential to be familiar with how to create a sales plan.
Ideally, sales reps should have the task of creating an individual sales plan as part of their training. This will give them an idea of how to write and work with a sales plan template.
Sales executives, sales managers, and entrepreneurs all benefit from having a sales plan. This is a very useful guide for your business, department, or sales team.
Why Do I Need a Sales Plan Template?
Having a sales plan template will help you:
- Identify your business’ sales targets
- Choose sales strategies that fit your target market
- Come up with tactics that will enable your sales team to execute your strategies
- Determine the budget you need for your sales efforts
- Activate and motivate your sales team
- Evaluate your goals regularly so you can improve your approach
Your strategic sales plan will keep your business and your sales team in check. This will also serve as your benchmark to assess your goals and accomplishments.
Perhaps the most important role of a sales plan is to act as your compass in terms of meeting your prospect and customers’ needs.
Where Does the Sales Plan Fit Within a Business?
Your sales plan template can be a part of your marketing plan, or it can also supplement it. As mentioned earlier, a sales plan is similar to a business plan, but it focuses more on strategy.
These three — the business, marketing, and sales plans — all serve the purpose of directing your sales team’s efforts. You map these out during the start of the fiscal year, for instance, and then build on them throughout the year.
When Should I Create and Update My Sales Plan Template?
A lot of businesses develop and improve their sales plan template when necessary. Some do it every 6 or 12 months. Generally, you’ll update your sales plan as new information becomes available. For example, your sales team has expanded or a competitor has left the market. You and your team should treat your sales plan as a live document that you can build and adapt when needed.
RELATED: 7 Ways to Boost Sales Effectiveness
How Do I Create My Own Sales Plan?
All good sales plans have one thing in common, it’s based on real data. Before you create a sales plan do research and collect updated information to base your plan on.
Do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to assess your current position and incorporate your findings into your sales plan.
Once you have done your research complete your sales plan with these basic elements:
1. Executive Summary and Scope
Not everyone will read every page of the sales plan. In this section, give an overview of the document.
The aim here is to provide context for your plan. Include the most important goals and strategies as well as the time frame specified in your plan.
2. Goals and Timeline
Next, it’s time to set your sales goals, which could be revenue or volume-based. Make sure you set realistic goals so that in turn, your sales plan is doable.
When goal-setting, you need to factor in the following:
- Product price
- Total addressable market (TAM)
- Market penetration
Most likely, you’ll have more than one goal. The key is to identify which ones are high-level, and which ones will enable you to achieve those high-level goals.
As you prioritize each goal, set a timeline to achieve them. This will let you know if you’re ahead, on track, or behind in meeting targets.
If applicable, identify who the directly responsible individuals (DRIs) are. For instance, set quotas for your individual sales reps so they can all contribute to a common objective.
In some cases, identifying the DRIs will let you avoid replicating work and shifting blame, as each person has a specific task relevant to the goal.
3. Team Members
Enumerate who your team members are and what roles they have. If you’re anticipating to add to that headcount, include the following as well:
- The number of employees you want to add
- Each employee’s job title
- When you plan to onboard them in the team
4. Target Market
![basic sales business plan target audience | What Is A Sales Plan? | How To Create Your Own + Sample Sales Plan Template | plan b sales](https://resources.insidesales.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/target-audience-targeting-marketing-hr-recruitment-sales-plan-template-ss.jpg)
Knowing who your target market is for every product or service is crucial. When working on this, imagine what your ideal customer would be like.
While it’s important to have a single buyer persona, be open as well to the possibility of having different buyer personas for each product or service you offer.
Your target market can change over time as your sales strategy and business solutions evolve. As you go along, you’ll eventually learn which market fits a product or service better.
This is why it’s important to be consistent in evaluating and updating your buyer personas.
5. Resources
Your sales plan template should also include the list of resources, tools, and software your sales team will utilize to achieve your goals.
This also means including what your salespeople will use to accomplish their jobs. Some examples of these are training, sales enablement tools, and sales reports , among others.
6. Market Position
In this section, you will list down who your competitors are. Explain here how your offers compare to theirs — both the pros and cons.
You should include the pricing comparison between you and your competitors as well. Also, don’t forget to discuss the current trends in the market, and try to predict what kind of impact they will have on your business.
7. Marketing Strategy
Here you will dive further on two marketing mix elements — price and promotion. Describe your pricing strategy and go into detail on the promotions you’re planning to run.
What tactics will you implement to increase awareness for your brand and to generate leads? While you digest on this, don’t forget to figure out how this will impact your sales.
8. Prospecting
![basic sales business plan sales meeting | What Is A Sales Plan? | How To Create Your Own + Sample Sales Plan Template | sales plan](https://resources.insidesales.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/hispanic-businesswoman-leading-meeting-boardroom-table-sales-plan-template-ss.jpg)
What will be your strategy when it comes to prospecting ? List down the criteria that your sales reps need to look for in leads and prospects before they reach out.
Along with this, you should also identify the sales methods your sales team will employ to close more deals.
9. Action Plan
You now have your goals, so it’s time to come up with action plans that will help you reach them. This is basically your game plan to hit the revenue targets you set.
To create an action plan, follow this simple process:
- Set an objective
- List down the tasks that will help you accomplish the objective
Lay out the costs that will come with hitting your sales goals. To make sure that your sales plan budget is accurate, compare it with your sales forecast.
Tips To Keep In Mind When Writing Your Sales Plan
- Set practical and reasonable goals.
- Look at historical performance data to help set achievable targets.
- Do in-depth research and use this to identify problems and opportunities.
- Get input from your sales team.
- Be specific and concise.
- Don’t forget to monitor the progress of your sales plan. Your plan should adapt and evolve to fit the current situation (Unexpected changes in the market, new sales members etc.)
Here’s a handy sales plan template based on the elements mentioned above. Fill in each part as a starting point in creating your own template.
Name of Company:
Prepared by:
I. Executive Summary and Scope
Write 3-4 lines to summarize the rest of the document.
II. Goals and Timeline
Sample Sales Goals and Timeline
- April 2020: $10,000
- May 2020 $10,000
- June 2020: $12,000
III. Team Members
- Name — job title
Describe the role, including tasks and expectations. Also, include information about onboarding.
IV. Target Market
Buyer Persona
Thoroughly describe who this person is — basic demographics, what their lifestyle is like, interests, etc.
V. Resources
Make a list of resources, tools, and software employees need to perform their tasks and for the team to achieve the sales goals
VI. Market Position
Competitors
Similarities and Differences Between Products/Services
Pricing Comparison
Current Market Situation
Include information about any market or industry trends that may impact you or your competitors.
VII. Marketing Strategy
Sample Pricing and Promotional Strategy:
- Pricing Strategy: Lower price from $500 to $450 on June 1.
- Sales Impact: Increase monthly sales by 10%
- Promotional Strategy: Run a customer referral incentive from June 15-30.
- Sales Impact: Increase monthly sales by 15%.
VIII. Prospecting
Prospecting Strategy
Identify sales methods reps will use to close deals.
Criteria to Qualify Leads:
IX. Action Plan
Objective #1:
Sample Costs:
- Salary/Commission
- Sales Tools and Resources
- Travel Expenses
If you’re stuck with your own sales plan template, try going by any of these templates:
- One-Page Sales Plan by The Balance
- Free Sales Plan Template by Fit Small Business
There is no one-size-fits-all sales plan. Take your time to identify opportunities and ways to overcome challenges.
Lastly, remember to monitor your progress and to update your strategic sales plan to optimize performance.
What challenges do you experience when creating a sales plan? Tell us in the comments section below!
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How to Create a Sales Plan (Plus a Template)
![basic sales business plan DP Taylor](https://m.foolcdn.com/media/affiliates/original_images/profile2_YPpIGR1.png?width=128&height=128)
See Full Bio
Our Small Business Expert
I love a good sales plan. It really sets the tone for any business by laying out how you're going to find those customers and get them to pull out that credit card. It's something any business owner can positively obsess over -- and for good reason.
A business without a sales plan is like a ship without a rudder. If you don't have one, drop everything and get started. The sooner you have a sales plan in place, the sooner you will be able to make big moves as a business with the confidence that you are moving in the right direction.
Sales plans are a basic part of the sales process -- you simply can't effectively run a business without one. So let's talk about what a sales plan is and what yours should look like.
Overview: What is a sales plan?
A sales plan is a framework that establishes targets for finding and closing paying customers for your business. This plan outlines a sales strategy for how a business will go about building its customer base. It solidifies what tactics the business will use and assists in formulating what kind of budget needs the organization has that will influence these strategies. It also establishes deadlines for achieving sales targets.
What should you include in a sales plan?
Sales plans should include a clear objective, so avoid vague goals such as “quickly increase sales” and establish specific dates and numbers such as “achieve a 20% increase in sales within the next fiscal quarter.”
The sales action plan should identify potential obstacles to success so the team can plan mitigating actions. It should also determine the strengths and weaknesses of not just the team but the approach and the business development plan itself. A sales plan should lay out the specific needs of the team to achieve success and map out an action plan the team can follow.
Sales plan template
Sales development plans vary greatly depending on the organization, team, personalities, industry, and a host of other factors, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a sales plan. However, you can choose from a variety of sales plan templates online . Some are simple and describe a list of sales objectives, while others get far more detailed. Choose one that most appeals to you to increase your chances of success.
Here’s a basic plan I created to show what yours could look like. As you can see, this doesn’t need to be complicated -- it just needs to show what kinds of actions you expect your team to take and associated deadlines. You can add more detail if you want, but this gives you an idea of the general structure.
![basic sales business plan A sales plan in chart form outlining goals, responsibilities, tactics, and deadlines.](https://m.foolcdn.com/media/affiliates/images/salesplantemplate-01-sampleplan_bLvFRBC.width-750.png)
Sales plans can be simple or quite complex depending on the business. Image source: Author
How to create a sales plan for your small business
Creating a sales strategy plan seems like a daunting task, but it’s actually a straightforward process and will give you and the members of your organization clarity on your business plan.
1. Determine your target market
The first step is to determine which market you are trying to break into. Identify your target customer’s demographics and build a customer profile. Understand what your typical customer’s general income and budget levels are, as well as their buying habits.
Do you sell jeans to general consumers, or do you run a small IT firm that sells specialized services to the CEOs of small businesses? Factor in all of the external impacts from the business landscape of your market, and consider anything that may influence buying habits -- for example, a drop in the real estate market resulting in a lower demand for a video production service for realtors.
Key questions to ask:
- If you were to define your ideal customer, what would they look like?
- What position would they hold?
- How much income would they make?
- What do they value most?
- Why would they buy from you?
2. Define your revenue targets
With a target market identified, you should define your revenue targets. Generally, quarterly is your best bet since weekly or even monthly targets could fluctuate widely. Choose which metrics you will use to evaluate the success or failure of your plan and look at past quarters for guidance on what you can reasonably project for the upcoming quarter.
You must be flexible because every business faces some unforeseen obstacles. If you miss your goals or exceed them, take a look at why that was and factor in those forces in the next quarter.
- How much revenue do you need to grow at the pace you want as a business?
- How many sales would that take each week? Each month? Each quarter?
3. Outline your strategies and tactics
Now you must lay out your battle plan. Create a strategy for how you will generate leads and hit your revenue targets. Look at some past campaign approaches and how those fared for ideas about what you could do differently to further improve sales.
Constantly reevaluate your approach and focus your efforts on what is working while cutting out what is not. Again, flexibility is key -- you can’t stick to a rigid plan in the business environment, particularly when it comes to sales. Do what works, not just what you want to work.
- Where are you currently struggling and therefore may need to spend more time?
- Should you be generating more leads?
- Should you spend more time qualifying those leads?
- Should you be making more calls?
- Should you be setting more appointments?
- Should you be attempting more closes?
4. Determine deadlines and directly responsible individuals
Assigning some directly responsible individuals (DRIs) is key to sales plan success. These DRIs are responsible for ensuring certain tasks are executed. Choose a team member or members to be responsible for certain tasks such as making a certain number of calls in a day.
Give them clear deadlines that are realistic but still provide some sense of urgency. Use timelines and clearly defined responsibilities to make sure that all of your team members are accountable. Be flexible and ready to reassign team members to other tasks if need be.
- What skills does each member of your team possess, and which tasks are they best suited for?
- What is a realistic timeline to complete certain tasks?
- Are you being aggressive enough with your goals to motivate your team?
5. Evaluate your results
Once you’ve reached the end of the quarter, you should have gathered some solid data on how you performed. Use this data to evaluate the results of your sales plan and whether it is working out the way you hoped or needs adjustment for the upcoming quarter.
Measure the outcomes against the metrics you set earlier and assess the performance of members of your team. Compare these performances against past quarters to see how they stack up. Reward team members who performed exceptionally well. Then identify ways you could improve. Should you be spending more time on qualifying leads? Should your sales team focus on setting up more appointments?
- Which data tells you the most about how your sales plan is performing based on the goals you set?
- Is there data you should be tracking that you aren’t?
Try out CRM software first before you draft a sales plan
A sales plan is no good if you aren't collecting the data you need to refine it, and that's where CRM software comes in. This software will gather information on how many calls your team is making, how much time they're spending on prospecting or qualifying sales leads, and how much revenue each salesperson is bringing in. They also have important features such as a lead tracker or a sales roadmap.
The first step you should take is to select software you will use to execute the plan since many software options allow you to design your sales strategy directly through the software itself. Browse through some of the top software options to see which ones appeal the most to you and try a few out.
With a software platform selected, you can start following the steps described above to lay out the sales strategy, and, with the new software, you will be able to monitor your progress from start to finish.
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The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters.
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The Best Free Business Plan Template For Individual Sales Reps
![basic sales business plan Mike Weinberg](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/53/hubfs/mike_weinberg-1.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=mike_weinberg-1.jpg)
Published: August 14, 2023
Working in sales is challenging at times, and after a while, you may begin to feel fatigued or experience low motivation. Drafting a strategy using a sales business plan template can be just the thing to help refocus your goals.
![basic sales business plan Salesperson looking over a free sales business plan template](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sales-biz-plan-template-hero.webp?width=595&height=400&name=sales-biz-plan-template-hero.webp)
As a sales rep or account executive , a business plan requires you to think about your efforts from a high level. Who are you targeting? What are your performance goals? How do you plan to achieve them? Not only will a high-level view of your audience and goals help you meet and exceed them, but it might even help you climb the sales career ladder .
![basic sales business plan Download Now: Free Business Plan Template](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/32f9dbf1-275f-4e21-bbed-238f0923e637.png)
Next, I'll share the key elements of a sales business plan as well as provide templates to help get you started.
Sales Business Plan Layout
Free business plan template, the sales plan.
- Individual Business Plan Examples
- High-Level Review
- Tactics and Actions
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Sales and Marketing Alignment
- Obstacles to Success
- Personal and Professional Development
Fill out this form to access your template.
Before writing your plan, doing a bit of work prior to getting started with a template will help you better organize the information you'll need to include. Here's a roadmap to help you brainstorm:
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The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.
- Outline your idea.
- Pitch to investors.
- Secure funding.
- Get to work!
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I’ve found it easiest to start with the end in mind and work backward from there. Naturally, your goals will include your company’s expectations (i.e., quota), but why not go even further?
Be more specific. What do you want to achieve?
A promotion? A certain level of income? A certain number of conversions per month? X number of new clients acquired over the year? How about increasing your average deal size? Whatever it is, put it down in writing and build a plan to get yourself there.
It’s powerful to write down our goals. One year, I decided to write five goals on the whiteboard in my office. At year-end, I had hit four of them, including finally buying the classic car I have had my eye on for 30 years.
2. High-Level Review
Got your goals on hand? Great. Now take a few minutes to ponder the strategies you pursued previously. Which ones worked well and made sense to incorporate again this year? And which didn’t work at all and either need to be adjusted or scrapped altogether?
This review will be your guidepost as you create a strategy and action plan. Be honest with yourself during this reflection. Consider asking for feedback from managers, peers, and clients. You might even seek feedback from prospects who didn’t end up buying from you. What can you do better? Was there anything about your sales tactics that put them off ? Why did they choose a competitor over you?
If this all sounds vague, take a numbers approach to this review. Instead of reviewing your sales strategies , review how your numbers fared throughout the year — revenue generated, number of meetings, number of proposals, number of demos, close rate, and so on. (Your review will be even more telling and powerful if you combine that qualitative review with a quantitative one.)
3. A Strategy
Once you have articulated what you want to achieve, here are the next logical questions to ask:
- How will you do better to reach your goals?
- What new markets will you approach?
- Which customers and prospects will you target?
- How will you frame the sales conversation or sharpen your sales story?
- What new things will you try on the phone, online, or face-to-face?
See that review that we did in that last step? This is where it’ll come in handy. Having a clear idea of what worked and what didn’t will tell you what you should keep or remove from your new strategy. For example, if last year you sent follow-up emails three days after a demo, you could try sending follow-up emails two days this time. This is one of the tactics you could use.
That brings me to my next point. After creating a strategy, it’s time to come up with some tactics and take action.
4. Tactics and Actions
This section is critical because sales is a verb (it may not be in the dictionary, but in my book, it is).
The most well-intentioned goals and the soundest strategies mean nothing if you don’t know what steps to take to achieve them. So for this section of your plan, ask yourself, "What activities am I going to commit to?"
For example, you’ll have X number of face-to-face conversations per month or make Y prospecting calls per week. Whatever the activities are, they should drive what ends up on your calendar on a daily or weekly basis.
Let's say your goal is to make more sales in a shorter time. Include the resources and tools you'll use to achieve that goal in your business plan. In this case, one option would be to use a CRM database to help you keep track of your prospects and eliminate manual data entry (e.g., logging emails and calls), ultimately increasing your efficiency.
5. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Action is action, but if there’s no way to measure its success, you won’t know what worked and what didn’t. You’ll therefore want to put metrics in place to monitor your progress. I recommend setting target numbers for the following KPIs:
- Raw number of deals closed
- Close ratio
- Revenue per account
- Customer retention rate
- Calls and emails
- Quotes or proposals
Remember, set a target number for each of these metrics. That way, you have something to reach toward. You can manually keep track of this information or use dedicated sales software . Or you can ask your manager to give you the performance data.
6. Sales and Marketing Alignment
You know what you want to do, how you’re going to do it, and which metrics you want to track. As you carry out your strategy, be sure to align your efforts with the efforts of your company’s marketing team.
Aligning your sales plan with a whole other department may sound over-the-top, but hear me out: sales teams depend on marketing teams to deliver leads. Even when you’re prospecting, marketing has likely identified the types of companies — and the best job titles — you should use for outreach.
When those leads get to your desk, it’s time to sell to them in a way that continues the nurturing process that marketing started. Say the lead was acquired when they downloaded an ebook on how to improve their productivity. When that lead gets assigned to you, propose your company’s product as a solution. Don’t try to sell it as if you don’t know the person and why they’re there.
It’s helpful to have a CRM that keeps track of your leads’ marketing-related activity. That way, you know which pages they’ve visited, what they’ve downloaded, and whether they’ve reached out to your company before. When carrying out your sales strategy, do so in a way that can fulfill the promises extended by marketing. Take a look at the content on your website, your company’s slogan, and your buyer personas . Use this information to create the perfect pitch.
After, connect with the marketing team to let them know whether that was a good lead or whether the buyer personas and the content on the website need adjustment. If your team does not meet regularly with marketing, bring the issue to your manager. Marketing and sales alignment is critical for your plan’s success.
But there are other obstacles to look out for, too — and you must have them.
7. Obstacles to Success
This is a unique addition I haven’t seen in many plans, but I think it’s an important component. This is where you lay out what could prevent you from reaching your goals and highlight areas where you might need some help. The truth is that you likely know what will get in the way of your success. So instead of using these obstacles as excuses later, point them out at the beginning.
Think carefully: What obstacles will keep you from succeeding?
Do you need new tools or different technology? More flexibility? Better internal support? Put it down in writing now. That way, when you present your plan to your manager (and I strongly encourage you to present your plan to your manager and maybe even a few peers), you give them a chance to support you.
They can either remove the obstacle or tell you it can't be removed in the short term. Either way, it’s in your best interest to declare these potential pitfalls now so that they’re not excuses down the road.
8. Personal and Professional Development
This is another important aspect of the business plan that's often overlooked. I regularly see salespeople fail because they’ve stopped learning and growing.
Many have become stale. Others are bored and ineffective from deploying the same techniques year after year. You wouldn’t go to a doctor that didn’t read medical journals and was treating patients with the same protocol he used twenty years ago, would you?
So commit to growing as a sales professional this year. What are you going to do to grow in your career?
What conferences are you going to attend? Which books are you going to read? Which sales blogs will you follow?
Now, once you have the layout for your sales business plan solidified, you must do two things:
- Get it down on paper - You’re more likely to achieve goals if you write them down. Just trust me on that.
- Get more specific - Using an actual business plan template can prompt you to think deeper about your motivation and action plan.
Below is a free business plan template you can use to get started.
Start building your business plan with this free template.
Featured Resource: Free Business Plan Template
![basic sales business plan business-plan-template-sales-rep_3](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/business-plan-template-sales-rep_3.webp?width=400&height=517&name=business-plan-template-sales-rep_3.webp)
Click Here to Download the Template
Your goal is to think like a business. I’ll teach you how to adapt each section of this general business plan to fit your role as a sales representative.
Business Plan Sections Explained
1. the business opportunity.
The business opportunity is an overview of why you’re doing what you’re doing, who you’re doing it for, and what you hope to achieve. Include your mission statement as a sales representative and why you’re working with the leads and accounts you chose.
In a typical business plan, this section is called an executive summary and highlights the most crucial information for readers. This means you can get creative and inspirational with it, summarizing the information that will motivate you most.
2. Company Description
The company description can refer to the organization(s) you sell for, or you can consider yourself the business being described. Because this is a personal document, choose the format that will most benefit you.
Keep in mind that there are a few elements to include in this section:
3. Company Purpose
This is a short description of the business, providing a high-level overview of who they are, what they offer, and who they offer it to. You might consider creating multiple purposes if you sell on behalf of more than one organization or outlining your purpose as a salesperson.
4. Mission Statement
A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of an organization. If you’re making multiple company descriptions, include one for each organization. You can also include a personal mission statement for why you’ve chosen this organization and how you plan to support their success.
For example, say I’m a sales rep for an editorial company. My mission statement might be “to reach out to writers suffering from imposter syndrome and encourage them to consider editorial help so they can publish with confidence … and inspire future writers who dream of doing the same.”
5. Core Values
Use the core values for the organization(s) you work for, why you chose them, and how they will manifest in your interactions with prospects. For example, HubSpot’s values are humility, empathy, adaptability, remarkableness, and transparency.
If your organization doesn’t have clear core values defined, feel free to come up with your own that will serve as your modus operandi. Three to five values are what you want to have.
6. Product & Service Lines
This section will include:
- Product or service offerings - What are the lines you’re trying to sell, and what functionality does each have?
- Pricing model - How much does each product or service cost prospects, how much commission do you make for each sale, and what parameters do you have for discounts or special deals?
Outline this information in an easy-to-scan table.
PRODUCT NAME | PURPOSE/ DESCRIPTION | PRICE | COMMISSION PER SALE | DEALS AND DISCOUNTS |
Product A |
|
|
|
|
Product B |
|
|
|
|
In a typical business plan, this would manifest as an overview of the company and all the key leadership roles. However, the most relevant information could be key contacts at your company or companies you sell to, including your sales and marketing contacts (if applicable). If you’re filling out the template to create your sales plan, you’d simply include yourself.
8. Industry Analysis
In this section, you’ll take a look at the state of the industry, including your company’s competitors and your prospect’s competitors. You’ll ask:
- Is the market in growth or decline?
- Who are your competitors?
- What edge do they have over your product?
- How can you get your prospects to buy into the product you’re selling instead?
Your sales manager might already have answers for you or relay new information as it becomes available.
If you’re filling out a business plan to understand your prospects, you’ll want to answer similar questions:
- Who are their competitors?
- What challenges are they looking to solve?
- Is their industry in decline, and if so, can your product help them grow during this decline?
9. Target Market
This will manifest in your business plan as an overview or outline of whom you’re targeting, including general demographics and psychographics. You might want to include:
- Business title
- Location and language
- Pains or problems they're looking to solve
Consider consolidating this information and creating dedicated buyer personas .
10. Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of individuals within your target market. The best practice is to create a buyer persona for each “type” of customer you serve. You can do so using HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool and exporting the information into your business plan.
If you’re filling out the template for a prospect, come up with a buyer persona for the target audience they serve.
11. Location Analysis
Where is the geographic location of your target market? Explain why you’ve chosen the location and the benefits of it. Do the same for your prospects and customers if you’re using the template for them.
Here’s a template you can use:
[Organization name] serves [Location] because [reason]. We found that one of the key drivers of a successful acquisition is [key element], which means our target buyers tend to be in [more specific location descriptor]. We plan to tap into this market by [method].
This might manifest as something like:
“Editorial Company serves authors throughout the United States because editorial work can be done online with virtual meetings and file sharing. We found that one of the key drivers of a successful acquisition is participation in online writing groups, which means our target buyers tend to be active in social media circles. We plan to tap into this market with inbound marketing.”
12. Implementation Timeline
In this section, a business typically specifies how long it will take for its operation to be up and running. They take logistics, partnerships, and other operational elements into account. For your sales plan, you might specify an implementation timeline for various checkpoints, including software adoption, sales-marketing meetings, and more.
Say you told your sales manager you need sales software to keep track of the KPIs you identified earlier. You should take into account the time it will take for that CRM to be purchased and distributed to your team.
If you’re filling out the template to understand a prospect, consider laying out a timeline that specifies when they’ll buy the product, when you’re to follow up with them, and so on.
13. Marketing Plan
If your organization is an inbound sales organization with a marketing department, you might include your marketing and sales service-level agreement (SLA) in this section.
On the other hand, if you’re responsible for cold outreach and prospecting, this section might be helpful to complete on your own. The elements you’ll need to consider are:
Positioning Strategy
- How is this product or service unique and unbeatable compared to its competitors?
- Why are potential buyers going to be interested in the product or service?
- How will you address the buyer persona’s biggest challenges and goals?
Acquisition Channels
- What are your main lead acquisition channels (e.g., search engine marketing, event marketing, blogging, paid advertising, etc.)?
- What do you plan to prioritize this year for lead acquisition?
Tools and Technology
- What tools or systems are you equipped with (e.g., CMS , marketing automation software , etc.)?
14. Financial Considerations and Funding Required
This section is likely more suited for sales reps who are commission-only. You’ll want to consider how much financial collateral will be your responsibility as you sell for the organization. You’ll want to outline:
- Startup costs
- Sales forecasts
- When you'll break even
- Profit and loss projections
These things can be estimated and calculated in Excel and then imported into the template. There’s also a section on the funding required, but you won’t need to fill it out as an individual sales representative. And since your prospects have already secured funding or are established firms, you won’t need to fill this out to understand their business.
Now, finally, we’ve reached the sales plan. This will be done in a separate worksheet — a Google Doc or Word document that you can continue to edit as you evolve in your sales role. You will likely be able to draw on your experience to outline the following:
Sales Methodology
- How will you reach and engage with new leads?
- Are you pursuing an inbound or outbound sales strategy?
- Why does your prospecting strategy make sense for your business?
Sales Organization Structure
- Who do you report to within the organization?
- Is there a marketing department and existing SLA between the departments?
- How are leads qualified?
Sales Channels
- What are your main customer acquisition channels (e.g., online purchasing, through a rep, on location, via email, etc.)?
- What tools or systems are you equipped with (e.g., CMS, live chat , etc.)?
We've covered the different parts of a sales reps' business plan, but what does one of these plans actually look like? Here are five amazing examples of individual business plans for sales reps.
Individual Business Plan Examples for Sales Reps
1. individual development plan.
![basic sales business plan business-plan-template-sales-rep_1](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/business-plan-template-sales-rep_1.webp?width=650&height=461&name=business-plan-template-sales-rep_1.webp)
Image Source
An individual development plan (IDP) is a document that you would make to identify your goals and objectives to your employer. After identifying your goals, ensure that your objectives follow the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal framework. Lastly, for each action, assign a target date. While it does not need to be a specific day of the year, set your timeline by quarters of the year — as seen in the above example.
In addition to the long-term and short-term goals that the above example from Simplicable demonstrates, the resources required section is another useful component of the individual development plan. It directly informs your employer that you require support to achieve the goals and objectives that will ultimately benefit the entire company.
2. Medical Sales Business Plan
![basic sales business plan basic sales business plan](https://www.hubspot.com/hubfs/Medical-plan-sales.jpg)
Automotive sales business plans are slightly more challenging than other business plans because there are a lot of factors to consider. When building your plan, you need to start with an analysis. It includes an analysis of your company, industry, customers, and competitors.
Once you have included in-depth analysis, focus on demonstrating your ideas with the four Ps of marketing . The four Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion.
First, outline your focus products. Second, discuss price. You can include current pricing and any proposed changes. Further analysis would include how these prices stack up against competitors and how they affect your customers.
Third, concentrate on your location. This information should detail how your location either adds or decreases traffic and propose solutions for the latter. Lastly, recommend promotions. In the automotive industry, customers are always looking for the best deal.
You also have to be very visible with your marketing. Possibly one of the most important sections of your automotive sales business template, include a detailed course of action for promotional ideas and plans.
4. Territory Business Plan
![basic sales business plan Individual Business Plan Examples for Sales Reps: Territory Business Plan](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Sales-territory-biz-plan.jpg?width=650&height=364&name=Sales-territory-biz-plan.jpg)
A territory business plan should cover your sales territory. Historically, sales territory is the division of geographical regions for assignments to sales representatives. These representatives are responsible for all customers or clients within that area. This template from Slide Team is for convenience stores, but it can be adapted to suit your business type.
Now, industry, sales potential, and customer type affect territory business planning. An example of customer type is focusing your territory planning on individuals with the same median income. Instead of using geography, this alternative can lead to more strategic success.
When creating a territory business plan, you want to start by analyzing your business goals and objectives. As you build your plan, include an analysis of your prospects and a SWOT analysis . It’s a planning technique that identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information will allow you to propose strategies for sales territories and devise an action plan.
5. Quarterly Business Plan
![basic sales business plan Individual Business Plan Examples for Sales Reps: Quarterly Business Plan](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Quarterly%20Biz%20Plan-Cascade.jpg?width=650&height=394&name=Quarterly%20Biz%20Plan-Cascade.jpg)
Creating a business plan for an entire year can be too complex. By separating the year into quarters, you can make your business strategy more actionable. Quarterly business planning is when you set goals and objectives and measure performance after each quarter. Typically, the year segments into Quarter 1 (January 1 to March 31), Quarter 2 (April 1 to June 30), Quarter 3 (July 1 to September 30), and Quarter 4 (October 1 to December 31).
Quarterly business planning focuses on short-term goals that ultimately help fulfill any long-term goals. Your quarterly business plan should include your focus areas, metrics for determining success, and your action plan.
Crush Your Sales Goals with a Business and Sales Plan
With the plan I’ve shared, you'll be prepared to take on any goal or challenge in your career. Consider it a gift to yourself that keeps on giving. Use your plan like a living document, review it weekly, and make tweaks as necessary along the way. Let it dictate what makes it onto your calendar. At year-end, you will be amazed at what you accomplished and thankful you invested the time to do this now.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in May 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
![basic sales business plan business-plan-template-sales-rep_0](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/business-plan-template-sales-rep_0.webp?width=646&height=226&name=business-plan-template-sales-rep_0.webp)
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Powerful and easy-to-use sales software that drives productivity, enables customer connection, and supports growing sales orgs
How to Write a Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide + Examples
![basic sales business plan Determined female African-American entrepreneur scaling a mountain while wearing a large backpack. Represents the journey to starting and growing a business and needi](https://web-cdn.bplans.com/bplans/content/uploads/2023/11/07155325/how-to-write-a-business-plan-1.png)
Noah Parsons
24 min. read
Updated July 29, 2024
![basic sales business plan Download Now: Free Business Plan Template →](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/467363/interactive-174330637568.png)
Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be complicated.
In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to write a business plan that’s detailed enough to impress bankers and potential investors, while giving you the tools to start, run, and grow a successful business.
- The basics of business planning
If you’re reading this guide, then you already know why you need a business plan .
You understand that planning helps you:
- Raise money
- Grow strategically
- Keep your business on the right track
As you start to write your plan, it’s useful to zoom out and remember what a business plan is .
At its core, a business plan is an overview of the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy: how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.
Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow.
A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It’s also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals.
After completing your plan, you can use it as a management tool to track your progress toward your goals. Updating and adjusting your forecasts and budgets as you go is one of the most important steps you can take to run a healthier, smarter business.
We’ll dive into how to use your plan later in this article.
There are many different types of plans , but we’ll go over the most common type here, which includes everything you need for an investor-ready plan. However, if you’re just starting out and are looking for something simpler—I recommend starting with a one-page business plan . It’s faster and easier to create.
It’s also the perfect place to start if you’re just figuring out your idea, or need a simple strategic plan to use inside your business.
Dig deeper : How to write a one-page business plan
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- What to include in your business plan
Executive summary
The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally just one to two pages. Most people write it last because it’s a summary of the complete business plan.
Ideally, the executive summary can act as a stand-alone document that covers the highlights of your detailed plan.
In fact, it’s common for investors to ask only for the executive summary when evaluating your business. If they like what they see in the executive summary, they’ll often follow up with a request for a complete plan, a pitch presentation , or more in-depth financial forecasts .
Your executive summary should include:
- A summary of the problem you are solving
- A description of your product or service
- An overview of your target market
- A brief description of your team
- A summary of your financials
- Your funding requirements (if you are raising money)
Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary
Products and services description
This is where you describe exactly what you’re selling, and how it solves a problem for your target market. The best way to organize this part of your plan is to start by describing the problem that exists for your customers. After that, you can describe how you plan to solve that problem with your product or service.
This is usually called a problem and solution statement .
To truly showcase the value of your products and services, you need to craft a compelling narrative around your offerings. How will your product or service transform your customers’ lives or jobs? A strong narrative will draw in your readers.
This is also the part of the business plan to discuss any competitive advantages you may have, like specific intellectual property or patents that protect your product. If you have any initial sales, contracts, or other evidence that your product or service is likely to sell, include that information as well. It will show that your idea has traction , which can help convince readers that your plan has a high chance of success.
Market analysis
Your target market is a description of the type of people that you plan to sell to. You might even have multiple target markets, depending on your business.
A market analysis is the part of your plan where you bring together all of the information you know about your target market. Basically, it’s a thorough description of who your customers are and why they need what you’re selling. You’ll also include information about the growth of your market and your industry .
Try to be as specific as possible when you describe your market.
Include information such as age, income level, and location—these are what’s called “demographics.” If you can, also describe your market’s interests and habits as they relate to your business—these are “psychographics.”
Related: Target market examples
Essentially, you want to include any knowledge you have about your customers that is relevant to how your product or service is right for them. With a solid target market, it will be easier to create a sales and marketing plan that will reach your customers. That’s because you know who they are, what they like to do, and the best ways to reach them.
Next, provide any additional information you have about your market.
What is the size of your market ? Is the market growing or shrinking? Ideally, you’ll want to demonstrate that your market is growing over time, and also explain how your business is positioned to take advantage of any expected changes in your industry.
Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis
Competitive analysis
Part of defining your business opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage is. To do this effectively, you need to know as much about your competitors as your target customers.
Every business has some form of competition. If you don’t think you have competitors, then explore what alternatives there are in the market for your product or service.
For example: In the early years of cars, their main competition was horses. For social media, the early competition was reading books, watching TV, and talking on the phone.
A good competitive analysis fully lays out the competitive landscape and then explains how your business is different. Maybe your products are better made, or cheaper, or your customer service is superior. Maybe your competitive advantage is your location – a wide variety of factors can ultimately give you an advantage.
Dig Deeper: How to write a competitive analysis for your business plan
Marketing and sales plan
The marketing and sales plan covers how you will position your product or service in the market, the marketing channels and messaging you will use, and your sales tactics.
The best place to start with a marketing plan is with a positioning statement .
This explains how your business fits into the overall market, and how you will explain the advantages of your product or service to customers. You’ll use the information from your competitive analysis to help you with your positioning.
For example: You might position your company as the premium, most expensive but the highest quality option in the market. Or your positioning might focus on being locally owned and that shoppers support the local economy by buying your products.
Once you understand your positioning, you’ll bring this together with the information about your target market to create your marketing strategy .
This is how you plan to communicate your message to potential customers. Depending on who your customers are and how they purchase products like yours, you might use many different strategies, from social media advertising to creating a podcast. Your marketing plan is all about how your customers discover who you are and why they should consider your products and services.
While your marketing plan is about reaching your customers—your sales plan will describe the actual sales process once a customer has decided that they’re interested in what you have to offer.
If your business requires salespeople and a long sales process, describe that in this section. If your customers can “self-serve” and just make purchases quickly on your website, describe that process.
A good sales plan picks up where your marketing plan leaves off. The marketing plan brings customers in the door and the sales plan is how you close the deal.
Together, these specific plans paint a picture of how you will connect with your target audience, and how you will turn them into paying customers.
Dig deeper: What to include in your sales and marketing plan
Business operations
The operations section describes the necessary requirements for your business to run smoothly. It’s where you talk about how your business works and what day-to-day operations look like.
Depending on how your business is structured, your operations plan may include elements of the business like:
- Supply chain management
- Manufacturing processes
- Equipment and technology
- Distribution
Some businesses distribute their products and reach their customers through large retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and grocery store chains.
These businesses should review how this part of their business works. The plan should discuss the logistics and costs of getting products onto store shelves and any potential hurdles the business may have to overcome.
If your business is much simpler than this, that’s OK. This section of your business plan can be either extremely short or more detailed, depending on the type of business you are building.
For businesses selling services, such as physical therapy or online software, you can use this section to describe the technology you’ll leverage, what goes into your service, and who you will partner with to deliver your services.
Dig Deeper: Learn how to write the operations chapter of your plan
Key milestones and metrics
Although it’s not required to complete your business plan, mapping out key business milestones and the metrics can be incredibly useful for measuring your success.
Good milestones clearly lay out the parameters of the task and set expectations for their execution. You’ll want to include:
- A description of each task
- The proposed due date
- Who is responsible for each task
If you have a budget, you can include projected costs to hit each milestone. You don’t need extensive project planning in this section—just list key milestones you want to hit and when you plan to hit them. This is your overall business roadmap.
Possible milestones might be:
- Website launch date
- Store or office opening date
- First significant sales
- Break even date
- Business licenses and approvals
You should also discuss the key numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common metrics worth tracking include:
- Conversion rates
- Customer acquisition costs
- Profit per customer
- Repeat purchases
It’s perfectly fine to start with just a few metrics and grow the number you are tracking over time. You also may find that some metrics simply aren’t relevant to your business and can narrow down what you’re tracking.
Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan
Organization and management team
Investors don’t just look for great ideas—they want to find great teams. Use this chapter to describe your current team and who you need to hire . You should also provide a quick overview of your location and history if you’re already up and running.
Briefly highlight the relevant experiences of each key team member in the company. It’s important to make the case for why yours is the right team to turn an idea into a reality.
Do they have the right industry experience and background? Have members of the team had entrepreneurial successes before?
If you still need to hire key team members, that’s OK. Just note those gaps in this section.
Your company overview should also include a summary of your company’s current business structure . The most common business structures include:
- Sole proprietor
- Partnership
Be sure to provide an overview of how the business is owned as well. Does each business partner own an equal portion of the business? How is ownership divided?
Potential lenders and investors will want to know the structure of the business before they will consider a loan or investment.
Dig Deeper: How to write about your company structure and team
Financial plan
Last, but certainly not least, is your financial plan chapter.
Entrepreneurs often find this section the most daunting. But, business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast.
A typical financial forecast in a business plan includes the following:
- Sales forecast : An estimate of the sales expected over a given period. You’ll break down your forecast into the key revenue streams that you expect to have.
- Expense budget : Your planned spending such as personnel costs , marketing expenses, and taxes.
- Profit & Loss : Brings together your sales and expenses and helps you calculate planned profits.
- Cash Flow : Shows how cash moves into and out of your business. It can predict how much cash you’ll have on hand at any given point in the future.
- Balance Sheet : A list of the assets, liabilities, and equity in your company. In short, it provides an overview of the financial health of your business.
A strong business plan will include a description of assumptions about the future, and potential risks that could impact the financial plan. Including those will be especially important if you’re writing a business plan to pursue a loan or other investment.
Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets
This is the place for additional data, charts, or other information that supports your plan.
Including an appendix can significantly enhance the credibility of your plan by showing readers that you’ve thoroughly considered the details of your business idea, and are backing your ideas up with solid data.
Just remember that the information in the appendix is meant to be supplementary. Your business plan should stand on its own, even if the reader skips this section.
Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix
Optional: Business plan cover page
Adding a business plan cover page can make your plan, and by extension your business, seem more professional in the eyes of potential investors, lenders, and partners. It serves as the introduction to your document and provides necessary contact information for stakeholders to reference.
Your cover page should be simple and include:
- Company logo
- Business name
- Value proposition (optional)
- Business plan title
- Completion and/or update date
- Address and contact information
- Confidentiality statement
Just remember, the cover page is optional. If you decide to include it, keep it very simple and only spend a short amount of time putting it together.
Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page
How to use AI to help write your business plan
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can speed up the business plan writing process and help you think through concepts like market segmentation and competition. These tools are especially useful for taking ideas that you provide and converting them into polished text for your business plan.
The best way to use AI for your business plan is to leverage it as a collaborator , not a replacement for human creative thinking and ingenuity.
AI can come up with lots of ideas and act as a brainstorming partner. It’s up to you to filter through those ideas and figure out which ones are realistic enough to resonate with your customers.
There are pros and cons of using AI to help with your business plan . So, spend some time understanding how it can be most helpful before just outsourcing the job to AI.
Learn more: 10 AI prompts you need to write a business plan
- Writing tips and strategies
To help streamline the business plan writing process, here are a few tips and key questions to answer to make sure you get the most out of your plan and avoid common mistakes .
Determine why you are writing a business plan
Knowing why you are writing a business plan will determine your approach to your planning project.
For example: If you are writing a business plan for yourself, or just to use inside your own business , you can probably skip the section about your team and organizational structure.
If you’re raising money, you’ll want to spend more time explaining why you’re looking to raise the funds and exactly how you will use them.
Regardless of how you intend to use your business plan , think about why you are writing and what you’re trying to get out of the process before you begin.
Keep things concise
Probably the most important tip is to keep your business plan short and simple. There are no prizes for long business plans . The longer your plan is, the less likely people are to read it.
So focus on trimming things down to the essentials your readers need to know. Skip the extended, wordy descriptions and instead focus on creating a plan that is easy to read —using bullets and short sentences whenever possible.
Have someone review your business plan
Writing a business plan in a vacuum is never a good idea. Sometimes it’s helpful to zoom out and check if your plan makes sense to someone else. You also want to make sure that it’s easy to read and understand.
Don’t wait until your plan is “done” to get a second look. Start sharing your plan early, and find out from readers what questions your plan leaves unanswered. This early review cycle will help you spot shortcomings in your plan and address them quickly, rather than finding out about them right before you present your plan to a lender or investor.
If you need a more detailed review, you may want to explore hiring a professional plan writer to thoroughly examine it.
Use a free business plan template and business plan examples to get started
Knowing what information to include in a business plan is sometimes not quite enough. If you’re struggling to get started or need additional guidance, it may be worth using a business plan template.
There are plenty of great options available (we’ve rounded up our 8 favorites to streamline your search).
But, if you’re looking for a free downloadable business plan template , you can get one right now; download the template used by more than 1 million businesses.
Or, if you just want to see what a completed business plan looks like, check out our library of over 550 free business plan examples .
We even have a growing list of industry business planning guides with tips for what to focus on depending on your business type.
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re writing your business plan. Some entrepreneurs get sucked into the writing and research process, and don’t focus enough on actually getting their business started.
Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them:
Not talking to your customers : This is one of the most common mistakes. It’s easy to assume that your product or service is something that people want. Before you invest too much in your business and too much in the planning process, make sure you talk to your prospective customers and have a good understanding of their needs.
- Overly optimistic sales and profit forecasts: By nature, entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future. But it’s good to temper that optimism a little when you’re planning, and make sure your forecasts are grounded in reality.
- Spending too much time planning: Yes, planning is crucial. But you also need to get out and talk to customers, build prototypes of your product and figure out if there’s a market for your idea. Make sure to balance planning with building.
- Not revising the plan: Planning is useful, but nothing ever goes exactly as planned. As you learn more about what’s working and what’s not—revise your plan, your budgets, and your revenue forecast. Doing so will provide a more realistic picture of where your business is going, and what your financial needs will be moving forward.
- Not using the plan to manage your business: A good business plan is a management tool. Don’t just write it and put it on the shelf to collect dust – use it to track your progress and help you reach your goals.
- Presenting your business plan
The planning process forces you to think through every aspect of your business and answer questions that you may not have thought of. That’s the real benefit of writing a business plan – the knowledge you gain about your business that you may not have been able to discover otherwise.
With all of this knowledge, you’re well prepared to convert your business plan into a pitch presentation to present your ideas.
A pitch presentation is a summary of your plan, just hitting the highlights and key points. It’s the best way to present your business plan to investors and team members.
Dig Deeper: Learn what key slides should be included in your pitch deck
Use your business plan to manage your business
One of the biggest benefits of planning is that it gives you a tool to manage your business better. With a revenue forecast, expense budget, and projected cash flow, you know your targets and where you are headed.
And yet, nothing ever goes exactly as planned – it’s the nature of business.
That’s where using your plan as a management tool comes in. The key to leveraging it for your business is to review it periodically and compare your forecasts and projections to your actual results.
Start by setting up a regular time to review the plan – a monthly review is a good starting point. During this review, answer questions like:
- Did you meet your sales goals?
- Is spending following your budget?
- Has anything gone differently than what you expected?
Now that you see whether you’re meeting your goals or are off track, you can make adjustments and set new targets.
Maybe you’re exceeding your sales goals and should set new, more aggressive goals. In that case, maybe you should also explore more spending or hiring more employees.
Or maybe expenses are rising faster than you projected. If that’s the case, you would need to look at where you can cut costs.
A plan, and a method for comparing your plan to your actual results , is the tool you need to steer your business toward success.
Learn More: How to run a regular plan review
How to write a business plan FAQ
What is a business plan?
A document that describes your business , the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy, how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.
What are the benefits of a business plan?
A business plan helps you understand where you want to go with your business and what it will take to get there. It reduces your overall risk, helps you uncover your business’s potential, attracts investors, and identifies areas for growth.
Having a business plan ultimately makes you more confident as a business owner and more likely to succeed for a longer period of time.
What are the 7 steps of a business plan?
The seven steps to writing a business plan include:
- Write a brief executive summary
- Describe your products and services.
- Conduct market research and compile data into a cohesive market analysis.
- Describe your marketing and sales strategy.
- Outline your organizational structure and management team.
- Develop financial projections for sales, revenue, and cash flow.
- Add any additional documents to your appendix.
What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?
There are plenty of mistakes that can be made when writing a business plan. However, these are the 5 most common that you should do your best to avoid:
- 1. Not taking the planning process seriously.
- Having unrealistic financial projections or incomplete financial information.
- Inconsistent information or simple mistakes.
- Failing to establish a sound business model.
- Not having a defined purpose for your business plan.
What questions should be answered in a business plan?
Writing a business plan is all about asking yourself questions about your business and being able to answer them through the planning process. You’ll likely be asking dozens and dozens of questions for each section of your plan.
However, these are the key questions you should ask and answer with your business plan:
- How will your business make money?
- Is there a need for your product or service?
- Who are your customers?
- How are you different from the competition?
- How will you reach your customers?
- How will you measure success?
How long should a business plan be?
The length of your business plan fully depends on what you intend to do with it. From the SBA and traditional lender point of view, a business plan needs to be whatever length necessary to fully explain your business. This means that you prove the viability of your business, show that you understand the market, and have a detailed strategy in place.
If you intend to use your business plan for internal management purposes, you don’t necessarily need a full 25-50 page business plan. Instead, you can start with a one-page plan to get all of the necessary information in place.
What are the different types of business plans?
While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.
Traditional business plan: The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used when applying for funding or pitching to investors. This type of business plan follows the outline above and can be anywhere from 10-50 pages depending on the amount of detail included, the complexity of your business, and what you include in your appendix.
Business model canvas: The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.
One-page business plan: This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business. You’ll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences. It’s most useful for those exploring ideas, needing to validate their business model, or who need an internal plan to help them run and manage their business.
Lean Plan: The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance. It’s faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.
What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?
A business plan covers the “who” and “what” of your business. It explains what your business is doing right now and how it functions. The strategic plan explores long-term goals and explains “how” the business will get there. It encourages you to look more intently toward the future and how you will achieve your vision.
However, when approached correctly, your business plan can actually function as a strategic plan as well. If kept lean, you can define your business, outline strategic steps, and track ongoing operations all with a single plan.
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Table of Contents
- Use AI to help write your plan
- Common planning mistakes
- Manage with your business plan
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Simple Business Plan Template (2024)
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Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm
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Table of Contents
Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.
While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.
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Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.
Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.
Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.
Download free template as .docx
Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.
1. Your Mission or Vision
Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.
- What does your business do? Are you selling products, services, information or a combination?
- Where does this happen? Will you conduct business online, in-store, via mobile means or in a specific location or environment?
- Who does your business benefit? Who is your target market and ideal customer for your concept?
- Why would potential customers care? What would make your ideal customers take notice of your business?
- How do your products and/or services outshine the competition? What would make your ideal customers choose you over a competitor?
These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.
2. Offer and Value Proposition
This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.
As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.
For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.
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3. Audience and Ideal Customer
Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.
There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.
Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.
However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.
4. Revenue Streams, Sales Channels and Marketing
Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.
Revenue Streams
Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.
For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:
- Product sales : Online, pop-up shops , wholesale and (future) in-store sales
- Affiliate income : Monetize blog and social media posts with affiliate links
- Advertising income : Reserve website space for advertising
- E-book sales : (future) Publish recipe e-books targeting gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
- Video income : (future) Monetize a YouTube channel featuring how-to videos for the gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
- Webinars and online classes : (future) Monetize coaching-style webinars and online classes covering specialty baking tips and techniques
- Members-only content : (future) Monetize a members-only section of the website for specialty content to complement webinars and online classes
- Franchise : (future) Monetize a specialty cottage bakery concept and sell to franchise entrepreneurs
Sales Channels
Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.
The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:
- Mobile point-of-sale (POS) : A mobile platform such as Shopify or Square POS for managing in-person sales at local farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals
- E-commerce platform : An online store such as Shopify, Square or WooCommerce for online retail sales and wholesale sales orders
- Social media channels : Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest shoppable posts and pins for online sales via social media channels
- Brick-and-mortar location : For in-store sales , once the business has grown to a point that it can support a physical location
Channels that support other income streams might include:
- Affiliate income : Blog section on the e-commerce website and affiliate partner accounts
- Advertising income : Reserved advertising spaces on the e-commerce website
- E-book sales : Amazon e-book sales via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
- Video income : YouTube channel with ad monetization
- Webinars and online classes : Online class and webinar platforms that support member accounts, recordings and playback
- Members-only content : Password-protected website content using membership apps such as MemberPress
Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.
However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.
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5. Structure, Suppliers and Operations
This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.
Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:
- Business structure : Sole proprietorship with a “doing business as” (DBA) .
- Permits and certifications : County-issued food handling permit and state cottage food certification for home-based food production. Option, check into certified commercial kitchen rentals.
- Roles and responsibilities : Solopreneur, all roles and responsibilities with the owner.
- Supply chain : Bulk ingredients and food packaging via Sam’s Club, Costco, Amazon Prime with annual membership costs. Uline for shipping supplies; no membership needed.
- Day-to-day operations : Source ingredients and bake three days per week to fulfill local and online orders. Reserve time for specialty sales, wholesale partner orders and market events as needed. Ship online orders on alternating days. Update website and create marketing and affiliate blog posts on non-shipping days.
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6. Financial Forecasts
Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.
Cost Forecast
Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:
Business Need | Startup Cost | Ongoing Cost | Source |
---|---|---|---|
Gross Profit Projections
This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.
Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:
Product | Retail Price | (Cost) | Gross Profit |
---|---|---|---|
Bottom Line
Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.
Is there a template for a business plan?
You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.
What does a simple business plan include?
A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.
How can I create a free business plan template?
Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.
What basic items should be included in a business plan?
When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business, an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.
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Krista Fabregas is a seasoned eCommerce and online content pro sharing more than 20 years of hands-on know-how with those looking to launch and grow tech-forward businesses. Her expertise includes eCommerce startups and growth, SMB operations and logistics, website platforms, payment systems, side-gig and affiliate income, and multichannel marketing. Krista holds a bachelor's degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and held senior positions at NASA, a Fortune 100 company, and several online startups.
Netflix is ending basic $11.99 plan with no ads: Here's which subscription plans remain
Netflix is phasing out its lowest-priced ad-free subscription plan in the U.S., which could drive more viewers to its cheaper ad-supported plan .
The Los Gatos, California-headquartered streaming giant said Thursday in a letter to shareholders that it would be phasing out the basic ad-free plan – which had cost $11.99 monthly – in the U.S. and France. The company had previously dropped the basic plan in the U.K. and Canada.
The basic plan is not displayed as an option for U.S. subscribers on its Plan and Pricing page for U.S. customers. The company quit offering the basic plan for new subscribers in July 2023, but allowed basic plan customers to remain on the subscription so long as they didn't cancel or change plans.
Other Netflix plans include a $6.99 monthly option with ads, a $15.49 monthly standard HD video quality plan (no ads) and a $22.99 premium Ultra HD plan (no ads).
Netflix, which began offering a "standard with ads" tier in November 2022 , said the plan's "attractiveness" led to a 34% increase in ad-supported subscriptions from the prior quarter. The company reported a record 277.65 million subscribers across all tiers in the second quarter, up 16.5% year-over-year.
Netflix subscribers in the U.S. and in France who are currently on the Basic plan will have to choose a new plan, the company said in a statement to USA TODAY. Those members impacted will get an email starting today, the company said.
Even without the basic, ad-free offering, Netflix represents "a very strong offering for our members," when you consider the $6.99 monthly ad-supported option, said co-CEO Greg Peters, during a videoconference about the company's second quarter performance Thursday .
"Essentially, we're providing them a better experience: two streams versus one. We've got higher definition. We got downloads. And, of course, all at a lower price," he said. "And for members who don't want that ads experience, they, of course, can choose our ad-free Standard or Premium plans."
The company reported its third consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, with $9.56 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2024, up 16.8% over the same quarter in 2023.
Netflix added more than 8 million subscribers in the second quarter, benefiting from the return of series such as "Bridgerton," and "Baby Reindeer" and the live event "The Roast of Tom Brady," as well as a password-sharing crackdown .
What Netflix plans are there?
- Standard with ads ($6.99 monthly): Watch in Full HD on 2 supported devices at a time and download on 2 supported devices at a time
- Standard plan ($15.49 monthly): Watch in Full HD and download videos on 2 supported devices at a time (option to add 1 extra member who doesn't live with you for $7.99 monthly).
- Premium plan ($22.99 monthly): Watch in Ultra HD (4K) quality on 4 supported devices at a time and download on 6 supported devices simultaneously; Option to add up to 2 extra members who don't live with you for $7.99 monthly).
Netflix adds 8 million new subscribers
Total number of subscribers grew to more than 277.6 million, an increase of 16.5%, the company said. Netflix forecast lower subscriber additions in the current quarter (July-Sept.) than in the same period last year, when the streaming company added more than 8.7 million.
Back in April , the company announced it planned to stop reporting membership numbers in 2025.
In after-hours trading, Netflix shares initially dipped 2%.
Netflix will begin the launch of monthly video game releases including one based on "Emily in Paris," later this month. Coming later this year, a multiplayer game based on "Squid Game."
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider .
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Step 5: Start sales forecasting. Sales forecasting is an in-depth report that predicts what a salesperson, team, or company will sell weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. While it is finicky, it can help your company make better decisions when hiring, budgeting, prospecting, and setting goals.
A sales plan is a strategic document that outlines how a business plans to convert leads into sales. It typically details the target market, customer profile, and actionable steps that must be taken to achieve revenue targets. Here's a great example of a sales plan that includes all these elements neatly packed into one document.
New product sales business plan: This plan is developed for the launch and continued promotion of a new product. Bottom Line. While any business can set bold sales goals, creating a sales plan outlines how your team will achieve them. By following the best practices and 10-step process laid out above, your sales goal template defines what your ...
It will also address your company's specific needs. For example, you might choose to write a 30- , 60- or 90-day sales plan depending on your current goals and the nature of your business. Say your ultimate goal for the next quarter is $250,000 in new business.
What's in a Sales Plan? 6 Elements Every Sales Plan Needs. In basic terms, a sales plan template includes: Sales forecasting and goal-setting; ... Create a Strategic Sales Plan to Grow Your Business. You've just discovered the basics—but I'll bet you're ready to go beyond that. Here are some final ideas to take your sales plan from a ...
Take a look at our hand-picked selection of the best sales plan templates available today for Microsoft Word and sales enablement tools like ClickUp. 1. ClickUp Sales Plan Template. Create and organize tasks by team, deliverable type, priority, due dates, and approval state with the ClickUp Sales Plan Template.
A bad example of a goal is as follows: Goal 1: Increase sales across company's range of products and services. A better goal would look something like: Goal 1: Generate $500,000+ in revenue from new clients through purchases of X product by X date. 9. Action Plan.
A sales plan is a strategic document that outlines goals and strategies for achieving sales targets. Here's how to create one, plus a sales plan template. ... The specific elements of a business plan differ by factors like sales plan type, industry, product type, goal horizon, and organizational structure. Some may have just a few sections ...
Simply put, a plan helps the business allocate resources correctly, which saves money. For example, leaders aren't hiring too many sales representatives for one territory while hiring too few reps in others, which means money burned and opportunities wasted. ... Basic annual plan. Goal: Increase sales by 15% to reach 10.5 million in 2025 ...
1. Determine Your Primary & Secondary Sales Goals & KPIs. A successful sales plan begins with setting goals. These goals will be the targets your sales reps are working to reach—so it's important to define them carefully. When determining your goals, keep the S.M.A.R.T. system in mind.
This is designed to help a new salesperson or sales manager get up to speed quickly in their first quarter on the job. The plan includes milestones they'd need to achieve at the 30th, 60th, and 90th day of their ramp-up. Generally, the 30-60-90-day sales plan can be broken down into 3 sections: Day 1 to 30:
Make your sales plan engaging by incorporating animations and interactive elements like animated text, graphics, hotspots, pop-ups and hover effects to reveal additional information. With these additions, your team members can go through the plan in a more engaging way. 3. Company Territory Sales Plan.
A business plan describes the financial and operational objectives of a business. A sales plan is similar to a business plan, but it zeros in on the sales strategy. ... Once you have done your research complete your sales plan with these basic elements: 1. Executive Summary and Scope. Not everyone will read every page of the sales plan. In this ...
4) Business development sales plan. With a business development sales plan, you can focus on using connections and building relationships to attract new potential customers. So on this kind of plan, your activities will be things like networking, sponsoring events, attending industry conferences, and performing cold outreach.
2. Shopify. Known for its consistent sales momentum and customer satisfaction, Shopify offers another great example of a highly successful sales organization. In a recent press release, Loren Padelford, shopify VP and general manager of Shopify Plus, shared his secret sauce for boosting sales.
A sales plan describes the basic strategy your business will use to bring in more customers, so drafting one is an important task for any business owner. This guide lays out the basics. I love a ...
This Breaking Into Device template above is an example of the 30-60-90 plan in that it focuses on the long-term goal of change at the end of three months. In a typical 30-60-90 sales plan, you would state your goals, the action steps you will use to reach them, your target dates, and your metrics for success. 3.
Then flesh out your goals as needed. In the end, everybody should buy into the goals you've set. "It's critical that you share ownership of the plan with your people," says Da Silva. "The more they feel their voice is heard, the more likely they'll be to help you implement the plan going forward.". 2. Get specific about your targets.
Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It's also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. After completing your plan, you can ...
This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and ...
7 business plan examples: section by section. The business plan examples in this article follow this template: Executive summary. An introductory overview of your business. Company description. A more in-depth and detailed description of your business and why it exists. Market analysis.
Other Netflix plans include a $6.99 monthly option with ads, a $15.49 monthly standard HD video quality plan (no ads) and a $22.99 premium Ultra HD plan (no ads).
It has been said that as you plan to open your business you should be planning your exit strategy. In this session you will learn: Types of business sales Business Values Not selling today, how to prepare Basic understanding of business value Business budgeting from business value Basic Business Planning What does the market look like?
Ford's move comes a day after General Motors said it expected to make 200,000 to 250,000 battery-powered cars and trucks this year, about 50,000 fewer than it had previously forecast.
Why is business development important? Nothing stays still in the world of sales. According to the State of Sales report, 82% of sellers say they've had to quickly adapt to new ways of selling in the face of global challenges, including supply chain issues, inflation, and health precautions.On top of that, 57% of buyers said they prefer engaging with companies through digital channels.
Thailand has a simple plan to boost its pandemic-hit economy. It will give $275 to about 50 million people, more than two-thirds of the population. The prime minister said the program would cost ...
P4: produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation using the template attached or any other form of template of your choice. Marketing plan Marketing is the ability of a company used to achieve plans for conception, launch, pricing, promotion and delivery of a product or service to satisfy both; the target's customers 'needs as well as organization's goals.
2. Write a Business Plan. A business plan is where you plan out your business's future objectives and how you will achieve them. Think of it as your guide for success and any potential roadblocks you may face. Your plan should show you're looking three to five years ahead, and include markers for milestones along the way. You need a ...
In 2020, TikTok star Addison Rae made headlines when she was spotted in her bright pink Tesla Model X. Nearly four years later, the car doesn't look much different and sales are slumping.
Nigeria's government gave approval on Monday for state oil company NNPC Ltd to sell crude in the naira currency to the mega Dangote refinery effective immediately to help ease foreign exchange ...