Sales Planning - Priorities of a Sales Plan
A sales plan is an informative technique that allows salespeople to share their information with the management and get guidance from them. It is an effective tool for enhancing a product’s sales and its popularity among the people. In a sales plan, consumers are generally profiled under different segments. This profiling helps companies understand what a customer demands from a particular product. This profiling is sometimes done on the basis of regions to determine the need of customers in some particular areas.
The organisations have identified some key priority areas that help them in managing corresponding accounts. These priorities have been arranged as shown below −
Customers
It is the company’s responsibility to check how it represents its brand in front of its customers. If the product’s representation convinces the customers, they will recommend it to others to try at least once.
If a company has a large group of such satisfied and convinced customers, its product’s market value will increase.
Customers here includes the industries and markets that are helpful in increasing the popularity of products among people.
Employee
This level enlists the employees that work for the success of an organization. If a company has good employees, then it becomes successful very soon. However, if the employees don’t understand their responsibilities, then the organization will lead to failure. So, an employee is a critical aspect for the success of an organization.
Product and Services
This involves all the various products and services offered at different levels of the product’s launching, which are − engineering, manufacturing, finance, accounts, suppliers, etc. If your product is advertised properly, then the customers will buy it with trust. After that, it is the responsibility of the marketing staff to provide the best services to their customers, so that they give a good review for the product.
Competition
All the products are introduced as brands today in the market. This creates a unique identification pattern and helps build competition among various other brands of competitors. However, after a point of time, customers get confused with all the choices and are undecided as to which is the best one among all the brands.
If a company wants to attract more customers towards its products in such a competitive market, then it has to promote its products on several platforms. This is where the companies will furnish information on what unique features the product contains, which are not provided by any other companies.
This is called advertisement of products and is considered a very effective tool in boosting the sales of products in the market. It is the duty of team manager to decide which level of priority is handed down to which department and salesperson. This is how the company manages to grab more customer attention towards your product.
Factors to Consider While Finalizing Sales Plans
Firstly, the sales team ties up with a new product development process, because it brings more energy and focus on the product. Experts and other employees help the team to research on various products, market conditions, and the competitors in the industry. The next step will be to propose all the strategies and consider other important factors that will help boost the sales of this product in advance. Before proceeding with any plan, the management of a company will consider the following questions −
- What is the overall length of a sales cycle (1 week, 1 month or 1 year)?
- How do you profile the customers (industry-wise or region-wise)?
- Are there any organizational factors to be considered while planning?
- How many competitors are there that can affect your sales in the market?
- What factors can help you match your competitors (products, reputation, etc.)
- How do the sales-teams interact with the new process development team?
- What are the different researches done on this and similar product?
What levels of management will be involved in this planning (senior level, sales-team, or multilevel)?
