How to plan sales for a month. A step-by-step plan to increase sales. Assessment of economic environmental factors

Selling is the main activity of any business, so making a profit is directly related to sales volumes and set prices, and these indicators can be determined by various factors. In order for a business to grow and develop, this activity needs to be studied, efficiency increased, and therefore planned.

The sales plan involves setting certain goals and setting the direction of activity to achieve them. Let's see how this is implemented in sales planning practice.

Why do you need a sales plan?

In addition to increasing the overall efficiency of the enterprise, sales planning addresses serious issues of well-being of the entire organization as a whole.

Forecasting future sales is the basis of all accounting activities in an enterprise. Based on the sales plan, other forecasts and calculations are made:

product planning;
raw material procurement plan;
establishing personnel policy;
advertising planning, etc.

Thus, sales planning is the cornerstone of all planning activities of the company. It allows you to set immediate goals for business development, which determine the direction of your efforts.

NOTE! There is an expression: “The map is not the territory.” The plan is not the actual sales volume. The element of risk, random factors, and market unpredictability have not been canceled. Nevertheless, planning sets the “bars”, that is, the boundaries to which the development of the organization strives, expanding its capabilities and resources.

What to consider when planning sales

When drawing up a preliminary sales plan, it is necessary to rely on factors that can affect the dynamics of their volume. Sales are influenced to varying degrees by 10 factors:

Personnel (employees providing production, sales, transportation and other sales procedures).
Sales methods are those channels that the company uses for sales.
Prices are a very important factor, including the following components:
- price setting policy at the enterprise;
- price dynamics for similar products in the industry;
- application of a bonus system (discounts, credits, etc.).
Market position – growth or decline observed.
Legislative justifications - the adoption of new laws, the abolition or amendment of old ones necessarily affects the business, and therefore sales.
The range of goods - its size, tendency to expand or decrease, demand, liquidity.
Season – sales of many products are very susceptible to seasonal demand or its decline.
Activities of competitors - the counteracting and stimulating influence of similar companies should not be overlooked.
The activities of the company itself include advertising, marketing, promotions, competitions and other events to stimulate sales.
Customers are the other side of the sales process, so you need to know as much as possible about the target audience, taking this data into account when planning:
- their approximate number;
- solvency;
- the need for a product planned for sale (including fashion), etc.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION! In addition to the listed factors, sales volume can be influenced by the belonging of goods to groups of interchangeable (then an increase in the price of one will cause an increased demand for another) and complementary (here the relationship will be direct - less need for one of them, which means less need for the “paired” one) . For example, if the price of desktop computers increases, the demand for laptops will increase. And when sales of dishwashers fall, they will buy less specialized household chemicals – “tablets” for them.

Preparing for sales planning

What should you rely on when drawing up a sales plan? The preparation process depends on how experienced the company is, that is, whose mistakes it will have to improve on – its own or others’.

What is the first step to creating a sales plan? Studying past sales figures for your company (if it exists and has been operating for several years) or for similar ones in the industry. Information must be analyzed taking into account the above factors. For example, the influence of seasonality is easy to determine by studying the breakdown of sales volume by month; the dynamics of the market and the enterprise itself as a whole are just as obvious.

IMPORTANT! You need to study financial information on sales over a long period, at least three years. Data for a shorter period may not be reliable enough for planning, since they may contain operational and managerial errors, and may not exclude an element of randomness.

Formation of indicators for planning

What information needs to be “pulled out” from the analyzed data? To adequately draw up a sales plan, you need to know the following indicators:

Market coverage your industry - can only be determined approximately, since it is impossible to obtain data for all companies in the industry. Ordering an analytical note from Rosstat may help, but its reliability will be approximate. Market volume is measured in rubles.
Degree of participation in this market share of the planning organization. Calculated as a percentage of the total market volume. To calculate, you need to divide your company's sales volume for the year under study by the market volume for that year and multiply by 100%.
Commodity dynamics– how much the range and quality of goods has changed (and in what direction).
Product cost- if it does not change from year to year, the price will still have to increase to compensate for other factors, such as inflation.
The average price of such a product on the market.
Average monthly company expenses per unit of goods. To determine this, you need to divide the sales volume for a given product by the total sales volume (in rubles) and multiply by the amount of total annual expenses.
Your company's sales ratio(growth or decline in volumes) – over the last few years analyzed, it is better to break it down by month.
Inflation rate in the country is determined according to Rosstat data.
Position of the national currency(devaluation) – taken into account if foreign currency purchases or imported components and parts are planned.

Sales Planning Perspective

Before you start drawing up a specific plan, you need to clearly define how long the tasks must be completed:

strategic planning determines the direction of the company’s development for 5-10 years ahead;
current planning allows you to make forecasts for no more than five years, thereby adjusting the strategic plan;
operational planning sets tasks for short time periods - a year, a quarter, a month.

Future factors

We obtained all the necessary indicators for calculating the sales plan from the analysis of previous periods, that is, from open statistics. In addition to past information, it is necessary to take into account some future forecasts:

whether the company is going to significantly expand or, conversely, curtail its activities;
is it planned to increase the range or discontinue the product;
what will happen to non-price factors of demand (customer base and its characteristics).

Sales plan calculation

To correctly calculate indicators and draw up a budget for a sales plan, you need to calculate what the profitability per unit of goods (marginality) we include in the plan. This is why all the above calculations are made.

The calculation plan is based on statistical calculations and economic laws. Exceeding the estimated plan indicators will be optimistic planning, and underestimating will be pessimistic. Optimistic plan allows you not to set a “ceiling” of sales, but pessimistic– outline the boundaries of difficult, crisis periods.

Features of sales planning

When carrying out this large-scale action, we recommend that you do not forget about the following nuances:

The sales plan for the next year should be drawn up no later than 1.5-2 months before the end of the current year.
The entire company, and not just the sales department, is responsible for the plan, so the heads of all structural divisions are involved in planning.
If we are talking about expanding the range, you need to draw up a plan for those goods for which there are clear data on their production, transportation, and direct sale.
The best sales plan cannot be implemented without effective and professional sales managers.
If the goal is to exceed previous indicators, it is necessary to qualitatively change the fundamental factors (production volume, cost of goods, sales market, etc.).
The key planning factor is the needs of the market, and only secondarily the organization’s own capabilities.

From this article you will learn:

How to fulfill a sales plan in a company

What are the methods for fulfilling a sales plan?

How to quickly fulfill your sales plan

One of the signs of a successfully built business is the presence of strategic planning. However, in addition to being able to set tasks, you need to know how to fulfill a sales plan. In this article you will find information about ways in which you can achieve your goals.

What are the goals of fulfilling the sales plan?

Every day your product appears on the shelves, sellers help you make your choice, and cashiers complete your purchases. Your product is definitely selling, but are these volumes sufficient? Or can they be increased? Can salespeople not only meet targets, but also increase sales?

To answer these questions, you can calculate your profit and costs, determining the share of income in turnover. But in this way you will not get an idea of how sales volumes have changed, what problems exist in the company’s work and how to motivate employees to work even better.

A sales plan will be the solution to your problems. Planning is not only the definition of goals and objectives, but also the process of allocating resources among areas of work.

To summarize, let us formulate the main goals of sales volume planning:

How to fulfill a sales plan in a store? First of all, determine the volume of goods that need to be sold within a certain time frame. The sales plan can be general (set for the entire team) or individual (calculated personally for each seller).

There are several important points to consider when creating a sales plan:

Feasibility. If it seems to you that the manager is not fulfilling the sales plan, and you want to improve performance, evaluate the reality of achieving your goals at the moment. It would be a mistake to take into account statistical data only for the past period, since sales volumes are influenced by many factors. This could be seasonality, market relevance, competitive offers, or the economic situation in the country. Take these aspects into account when creating your sales plan.
Flexibility. To fulfill your sales plan, you must take into account that it can be adjusted if the need arises.
Specific and Measurable. In order to accurately fulfill the sales plan, it must contain specific numbers.
Limited time. Without indicating the completion time, it will be your fault that the manager does not fulfill the sales plan. Always set specific deadlines.
Adequacy of resources. When drawing up a monthly plan, you decided that the seller should sell 150 microwave ovens, but one manager physically cannot sell such a volume of products.
Unity of purpose. You should develop a certain system when drawing up a sales plan and consider your company as an interconnected structure of all divisions.
Constancy. Planning should not be interrupted. Upon expiration of this plan, a new, current sales plan should be created.

Algorithm for fulfilling the sales plan

Stage 1. Distribute tasks.

In order to effectively implement the sales plan that was provided by management, you need to isolate its structure according to various indicators. This will allow employees to clearly understand how to fulfill the sales plan in the store.

Possible sales plan criteria:

Regions – how much will be sold in each region.
Timeframe for completion - how long it takes to achieve the targets.
Products – what and in what volume will go on sale.
Clients or sales channels – buyers and quantity of goods sold.
Sellers – personal sales plan.
The nature of sales (guaranteed and planned) - what volume of products will be sold and how.

Guaranteed sales do not depend on who represents the company; the demand for these products has already been formed. In planned sales, profit depends on the actions of the seller. Considerable attention should be paid to this aspect if you are planning to introduce a new product to the market, choosing a new target audience, or planning to enter a new wholesale or retail market.

Stage 2. Set a task and increase motivation.

Does the manager not fulfill the sales plan? But is he motivated to do this? Every company employee should have an incentive to do their job well. To do this, the direct dependence of his salary on the fulfillment of an individual sales plan is determined, while the income of the company as a whole is also taken into account. When the required indicators are achieved “in assortment groups,” the employee should be rewarded with a separate bonus. The sales plan can be considered fulfilled at 90–105%; at 105–120% it is considered overfulfilled.

Stage 3. Monitoring and coordinating the activities of sellers.

It is necessary to constantly monitor not only the implementation of each point of the plan, but also check the quality of planning itself.

If actual sales for a certain indicator are significantly higher or lower than the established values, this may be the result of incorrect planning. In this case, it is worth conducting a cause-and-effect analysis and making changes to the sales plan.

The reason that the plan is exceeded may be an underestimation of the potential of the product itself, a specific region, a seller, certain marketing steps, or the plan was drawn up based on past performance. The reason for failure to fulfill the plan may be that the manager does not fulfill the individual sales plan, he is not active enough and is not interested in its implementation. Only “guaranteed demand” does not require the “efforts” of salespeople; in other cases, fulfilling the general sales plan is possible only with the effective daily implementation of each employee’s personal sales plan.

For sales managers, there are several effective tips on how to fulfill your store sales plan.

Tip 1. Sales funnel. Analyze how many people entered the store and how many became customers. For example, 100 people visited your store, and this figure suits you, but only 10 made a purchase. If this figure does not correspond to the planned one, then you need to start working with the sales funnel - converting visitors into customers. If the problem is low traffic to your point of sale, then you should start working from the first level of the funnel and actively attract customers.

Tip 2. Customer segmentation. Having carefully studied the psychological types of buyers, group them and work with the most promising ones in terms of profit. If the analysis is performed correctly, you will show the best sales volume based on the results of the month.

Tip 3. Increasing the average check. Another effective tip on how to fulfill your sales plan is to sell additional or pre-checkout items. The cost of the products offered should be lower than the client's main purchase.

Tip 4: Attentive Customer Service. According to statistics, only 30% of customers coming to the store know exactly what they want to buy. Use it. Present them with your product range, determine how much the client needs your products, and actively work with objections.

Tip 5. Sales channel optimization. First of all, it is necessary to abandon advertising costs that do not allow you to fulfill your sales plan. The optimal result is when the cost of a given conversion (a call, a completed application, an item in the cart) is not higher than a given indicator. If you sell household appliances, then you can determine the optimal cost of advertising for a certain product, for example, for a call from a site selling a microwave oven you are willing to pay 500 rubles, and for a hair straightener - 50 rubles. For conversion, in each case the maximum amount is determined at which the sale is considered profitable. These indicators need to be closely monitored. If a sales channel allows you to get a lot of conversions at a low cost, then you should refinance and allocate additional budget for the development of this channel.

Tip 6. “Bring a friend” promotion. You can implement this promotion in any way, the main thing is that you provide your customers with the opportunity to receive discounts and bonuses for bringing a new customer.

Tip 7. Sales of related products. A fairly simple way to fulfill a sales plan in a store is to sell related products, for example, razor blades. It can also be the sale of a set of goods that complement each other. Here it is very important to make offers to the buyer that are truly interesting to him, because he will buy this product in any case. So why not have him buy it from you?

3 methods to fulfill your sales plan quickly

Sales department competition

This method is effective if it is necessary to organize an atmosphere of productive competition in the department. As a rule, successful sellers are creative people, but at the same time a little selfish and capricious. Therefore, they periodically need to be “shooked up” and encouraged to take active action.

In every sales department there are periods when the sellers’ mood drops, they lose faith in their own strengths and in the reality of fulfilling the monthly sales plan. At this moment, it is good to hold an event that will allow each seller to show their abilities and prove their advantage over others. And if you promise an extraordinary bonus or gift, the competition will be even more active. This will allow you to complete your plan on time.

Sometimes there are cases when a manager deliberately withholds payments from customers. This happens because in the current month he has already fulfilled the sales plan and achieved the required result, so he postpones all processing to the next reporting period in order to be guaranteed to receive a bonus. As a rule, every salesperson eventually comes to this scheme, regardless of the motivation system in the department. The manager’s task is to closely monitor the state of affairs and monitor the dynamics of each employee’s work. With constant observation, you can easily notice changes.

How to fulfill a sales plan in a store using competitions?

Option 1. Team competition in the department.

If the department was able to fulfill the sales plan with processing, a free visit to the bowling alley.
If a certain indicator increases throughout the department, for example, exceeding the call plan by 30%, each employee receives a bonus of 3,000 rubles.
If the department’s income exceeds a significant amount, for example, 10 million rubles, then the corporate event will be held in a fashionable restaurant (or it could be an entertainment trip, a trip to the theater or a concert of a famous performer).

Option 2. Competitions among sellers for a valuable prize.

A seller who can exceed the sales plan receives an additional 15 thousand rubles (a certain percentage if the sales plan for all sellers is individual, and in rubles if the plan is the same).
An employee who concludes more than 50 agreements is given an expensive modern phone.
The salesperson who makes the most calls will receive the company's products as a gift.
Anyone who achieves a sales target of 140% in two months will fly to Greece on vacation.

Option 3. Championship among sellers for an intangible prize.

Additional days off at any time for a weekly sales volume of 400 thousand rubles.
The title of best seller of the month for exceeding the plan.
Interview in a corporate publication in the “Our Pride” section with the largest number of meetings held.
Reducing the working day by an hour, subject to the signing of five agreements with VIP clients.

Promotions and special offers

This tool is one of the fastest and most effective if you are faced with the question of how to fulfill your sales plan. But it should not be abused. Therefore, it is imperative to calculate the effectiveness of this method.

Its advantages:

Ease of implementation.
The total profit will be calculated from the entire sales volume. Therefore, even if you reduce the price, by increasing the quantity you will be able to fulfill the sales plan.
Buyers always perceive promotions and sales positively.
People are ready to receive information that will help them save money.
With the help of special offers, you reduce transaction time, get customers' money faster, which allows you to fulfill your sales plan.
Promotions and discounts increase the number of unplanned purchases (the so-called effect of spontaneous purchases).

How to fulfill your store sales plan effectively and quickly? Use the following suggestions:

Reduced price for a certain product.
If you pay for the goods within three days, you get a 30% discount.
Buy products from 50 thousand rubles - a 15% discount for a month.
When you buy one product, you get a second one as a gift (“1+1” promotion).
When you pay for household appliances within three days, you receive a bonus of 100 rubles. to buy next time.

Special promotions for the set:

When purchasing a sofa, you will receive an ottoman as a gift.
Buy one product, get three similar ones for free.
If you paid for your purchase before the end of the month, you received a two-year warranty as a gift.
If you pay for the connection within a month, you will receive a year of subscription service for free as a bonus.

Promotions according to payment terms:

Make a 30% prepayment within three days, the remaining amount can be paid after 30 days.
If half of the cost is paid immediately, the remaining amount can be paid after 3 months.
You can pick up the goods now and complete the payment within 10 days.
Get a loan for your purchase without interest, overpayments, prepayments or guarantors.

Active work with the customer base

This is the most effective of all available tools for working with customers. How to fulfill a sales plan in a store? Use the established customer base. Once upon a time, you already spent money on compiling it, not so that it now “lies as a dead weight.”

Most companies have a fairly extensive, but somewhat neglected list of buyers. Your customer base is your past, present and potential customers. All of them (warm, cold or hot) are written down by you in Excel/Word, in various documents, business cards or simply in a diary and worked out using CRM.

If the manager does not fulfill the sales plan for the database, then it’s time to put things in order. You must realize its value, because finding any potential client takes a lot of time and effort. First you need to search for the right client, find out who is responsible for making the decision, then establish contact with him, determine his primary needs.

This is a fairly long and labor-intensive process, which most likely consumes approximately 30% of the total salary fund of the sales department. Therefore, your customer base is invaluable, regardless of whether the potential customer is ready to buy your product. Take care of it, systematize it and use it to develop your business.

From this article you will learn:

What is the basis of a sales plan for a manager?

What to consider when drawing up a sales plan for a manager

Before starting work, it would be good to determine in advance the order in which it will be completed. This is necessary in many types of activities, which include the work of a sales manager. Competent, forward-looking planning has a positive effect not only on sales figures, but also on the earnings of each individual employee. Let's figure out what a sales plan for a manager should be and how to draw it up.

Why do you need a sales plan for a manager?

Any commercial enterprise, from a store to a large company, strives to increase profits, which is impossible without increasing sales figures. The sales plan is an important and actively used document that reflects the real picture of the company’s activities and its development potential, and not just abstract expectations. Managers rely on it when choosing a business management strategy and specific steps that should be taken at one time or another.

However, unfortunately, not all businessmen master the art of drawing up realistic plans for sales managers. Some do not see the need for such documents at all, letting the situation take its course and relying on their employees for everything. Others constitute obviously unattainable projects.

Each of these approaches is harmful to business. The sales plan for a manager for a month or other reporting period must, first of all, be feasible for each employee. The amount of work must be evenly distributed over time (therefore, a set of dry numbers is not a plan). It is impossible to conduct full-fledged commercial activities in any market segment that generates stable, predictable income without sales planning.

Writing sales plans for managers pursues the following goals and objectives:

Streamlining the work schedules of all specialists. No matter how many people are involved in sales in a company, and no matter what different functions they perform, a clear, systematic plan will make it possible to set an individual schedule for everyone. Managers will follow their routine every day, week and month.
Encouraging staff to work actively. The sales plans that each manager has include remuneration depending on their results (usually a cash bonus that will motivate the specialist to work as best as possible).
Long-term planning and forecasting. Only those companies that clearly understand their goals and objectives, know how to achieve them, and are able to carry out plans are competitive. Achieving planned targets by each employee is the key to success and continuous business growth.

When drawing up plans for sales departments, the head of a department or the entire company must follow certain mandatory requirements.

What is the sales plan for a manager based on?

Experts who have dealt with thousands of managers and hundreds of sales departments agree that consistently high achievements are produced only by employees of those departments where planning is set up correctly. Therefore, when organizing a sales service or developing an existing one, give priority attention to methods for drawing up work plans both for individual specialists and for the entire team as a whole.

Planning the activities of a sales manager is based on the following postulates:

The working day is six hours.
All actions are planned based on the balance of price and quality (in relation to sales - efficiency and time).
The Pareto principle, or 20/80, is relevant for sales.
Half of a manager's total working time should be spent maintaining relationships with clients.

Now let's look at each of these provisions in more detail.

Six hour work day

According to Russian laws, the length of a standard working day is eight hours. However, even the most hardworking employees effectively use no more than six hours, and the remaining two are spent on lunch, tea, smoking breaks, talking with colleagues and putting the workplace in order.

In principle, you can work longer than eight hours a day, but if you do this constantly, your productivity will steadily decline. People need to relax, attend to their personal affairs and spend time with their families. In extreme cases, if it is necessary to close a very important deal, an employee may stay late at work once a week, but there is no need to build a sales plan for all managers based on such force majeure.

Planning based on cost, quality, efficiency and time

When choosing a planning methodology, compare the cost of working time and the results obtained. For example, many textbooks on sales technology advise studying your clients - their corporate website, media reviews about them, etc. This makes sense for narrow markets, where there are no more than a dozen companies, and every call of the sales manager must be effective, because mistakes are costly.

For client bases with thousands of records, this is irrelevant - it is easier and faster to make a minute call with a few key questions than to search for information about the company on the Internet for half an hour.

Another popular statement is that it is impossible to make a deal over the phone, you can only arrange a meeting. But in 95% of cases the opposite is true! Life is becoming more dynamic, people have no time to go to meetings, and sales of many goods and services are now carried out over the phone. Moreover, it is simply stupid to schedule a personal audience with a client without knowing his needs and without assessing the prospect of working with him. First you need to think about and calculate everything, based on statistics.

Remember the Pareto principle

In the first month of work, every client is valuable to a manager, but when there are many customers, they have to be ranked by importance, prospects and profitability. Small, secondary consumers also need to be given attention, but the bulk of the effort when the employee’s workload is high should fall on those who bring in more income.

Half of your time should be spent on relationships

In order to trade successfully, in our country it is necessary to build and maintain good relationships with customers. In some market segments, without relationships there are no sales at all, so a significant portion of your time should be spent communicating with potential and current customers (even if the conversation is not specifically about sales). The main thing is that it gives results in the form of transactions. In addition to profits, good contact with the client simplifies the work. If communication doesn’t work out and the consumer is irritated, it will be much more difficult to sell him something.

How to create a sales plan for a manager

Forming work plans for sales managers is not just filling out columns with numbers. This is a calculation for all the main goals and objectives of the company for a given period of time, taking into account:

seasonal factors;
market dynamics and market development trends;
general state of the industry;
average market prices for goods (services);
financial potential of the company;
the pace of company development;
income for previous reporting periods;
capabilities and actual results of each employee;
previously made mistakes in drawing up plans;
factors determining the enterprise budget;
activities of competing companies;
influence of the human factor;
changes in the law, payment of taxes, deductions and other obligatory payments.

To create an adequate sales plan for managers, you can use different techniques. For example, calculate average indicators based on statistics for past periods (with all amendments and adjustment factors). Or simply sum up the personal plans of each manager, the average indicators of their results, and then multiply them by the number of months and add a certain percentage.

Experts argue that not a single, even the most correct and reliable method of drawing up an implementation plan gives accurate figures, so it is advisable to use a set of several options. Then the result will be more plausible.

Maximum plan, describing the results of the year under the most favorable circumstances and the maximum investment of time and effort on the part of sales managers.
Medium shot, corresponding to a norm that tends to a maximum and always exceeds a minimum. It is calculated using the following formula:

Sales rate = Minimum sales × 1.2 (adjustment factor).

This formula ensures revenue growth while maintaining the realistic and feasible plan.

Minimum plan. This is the result that the enterprise team must achieve in any case. Its main characteristic is easy feasibility. Failure to achieve the minimum sales plan is an extremely sad result for the company as a whole and the individual managers who are responsible for it (for them this may be a reason for dismissal).

To draw up the right work plan for a sales manager, you need to have certain knowledge and professional experience. A typical practice for many companies is for the manager to draw up such a document based on his wishes for profits or simply at random or by increasing the indicators of the previous period. It's easy, but wrong.

The sales plan is one of the most important tasks for the head of the relevant department or company manager. This document is a strict practical calculation of indicators (revenue, income, etc.) that must be achieved for a business to be successful. Also, a sales plan for managers is the basis for motivating staff. A sales bar that is too low means loss of profit, and an unrealistically high one demotivates employees, leading to staff turnover. In addition, the plan must take into account seasonal fluctuations in sales (otherwise it will simply be impossible to forecast revenue).

Don't set the bar too high.

At first glance, it seems that the easiest way to increase milk yield and save on feeding a cow is to feed it less often and milk it more often. When applied to sales managers, this approach gives a negative result: employees lose motivation to work or quit. Planned indicators should be higher than the average, standard capabilities of a specialist by 15%, but no more. Moreover, the manager must understand that this is a very realistic and feasible amount of work for someone who works diligently and systematically.

Take a comprehensive approach.

The performance results of each employee should be assessed individually, taking into account the lead base accumulated over the past month, transactions in the initial stages, and seasonal sales ratios. It is most convenient to rely on the funnel when discussing current agreements. If the implementation plan is drawn up for the account manager, then repeat sales and additional offers should be taken into account. For an employee involved in cold calling, you need to set a plan, current tasks and the quality of the base, taking into account the number of working days in the coming month.

Consider a bonus system.

An example of calculating bonuses: when 80% of the sales plan is fulfilled, the manager receives 5% of the amount of each transaction. If he completed 90% of the plan, then 6% each; if everything is 100%, then 7.5%. Thus, we set several levels for him, and each next one is more attractive than the previous one.

Give me the tools.

If your prospect base is small, there is no need to continually inflate your cold calling sales targets. There will be no more leads from this, and it will not affect profits. The account manager must serve existing customers, and the main sales person must process leads, the number of which is also limited. Prepare scripts, new commercial offers and other materials for clients, make sure that specialists have a special program or service for calling.

Take a personal approach.

Create personal sales plans for each manager. For some, it is more convenient to work according to a plan for a week or a month, others need daily indicators. Some work at their usual pace, even late in the evening, while others cannot bear overtime tasks.

Rate the download.

Surely some of your managers are overloaded with responsibilities that are not entirely relevant to them, such as filling out documents, technical customer support, organizing delivery, etc. Think about how to remove this extraneous burden from them so that they can devote all their energy to working with clients. A daily plan for a sales manager will help with this.

Control the process.

A general understanding of the situation in the sales department (Kolya always fulfills the plan, and Vanya does not reach the required indicators) is not enough for a manager. It is necessary to track subtle changes (for example, the fact that Vanya makes fewer and fewer calls with each reporting period) and plan the development of sales for several months in advance, promptly noticing when one of the employees is cheating, at one time not fulfilling the quota, and at another once giving out large indicators and receiving bonuses for it.

Hello! In this article we will talk about how to create a sales plan.

Today you will learn:

Why is a sales plan needed?
How to calculate and formalize it;
How to get employees to fulfill the plan.

Why do you need a sales plan?

Do you need a sales plan for your enterprise? The answer is unequivocal - yes. And not only for those who sell specific goods, but also for workers in the service sector, it is also simply necessary.

For labor organization. The enterprise must function as an established mechanism, when each employee has a goal for his work and knows what he must do to achieve it. Employees must have clear ideas about what awaits them after the sales plan is met or not met.
To increase profits. Try moving a salesperson from a fixed salary to a minimum wage and a bonus for meeting the target, and you will see how the employee's motivation will affect the company's income.
For development. fades if it stands in one place. Setting a goal and achieving it is the task for a successful entrepreneur. Otherwise, he will be overtaken and crushed by more ambitious businessmen.

Types of planning

The basis of any sales plan is an understanding of the minimum and maximum quantities of goods the company must sell in order to exist.

The most important thing for beginning entrepreneurs is the minimum acceptable value; it marks the “bottom” below which it is no longer possible to function. For companies that have embarked on the path of growth and development, achieving maximum plans is more important.

There are several types of planning:

Promising – long-term strategy for 5-10 years;
Current – developed for the year, clarifies and adjusts long-term planning indicators;
Operational and production – tasks are divided into shorter periods (quarter, month, etc.).

Rules for creating a sales plan

The volume of possible sales depends on many factors. When creating a plan, you need to take into account all the points that are important to your area.

For example, these could be:

Seasonality;
Dynamics of development and trends in the market;
Reasons for the decline in past periods;
Changes in politics, economics and legislation;
Changes in assortment and prices;
Sales channels and potential buyers;
Employees;
Advertising.

Procedure for developing a sales plan

A complete annual plan, based on in-depth analysis, takes several months to create.

To get an adequate result and not miss anything you need to:

Analyze trends in politics and macroeconomics. How does the country's GDP change? What is happening to oil and gas prices and exchange rates? It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the opinions of experts and leading economic media.
Study the market situation. Will demand increase or decrease? Have new competitors and potential customers emerged?
Display sales statistics for past periods. For the year in general and for each month in particular.
Analyze the causes of decline and growth. This could be seasonality, changes in company policy, new assortment, personnel changes. When making a plan for the next year, be sure to rely on significant points.
Compile sales statistics separately for sellers and departments. It will be too optimistic to focus on the leaders, but try to bring the average value a little closer to them.
Form a base of regular customers. How much profit do they bring, how often and what goods do they come for? Of course, this stage does not apply to companies focused on one-time sales.
Set a goal. Based on the analysis done earlier, it is already possible to imagine what sales were last year, and how much they can be increased in the future. It is better to set two goals: feasible and ideal. It is the presence of the second that will remind you that you should not stop there.
Discuss the plan with subordinates. Set deadlines and personal instructions.
Make a budget. Having a clear sales plan makes it easier to calculate how much you will have to spend on purchases, advertising, and employee bonuses.

Methods for calculating the sales plan

When calculating planned sales, you can use the following methods:

Subjective: surveys, questionnaires, decisions based on the entrepreneur’s experience;
Objective: test sales, analysis of early periods, demand statistics.

There is no universal method for developing a sales plan for any company. Each enterprise chooses its own method, based on the needs and characteristics of its activities.

There are many methods, but you don't have to know them all. It is enough to select several that are suitable for a specific business and use them together.

Let's take a closer look at several basic methods used in calculating the sales plan.

Method	Advantages	Flaws	Short description
Analysis of customer expectations	Evaluation and detailed information about the product comes from potential consumers. Effective for new products	There may be errors when determining the buyer group. Dependence on the accuracy of estimates	Surveys of potential buyers are used to evaluate the product
Staff opinion	Accuracy	Low objectivity	The plan is drawn up based on the opinion of the sellers
Collective opinion of managers	Simple and fast	Collective responsibility	The assessment of managers is averaged, and if strong disagreements arise, a discussion is held
Delphi method	The most objective of subjective methods, the influence of group opinion is minimized	Long and relatively expensive	Company managers (or other employees) make each of their forecasts regarding sales volume (by product and period) and pass it on to the expert. He generates an anonymous summary and distributes it again to study participants, who study it and propose a new prediction. This continues until all disagreements are smoothed out.
Market test	Full check of consumer reaction to the product and evaluation	Openness to competitors, long and expensive	Test sales of the product are being conducted in various regions
Time series analysis	Objective and cheap	The method is difficult to implement, does not take into account the influence of marketing campaigns, and is not suitable for new products	Divided into three types: moving average, exponential smoothing, decomposition
Statistical demand analysis	An objective and understandable result allows you to identify hidden factors affecting sales	The most complex and time-consuming method	The forecast is made based on all factors affecting sales (economic indices, currency fluctuations and others)

Time series analysis

Moving average

Using the moving average method, projected sales in the future period will be equal to the sales volume for past periods of time. This does not take into account any other factors. The more periods are taken into account, the more accurate the forecast will be, which is why this method is not effective for young companies.

Example. The stationery store sold 2700 ballpoint pens in 2016, 3140 in 2015, 2900 in 2014. Forecast for 2017: (2700+3140+2900)/3=2910.

Exponential smoothing

A method for creating short-term forecasts based on the analysis of historical data. Convenient for forecasting the development of retail sales. Allows you to calculate how much goods will be needed in the next similar period (month, week).

The smoothing constant (SC) can be from 0 to 1. At an average sales level it is 0.2-0.4, and during growth (for example, holidays) - 0.7-0.9. The most appropriate value of the KS is determined empirically - the value with the smallest error over past periods is selected.

Formula:KS * Actual demand for the current period + (1-KS) * Forecast for the current period.

Example. During the month, the stationery store sold 640 notebooks against the previous forecast of 610, KS - 0.3. Forecast for the next month: 0.3*640 + (1-0.3)*610= 619.

Decomposition and seasonality factor

The decomposition consists of seasonality, trend and cyclicality. In practice, many entrepreneurs stop at using the seasonality coefficient. It is used to create a sales plan based on historical income for a business whose turnover depends on seasonality.

Step 1. Determination of seasonal dynamics. A clear digital indicator here is the seasonality coefficient.

Take last year's total sales and divide it by 12. This will give you the monthly average.
Divide the sales amount for each month of the accounting year by the average.

Example. Over the past year, the store made sales of 850,000 rubles. Of these, 44,000 in January, 50,000 in February, and so on. Average monthly value 850000/12 = 70,830 rubles. Seasonality coefficient for January: 44000/70830=0.62, for February: 50000/70830=0.71.

As a result, each month will receive its own coefficient. For reliability, it is worth calculating such coefficients for several past years and leaving their average value for further actions.

Step 2: Define your goal. For example, let's say you set a goal to increase sales by 20%. The calculation is simple: you need to add 20% to the amount of sales for the previous year.

850000+20% = 1,020,000 rub.

Step 3. Make a sales plan for the month. The general plan for the year must then be divided into smaller periods - in our example, these are months.

Divide the annual goal by 12 to get an average plan for the month.
Multiply the average plan by the seasonality factor for each month.

Example. Average monthly plan: 1,020,000/12 = 85,000 rubles. Plan for January: 85,000*0.62 = 52,700 rubles, plan for February: 85,000*0.71 = 60,350 rubles.

The result will be a sales plan for each month. If the monthly plan is met, the overall goal of increasing sales for the year will be achieved. It is much easier to monitor the implementation of the plan over short periods of time and take prompt measures than to try to catch up with the goal in the last months of the year.

Preparation of a sales plan

The sales plan as a document consists of several points.

Let's list all the main ones in order:

A header consisting of a title (“Department Sales Plan...”) and an indication of the author (“Compiled by...” then the position and full name of the person who compiled the plan).
The first point is employees and achievements. Here it is worth listing all employees of the department, indicating the need for new personnel, if any, and also mentioning key achievements over the past period.
The second point is the results of the past period. For clarity, you can include in the document a graph of sales growth and decline, provide total values not only for the department as a whole, but also for each employee in particular, and indicate in percentage terms how much the previous plan was overfulfilled or underfulfilled.
The third point is a plan for the future period. The plan amount is indicated, the main planned transactions are listed, clients who are ready to enter into a contract and other points that ensure a guarantee of profit in the new period.
The fourth point is necessary measures. Further, we are talking about the actions that have yet to be performed to achieve the goal. These could be changes in pricing policy, promotions, updating the company’s technical base and many others.
Date and signatures of the managers who approved the plan.

All employees of the company should familiarize themselves with the resulting document. Only after collective discussion and approval can the plan be officially recognized as the “compass” along which the company will move in the new year, quarter or month.

Structuring the plan

A sales plan is a map for the development of any business that sells goods or services. Without this map, things run the risk of getting lost, going in circles, or even moving in the opposite direction. And the more detailed the map, the easier it is for the traveler not to go astray.

Based on the features, set goals in several directions at once:

Regional and macro market share;
Overall sales volume;
Financial profit.

If possible, break down each large plan into more specific ones. For each direction, product, number of clients, and so on, depending on your business.

The larger the company, the more plans you will have to make. In addition to the general sales plan common to all employees, each branch, division, department, manager and ordinary seller should have their own goals.

Such detailed planning is necessary for every enterprise.

Structuring the plan should ideally occur across all available sections:

Regions (where and how much will be sold);
Sellers (who will sell and how much);
Products (how much of what will be sold);
Time (when and how much will be sold);
Sales channels (to whom and how much will be sold);
The nature of sales (how many sales are guaranteed and how many are only planned).

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1. Sales forecast instead of plan. The forecast can be part of the sales plan, but cannot in any way replace it. The forecast only describes a situation that may or may not occur in the future.

The plan contains a description of the goal that needs to be achieved and the conditions that will need to be met for this. It implies a set of specific tools with which the result will be achieved: promotions, employee training, price reductions.

Mistake 2. The plan is based only on last year's achievements. The analysis of the sales plan must take into account all important factors. It is unacceptable to discount the economic situation in the country and region, competitors, new technologies and other changes that will certainly affect sales.

Error 3.Uniting all customers into one whole. Even the smallest retail businesses have certain groups of customers. They can be united according to various criteria: those who buy the same category of product, regular customers or new customers who make random purchases at a retail outlet or find your products on the Internet. When forming a plan, you need to consider what you can offer each of the groups and what you can get in return.

Error 4. The plan does not indicate deadlines and responsible persons. In the sales plan, everything should be clear: what is the goal, when it should be accomplished, by whom and using what tools.

Mistake 5. The plan is not structured enough. Each department and seller in particular should have its own individual plan. Agree that when you don’t have your own plan, the temptation to place all the responsibility on your colleagues is too great.

Mistake 6: The plan was not discussed with the sales people. The plan will never be fully developed if it was drawn up by one manager, guided only by reports and graphs. Frontline salespeople should at a minimum have the opportunity to discuss the plan with management, and better yet, be directly involved in creating the sales plan.

Be sure that you made the plan correctly if, at the end of the period, it turned out to be 85-105% completed.

How to achieve the plan

It's one thing to make a plan for yourself. This can be done by an entrepreneur seeking to increase profits or a manager aimed at career growth.

But the situation is completely different with plans for subordinates. You should not severely punish for every failure to fulfill the sales plan and keep employees under a tight rein - this is ineffective.

It’s better to listen to the advice of experienced entrepreneurs:

Briefly, but as completely as possible, formulate what you want from your employees. It is better to convey this to them in writing.
Incentivize financially. The best employees deserve a bonus.
Set bonuses not only for 100% completion, but also for each passing of a certain minimum threshold (for example, 60%). The employee may not have fulfilled the plan, but it is clear that he tried.
Fine for systematic violations.
The entire vertical of employees (from an ordinary salesperson to a top manager) must be financially dependent on the implementation of plans.
Respect and value your employees and strive to ensure that they love their place of work and are interested in the development and prosperity of the company.

Financial planning of any trading enterprise is impossible without a sales budget. Maximum accuracy and correctness of calculations is the key to successful organization of work for all structural divisions. Planned indicators are determined for each product line, for each branch, store and direction, for each manager (if there is such a need). Let's look at how to create a monthly sales plan in Excel.

How to create a monthly sales plan: example

We have a growing enterprise that systematically maintains financial records. Sales are influenced by such indicators as seasonality. Let's forecast sales for future periods.

Sales for last year:

The monthly sales budget will be more accurate the more actual data is taken for analysis. Therefore, we took the figures for the 12 previous periods (months).

Since the company is developing, a linear trend can be used to forecast sales. Mathematical equation: y = b*x + a. Where

y – sales;
x – serial number of the period;
a – minimum limit;
b – increase in each next value in the time series.

The linear trend value in Excel is calculated using the LINEST function. Let's make a table to determine the coefficients of the equation (y and x are already known to us).

To quickly call a function, press F2, and then the key combination Ctrl + Shift + Ins. And with the combination SHIFT+F3 we open a window with the arguments of the LINEST function (the cursor is in cell G 2, under argument b). Fill in:

We select 2 cells at once: G2 and H2 (the values of the arguments b and a). The cell with the formula must be active. Press F2, and then the key combination Ctrl + Shift + Enter. We obtain the values for the unknown coefficients of the equation:

Let us find the value y for each period of the analyzed time interval. Let's substitute the calculated coefficients into the equation.

The next stage is the calculation of deviations of actual sales values from the linear trend values:

We need this value to calculate seasonality. Next, we find the average sales indicator for all periods using the AVERAGE function.

Let's calculate the seasonality index for each period. Calculation formula: sales volume for the period / average volume.

Using the AVERAGE function, we find the general seasonality index:

Let's forecast the sales level for the next month. We will take into account the increase in sales volume and seasonality.

First, let's find the trend value for the future period. To do this, in the column with period numbers, add the number 13 - a new month. Let’s extend the formula in the “Trend Value” column down one cell:

Let’s multiply the trend value by the seasonality index of the corresponding month (in the example, “January”). We get the calculated sales volume of goods in the new period:

Using the same principle, you can predict sales for 2, 3, 4 and subsequent months.

Forecast chart with trend line:

When constructing a financial sales plan, the concept of “section” is used. This is a detailed plan in a certain “section”: by time, by sales channels, by buyers (clients), by product groups, by managers. Such detail allows you to check the realism of the forecast, and in the future, check its implementation.

Analysis of sales plan implementation in Excel

For each product item, data on actual sales for the period (per month, as a rule) is collected.

Our example table is elementary. But in an enterprise, it makes sense to distribute products by product items, provide article numbers, and sales in units. For a more detailed analysis, indicate the cost, calculate profitability and profit.

Analysis of plan implementation by position allows you to compare current indicators with previous ones and with planned ones. If a sharp change has occurred in some area, a more detailed study of the direction is required.

When statistical data has been entered and formatted, it is necessary to evaluate the implementation of the plan for product items. A comparison table might look like this:

To calculate the percentage of plan completion, you need to divide the actual indicators by the planned ones and set the percentage format for the cells in Excel.