Transcript Document
Successful Sales Planning How to build a great sales plan Contents Components of a Great Sales Plan Prospects Sales and Buy-Cycles Go-to-Market Strategy Defeating Objections Competitive Strategy and Positioning Value Proposition and Sales Presentation Sales & Marketing Syncing Goal Setting and Quota Assignment Talent Recruitment Compensation Models Sales Team Meetings Training Requirements Summary Page 2 of 14 Prospect Definition Figuring out who your prospect possibilities are is very important. This information will control your revenue tactics, enable you to correctly generate quality leads, and help your salespeople focus their attention in the most successful way. Consequently, asking the right questions can help you determine who your best prospects are. What are the unique features of prospects that have a high probability of buying? Who are the decision makers and do they have a typical profile? Who should we deem not worthy of pursuing? What are the appropriate set of questions to qualify the best prospects? What are the red flags that indicate a prospect is a poor one? Page 3 of 14 Prioritize your prospect focus… Your Sales-Cycle How long is your sales cycle? How do we shorten our sales cycle? Interesting questions but how do you answer these if you don’t know what your sales cycle is? Many people think of a “sales cycle” as the time it takes you from “starting from nowhere” to getting a contract. But how do you define this? The reality of prospecting is that it’s a statistical process of looking for someone with a need. You have a list of usually hundreds of names and you “inquire” to see if they have a need that your product or service might solve. The time it takes to find a prospect in this process is quite difficult to define as it is based on probability. You could find your first prospect in a day or in a month or in 3 months. So what is the “sales cycle”? I like to define the “sales cycle” as something much more tangible. I define it as the time it takes to take a qualified prospect to close. This means you have already found someone who has a genuine need. Now it’s the time it takes to “progress the deal” with all the relevant decision-makers in that company. This time is much more predictable and trackable. It’s also a very useful tool for managing sales pipelines. Using the definition of a sales cycle can help you clearly identify which deals in your pipeline will close and which won’t. If you are a sales manager or business owner, you can speak to your sales person and try to understand if there are special circumstances for why this could be happening that may mean the deal is one of the rare ones that will close. Now you have a tool that you can use to put meaningful probabilities on your sales pipeline opportunities. Knowing your sales cycle (as defined above) can help you focus your energies on real deals and hence boost your sales results. Page 5 of 14 Go-to-Market Strategy A go-to-market strategy is an action plan that specifies how a company will reach customers and achieve competitive advantage. An effective go-to-market strategy, which typically sketches out what distribution and marketing channels will be used to reach potential customers, can be used to build out future customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. At larger companies, marketing often develops this; at smaller companies, it may fall largely in the lap of a sales leader. That said, sales should always be at the table when the go-to-market strategy is discussed and you should have marketing present when you discuss its implications for your sales plan. How will we reach our target audience of prospects? How will we engage our target prospect in conversation? What are the reasons a prospect will have to buy? What will be your distribution strategy and how will that affect sales? THIS IS ONLY A PARTIAL VIEW OF THE SALES PLANNING TRAINING COURSE. THE NEXT 25 PAGES OF SLIDES AND VIDEOS ARE INTENTIONALLY NOT SHOWN. THE FULL UNRESTRICTED COURSE IS AVAILABLE TO BOTH 2-DAY AND ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION MEMBERS ONLY FOR DOWNLOAD AND REUSE.