sales strategy business plan template

• TemplateLab

Sales Plan Templates

32 sales plan & sales strategy templates.

People involved in sales usually depend on a specific plan. One which would set their sales goals and establish the strategies they need. With the help of a sales strategy, they can also establish the budgets they need.

They can identify sale market prospects; plan the requirements of their staff and adapt a timeline in reaching their goals. But the sales plan is just one aspect of business management and planning.

Table of Contents

• 1 Sales Plan Templates
• 2 Main parts and purpose of a sales plan template
• 3 Sale Strategies
• 4 The benefits of using a sales plan template
• 5 Free Sales Plan Templates
• 6 Tips for creating your sales plan template

The design of a good sales tracking spreadsheet could be costly in terms of time, money, and effort. To facilitate this requirement, you can just download a template here. This can provide efficiency and easy organization.

Then you can use the resources meant for the design in achieving your business goals . Sales and marketing personnel can use the template as a tool to communicate their ideas. A sales plan template can be part of your business.

But it would depend upon the nature of scope of your business.

Main parts and purpose of a sales plan template

A sales strategy will be helpful for any organization. This is especially true when planning their activities in a structured manner. This will ensure that they achieve all their objectives and goals.

It’s paramount that you design the plan with meticulous care. Make sure to include all the necessary parts. To have an inkling of what and how a sales template looks like, you can go online. To help you out, here are some main parts of such a plan:

• Executive summary
• Elevator pitch
• Mission of the organization
• Analysis details
• Objectives and goals
• Relevant performance indicators
• End users and target audience
• Analysis of advantages and the competition
• Marketing strategy

There are good reasons why businesses invest a lot of money and effort in formulating a sales plan. Fortunately, you can simply download a template to make things easier for you. Such plan will serve varied purposes which we shall briefly enumerate:

• Setting up goals for each individual and for the business too.
• Creating an effective operational plan.
• Setting up the business expenses/finances.
• Analyzing the business’s financial statements.
• Determining and analyzing the potential risks.
• Devising an efficient marketing strategy.
• Creating an actual profile of customers who patronize the business’s products or services.
• Identifying target audiences and would-be customers.
• Getting more familiar with the sales cycle.
• The plan will play an important role in determining the financial goals of the business.

It’s important to have an efficient and effective sales plan. Then you’re expected to meet all your company’s predefined objectives and goals.

More importantly, it will enhance the organization’s profits. If you prefer to create your own templates, consider the following tips. These will prove beneficial to your endeavor:

• The customers take first consideration when creating the plan.
• Do intensive researches work on market trends before starting to plan.
• Consider the weaknesses and strengths of the competition.
• Give particular attention to details when creating the plan.
• Include all the relevant angles that are essential to the sales plan.

Sales plan templates are periodically made by businesses. They can have them monthly or even seasonal. In the case of small businesses , a two-week period is best to provide a better insight into market trends.

Sale Strategies

The benefits of using a sales plan template

Have you ever tried to plan an event without a plan? It certainly is a winning formula for chaos and disorganization. Some people take for granted the use of a plan. They may find it difficult or expensive and would rather not part with their money.

This situation can be bad because they are missing the advantages of good planning. Consider these benefits:

• You’ll be able to stay on your strategy. A sales strategy will provide you a synopsis of the most important aspects of your plan. It will also remind you of issues that you need to include. Interruptions may happen when people don’t know what issues should to prioritize.
• Your objectives will be clearer. A good plan should incorporate specific objectives. You need to establish then manage these objectives. These can include sales, website visitors, margins or the launching of new products . Make the achievement of objectives the measure of success.
• You’ll make better-educated guesses. With the progression of the plan, you’ll be able to predict the outcomes of certain issues. These include potential markets, lead processing, sales costs, and other business processes.
• Your priorities will become more sensible. A business definitely has some other priorities aside from its sales strategy. You can plan the company’s management, its growth, and financial health. These should all be part of the plan. Set the groundwork for your priorities and make changes as the business develops.
• You’ll be able to understand independencies more. You can define the plan as a schedule of events that should happen chronologically. Use the plan to determine what activities should occur and in what order. The plan will prove its value in making you organized and on time.
• Setting milestones will keep you right on track. The plan will provide you with target deadlines and dates for the goals you need to accomplish. This will apply to either a solo enterprise or for a team in a company.
• You’ll be able to delegate better. The plan will define the responsibility of each team and individual. There will always be a member who will be in charge of some important task.
• Team management and results tracking will be a lot easier. Businesses usually set review time for their employees . This is to determine their performances, particularly as team members. Many hate these reviews but they’re a gauge of performance. You can use them to commend, improve or correct the employee’s work . These reviews should be part of the plan. Also, you should put them in writing as part of the member’s record.
• You can manage and plan the cash flow better. A business that mismanages their cash flow will definitely fail. There’s a need for a cash-flow plan. Educated guesses based on market trends will be important. Use it to bring together what assets you need to purchase and what debts you need to pay .
• Course corrections will help keep your business going. The presence of a sales plan makes the business more proactive than reactive. Planning ahead makes for lesser mistakes. Constantly tracking activities could help predict better results and make corrections when needed. A prediction based on nothing is a myth. But predictions can eventuate if based on trends and facts. The plan should define and set expectations and establish assumptions. You can better manage what comes next and make course corrections if they happen.

Sales tracking spreadsheets and plans aren’t only for giant corporations. They can apply to small enterprises as well. No need to delve into complicated matters regarding your business. It’s a fairly straightforward document but it’s powerful enough to do a big job.

Free Sales Plan Templates

Tips for creating your sales plan template

In a business, a sales strategy is also important as this serves as a guide to the sales team of the company. A sales plan is specifically for sales personnel. It will guide them in attaining their objectives and goals.

The plan can be long-term which could last for years or short-term, such as an annual plan. In either case, the common ground is that the plan steers the members to their goals through sales.

• Set definite sales goals. Businesses usually have financial goals. After all, they are in it for the money. It’s important to set specific goals. Those which sales personnel must attain within a certain period of time. Specific goals can help the employees break them down into quantifiable objectives.
• Define your sales objectives based on sales goals. Write them down. Specific achievements can help you meet your sales goals. You can have a sales objective which will include an increase in sales by a specific number of units. You can hasten to reach the objective by cross-selling products during a period of time. This will undoubtedly incur an increase in expenditures. This is inevitable when doing promotions or advertisements.
• You need to identify three important aspects of your customer’s sales focus. First, there’s the customer profile. Salespersons will need some information about their customers so they can make predictions. From this information, they can target the products they can sell to their customers. Then, there’s the organization profile. You will have to explain the kind of organization you’re targeting. Finally, there’s the sales territory. This will refer to the region that you will be operating in. A list of accounts of each salesperson would be helpful as each would focus on a distinct market niche.
• Identify your target sales market. The sales plan should have a target sales market. This will include the research you’ve done on market trends. Consider the industry sales data associated with the products and services you offer. You should be aware of current developments in the industry. This will be important for your sales projections which you based on sales figures of the industry. Also, make mention of competitors in the market. These competitors offer the same goods or services. Make comparisons on each other’s market shares, customer base, and competitive advantages. You’ll spend the most hours of research and work on this section of the plan. What you intend to do will define your strategies and the tactics to execute them.
• The next thing to do is to identify the tools and systems. Here, enumerate the things that you’ll need to successfully implement your plan. The main systems to outline consist of regular weekly meetings on sales progress. Also, you need a CRM system. Use it to execute your plan and come up with sales plan metrics. Finally, list the communication equipment too.
• After you have formulated the sales objectives, you’ll now work on measures. These would keep track of your sales objective’s progress as against achieving them.
• Create a pipeline that can identify each stage of development. You need to identify the stages of your newly acquired business leads. You can also source out more sales opportunities within your customer accounts on-hand. The important metrics that you need to measure are conversion rates for every stage of your sales process. Name the reasons why sales opportunities are being lost for each stage. The percentage or win rate of all new leads that which you’ve converted into sales.
• The next thing to plan is your team. This section of the plan will list the members of your sales team. Also, identify their roles and responsibilities. In case you have a separate marketing agency team, include them in this section. Describe also the proper roles of this team. They are an essential part of your sales performances.
• Design a target date to accomplish all your goals. Also, include the calendaring of all milestones, task, and activities. All those required for you to achieve such goals. Be specific about time management methods. These will provide assistance in prioritization, delegation, and scheduling.
• Based on your financial resources, create a budget plan. One that’s required to accomplish your sales objectives. The budget for your team will be part of the bigger budget for the company. You will need to develop a system. Use it to track down and monitor the expenditures that are specific to your sales objectives. Always be aware that your team doesn’t exceed the budget. Some items may have allocations in your budget. These can include increased production, labor, advertising, equipment, travel, and supplies.
• Make an outline of the strategies and tactics that you’ll need. Everything required to successfully executing your sales plan. A top-down strategy would be great. One which allows you to communicate the goals to every salesperson in your team. Mention the HR personnel who provided assistance to execute the plan. To strengthen the capabilities of your people, they may need more training. Include this as a component of the sales plan.

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22 Best Sales Strategies, Plans, & Initiatives for Success [Templates]

Discover sales strategy examples, templates, and plans used by top sales teams worldwide.

FREE SALES PLAN TEMPLATE

Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

Published: 08/28/24

A strong sales strategy plan creates the foundation for a cohesive and successful sales organization. Sales strategies and initiatives also align salespeople on shared goals and empower them to do their best work — keeping them happy and successful, too.

In this guide, I’ll dig into some sales strategies and initiatives that I’ve found can help you generate more leads and close more deals. But first, let’s define what a sales strategy is.

Table of Contents

What is a sales strategy?

Why is a sales strategy important, the most effective sales strategies, how to build a sales strategy, sales initiatives, sales strategy examples from successful sales teams.

A sales strategy is a set of decisions, actions, and goals that inform how your sales team positions the organization and its products to close new customers. It acts as a guide for sales reps to follow, with clear goals for sales processes, product positioning, and competitive analysis.

Free Sales Plan Template

Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.

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Account-Based Selling

Account-Based Selling (ABS) is a sales strategy that's rooted in locking in on key, higher-value accounts as opposed to casting a wide net for a broad range of prospects. With ABS, salespeople are expected to identify and pursue specific accounts that have high conversion potential.

That means salespeople are expected to conduct thorough, thoughtful research on prospects to more effectively meet them where they are. The strategy also places emphasis on collaboration with marketing — sales teams lean on their marketing departments to create personalized, targeted content for each account.

Ultimately, successfully executed Account-Based Selling rests on a sales team's ability to take a granular approach to really lock in on individual prospects' needs and interests. Salespeople leveraging the strategy also need to know how to prioritize the accounts they pursue.

ABS can be extremely effective if it's done right, but it does come with its share of risk — if your sales org elects to forego reaching out to a wide range of prospects in favor of connecting with key accounts, you generally have less room for error.

For a look at some other key methodologies that can inform your sales strategy, check out this article.

Below, I’ll walk through how to create a sales strategy plan for your team.

Sales 101: Go From Beginner to Pro With These Strategies

8 Signs That It's Time to Walk Away From a Prospect, According to Sales Leaders

The Power of AI in Sales & 7 Ways You Can Use It in 2024

What is a Sales Funnel? (& What You Should Make Instead)

Outcome-Based Selling: An Overview + Practical Tips

The Ins & Outs of Cold Emailing That Delivers Results

What Is Cross-Selling? Intro, Steps, and Pro Tips [+Data]

Company Growth Strategy: 7 Key Steps for Business Growth & Expansion

9 Bad Sales Habits (& How to Break Them In 2024), According to Sales Leaders

9 Key Social Selling Tips, According to Experts

Powerful and easy-to-use sales software that drives productivity, enables customer connection, and supports growing sales orgs

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10 Free Sales Plan Templates in Word, Excel, & ClickUp

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

August 12, 2024

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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.

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.

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?

• Sales 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 sales 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.

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.

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. ✅

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 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. 📞

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. 📝

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.

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. 📈

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. 🎯

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.

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. 📄

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.

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.

Types of Sales Strategies

It’s essential to know that there isn’t a single ‘best’ strategy that will work for every business or every sales team. It all depends on your business goals, the nature of your product or service, your audience demographics, and various other factors. Here’s an overview of some of the most common types of sales strategies that you may consider incorporating into your sales plan:

Solution Selling: This strategy involves identifying a problem that your prospective customer is experiencing and positioning your product or service as the best solution. This requires a deep understanding of your customers’ pain points and how your offerings can address those issues.

Value Selling: Value selling is a strategy often used in B2B sales where the focus is on communicating the overall value that a product or service brings to a customer’s business. It involves demonstrating how features and benefits translate to significant returns on investment, savings, or productivity gains for your customer.

Social Selling: With the prevalence of social media platforms in today’s business landscape, social selling has become highly effective. It involves using social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook to find and engage with potential customers. By providing useful content, answering questions, and engaging in conversations, salespeople can build relationships and generate leads.

Inbound Selling: Inbound selling puts the customer first. It’s a sales methodology that focuses on personalizing the sales experience based on where the buyer is in their journey. This strategy aligns sales efforts with buyer needs to provide solutions that are the best fit for their individual challenges.

Consultative Selling: This strategy involves acting as a trusted adviser to potential customers. The focus is on building relationships, understanding the needs and problems of the customer, and then recommending solutions. It’s more about dialogue and less about pitching.

Account-Based Selling : Account-based selling is a strategic approach that treats individual accounts as markets of their own. It involves crafting personalized buying experiences that cater to the unique needs and challenges of high-value accounts.

Each of these sales strategies can bring efficiency and effectiveness to your sales process. However, the key to success is understanding and selecting which strategy aligns best with your business model and customer base. Then, incorporate it into your sales plan and support it with the right sales plan template.

Sales Planning Tips and Strategies

Planning is a crucial aspect for a successful sales strategy. Here are some valuable tips and strategies to boost your sales planning process:

1. Set Clear Objectives: Clearly outline what you want to achieve. Your objectives are your guiding light, providing a direction for your sales planning. These objectives should align with broader business goals.

2. Understand Your Audience: Research extensively about your target audience. Understand their needs, desires, and pain points. The more you know about your potential customers, the better you’ll be able to position your product or service effectively.

3. Implement SMART Goals : Your sales plan should be based on SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound) goals. This way, your goals will be clear, realistic, and trackable.

4. Stay Informed about Market Trends: Business environments are constantly changing. Stay updated with the latest industry trends and competitor strategies to keep your sales plan agile and effective.

5. Incorporate Sales Tools: The effective use of technology can completely transform your sales process. Build your sales tech stack with CRM software , data analytics, and sales project management platforms like ClickUp to automate processes and give your sales team a high-impact lift.

6. Regularly Review and Adjust Your Plan: Your sales plan should be a dynamic document. Regularly revisiting and adjusting your plan based on performance metrics, market changes, or shifts in company goals ensures that your sales strategy remains relevant and effective.

7. Train and Empower Your Sales Team: The success of any plan lies in its execution. Provide your sales team with proper training and resources they need to effectively implement the sales plan. Encourage them to also bring innovative ideas to the table.

8. Customer Retention: Don’t just focus on acquiring new customers. Implement strategies in your sales plan to retain existing customers as it’s often more cost-effective to maintain a loyal customer base than to constantly seek out new ones.

9. Refine Your Sales Pitch: Ensure your value proposition is strong and compelling. Your sales pitch should highlight the unique values and benefits of your product or service.

10. Measure Performance: Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your sales plan. This can provide valuable insights about what’s working and what needs to be improved.

By incorporating these sales planning tips and strategies into your processes, you can improve your sales plan’s effectiveness and increase your chances of success. As always, keep an open mind to adjustments and improvements along the way!

Reach Sales Goals With Free Sales Strategy 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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SALES STRATEGY

The big picture on sales strategy.

Conceptualize, measure and understand the opportunities to improve your customer pipeline and journey.

SALES STRATEGY: "HOW DO WE GET MORE CUSTOMERS TO BUY OUR STUFF?"

WHAT DOES A SALES STRATEGY LOOK LIKE?

SALES IS SIMPLY A SERIES OF INTERACTIONS & CONVERSATIONS

When you strip out all of the noise, from a customer's point of view, their journey to purchase is a series of interactions and conversations. A customer is trying to solve a problem, and in their journey to solve it, they may become aware of your potential solution, show interest by seeking more information, consider the solution versus other competitors, and hopefully convert into a customer and a loyal repeat customer.

These interactions could be through a company's website, app, online content, stores, salespeople, partners and distributors, and other customers. You can conceptualize this series of customer & company interactions in two ways. From the perspective of the customer, you can codify the interactions in a customer journey map. From the perspective of a sales team, you can conceptualize the interactions in a  sales pipeline.

The first step in developing a strong sales strategy is to abstract the performance of the sales pipeline by applying a series of longitudinal metrics to each stage of the pipeline. How many potential targets are there, suspects, prospects, customers, or repeat customers? How long do they stay in each stage? How many drop off in each stage? How valuable are they in each stage? How have the metrics evolved over time?

Like any process , if you can't measure it, it becomes challenging to improve it. High-performing sales teams automate much of this data through a well-utilized and updated sales CRM system. If your company can't systematically report on the sales pipeline, then developing the capability, infrastructure, and discipline to measure and improve the pipeline should be an initiative in your sales strategy.

TAKING SALES INSIGHT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

THE 4 WAYS TO GROW SALES

There are four ways to grow sales through a customer pipeline:

• Increase Addressable Market - put more people through the mouth of the funnel
• Accelerate Deal Velocity - make each step/stage shorter for the customer
• Improve Stage Gate Success - have the customer say yes to the next step more often
• Increase Deal Size - upsell and focus efforts on the larger deals

Understanding how these four growth metrics evolved over time is a good starting point for diagnosing customer pipeline issues and opportunities.  These four growth metrics are outputs of the sales growth drivers, which we go into next.

THE 3 SALES GROWTH DRIVERS

Sales growth comes down to better customer interactions and conversations, more of them, along with a better value proposition and marketing . To make these things a reality, there are three main components to a strong sales strategy:

1. Improving the alignment between the target customer , the differentiated value proposition , marketing, and distribution

2. Incorporating corporate growth strategy initiatives in the sales strategy

3. Developing a strong sales team strategy to improve the sales process and interactions executed by the salespeople, infrastructure, and partners

1. DON'T PASS GO UNLESS YOU HAVE A KILLER VALUE PROPOSITION

Many CEOS misdiagnosis their weak sales by concluding, "it must be the sales team."  

A strong sales team is important, but the most important driver of sales is a killer value proposition that creates more value than the competition for target customers. Once you have a killer value proposition, then you need the right messaging, marketing, and distribution that clearly amplifies the value proposition to the target customers.

So, the first thing any sales strategy should address is to make sure there is a clearly defined and articulated target customer, a killer value proposition for the target customer, and impactful messaging, marketing, and distribution focused on the target customer. Alignment on a target customer will make everyone's efforts more focused, efficient, and effective, while differentiation will make customers say yes more often.

Seriously, don't overlook this point. Pretty much every company that grows for decades and becomes a leader in their industry has and continually improves a killer value proposition that creates more value than competitors for the target customers. It is the heart that makes the sales flow for any strong sales team.

Now, we often hear, "well, that isn't under my control."  Well, you better figure out how to influence it, because, without alignment and differentiation, the customer will more often than not choose not to do business with your company.

2. WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE BIG PICTURE STRATEGY STUFF?

Hopefully, you have a killer value proposition and aligned marketing and distribution, now what? Well, you need to think through how the high-level corporate growth strategy is going to affect sales and the sales team. Is the company expanding into new markets , customer segments, and geographies? Are there new and improved products , services, and pricing ? Are there new distribution channels or marketing campaigns? While it may be a lot to think through, growth expansion initiatives can have a significant impact on sales and the sales team.

Now, a few words of caution. First, be careful not to go after too many options , which can quickly overextend the sales team and the entire company. Companies that fail often go after too many new markets , customer segments, and geographies at the same time. Inevitably, the ambitious agenda creates fragmented efforts, massive complexity , opportunity cost , and ultimately failure. Second, while sales leadership should have a sizeable role in shaping the corporate growth strategy, it should not lead the effort. We see too many companies that try to say yes to everything sales wants to do, which often leads to a lot of running in place and going nowhere. Successful companies have a strong and balanced leadership team stewarding the big decisions and execution around corporate growth strategy.

Growth strategy initiatives are significant inputs into the last part of sales strategy, which is the sales team strategy. The big question is how growth strategy initiatives will affect sales and the sales team. Is there a need for new processes, people, partners, and technology? What is the expected impact on sales, quotas, customer metrics, and pipeline dynamics? This is one of the reasons why sales strategy is so complicated since there are so many dimensions that ultimately need to be addressed by the sales team, with the ultimate goal of having better customer interactions and conversations and more of them.

3. WHAT THE HECK ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH THE SALES TEAM?

Now to the heart of sales strategy, which is the sales team strategy. Any team, including a sales team, is simply a collection of processes executed by people, infrastructure, and partners. And, strategy is simply the goals we choose and the actions we take to achieve those goals. So, sales team strategy comes down to the sales team goals and the portfolio of initiatives to improve the processes, people, infrastructure, and partners to a level necessary to achieve the goals.

Below are some options to focus those sales team strategy initiatives on. We'll go over the high-level framing of some of the strategic options .

GET THE PROCESS RIGHT AND THE SALES WILL FOLLOW

Everything every member of a sales team does is a process, whether acknowledged as one or not. Has your sales team documented their processes, measure them? If not, that is a great place to start.

There are four main levels of a sales process outlined below.

At the highest level is the sales team governance , which includes the processes that strategically manage the sales strategy, forecasting, opportunities, overall pipeline, and sales operations. It typically involves weekly or monthly pipeline reviews, quarterly business reviews, and annual strategic planning , budgeting, and forecasting. The better the governance , the better the accuracy of forecasts, sales strategy, performance, and understanding of cause and effect.

The next level of the sales process is the customer journey, which includes every aspect of the journey customers take through an organization's processes to discover, evaluate, purchase, and consume the company's services and products. Strategic initiatives typically target reducing customer effort (e.g., self-help, automation , digital enablement), leaning out the customer processes, and increasing the rate of success on prioritized pipeline stages.

The sales methodology is one of the most critical processes for a sales team. The sales methodology is the overall sales approach between sales team members and customers to drive deal velocity and success. Most sales books focus on sales methodologies, such as spin selling , solution selling , MEDDIC , key account selling , GAP selling , and many others. We'll go a little deeper and synthesize all those books into a handful of important questions to quickly qualify and accelerate a deal.

The last level of the sales process to solve for is the daily, weekly, and monthly activity at the team and individual levels, which typically includes the day-to-day activity management and reporting to drive productivity and deal velocity through the pipeline.

ANSWER THE BASIC QUESTIONS TO ACCELERATE & CLOSE DEALS

There are hundreds of good books on sales methodology, but most of the methodologies come down to answering the basic 5 Ws (who, what, where, why, when) and 1 H (how) questions of a deal to qualify, accelerate and close the deal.

Once again, sales growth is driven by better customer interactions and conversations, and more of them. Weaving these questions into customer interactions, and recording and addressing the answers will help deals get through the pipeline. If you don't have a strong sales methodology, then start developing one that asks and answers the basic customer questions necessary to get a deal done.

TAKE A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE PEOPLE PART OF A SALES TEAM STRATEGY

For many B2B companies, sales expense, in the form of salary and commission, is often their largest financial expense, making it especially important to elevate and realize the potential of salespeople and the collective sales team.

There are many questions to answer about the people part of a sales strategy, which all fall into the various categories of our people strategy framework:

• Org Design ( Mission , Corporate Strategy, Structure, Roles & Competencies)
• Employee Journey (Recruiting, Hiring, Onboarding , Development, Evaluation, Advancement)
• Culture (Comp & Benefits, Environment, Norms, Values )

For a complete overview, visit our entire section on organizational strategy , hr strategy - org design , and hr strategy - employee journey & culture . Below, we'll cover some of the more unique elements of sales team strategy.

WHAT SHOULD THE SALES ORG LOOK LIKE?

A challenging question that typically comes up is, "what should the sales org look like?" 

There is a lot of art and science in answering this question. Regarding the size of the sales org, utilize benchmarks on revenue productivity per sales team member and percent of sales spend to revenue. You should also analyze the span of control, where each manager should have 8-12 direct reports. You also need to solve for the right amount of levels to the org, the fewer, the better. Finally, there are the actual roles and accountabilities , which we'll get into a bit more next.

HOW SHOULD WE ORGANIZE THIS SALES TEAM?

For many sales teams, better customer conversations and interactions necessitate a high level of specialization to address the needs of specific customer segments , markets, geographies, or stages within the sales funnel. This specialization leads to sales teams organizing around one or more of these dimensions (customer segments, markets, geography , sales funnel stages). What dimensions to organize around is a function of the customer experience, specialization, economics, and complexity.

Many companies are constantly reorganizing their sales team from one dimension to another, such as reshuffling the team from a segment focus to a geographic focus. These reorganizations often fail, due to the ensuing chaos. Most existing sales teams have optimized and refined their multitude of internal and external processes based on their existing organizational dimensions. When a sales team reorg happens, a sales team has to reconfigure its processes, infrastructure, and partners. If the change management of the sales reorg isn't stellar, often the customer journey and sales team devolves into a bit of chaos.

THE LOW HANGING FRUIT OF A SALES TEAM STRATEGY

The adage goes "it's all about the people."   We like to expand that to it's all about the recruiting, hiring, onboarding, development, evaluation, and advancement of the people. Improving the employee journey is essential in any sales strategy. The first place to start is to establish best practices in recruiting and hiring. The lowest hanging fruit is typically increasing the number of candidates you recruit and interview while professionalizing the interview and hiring process with standard interview guides and scorecards, group and immersive interviews, and team decision-making .

When it comes to the rest of the employee journey , one of the most impactful exercises is to survey team members about their employee journey, which not only creates a baseline but also solicits good ideas while providing built-in buy-in to improvements. Furthermore, there are a ton of established best practices in each stage of the employee journey.

YOU GET WHAT YOU REWARD

CREATING A SALES STRATEGY

In developing a sales strategy, always keep in mind you are solving for two things: 1.  the goals the sales team will strive to achieve, and 2. the strategic sales initiatives necessary to achieve the goals.

Whether it takes a few days, a few weeks, or a few months, there are typically four steps in developing a sales strategy, which is:

• Generate insights into the sales pipeline, customer journey, corporate growth strategy, sales team, and overall alignment & differentiation.
• Develop opportunities on how the sales team can improve the processes, people, partners, and infrastructure.
• Prioritize the potential initiatives based on value & benefit versus cost & effort.
• Set the goals and roadmap of the portfolio of sales initiatives

Given the breadth of possible analyses, gaps, opportunities, goals, and initiatives, it is imperative to assemble the best possible internal strategy team to develop and execute a very focused and impact-oriented project plan .

STEP 1: GENERATE SALES STRATEGY INSIGHTS

In developing a strong sales strategy, there are five main areas to generate insights on 1. the sales pipeline, 2. the customer journey, 3. corporate growth strategy initiatives, 4. alignment & differentiation, 5. the sales team (processes, people, infrastructure and partners).

A focused set of hypotheses and analyses will generate a ton of insights, otherwise, a team can "boil the ocean," wasting precious time and resources on things that don't matter. Focus on answering the key questions below, utilizing some of the typical strategic analyses and tools. By doing so, the team will generate the big "aha" insights that will guide the entire strategy project.

STEP 2: DEVELOP SALES STRATEGY OPPORTUNITIES

Once you have foundational insights for the sales strategy, then you enter the "create options" phase, where you need to come up with and develop the improvement opportunities that will drive sales to the next level. This phase drives the overall value of the strategy, since the number and quality of options limits strategies. Make sure you solicit ideas from as many places as possible and get the most creative and knowledgeable people involved to push the thinking.

There is always the opportunity to improve the customer journey, internal sales processes, and cross-functional processes. The lean toolkit , automation , and digital strategies will help sprout and nurture the best ideas. Solicit ideas and feedback from the entire sales team. A simple survey with both structured and open-ended questions will do the trick. There are also hundreds of best practices to improve the maturity of the sales processes , methodologies, people, and infrastructure.

STEP 3: PRIORITIZE THE GREAT IDEAS

Hopefully, at this stage of the project, you have more improvement ideas than resources and budget to execute.  Now, we are in the prioritization phase of the project. Before diving into prioritizing the ideas, you first want to see how much you can simplify , rearrange and combine the ideas into some larger potential initiatives.

Now, we get to the fun and collaborative stage of decision-making. Utilize some sort of prioritization or decision matrix to problem solve and debate the potential value/benefit , and cost/effort of each initiative. Get the right leadership and stakeholders in the room to have this robust debate, and potentially have a few rounds to refine and improve the thinking. In the end, focus the strategy on those "no brainer" ideas that are high value/benefit and low cost/effort with a shorter time horizon (3 months to 1-2 years).  For the "big bet" initiatives, figure out the timing, budget, dependencies, etc., before making a decision.

One of the most difficult challenges for sales team leadership is deciding on the right portfolio of initiatives. The first part of this challenge is getting enough skilled talent mobilized to successfully execute the initiatives and change management . The second part of the challenge is understanding the amount of change the sales team can realistically handle.

Whatever your decision-making governance , by the end you should have a strong portfolio of initiatives, budgets, owners, timing, and a pretty clear idea of the potential impact on the core metrics of the sales team.

STEP 4: SET THE SALES GOALS, FINALIZE THE ROADMAP, AND EXECUTE

Strategy comes down to setting goals and executing the portfolio of improvement initiatives necessary to achieve the goals.  You should distill all of the strategic analyses, problem solving , collaborating, and decision-making into one page of sales goals and initiatives. Of course, there should be a lot more detail (e.g., project plans, resource plans, change management plans, budgets, spreadsheets) behind the one page. However, as you think about communicating the big sales strategy to upper management, the internal sales team, external stakeholders, and partners, one page is always best.

One last thought, invest the time, resources, and commitment to change management . The hardest part of executing any strategy is the necessary behavioral change at the individual level. Thinking through the change management framework for each initiative will pay dividends in driving the change you are seeking.

If you want to talk about your sales strategy with an experienced strategy coach, set up some time with Joe Newsum , a Mckinsey Alum, and the author of this content and website.

DOWNLOAD THE SALES STRATEGY PLAN PRESENTATION TEMPLATE

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16 Sales Plan Templates to Plan Your Sales Strategy

Written by: Olujinmi Oluwatoni

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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Free Sales Plan Template

Free Template

Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan by HubSpot and Aircall .

This template includes sections for:.

• Company History & Mission
• Team Structure
• Target Market
• Tools and Software
• Positioning
• Marketing Strategy
• Prospecting Strategy
• Action Plan
• Sales Cadence

Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

Sales departments are doubling down their efforts. Only  18% of buyers  trust salespeople,  meaning that sales teams need to work smarter, not just harder. How can sales leaders ensure this happens?

A sales plan is an actionable way to simplify and document your sales goals and your strategies to accomplish them. Budgets, marketing strategy, positioning, and other topics are explained in detail as well. 

Download this template from HubSpot and Aircall , and build your sales plan . Make it simple for your team, direct reports, and execs to understand what your goals are, how you'll accomplish them, and any support you'll need. 

How do I write a sales plan?

Set your targets and goals, create your sales strategies, choose sales tactics and train your sales staff, set your budget and implement your plan.

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We will always keep your personal information safe. We ask for your information in exchange for a valuable resource in order to (a) improve your browsing experience by personalizing the HubSpot site to your needs; (b) send information to you that we think may be of interest to you by email or other means; (c) send you marketing communications that we think may be of value to you. You can read more about our privacy policy  here .

How do you create an individual sales plan?

Creating an effective sales plan: define your objectives, assign roles and responsibilities to the sales team, create your strategy, find your sales tools, define your metrics for success, set your budget, outline our action plan.

Is this really free?

Absolutely . Just sharing some free knowledge that we hope you’ll find useful. Keep us in mind next time you have marketing questions!

What are the 7 steps to creating a sales plan?

Step-by-step guide to creating your sales plan: set your target, assess the situation, identify barriers to success, list your strengths and resources, develop your sales strategy, figure out what you will need for your strategy, make an action plan.

What are the 4 selling strategies?

Four basic sales strategies for B2B are solution selling, account-based selling, strategic selling, and social selling.

Over 32,000 sales leaders and entrepreneurs are already using this sales plan template.

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Sales strategy: The ultimate guide with examples and templates

In this guide, we’ll help you build the foundations of a strong sales strategy so that you can meet your targets and close deals at a higher rate.

By establishing a strategy based on these proven sales principles, you’ll create a culture that values efficiency, empowers reps to do their best work and be properly rewards them for it. An effective sales strategy will also help provide your customers with value at every step of the customer journey.

You’ll also learn the sales activities and processes that create a well-oiled system.

Setting goals at each stage of the sales funnel

By using data to drive decision-making, you can set reasonable and attainable sales goals at every stage of the sales pipeline.

Each stage requires a different approach, including messaging, content and, most importantly, unique sales activities. The objections and obstacles you’ll come across will also vary, which is why setting goals for every deal stage is key.

The desired outcome for one stage of the sales process is different from the next. Let’s take a look at some of the most common pipeline sales stages :

Prospecting

Qualification

Appointment/meeting/discovery call

Needs defined

Proposal/presentation/offer

Negotiation

For example, the desired outcome of a discovery call is to identify a problem, as well as to qualify whether a lead will be a good fit for your solution. At the proposal stage, however, you must position yourself as the best solution, prepare for negotiation and win the sale.

Establish goals in two categories:

Activity-based goals. These are the inputs required to take a sales opportunity to the next stage of the pipeline (e.g., email outreach, follow-up calls etc.).

Results-based goals. A quantifiable number needed to reach your “true north” goal (e.g., number of appointments made, number of follow-up emails sent etc.).

This is where mapping your entire sales process is invaluable. When you know which actions are required to guide a lead to the next stage of your relationship, you can work on optimizing those activities.

Another sales strategy example, as advocated by fractional VP of sales Susan Tourville , is to adopt a bottom-up approach to goal setting:

“I have rescued too many doomed sales teams that were chasing after a revenue goal that they simply were never going to hit. Some revenue targets that come to mind are 50% growth or doubling sales from last year without anything changing to make it possible like additional sales staff, new product offerings, a solid marketing plan, an acquisition to accelerate growth. Don’t do that. When taking a bottom-up approach, you’re not starting with your desired revenue target, you’re ending with a number that can be strategically achieved through effective planning and execution.”

Aim for an objective view on how much effort, time or resources it will take to reach your set of key predefined goals (e.g., number of sales across a period or revenue), as this will help with your sales plan efforts and the sales strategies you develop.

Understand the customer journey across your entire organization

Your sales team members shouldn’t work in silos, and every company has its own customer journey. Start by collecting insights on how leads and outbound sales are generated, new customer onboarding processes and solution fulfillment for customer success.

A consulting firm’s sales strategy example could see them attracting leads through their demand generation efforts or referrals. Those leads are then passed on to sales professionals, who work to qualify and guide those leads to an appointment.

Once the problem has been identified, the reps work with account managers or other consultants in order to develop a proposal with a possible solution.

Whatever this process looks like for you, make sure you have a clear view of every step of the customer journey and client relationship.

Recommended reading

How to optimize your customer journey phases to boost revenue (with free template)

Create a process map structure

No matter which tool you use (from pencil and paper, a free sales process template or software like Lucidchart ), you’ll need a method of illustrating your process using a specific structure for your selling strategy.

Using Lucidchart for reference, you can choose from several “shapes”, or charts, to visualize the nature of each stage of the sales process. The shapes range from top-down family trees to circular charts to process diagrams, and each one works better in different scenarios.

The key is to identify what chart works best for each stage of the sales process so that you can easily optimize and adjust your strategy of selling down the line.

Map your existing sales process

To improve and optimize your sales process, you must understand the activities and steps you’re already using. Start by interviewing other reps and stakeholders throughout your sales organization.

Here are some example questions you can ask based on different roles and responsibilities:

Sales. How do you generate new leads? Once a lead enters the pipeline, how do you guide them toward the close? Is the sales strategy aligned with the marketing strategy?

Sales Development. Do you have a structure for different areas of the sales development function? How are leads prioritized before handing them over from marketing to sales? What is your sales enablement process?

Marketing. What are your top lead sources? How do you assign leads to sales teams and sales development reps (SDRs)?

Asking these questions will fill out any gaps when mapping your sales strategies.

Uncover opportunities

With your existing sales strategy mapped out, it’s time to do a SWOT analysis (i.e., identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).

For example, you might have a strong workflow that nurtures existing leads towards the close, based on fewer leads dropping out mid-process, but your initial lead generation could use some work.

Digging deeper, the biggest problem might be getting inbound leads to agree to a discovery call.

Here, your strength is the process you use to close leads once the initial appointment has been made, and your opportunity is generating more leads and increasing the conversion rate to appointment.

7 problem-solving strategies to overcome project hurdles

Optimize your process map

With your sales process mapped out, you can work to fill in the gaps and increase performance across your entire organization.

First, you need to build a map of your existing process. Here’s the possible process map of a sales strategy example:

To develop a successful sales strategy, template maps like this can really help guide you and your sales team. Go back to the opportunities you outlined above. These will act as the goals for your sales process optimization. Here are a few sales strategy example goals:

• Increase the response time between inbound lead notification and initiating a first sales touch-point
• Optimize the appointment-making process to make it easier for a lead to schedule a call
• Use data enrichment, like finding and consolidating publicly available information about your new lead, to speed up the qualification process

Finally, it’s time to set goals for each existing and new stage. Again, you must set activity- and outcome-based goals throughout the sales process. For example, goals for the appointment-setting stage could be:

• Activities. Reach out to new leads within an hour of them entering the pipeline.
• Outcome. X% lead-to-appointment rate.

How to map your sales process (with a free sales process template)

Create benchmarks based on past performance

Sales strategy mapping is about understanding the activities required to close a deal. But how do you measure those activities and create accurate performance benchmarks?

The first step is, of course, measuring the right metrics. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you measure will depend on the activity.

Here, we’ll run through a simple, three-step process to develop sales performance benchmarks for your sales strategy.

Step 1: Collect the right metrics

With your sales process mapped out, choosing and measuring your sales metrics will be 10 times easier.

First, let’s go through some common sales metric based on different activity categories:

Activity metrics . These include the number of emails sent, follow-ups and cold calls made.

Pipeline metrics . These measure the health of your overall pipeline. Metrics include sales cycle length, total close rate and open sales opportunity by period, team and rep.

Lead generation metrics . These include the volume of new opportunities, lead response time and the number and percentage of leads followed up with.

Outreach metrics . These include email metrics (e.g., open rate and response rate), phone metrics (e.g., the number of leads who agree to an appointment, call-backs and demos) and social selling metrics (e.g., InMail response rate and LinkedIn connections accepted).

Conversion metrics . Opportunities closed, and the percentage of those won or lost.

Most importantly, you must always measure high-level sales KPIs. While the above metrics will give you an overview of activity performance, sales KPIs are what indicate the health of your entire organization.

Metrics that fall under this category include:

Total revenue

New business revenue and percentage of overall revenue

Growth year-over-year

Customer average lifetime value (LTV)

Revenue segmented by product/service offered

Finally, you must assign each metric and benchmark to the different roles within your organization.

For example, a sales development rep (SDR) will most keenly focus on their lead generation and outreach numbers. Whereas a sales manager will need a top-level view of these numbers, as well as how they’re contributing to the core sales KPIs.

Step 2: Calculate your benchmarks

As you collect data over time, you’ll have sufficient volume to calculate accurate benchmarks. However, how you calculate these will vary.

Let’s start with sales KPIs for every position within your sales team. Sales benchmarks for these can be straightforward, depending on how complex you’d like to segment them.

For example, you can set long-term benchmarks across the previous year to set 12-month goals. You may also wish to set revenue benchmarks per month and quarter to keep up a more aggressive sales strategy.

Then, there are activity-based benchmarks. As performance will vary between reps, a team-wide average may not always be the best approach. Therefore, you have two options:

Calculate averages across the entire sales organization

Set criteria for different performance levels and average out the numbers within those segments

The latter is more complex but will allow you to set personalized goals based on your rep’s performance.

For example, if a top performer surpasses team-wide benchmarks every month or quarter, they won’t feel challenged. This lack of stimulation could present a problem for talent retention and could hurt your overall sales strategy.

Segmenting benchmarks by performance can help keep your best reps engaged while contributing to the continued growth of your organization. It will act as an incentive to help other reps focus on what they need to do in order to do better.

By segmenting teams, you can also add a healthy level of competition. Use a tool like Pointagram to visualize and reward performance in a way that boosts morale.

Step 3: Implement benchmarks into your sales training

With your benchmarks defined, it’s time to communicate these with your salespeople , SDRs and anyone else involved in the day-to-day operations of your sales organization.

There are two ways you can use benchmarks to drive team performance:

Communicate sales KPI benchmarks (e.g., revenue etc.) in team meetings and training sessions

Set activity-based benchmarks on a one-to-one basis

Communicating revenue benchmarks will boost team morale and provide a tangible number everyone can aim for. It also turns your sales strategy into a team effort, with everyone working towards hitting your revenue goal.

For activity-based benchmarks, save these for your one-to-one interactions. Show reps what someone within their percentile should aim for and explain how you came to this conclusion.

Most importantly, keep their morale high and show them why they have the ability and talent to achieve those numbers.

Use these benchmarks to set more ambitious goals within your strategy. Couple them with the opportunities you uncovered when mapping your sales process earlier.

Ask questions like, “How can you double the rate of growth by focusing on this opportunity?” This is how sales can stimulate explosive growth for their organizations.

Collect qualitative insights and customer data points

Sales reps often see this sales tactic as an activity reserved for marketing. However, collecting and sharing your own data about leads and customers will help you close more deals and help the entire organization expand and improve.

Collecting customer insights has several benefits:

You can craft more compelling outreach and follow-up emails that get to the crux of customer pain points

You’ll know exactly when to hone in on a certain aspect of your solution or features with each customer demographic and buyer persona

You’ll be able to address sales objections not just by logic but based on the prospect’s goals and motivations

With this in mind, let’s look at some practical ways to collect customer insights to fuel your sales strategy.

Record frequent pain points

Listening is one of the best soft skills a salesperson can have. You talk to your target audience on a daily basis.

Every single conversation you have is an opportunity to learn more about their common pain points, challenges, desires and the things that keep them up at night. Knowing these can help you tailor your pitch and sales techniques to better suit your audience.

Start using this skill and note the common (and even one-off) pain points and challenges your prospects raise during sales calls.

As a sales leader, it’s also up to you to encourage this behavior and create a process that allows your reps to collect these insights. It could be something like:

Note down the timestamp during the call when the pain point was mentioned

Use a call recording system within your CRM to go back to that point

Note down, word for word, how the customer framed pain point and the language used

Store this insight in a global spreadsheet

Over time, as you collect data around this insight, you can help your reps identify which they mention most often. Standardize how they’re positioned by looking at the common language used and order them by importance.

Digging deep to determine customer pain points and make the sale

Get clear with your core differentiator

What makes you different from your competitors? Asking this question is usually another activity that’s often up to marketing to figure out. But just like customer pain points, you’re uniquely positioned to uncover gaps left by your competitors.

There are two stages in your sales conversations where you can collect insights on competitors and uncover gaps in the market:

The initial conversation, asking the prospect which supplier they currently use

During objection handling, where inevitably they’ll measure you against other vendors

Let’s look in-depth at both approaches.

Approach 1: The initial conversation

During the qualification phase, you’ll ask questions that ensure a prospect is a good fit for your solution or product. These questions include simple things like budget and business model and more qualitative insights on how they and their organization currently do things.

Another often forgotten question is around the solution, product or service they’re currently using. This time is a prime opportunity for uncovering what attracted a prospect to you and why they’re dissatisfied with their current vendor.

To uncover gaps your competitors are leaving open, ask questions like:

Why did you originally decide to work with [competitor]?

Which of their features did you find most useful?

Why are you looking for a new solution?

Dig deeper into their responses by asking follow-up questions. This initial conversation is where you find their true motivations and frustrations.

Approach 2: Objection handling

You’re nearly at the close, and confident you’ll win the deal… only to have the dreaded “Competitor X does this, and you don’t” objection.

While this can be disheartening for many salespeople, it’s a tremendous opportunity to learn and figure out the gaps in your own positioning.

When you get an objection like this, follow-up with “Why is this important to you?” or “How do you feel this will solve [their problems] better than [your feature]?”

Not only will you better position yourself against the competition, but their response will provide a platform to address and overcome these objections.

For more guidance on tackling objections, check out our sales objections tool .

Adopt a consultative selling approach to build trust

What’s the best way to build long-lasting business relationships based on trust? Consultative selling is the hallmark of a good strategy to increase sales.

According to our definitive guide on the subject, consultative selling is:

“A philosophy rooted in building a relationship between you and your prospects. A salesperson who practices consultative selling develops a holistic and nuanced understanding of the buyer’s needs, and then they try to fulfill those needs with a customized solution.”

As poor customer relationships are one of the biggest causes of churn, it’s wise to do everything you can to connect with leads at every stage of the customer journey.

Leading causes of churn

Let’s look at what it means to adopt a consultative selling philosophy as part of your strategy for increasing sales.

Build your authority

To successfully create a consultative selling approach, your prospects need confidence in your expertise on the problem they’re looking to solve.

To build authority and position yourself as an expert, follow these tips:

Collect evidence. You need to back up your claims. This can be in the form of case studies, or third-party stats and data (as we covered earlier). Show prospects how you’ve solved their problem in the past.

Create content. Create content on LinkedIn, conduct webinars, record a podcast and post on your company blog to addresses customers’ common pain points. It’s a great way to attract new leads and inbound sales while nurturing existing opportunities.

Address criticism head-on. This will happen, especially if you create content with polarizing views. Instead of hiding from it, address it in comments, on social media and wherever they’ll find your content.

Lead the conversation

Part of consultative selling is understanding that no two conversations are the same. A key skill to cultivate is leading your conversations, uncovering a prospect’s pain points and true motivations and tailoring your conversations to them.

To do this, ask the right questions at the right time, while ensuring your prospects feel understood. Make a list of these questions before the initial call.

Research your prospect’s organization and role to get a feel for what their pain points might be in order to elicit the information you need to craft a relevant solution.

For example, you might discover they already use a competing solution. Therefore, you could ask them why they’re looking for a new solution now and perhaps why they decided to use the competitor in the first place (as discussed earlier).

Consultative selling requires a full picture of your prospect’s current situation. Ask the right questions, and you’ll get the right insights to craft the best solution for each prospect.

Create a bespoke solution

With the right information, you can craft a solution specific to their needs. This solution can be as simple as tying software features to specific challenges or as complex as building a bespoke done-for-you service to help them achieve a big project or goal.

When crafting a bespoke solution for your prospect, follow this three-step process:

Ensure you truly understand their needs. Listen for common themes and challenges throughout your initial conversation. If they say a particular feature, goal or objective is important to them, ensure it’s part of your solution.

Get into the pain. According to CEB Marketing Leadership Council , “personal value has twice as much impact as business value” for B2B buyers. No matter the industry, people buy based on emotion. If you can show how your solution will personally benefit your prospect, you’ll double the value it delivers.

Demonstrate the solution in action. Allow prospects to experience your solution during the sales process. Go beyond just showing them the features or an in-depth proposal and reveal the results your solution can bring.

Couple this approach with traditional elements, such as case studies, to bring the sale home. Demonstrate how you can solve their specific problems by showing the results you’ve got in the past.

Demonstrate how you can get similar results while maintaining relevance to their unique situation.

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Target a specific market segment to stand out

For salespeople, a strong position in the market can often make the job 10 times easier. However, not every salesperson works for a recognized market-leading business, and even for those who do, taking this stance can be difficult – especially when you don’t truly understand your customer.

For this reason, especially in today’s competitive climate, targeting a specific market segment can help you get the attention of those who operate in it.

For example, you may offer a solution that helps SaaS companies generate more leads for their business, but each segment of the SaaS market has its own set of challenges and goals unique to them.

So, you could go one level deeper and focus on marketing technology (MarTech). With a little research, you’ll find that selling to marketing decision-makers is harder than most other roles. Therefore, you can position your product or service as the best solution to this problem.

You’ll need to collaborate with your marketing team as part of your sales strategy. However, understanding your position in the market and how that ties into your sales strategy is key. Let’s go through a proven process to help you do this.

Identify market segments and their needs

The first step is to identify the right market segment to target. You’ll do this through several data points and qualities, but the best place to start is with the market itself.

Ask yourself, which market niches are saturated? Which have you already generated ample amounts of traction with in the past? Which market has particular pain points that your solution or new product can help solve? Look for markets that you have plenty of experience and inroads with.

Once you’ve found a niche, it’s time to get specific about commonalities among potential customers. This might include company size, how they market to their audience or the average amount raised during Series A fundraising.

Once you know the market you’re targeting, it’s important to truly understand the individuals you’re serving within those markets. You can collect qualitative and data-driven insights on these people in several ways:

Collect customer data. Look at the data you already have on your user and customer base. What products or services do they invest the most into? Which features of your software do they use most often?

Survey them. Send out an email survey to this segment and ask broad questions about their organization and day-to-day job role.

Interviews. To get more qualitative insights, talk to them on the phone. A phone call lets you dig deep into their responses and truly understand their motivations.

Finally, collect information on the average buying cycle, as well as their lifecycle as a customer. For example, does the average deal take three months to close and include several stakeholders? It’s all information worth collecting.

Customer segmentation: How to divide your customers into targeted groups

Evaluate commercial viability

Now it’s time to use this insight to measure whether or not this segment is worth pursuing. After all, if it’s harder to sell than other market segments, it might be worth pointing your focus elsewhere.

Here are some qualities to look for:

Market size. First of all, is your target market broad enough to segment in the first place? Is the segment you’ve uncovered large enough to achieve your core business goals?

Differences. Does each segment of the market have large enough differences to justify segmenting? For example, the goals of a SaaS product that targets marketers must be clearly unique compared to solutions targeting other professionals.

Accessibility. Can you reach this audience? Do you have the ability to get your message in front of them?

Profitability. Will you generate an ROI from your growth initiatives?

Unique benefits. Does your chosen segment benefit from your solution in distinctive ways?

Establish your position

With these questions answered, you can now move on to establish your position in the market. Positioning maps are an easy way to do this.

For example, here’s what one positioning map looks like:

The variables used here are “price” and “quality”. The map illustrates where each brand sits along these two variables, giving a clearer view of their position in the market.

To create your own map, start with two variables that make the most sense for your brand and solution. Common positioning variables include:

Market share

Market perception

Practicality

Once you’ve chosen your two terms, use the map to place your competitors and evaluate their own market positioning.

Use this process to drive your overall position in the market, using the core differentiators you identified earlier to lead the way. Couple your features and service offerings with common pain points of your leads to show you’re the best solution for your chosen segment.

Implement a robust qualification system to prioritize leads

For sales organizations dealing with a large volume of leads, unqualified opportunities are a huge time-suck. The most effective sales strategies include a reliable qualification system that targets leads meaningfully.

Position your qualification process at the beginning of your sales process.

Here, we’ll show you how to develop a sales strategy that focuses on the strongest opportunities that enter your pipeline .

Defining what makes a qualified lead

Much like the market segments above, not all qualified leads are the same. It’s up to you to figure out the qualities of a qualified lead and what the best sales opportunities look like.

There are three stages of qualification that you should consider when defining what makes a strong lead:

Organization. What’s their company size? Do they sell into your industry? Check out their website and company LinkedIn to see if they fit your ideal organization profile.

Stakeholder. Do they have the budget? Many small businesses and startups may need your solution but lack the money to buy it. Who is involved in the buying process? These are questions you must ask before and during any initial sales conversations.

Opportunity. Do they have a challenge or problem that you can solve? This is probably one of the most important things to establish as you begin the sales cycle.

Knowing when to disqualify

Letting a sales opportunity go is a difficult thing for salespeople to do. We’re so hungry for leads that it’s a shame to end a conversation when the opportunity isn’t a good fit.

Disqualification is a key part of an efficient sales strategy. Wasting time on poor leads distracts you from other tasks that will bear better fruit.

Disqualifying is about knowing when an opportunity doesn’t fit the criteria you set above. For example, if you see that a company has only been in business for a year and know that your ideal clients are well-established with 100+ employees, you can politely end the process without setting an initial appointment.

But it’s also important not to get misled by signs of a golden goose. For example, you might speak to a stakeholder with ample budget. However, upon digging into their needs, if you find they don’t have a problem you can solve, they’re still not going to be a good fit.

Ask qualifying questions

Asking the right questions is a foundational part of the qualification process. These questions will elicit the information you need to decide if an opportunity is worth pursuing or if you need to cut them out of your sales process.

Some qualifying questions include:

What industry are they in?

How long have they been in business and what size is the company?

How did they hear about you?

What are the top challenges they and their team face?

What results are they looking to achieve?

How would these results benefit them?

What will happen if they don’t achieve these results?

What does their buying process look like?

Are they the key decision maker?

Do they have the resources and time to implement a short-term solution?

Questions like these will help you evaluate whether or not the prospect fits your ideal customer profile. They’ll help you figure out if they have the need, budget and timeframe you can work with to implement a solution.

Using the BANT framework

While every customer and client is different, the opportunities that lead to won deals will share various qualities. You can measure these opportunities with the BANT framework.

BANT stands for:

Budget. Do they have the resources allowing them to buy?

Authority. Do they have the ability to make the final decision?

Need. Can you solve their problem(s)?

Timeline. When are they planning to invest in a solution?

Using the questions laid out earlier, your reps can qualify a prospect based on these four criteria. For example, by asking them what results they’re aiming to achieve and how it would benefit them, you can quickly ascertain whether or not they have a need.

Finally, look out for signals that might make for a poor lead. If they provide short answers to your questions, then this might be a sign that they’re not truly invested in looking for a solution and are simply “window shopping”.

How to develop a sales strategy

Based on the last section, what is the takeaway? Sales strategy creation is all about preparation and using best practices while also tailoring to your company’s needs. So, here’s how to develop a sales strategy:

Identify qualified leads by assessing organization size, stakeholder budget and solvable challenges

Use the BANT framework (budget, authority, need, timeline) to qualify prospects

Disqualify poor leads to focus on better opportunities

Ask qualifying questions about industry, business size, challenges and decision-making process to evaluate fit

Automate your follow-up processes and save time

A great sales strategy incorporates effective solutions that save valuable time. One of the easiest ways to reclaim time is to streamline your processes with automation tools.

Without a doubt, following up on leads and upsell opportunities can take up the bulk of a salesperson ’s day. From making calls to sending emails (“touching base”), there’s a lot to do when nurturing a potential customer.

But this doesn’t always have to be the case. By using the right sales tool, technology and processes, you can automate many steps of the follow-up process.

According to a McKinsey study , over a third of all sales processes can be automated.

Let’s look at how to empower your reps to close more sales while saving time.

Start with your CRM

What is sales strategy creation dependant on? Having a good CRM. Your CRM is at the heart of any good sales strategy and acts as the foundational platform for your follow-up system. Without a good CRM that manages sales opportunities and conversations at scale, your reps will constantly be swimming in their inboxes, trying to stay above water.

A good CRM platform should free you from common administrative tasks, not simply get you to perform them in different ways. If you’re evaluating different CRM vendors , find one that ticks these boxes:

Business function. Does it help you achieve common tasks and goals specific to your organization?

Cost. Does it provide those features within budget?

Data quality. Does it enrich your data and help you personalize your follow-up messaging?

Brand. Is the provider familiar? Do they have clout in the industry and a proven track record?

Scale. Will they handle your sales strategy plans for growth and expansion?

Your chosen CRM platform should have the features to automatically follow up with prospects. For example, in Pipedrive, you can create workflows that automate various follow-up tasks for you:

At the very least, your CRM should integrate with tools that can automate these tasks. Find out what tools integrate with Pipedrive in our Marketplace .

How to build a CRM strategy that boosts revenue (with real-world examples)

Know when to automate

With the right technology in place, it’s time to automate. But not so fast. First, you must identify the tasks that don’t need you to execute them.

Automate any task that doesn’t need you, allowing you and your reps to focus on those that have a bigger impact.

Here’s a simple process to figure out what can be automated:

Can it be eliminated? If it’s not truly bringing value to the sales organization (or your prospects), it might be best to remove it from your sales strategy altogether.

Can it be automated? You can’t take all tasks off your plate through technology. For example, if it’s a type of sales email that requires manual personalization, it’s going to be hard to automate using technology.

If it can’t be automated, can it be delegated? Can you give this task to someone else to take care of?

With a list of common follow-up tasks, you can begin working on automating them. In order to do this effectively, you must know what the trigger and action is for each task.

For example, when following up on a proposal, the trigger and action might look like this:

Trigger – proposal email sent five days ago

Action – send email template

Get the timing right

Sometimes, your emails might get lost during a time when the prospect has other priorities, or something has come up in their personal lives. Not getting a response doesn’t always mean rejection.

Therefore, your follow-up sequence should have multiple touch-points. Take all eventualities into consideration. Perhaps they are busy or don’t trust you enough just yet and need more convincing.

Take these factors into account when crafting your follow-up emails. For example, a simple four-step sequence might look like this:

Follow-up 1. A simple message asking if they had any thoughts on your proposal

Follow-up 2. Similar to the above, offering to answer any questions

Follow-up 3. Provide insight or results you helped an existing customer gain

Follow-up 4. Share a piece of content that provides insight on a specific pain-point

Spread this sequence over time, and you’re likely to dramatically increase your response rate.

Of course, you shouldn’t go too far. After five or so follow-up emails, the lack of response is likely to mean “no”. At this point, move on from them and focus on leads more likely to convert.

You can still keep the line of communication open, just limit your follow-up emails to once a month. Send something that the prospect will find valuable. These are all activities that you can execute using automation.

Set reminders and use personalization

Your CRM should allow you to set reminders for tasks on specific dates. Sometimes, when personalization is key, you’ll need to use these reminders to send the right emails at the right time. Having a CRM to automate this process for you can simplify and improve your sales strategy holistically.

For example, in Pipedrive, you can schedule various activities on specific days:

Pipedrive will then remind you to execute the relevant task on the date and time you scheduled it.

As you can see, automation is two-fold: it’s using technology to handle the execution of simple tasks while also empowering you to simplify the activities that need your input. Know when to use which approach, and you’ll have a bulletproof follow-up process that runs on autopilot.

Speed up the process with cold calling

Email is the centerpiece of modern communication. But let’s not forget about the trusty telephone. Indeed, there’s no better way to build rapport and dig deep into prospect motivations than talking to them directly.

In every sales plan template or sales strategy template, calling scripts can help reps engage leads. Let’s look at some effective ways to apply cold calling to your sales strategy and how your sales reps can connect with prospects on a deeper level.

Research your prospect

Get an understanding of which segment your prospect falls into by conducting thorough research. Get your hands on the insights that will impact your first conversation.

LinkedIn is a gold mine for this type of insight. Visit your prospect’s profile and check out what their career journey has been like. For example, if they’ve just started in a new role, they’re likely looking for new approaches and vendors to make a positive impression.

Here are a few ways you can research your prospects:

LinkedIn . What groups are they involved in? Who do they follow? Do they create their own content?

Twitter. What content are they sharing? Who are they connecting with?

Google. What comes up when you search their name? Do they have a personal blog? Do they create content for their company?

Having these insights will start your cold calls off on a strong note. It’s the difference between this:

“Hi Mark, my name is James and I’m calling from Pipedrive. We help sales managers like you optimize their sales processes by…”

“Hi Mark, I recently checked out your article on cold calling (which I loved by the way) and thought you might find this of interest. My name is James and…”

The second sales example has clearly been given more thought. Make your prospective customers feel like you already understand them before jumping into your pitch to make a strong first impression.

Build an outline

While we have plenty of cold calling scripts for you to take inspiration from, it’s good to use a proven structure to build your own.

Here’s one we advocate at Pipedrive:

Introduction. State who you are and why you’re calling. Keep it short and sweet.

Opener. Use personalization (like in the example above) to connect with them early on. Mention something you share in common if applicable.

Reason. Why are you calling? Why should they pay attention, and how can you help them?

Offer. What’s your value proposition? Who do you work with and how have you helped them get results? What sets you apart from the competition?

Questions. Gauge their interest and use qualification questions to see if they’re a good fit.

Close. Provide a call-to-action and lead the conversation toward the next step of the sales process.

By using proven outlines, you can fill in the gaps with your own messaging and use anecdotal evidence in the right way, at the right time.

Collect early-stage objections

The objections you get during a cold call will differ to those later in the sales cycle. Making sure you’re well prepared will help your sales strategies succeed.

For example, “I need to think about it” is a common pushback received during cold calls. Legendary sales professional and author Brian Tracy has a great response to objections like these:

Start collecting a library of responses to common objections in a knowledge base to make handling easy as they arise.

Knowing when to call is as important as what you say when you’re connected. According to InsightSquared , the best time to call is between 10 AM and 4 PM.

However, each industry is different. Experiment with different times and see which your customer personas respond best to. For example, you might find it’s common in your industry for prospects to be active at 8 AM to get a head start on their workday. See what happens when you dial around this time.

As well as time of day, certain “trigger events” make cold calling appropriate. These trigger events might include a round of funding, new members added to their team or an acquisition.

Finally, learn to truly listen. Ask open-ended questions and dig deep into their responses. Listen to what they say and tie their problems and motivations to the specific details of your product or service.

To increase sales, focus on understanding your target market, optimize your sales process and leverage technology. Also, train your sales team to provide exceptional customer experiences.

Build a sales strategy by defining clear goals, identifying target customers, analyzing competitors, determining key sales activities , establishing metrics for success and regularly reviewing and adjusting your tactics.

Final thoughts

To build effective sales strategies, you must first truly understand your target customer.

What are their common challenges? What are they trying to achieve and how can you help them do it?

It’s a common theme we’ve addressed across the entire guide. When you collect insight and data on your customers, you can create a strategy using a sales strategy template that aligns their needs with your goals. Once you’ve nailed this, your activity will make a bigger impact.

For more guidance on creating a sales strategy, read our article on setting up your sales playbook .

9 steps to creating the perfect sales strategy (with free template)

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How to create a sales plan (and 3 templates that do it for you)

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.

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

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

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

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.

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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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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Strategic Sales Plan Examples: 13 Sales Plan Templates

Casey O'Connor

What Is a Strategic Sales Plan?

When you should implement a strategic sales plan, what to include in your sales plan, 13 sales plan template examples, put your sales plan into action with yesware.

A strategic sales plan is a must-have for any business looking to increase their sales, amp up their revenue, bring a new product to market, or branch into a new territory.

In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about strategic sales plans: what they are, when to create one, and exactly what they need to include. We’ll also show you a handful of real-life, tangible sales plan template examples and tips for implementation. 

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• When You Should Implement a Strategic Sales Plan 

A strategic sales plan is designed to guide a sales organization through their overarching sales strategy. It provides them with access to the resources needed to prospect, pitch to, and close new accounts.

Strategic sales plans can include any combination of the following:

• Ideas: If you utilize a certain sales methodology — consultative selling or target account selling , for example — you might outline its key principles and a few tactical examples of it in action in your strategic sales plan. Your strategic sales plan should also include an overview of your target customer.
• Processes: In order for your sales team to reach maximum productivity, it’s important that your sales processes are clearly defined and standardized. Your sales team — both new hires and seasoned vets alike — should be able to refer to your sales plan for a repeatable, scalable process that’s backed by solid metrics. The processes should provide direction to sales reps that allow them to contribute to the company’s goals.
• Tools & Tactics: The best strategic sales plans are more than just high-level strategy and goals. They also include specific, step-by-step strategies that sales reps can implement in sales conversations, as well as the specific tools and content that reps need to close more deals.

Sales plans also typically spell out the organization’s revenue and overall business goals, as well as the KPIs and benchmarks that sales managers and other stakeholders will monitor to determine whether or not those goals are being met.

They should also outline management’s strategic territory design and quota expectations, with specific indicators and data to back those decisions. 

Finally, these sales plans should take into account your current team’s sales capacity and specifically address the acquisition plan for any resources that are not yet available but may be necessary for future growth.

If your sales team doesn’t already have a strategic sales plan in place — that is, one that’s referenced and updated regularly and the product of careful data analysis and inter-team collaboration — you may want to consider creating one. 

Research shows that the majority of the highest-performing sales teams operate under a formalized, closely monitored sales structure. 

On the other hand, most underperforming sales teams lack this structure. 

It’s clear that a well-defined sales plan is one of the prerequisites to optimized sales productivity and success; every salesforce should strive to create and adopt one if they want to meet their sales goals more efficiently.

That being said, there are a few key indicators that signal a need for more urgency in putting a strategic sales plan in place. 

You’re Trying to Increase Sales

A strategic sales plan will help your sales and marketing teams align their processes so that your outreach efforts are tailored to your target audience. 

You’re Looking to Amp Up Your Revenue

For startups and small businesses, attaining as many new customers as possible is usually the name of the game.

For larger or more established businesses, however, the business plan may instead emphasize revenue goals. In other words, the deal size starts to matter much more than deal volume. 

A sales strategy plan can help salespeople target and nurture higher-value accounts. Sales planning can also boost your revenue by illuminating untapped potentials for revenue growth within your existing customer base through cross-selling, upselling , and referrals .

You’re Gearing Up to Launch a New Product

A sales strategy plan is crucial for businesses that are preparing to bring a new product to market.

One last note: for businesses that already use strategic business planning (or for those on their way after reading this article), be sure to update your plan at least yearly. Many businesses at least review their plan, if not update it more formally, on a quarterly basis.

Ultimately, your strategic sales plan will be unique to your company and its specific goals.

Consider including the following components in your strategic business plan. 

Mission Statement

Industry & Market Conditions

Great sales planning cannot be performed in isolation. Your plan must take into account the current market conditions, including any challenges, recent disruptions, or upcoming notable events.

Organization Chart

A sales org chart can range in scope from very simple, like the one above, to more complicated. Some go as far as naming individual employees and outlining their specific responsibilities. 

A detailed org chart is especially helpful for efficiently onboarding new hires.

Product Info & Pricing

No sales plan would be complete without a one-sheet that outlines the features, benefits, and value proposition of your product or service.

It’s also helpful to include information about pricing tiers, as well as any discounts or promotions available for leverage at a sales rep’s discretion.

Compensation Plan

While we have no doubt that you’ve hired only the most intrinsically motivated salespeople, remember the bottom line: cash is king.

Money is the primary motivator for most salespeople, regardless of how truly loyal and hard-working they may be.

With that in mind, it’s a good idea to include your company’s compensation plan and commission structure in your sales plan. This is a surefire way to motivate your team to continuously improve their sales performance. 

Target Market & Customer

Sales Enablement

With the tremendous rise in content marketing, it can be challenging for salespeople to keep track of the various materials available for generating new business.

Branding & Positioning

The strategic sales plan should offer at least a high-level overview of your brand and messaging specifics, including social media presence. Take the time to optimize your company’s LinkedIn presence — it’s a goldmine of new business opportunities.

Marketing Strategy

In today’s day and age, it’s unlikely that your sales and marketing team are working in isolation from one another. At a certain point, sales and marketing strategies start to flow together until they (ideally) perform in harmony.

Still, it’s important to outline the perspective of the marketing team within your strategic sales plan. This will help your salespeople fine-tune their sales pitch and speak more meaningfully to the needs of the customer. 

Prospecting Strategy

Most salespeople report that their number one challenge in lead generation is attracting qualified leads. 

Prospecting can certainly be daunting, but it’s worth the effort to get it right. Tweak and fine-tune the process until you’re sure it’s as efficient as possible. Make sure it’s repeatable and scalable, and map it out within your sales plan. 

Action Plan

Any good strategic sales plan will also include a step-by-step section, much like a playbook. Here, you’ll outline the specific tactics and processes — including scripts, demos, and email templates — that have been proven to move prospects through the sales funnel . 

Be as specific as possible here. This will act as a blueprint for the day-to-day sales activities for your team.

It can be tempting to leave the numbers with the finance department, but financial transparency can go a long way in creating a culture of trust among your sales team.

You don’t need to go through every line item in the spreadsheet, but it’s not a bad idea to include a high-level look at where the dollars are flowing. 

KPIs, Metrics, and Benchmarks

Be sure to give your team a snapshot of how they’re currently performing, with real numbers to back it up.

By doing so, you help them self-initiate regular SWOT analysis of their own sales actions and processes. This will give them an opportunity to right the course if things aren’t going according to plan. 

Tip: Looking to fuel your sales plan with data-backed findings? Grab our free ebook below.

Remember that your company’s strategic sales plan will be highly unique. It may take some time and tweaking to find the components and format that best meet the needs of your business.

Here are 13 sales plan templates to help you get started.

1. Product Launch Plan Template

Sales and marketing teams create a product launch plan when they’re preparing to launch a new product. 

A product launch plan should include your product’s positioning statement , a SWOT competitive analysis, detailed market analysis, sales strategies and tactics, and details about the target market. 

2. Ideal Customer Profile Template

One way to avoid wasting time on unproductive leads is to include an ideal customer profile (ICP) in your sales plan. Here’s a sample : 

This will help ensure your prospecting campaigns are targeted and attract only the most qualified leads from the get-go. 

3. Microsoft Word Sales Plan Template

Here’s a great example of a sales plan goals template , easily accessible through Microsoft Word. 

4. 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Template

5. Buyer’s Guide Template

A buyer’s guide is a short, simple information sheet that describes your product or service, its features and benefits, and its use. Below is an example of a buyer’s guide from Wayfair . 

In many cases, this document is as useful internally as it is for the customer. 

6. Marketing Alignment Sales Plan Template

If your company hasn’t already formally aligned sales and marketing, start with this type of sales plan template (basic example below), as most traditional sales plans already assume that these two teams collaborate regularly. 

One key component of a marketing alignment sales plan template is the presence of an ideal customer profile and buyer personas. 

The marketing alignment sales plan template should also focus on cohesive, on-brand messaging between marketing campaigns and sales conversations . 

This type of sales plan template helps keep everyone on the same page, increases efficiency, and improves sales effectiveness. 

7. Battle Card Template

8. Territory Design Template

Well-designed sales territories see a 10% – 20% increase in sales productivity. Be low is a basic example of a territory design map.

9. Market Expansion Plan Template

A market expansion plan outlines the strategies, tactics, metrics, resources, and more that teams will use when expanding into a new market or (more commonly) a new geographical territory. 

Market expansion plans also need to include details about distribution expenses and timelines, time zone variations, industry notes or important compliance information, local/cultural expectations and laws, and sometimes more. 

10. Compensation Plan Template

Your compensation plan (including a specific commission structure) is one way to motivate your sales reps.

While it may seem controversial or sensitive, the compensation plan is an important component of a strategic sale plan.

11. Sales Funnel Template

The sales funnel is a visual representation of the sales process. 

12. Marketing Plan Template

Your salespeople should be extremely familiar with the marketing strategies your company is using to attract new leads. Here’s a great example of a template you can use in your sales plan that outlines the different campaigns at work.

This kind of resource will help your reps know who to contact, when, and with what kind of content throughout the sales cycle .

13. B2B Sales Strategy Template

A B2B sales strategy template helps sales teams outline their goals, as well as the specific methodologies and tactics they will use to achieve them. Here’s an example :

The B2B sales strategy plan will vary widely depending on your team’s specific goals and strategies, but most teams include at least the categories highlighted in the template above. 

Yesware is the all-in-one sales toolkit that helps you win more business. It can be an invaluable resource for putting your sales plan into action in a way that’s streamlined, productive, and intuitive.

Communication

Yesware’s meeting scheduler tool helps you skip the back-and-forth when scheduling meetings.

Meeting Scheduler integrates with your Outlook or Gmail calendar and helps your clients automatically schedule meetings with you during times of availability. New events will automatically sync to your calendar. 

​ It can also create meeting types for common calls, like a 30-minute intro call or a 60-minute demo call. These templates can be automatically saved and generated with custom descriptions and agendas so everyone can come prepared. 

Prospecting

One of Yesware’s most popular features is its prospecting campaigns .

This feature enables salespeople to create automated, personalized campaigns with multi-channel touches. 

The tool tracks communication and engagement throughout the process and helps move prospects through the pipeline with little administrative effort from the sales team.

Yesware’s attachment tracking feature helps you find your winning content by tracking which attachments are most often opened and read by your prospects.

You can use these insights to sharpen your content and increase your engagement.

The reporting and analytics tools are also extremely valuable in optimizing your sales plan.  These reports enable salespeople to use data to win more business. The feature generates daily activity, engagement data, and outcomes to show you what is/isn’t working across the board.

Try Yesware for free to see how it can help your team carry out your sales plan today.

This guide was updated on March 6, 2024.

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Blog Graphic Design How To Write a Sales Plan That Converts (+ Templates)

How To Write a Sales Plan That Converts (+ Templates)

Written by: Letícia Fonseca Nov 17, 2021

Sales plans are often considered the foundation of any successful business plan.

A sales plan outlines an organization’s goals for its future operations and steers the sales team in the right direction.

Every successful business relies on a sales plan to reach its sales goals and pivot its strategy when necessary. 

Learn what you need to succeed in writing an impactful sales plan that boosts your conversions and increases customer loyalty.

Don’t know where to start? Create a sales business plan with Venngage’s templates and improve your growth strategy.

Click to jump ahead:

What is a sales strategy plan, what is included in a sales plan, what are the objectives of sales and operations planning.

• How do you write an excellent sales plan?

A sales strategy plan is a document that lists what a company is going to sell, how much the company intends to earn, and how the company plans to go about it.

The sales strategy helps the company determine how to maximize profit margins and stay competitive in the industry.

Here’s an example of a sales strategy plan that includes every action that the sales team is expected to perform.

This ensures that sales managers know what they are responsible for and how the desired output or deliverables for the sales process tie into the business plan.

Return to Table of Contents

A good sales strategy includes a sales plan for your product or service, as well as a plan to market it. Goals to reach your target customers make a sales campaign easy to create and follow.

Here are the most important points to include in a sales strategy plan:

• Product research
• Target audience
• Customer service and customer retention
• Product and service pricing
• Marketing and advertising plan
• Estimated budget for the entire campaign

This sales plan highlights measurable milestones for sales reps to aim for.

We’ve already touched on reasons why companies should use a sales plan, like this example, for their upcoming campaigns.

Below are the four main objectives of creating a sales plan and how they help with sales forecasting.

Align company departments and sales department goals

Different departments can have different perspectives on priorities and progress.

By aligning the company’s other departments with your sales team’s goals, you can ensure that all teams have a shared understanding of the sales plan’s objectives and their holistic contribution towards the business goal.

Create strategic direction for sales teams

A strategic direction plan establishes the company’s goals and objectives for the sales team.

You can formulate strategic direction plans by identifying the following:

• Target audience demographics
• Brand and product niche
• Actions that you want your customers to take
• The best channels to reach customers, such as social media and search engines

Once you’ve identified these, you can create an in-depth plan that can generate conversions in no time. Effective plans, like the one below, keep every customer detail in check.

Better customer-relationship management

A sales plan identifies the individuals and teams responsible for producing results that qualify as milestones for an upcoming business campaign.

With clear assignments, sales managers will easily know which individual or sales team member to approach for additional data.

Mark sales team milestones

Measuring plan milestones are important because they help assess a plan’s performance in a given period or by the end of its execution.

In doing so, team leaders can determine whether the project efficiently used every team member’s efforts and company resources to achieve the plan’s objectives.

The following are excellent examples of milestones for a sales plan:

• Completion of the research phase
• Development of the plan
• Approval of the plan
• Implementation of the plan

How do you write a sales plan?

Take a look at this sales plan. It’s fully detailed, sets deadlines, and keeps everyone updated with the most relevant and newest information so the team is aware of their responsibilities.

Here’s an overview of making an excellent and greatly convincing sales plan:

Compile data from the previous sales year

Create sales targets that meet your sales plan objectives, create a swot analysis, identify demand trends using sales data, look for existing market gaps.

• Appoint key roles for each of your objectives

So, let’s get to it!

Evaluating data from previous marketing campaigns could reveal helpful trends that can improve your upcoming sales plans.

Previous sales data can indicate accurate demographic data, such as lifestyle, age, income, and high sales activities in a given area.

With this data, your team can develop a detailed sales plan that includes your products while keeping in mind your demographic’s language, lifestyle, sensibilities, and more.

Here’s a great way to present this to your superiors and team members.

Related: 10 Demographic Infographic Templates to Share Population Data and More

Simple food sales action plan template

Take your reports from dull to comprehensively lively with this Venngage template. This is a great sales plan template when you have a significant amount of data to show.

You want to get to the point with your sales plan presentations. This fully customizable template makes it easy to share your sales plan data quickly and easily.

With Venngage, you can share your sales plan online with anyone. And when you upgrade to a business account, you can download your plan in a variety of formats, including PNG, PNG HD, PDF, Interactive PDF, and PowerPoint.

All sales targets must be clear, measurable goals that are specific and realistic with a defined deadline.

For example, ‘increase customer retention by 20 percent by the fourth quarter of this year’ is a specific, measurable, attainable, and timely goal.

Aligning your sales targets with the company’s general objectives is the best way to create sales plan objectives that incentivize customers to take action and make a purchase.

These sales KPIs or key performance indicators will keep the sales team aligned and on track with sales goals.

Light strategic sales action plan template

Organize your KPIs for measuring with this simple template. It’s easy to add to a project management interface. Alternately, it can be shared via email.

This helps to have everyone synchronized with the sales plan objectives.

All the colors in this template are neutral, and you can switch them out with your branding assets using Venngage’s convenient drag-and-drop editor.

A SWOT analysis is a tool utilized in the business world to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that a company’s business model may face.

Conducting a SWOT analysis is important for business owners to ensure that their company is as prepared as possible for the future. It can help businesses identify what strategies should be utilized for sales plans.

There are numerous reasons why businesses should use a SWOT analysis:

• A SWOT analysis makes forecasting easier when it is difficult to accurately predict the direction of an industry
• The SWOT analysis is a simplified view of the company’s situation and helps in reaching revenue targets
• It helps companies compare themselves to competitors and create a sales plan that is impactful 

It’s undeniable that the data a SWOT analysis produces is essential for any brand.

Blue competitor SWOT analysis template

Easily organize your thoughts with this simple but effective SWOT analysis template.

The grid format helps your team organize their thoughts and build an efficient sales pipeline.

Change the color scheme to suit your brand, or add a background or header image to make the text stand out.

Related: 15+ Business Plan Examples to Win Your Next Round of Funding

Demand trends are changes in the type and quantity of goods that consumers want to buy.

This is crucial data for sales plans because demand helps sales managers gauge if people identify the brand’s products as essentials or luxuries.

One way to identify demand trends is to use a scatter plot. This is what a scatter plot graph looks like:

This graph is an excellent way to find trends and correlations in your data. Here’s how:

• Plot two sets of data on the same graph
• Pick a line that divides the graph into two equal halves
• Compare the height of each data point on the left side of the line to the height of data points on the right side of the line
• Consider how many data points are on one side of the line than the other

If there are more data points on one side, there is likely a correlation between the two sides and possible causation.

Once you’ve identified these trends, you can include graphs and charts on a sales plan template during your presentation.

Visuals and well-made infographic designs are excellent ways to present your data without cluttering your documents or slides.

Revenue scatter plot chart

A great way to present prospective trends is by customizing this simple scatter plot graph.

This template fits perfectly into a presentation slide deck. There aren’t heavy visuals in this template. The layout is clean and simple, leaving nothing to the reader’s imagination.

You can make the chart more relevant by adding brand-related or relevant images. Or use an image from the 3 million+ stock photos available in the Venngage library.

Upload your own images, change the colors and fonts, and more with this template.

Related: How to Choose the Best Types of Charts For Your Data

A market gap is a space between supply and demand. It’s important because if there is a large market gap, it can indicate an economic opportunity for a company to capitalize on.

Market gaps can be as simple as solving a problem identified by an emerging group of customers.

For example, not every business has food delivery services because it’s expensive to make a fleet, and this gap helped create food delivery services.

A market team can find gaps based on three inputs:

• Forecasting models that help analyze data from the company’s previous-year data
• Qualitative research on lacking areas and industry expert reports identifying the target audience’s pain points
• Finding micro to small emerging trends that are already existing in the market

Market research mind map template

Display your research data with an easy-to-understand template, like the example below. You can present every single detail of your research without making it look like a cluttered report.

Using visuals and an easy-to-understand table, your readers can easily follow the strategic sales plan process from start to finish.

Appoint key roles for each of your sales objectives

With a strategic sales plan, you’ll need to appoint team members or departments to specific tasks. This is crucial for achieving the sales plan’s goals.

A good sales manager will assign roles according to each member’s specialty. For example, front-facing sales reps are better positioned to handle the CRM components of sales plans.

Appointing key roles can be as simple as using a table to align a team member’s position with their responsibilities.

However, you will need much more complex diagrams if you’re assigning tasks to projects with dozens of members.

Food Customer Sales Action Plan Template

Highlight every important detail with this free sales plan template that you can send to team members and other departments.

This sales plan template includes a dedicated section for your target market, customer profile, action plan, and task assignments. It’s a great briefing document for both internal and external use.

Fully customize this sales plan template for your brand with Venngage’s My Brand Kit feature.

Related: 9 Sales Infographics to Guide Strategy and Increase Sales

Now you can execute your sales plan with confidence and grow your customer base

Sales plans should be visually attractive as well as impactful. It isn’t always easy to create a sales plan without design experience.

Use the free sales plan template examples in this post to write a sales plan that is powerful and effective.

With these examples as inspiration, you can help team members and your business convince your target market about the dependability and quality of your products.

The Venngage sales plan templates will help you reach your sales goals faster and grow your business in the process.

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Create a Sales Plan That Actually Works (Tips + Template)

• 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.

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:

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:

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.

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.

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.

Max Altschuler

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Sales plan template

A sales plan template gives your sales team an organized framework for everything they need to accomplish each quarter. Learn how you can use a sales plan template to help expedite the sales planning process.

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How often do you create a new sales strategy? For many sales teams, this is something that happens on a quarterly basis. However, developing your strategy from scratch every quarter can take up precious planning time that could be used for selling your product.

Instead of creating your sales plan from scratch every quarter, try using our free sales plan template.

What is a sales plan template?

A sales plan template is a reusable framework that helps develop your sales team’s strategy, success metrics, and end goals. These templates may also include your sales team’s objectives, target audience, and revenue goals. 

Why is this important? Instead of starting from scratch, your team can use our free sales plan template as a starting point during quarterly sales planning. This helps expedite the process by providing your team with a basic strategy to work from. Then, all your team has to do is to fill in their specific success metrics, goals, and responsibilities for that specific time period.

What goes into a sales plan template?

There are a few different components that go into a sales plan template. These components may vary depending on the type of sales you work in—software sales are very different from retail sales teams, after all—but the most common components include:

Revenue targets: This is the revenue goal you want your sales team to achieve before your team’s chosen deadline.

Team structure: Who on the team is responsible for what. This means identifying managers, dedicated team members, and who reports to who. 

Directly responsible individuals (DRIs) : Anybody on the team who’s responsible for a specific task or part of a project.

Depending on how your team functions and your sales strategy, you can add additional information like:

Current market conditions: This could be information regarding the economic climate, to understand how potential customers are feeling about purchasing at a certain time of year. For example, you can add information like a PEST analysis in this section.

The target market or an ideal customer profile: Information about the ideal customer you’re selling to. This helps your sales team better understand who their target audience is and how to best sell to them.

Competitive data: Any information on your competitors. Competitive analysis information helps give sales people the upper hand by illustrating how your product or service compares to the competition.

How to use our free sales plan template

Creating a sales plan with our free template is simple. Here are a few steps to help you get started. 

Analyze your current sales process. If your team has repeatable tasks in your current sales process, your template should capture all of these steps. This will save your sales managers from manually repeating tasks when they create a new sales strategy.

Establish a main sales objective. No matter the quarter, you should always clearly state the main objective you want your team to achieve. This helps your team focus on work that will make the most impact on your sales objective. 

Determine success metrics. Connecting your sales goals to your business goals is an important part of developing a sales plan template. Your sales plan template should have a dedicated section for success metrics , so your team knows exactly how certain tasks connect with larger goals. These success metrics should connect directly with the sales objective you established in step two.

Document actionable steps. Our free sales plan template makes it easy to capture the actionable steps your team is taking to achieve the objectives you outlined in step 2. This section ensures you can accurately measure if the work you’re doing is helping to achieve your goals.

Provide important contextual information for your team. Your sales plan template should include information like competitive research, market conditions, and an individual customer profile. This information can be updated and duplicated for future sales plans. 

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Reporting . Reporting in Asana translates project data into visual charts and digestible graphs. By reporting on work where work lives, you can reduce duplicative work and cut down on unnecessary app switching. And, because all of your team’s work is already in Asana, you can pull data from any project or team to get an accurate picture of what’s happening in one place.

Automation . Automate manual work so your team spends less time on the busy work and more time on the tasks you hired them for. Rules in Asana function on a basis of triggers and actions—essentially “when X happens, do Y.” Use Rules to automatically assign work, adjust due dates, set custom fields, notify stakeholders, and more. From ad hoc automations to entire workflows, Rules gives your team time back for skilled and strategic work.

Milestones . Milestones represent important project checkpoints. By setting milestones throughout your project, you can let your team members and project stakeholders know how you’re pacing towards your goal. Use milestones as a chance to celebrate the little wins on the path towards the big project goal. 

Salesforce . Remove bottlenecks by enabling sales, customer success, and service teams to communicate directly with their support teams in Asana. Share attachments and create actionable, trackable tasks for pre-sales needs. With Service Cloud, connect your implementation and service teams with supporting teams in Asana to deliver amazing customer experiences.

Zoom . Asana and Zoom are partnering up to help teams have more purposeful and focused meetings. The Zoom + Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call is over. Meetings begin in Asana, where shared meeting agendas provide visibility and context about what will be discussed. During the meeting, team members can quickly create tasks within Zoom, so details and action items don’t get lost. And once the meeting is over, the Zoom + Asana integration pulls meeting transcripts and recordings into Asana, so all collaborators and stakeholders can review the meeting as needed.

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What are the steps to creating a sales plan template? .css-i4fobf{-webkit-transition:-webkit-transform 200ms ease-in-out;transition:transform 200ms ease-in-out;-webkit-transform:rotateZ(0);-moz-transform:rotateZ(0);-ms-transform:rotateZ(0);transform:rotateZ(0);}

Instead of creating a sales plan template from scratch, use our free template to kickstart your planning process. By using a template within a project management tool , you also ensure all team members can easily view and access your sales plan in real-time.

A sales plan template is a duplicatable framework your sales team can use to establish a sales strategy over a certain amount of time. For example, you can use the framework to establish your strategy for a specific quarter. This framework can be used as the foundation for your sales team’s quarterly sales plan.

What are the key elements of a sales plan template?

A sales plan template should include a place to track your team’s revenue targets, your team’s structure, key deadlines and milestones, and directly responsible individuals (DRIs). Some additional information you can provide includes the current market conditions, the target audience or an ideal customer profile, and any competitive data that you may have.

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How to Create a Sales Plan: Tips, Examples & Free Sales Plan Template

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.

GET THE IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE KIT →

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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30 free sales plan templates: Download these PDF, Excel, Word Doc, Google Docs examples

These free sales plans will see your revenue skyrocket

1. Basic sales plan

2. sales and marketing plan, 3. sales strategy guide, 4. sales project plan, 5. sales action plan, 6. b2b sales strategy plan, 7. retail sales action plan, 8. sales leads template, 9. sales tracker template, 10. sales pipeline template, 11. sales funnel template, 12. sales report template, 13. sales one-pager, 14. 30-60-90 day plan, 15. company territory sales plan, 16. sales budget plan, 17. business development sales plan, 18. product market expansion sales plan, 19. company sales sop plan, 20. consulting revenue-based sales plan, 21. cloud sales plan, 22. business plan infographic, 23. saas product sales plan, 24. real estate sales plan, 25. new product sales plan, 26. sales training plan, 27. health insurance sales plan, 28. customer journey roadmap, 29. pricing options, 30. analytics dashboard template.

There are many different ways to boost your sales figures but one thing is for certain: sales simply cannot be neglected. You might hope for passive sales or you may employ a team of cold-callers but either way, sales will ultimately determine how much money you are able to bring in and whether your business is sustainable. 

The importance of sales is underlined by the host of digital sales solutions on the market today. You could flick through a list of the  best sales CRMs , the  best sales management software , and the  best sales pipeline software  and still be unclear regarding what the next steps should be for your sales strategy.

If that’s the case, it might be time to employ a sales plan template. Fortunately, there are a number of free plans available to download in either  PDF ,  Excel ,  Word , or  Google Docs  formats. Deciding on the right one for your sales strategy will depend on a number of factors, including your products, market and customer base. 

Keep reading to discover 30 of the best free sales plan templates available to download now. Whatever your approach to sales, there’s bound to be one that’s right for you.

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30 free sales plan templates to download today

A basic sales plan template provides some structure to your sales process. The template is usually split into different sections, including task titles, deadlines, task assignees, approval status, and a visual progress bar. There may also be space to include details of your business goals, plan strategies, and tactics.

Download the ClickUp Sales Plan Template here .

Sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin. Without a robust marketing plan, your sales figures will undoubtedly suffer. If your company would prefer to foster greater collaboration between its sales and marketing teams, then this template may help. Tasks that are relevant to both operations can be listed, as can KPIs - all in a single view.

Your sales are likely to be a little underwhelming if you don’t have an overarching goal you’re aiming at. And for that, a sales strategy is required. A sales strategy guide will put your organization on the right path by prompting you to answer key questions, such as “What is a sales strategy?” and “Why do you need a sales strategy?” By forcing you to consider the answers to these questions, you’ll ensure that your sales process remains on target at all times.

Within your overall sales strategy, there are likely to be individual projects contributing to your success. It’s a good idea to use a template to keep track of all these projects, providing a quick visualization of due dates, progress, and impact level. This will be a huge help for prioritization, allowing managers to identify the tasks that should be focused on immediately. 

Having a clear idea of how you want your sales to go is one thing, but taking concrete action to achieve your sales goals is another. A sales action plan can help you take the tangible steps you need to boost your sales figures, including ways to record and monitor specific tasks and visualizations for sales forecasting and goals.

Download the ClickUp Sales Action Plan Template here . 

Selling to consumers and selling to businesses require different skill sets, so it stands to reason that there would be specific templates for B2B sales. A B2B sales strategy plan will provide space for you to outline your B2B sales objectives and revenue targets, as well as prompts to ensure you create the type of sales content that really speaks to business customers.

No two industries are the same but luckily if you work in retail, there’s a sales plan template designed just for you. It will help you track inventory, monitor sales metrics, and negotiate with suppliers. It’s also worth taking a look at the best POS systems for retail and the best ecommerce platforms on the market for further technological support.

It may be more comforting to track your conversions, but it’s still a good idea to monitor your sales leads too. Templates for this purpose are available and are especially helpful if you don’t require the full functionality of a CRM . However, these templates will still allow you to include contact dates and status for potential customers so you can plan future engagement project potential sales. 

You won’t be able to see what items are flying off the shelves or where improvements to your inventory could be made unless you track your sales. A sales tracker template provides much-needed visibility, allowing you to keep track of items sold, the profit per item and your total earned income. It also becomes easier to track costs, including shipping charges and returns. 

Download Smartsheet’s sales tracker template here .

Standing as a useful alternative to CRM solutions, which obviously come in a range of shapes and sizes, including the best cloud CRM software , the best open-source CRM , and the best CRM for small business . It’s also definitely worth looking at a sales pipeline template, which can help you organize a host of useful information like quarterly sales forecasts, projected closing dates, and further actions 

A sales funnel is a great way to visualize the customer journey as they make their way to conversion - and the right template can prove a great help here. A sales funnel template can help you evaluate your sales process, providing a scorecard so you can give each stage a ranking.

In addition to making predictions about future sales, it’s worthwhile recording previous sales as part of a sales report. This template is great for that and lets you track sales activity by month, quarter or year. It’s also customizable so you can adjust the columns to meet your needs.

Download Smartsheet’s Sales report template here .

Sometimes, you want to strip away all the unnecessary information to leave you with the top-level direction needed to move forward. If that’s the case, you may find that a sales one-pager is just what you’re after. This is a concise template containing your sales tactics, goals, target audience, and key performance metrics but may not include the fine details. A great template for sharing with external stakeholders. 

This sales plan revolves around the time your sales personnel have been at the company and so represents a great tool for onboarding or general employee experience . This template comes with three sections of one month each, with corresponding targets and actionable steps. 

Download the Visme 30-60-90 day plan here .

Different markets will require different approaches if you are to optimize your sales. If you’re a multinational company, this template can streamline your sales process for different geographies, utilizing dynamic fields that mean you can reuse territory sales presentations and change the location information as required. 

For some businesses, keeping a close eye on budgets may be more important than others. Smaller businesses and start-ups, for example, are unlikely to have substantial resources that they can put towards sales and marketing gambles that may not pay off. A sales budget plan can help you keep on top of your finances even as you look to optimize your sales. Often, it will include a variety of budgeting aspects, such as revenue objectives, cost of goods sold, sales expenses and more.

Rising sales aren’t usually seen as the ultimate goal but a means to some other businesses target. This could involve sustainable growth, which is why many companies employ a business development sales plan to keep sight of the overarching target. Various stakeholders can all play a part, with many templates allowing commentary, annotations and the exchange of ideas.

Perhaps you’ve already conquered one market with your product(s) and are now looking to expand into another. That’s when a product market expansion sales plan na be put to good use with its market analyses, competition landscapes, marketing strategies, and distribution channels.

Download Visme’s product market expansion sales plan here .

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are particularly useful for businesses that have had to deal with fragmented or siloed approaches to their projects. Look for a sales template that’s clutter-free so that the sandardization of your sales processes is made clear for all departments to see.

Consultancy firms can derive massive revenues but only if they can convince businesses that there services will be useful. You’ll need a template full of high-quality content and boasting a visually-appealing design. Consultant don’t come cheap, so make sure your consulting sales plan looks good enough to convince internal and external stakeholders that you’re worth the expenditure.

The cloud computing market is extremely competitive these days, boasting cloud storage , cloud backup services, cloud hosting providers and more. In this crowded market, vendors have a job on their hands to maximize cloud sales. This template, outlining your competitive positioning, can help you stand out during your next sales call.

They say a picture can tell a thousand words, which is why you should consider if an infographics is better for your sales plan than a word document. This business plan infographic contains is ideal for presentations to external stakeholders. It looks great, while still containing all the info you need like goals, timelines, market analysis, performance metrics and more.

Software-as-a-service sales are fundamentally different to physical sales. You want recurring, subscription plans, rather than one-off purchases. As such, you’ll want to adopt a slightly different approach to sales, A data-focused approach is likely to be key in a fast-moving market.

Download Visme’s SaaS sales plan template here .

Real estate purchases are likely to be some of the biggest that any individual (or, indeed, company) is ever likely to make. As suvh, it’s essential you get your real estate sale plan right. Make sure your agents and marketing team are aligned in their messaging and goals. A template can really help ensure this is the case.

Starting from scratch? Issuing a new product can be daunting, but a new product sales plan can take some of the fear away. Make sure your template outlines how other similar products have fared initially and include growth projections to help monitor how the product is performing over time.

You can’t expect your sales team to perform to their best ability if they haven’t had the requisite training. This sales training plan template can ensure consistency when delivering onboarding for new sales personnel and explain your expectations for performance in the medium and long term.

Committing to health insurance is a big decision - but there are few more important. A health insurance template will ensure your sales team has access to all the necessary statistics around health and demographics so they can convince prospects to convert.

Conversions don’t just happen. In reality, sales take time and customer journeys can be far from direct. Prospects can take time to become leads. And leads can take time to become customers. The hard sell may work sometime and at other times is likely to push potential customers into the arms of your competitors. Use your template to outline the typical customer journey and give your sales team a helping hand. 

Princing may be crucial for sales but it’s not always straightforward. Depending on your industry, market and time, your pricing may change frequently. Using a table that clearly outlines various pricing options for your customer can be a great way of clearly detailing your product or service. It can also be a great help when upselling.

Data underpins many great sales strategies but data is only truly useful if it can be transformed into insight. Having a clear, visualization of your sales analytics can ensure that you are looking at something your sales team can really use - not just a a jumble of statistics.

Download a free analytics dashboard template here .

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Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. 

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• How to Create a Sales Plan? 10 Free Templates 

Selling without a plan is akin to setting out on a journey without a map.  

While you might stumble upon your destination by chance, having a plan significantly increases the likelihood of success. 

Without a sales plan in place, businesses risk operating in a reactive mode, addressing immediate issues but lacking a cohesive strategy for long-term growth. 

In this article, we go beyond theory and cover the practical side of creating sales plans with a step-by-step guide, actionable templates and best practices for tried and tested success. (If you’re in a hurry, you can skip right to the sales plan templates.) 

What is a Sales Plan?  

A sales plan is a detailed strategy that lays out how a company intends to meet its sales goals.  

It involves setting objectives, identifying target customers, outlining the tactics to reach them, and detailing the resources and steps needed to close deals successfully.  

It’s the playbook that guides sales teams in achieving their targets. If you’re wondering whether you really need a sales plan, you’ll find your answer below. 

Benefits of Creating a Sales Plan  

Having a solid sales plan offers a range of benefits that contribute to the overall success and sustainability of a business.  

Here are the key advantages: 

• Clear Direction: A solid sales plan provides a clear roadmap for the sales team, outlining objectives, strategies, and tactics. It ensures that everyone is moving in the same direction, minimizing confusion and maximizing efficiency. 
• Goal Alignment: The plan aligns sales goals with overall business objectives, ensuring that the sales team’s efforts directly contribute to the company’s growth and success. 
• Efficient Resource Allocation: With a plan in place, businesses can allocate resources more effectively, whether it’s budget, personnel, or technology. This optimization enhances the team’s ability to achieve its goals. 
• Proactive Problem Solving: A sales plan involves anticipating potential challenges and developing strategies to address them. This proactive approach minimizes risks and enhances the team’s ability to navigate obstacles. 
• Strategic Decision-Making: It provides a strategic framework for decision-making, helping businesses make informed choices based on data, analysis, and a clear understanding of market dynamics. 
• Performance Measurement: Sales plans include key performance indicators (KPIs) that enable businesses to measure success systematically. This data-driven approach facilitates informed decision-making and continuous improvement. 
• Adaptability: A well-structured sales plan is adaptable to changes in the market, customer preferences, and other external factors. It allows businesses to pivot strategies when needed and stay ahead of the competition. 
• Team Accountability: The plan establishes clear roles and responsibilities within the sales team, fostering accountability. Team members understand their contributions to overall goals, enhancing collaboration and performance. 

Given the significance of having an effective sales plan, here’s an actionable guide to help you create one. 

How to Create an Effective Sales Plan  

An effective sales plan typically has several key characteristics, but if there’s one thing that stands out, it would be clarity of purpose and alignment with business goals.  

Here’s how you can create a sales plan: 

• Set Clear Objectives  
• Clarify not only the quantitative objectives but also the qualitative ones, such as improving customer satisfaction or penetrating a new market segment. 
• Align objectives with the overall business strategy to ensure synergy across departments. 

• Know Your Target Market  
• Develop buyer personas with detailed narratives that go beyond demographics to capture motivations, pain points, and aspirations. 
• Use advanced analytics tools to track real-time market changes and consumer sentiments. 

• Understand Your Product/Service  
• Conduct a comprehensive value proposition analysis, exploring emotional and functional benefits to create a more compelling narrative. 
• Regularly update your understanding of the product-market fit as customer needs evolve. 
• SWOT Analysis  
• Dig deep into the nuances of each element of SWOT, identifying not only current factors but potential future shifts. 
• Leverage external consultants or industry experts to gain a fresh perspective on your business landscape. 
• Sales Team Structure  
• Consider hybrid or agile team structures that allow for quick adaptation to market changes. 
• Foster a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing to capitalize on the diverse strengths within the team. 
• Sales Strategies and Tactics  
• Develop strategies for lead generation, prospecting, and closing deals. 
• Develop a multi-channel approach that integrates online and offline strategies seamlessly. 
• Implement A/B testing and data-driven decision-making to refine tactics continuously. 
• Sales Forecasting  
• Utilize predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms for more accurate forecasting . 
• Incorporate scenario planning to prepare for unexpected market shifts or disruptions. 
• Budget Allocation  
• Adopt a zero-based budgeting approach , challenging the necessity of each expense to ensure optimal resource allocation. 
• Create contingency funds for quick adaptation to unforeseen circumstances. 

• Training and Development  
• Implement personalized training programs based on individual strengths and weaknesses. 
• Foster a culture of self-directed learning, encouraging team members to proactively seek knowledge. 
• Technology and Tools  
• Embrace emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation for more efficient sales processes. 
• Regularly assess the technological landscape for innovative tools that can provide a competitive edge. 
• Monitoring and Evaluation  
• Establish a dynamic dashboard that provides real-time insights into KPIs, enabling agile decision-making. 
• Conduct regular “post-mortem” analyses on both successful and unsuccessful sales initiatives for continuous improvement. 
• Feedback Loop  
• Implement a 360-degree feedback system that includes input from customers, frontline sales staff, and management. 
• Actively seek out dissenting opinions to avoid groupthink and encourage innovative problem-solving. 
• Adaptability  
• Foster a mindset of adaptability and resilience within the sales team. 
• Develop agile response plans that can be quickly deployed in response to unexpected challenges or opportunities. 

Remember, a sales plan is a dynamic document that should be revisited and adjusted regularly to stay aligned with your business goals and market conditions. 

Types of Sales Plan Templates  

Exploring the potential of different sales strategies is crucial for organizational growth.  

The following table outlines key focus areas and stakeholders for various sales plans, providing a comprehensive view of how each plan contributes to overall success. 

While there are many sales plans, successful sales come down to understanding the important parts of each strategy. Let’s uncover what makes sales planning work. 

Sales Plan Templates  

Essential elements of a sales plan  .

A well-put-together sales plan plays a crucial role in directing a company’s sales initiatives and achieving revenue objectives.  

Now, every industry and company is unique, so the details might vary, but the basics are pretty much the same. Here’s what you usually find in a sales plan: 

1. Executive summary 

• Briefly outline the key components of the sales plan. 
• Provide an overview of the company’s current sales performance. 

2. Business objectives 

• Clearly define the sales goals and objectives. 
• Align these objectives with the overall business strategy. 

3. Target market and customer segmentation 

• Identify and describe the target market. 
• Segment customers based on demographics, psychographics, and behavior. 

4. Competitive analysis 

• Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. 
• Identify opportunities and threats in the market. 

5. Sales goals and quotas 

• Set specific, measurable, and achievable sales targets. 
• Assign sales quotas to individual team members or regions. 

6. Sales strategies 

• Outline the strategies for reaching the target audience. 
• Include positioning, pricing, and differentiation strategies. 

7. Sales tactics 

• Detail the specific actions and activities the sales team will undertake. 
• Include prospecting, lead generation, and closing techniques . 

8. Sales channels 

• Specify the channels through which products or services will be sold. 
• Consider direct sales, online sales, partnerships, etc. 

9. Sales training and development 

• Outline training programs to enhance the skills of the sales team. 
• Include ongoing development initiatives. 

10. Sales forecast 

• Provide a realistic projection of sales revenues. 
• Break down forecasts by product, service, or region. 

11. Budget 

• Detail the budget required for implementing the sales plan. 
• Include expenses for marketing, promotions, and sales activities. 

12. Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 

• Define the metrics used to measure sales performance. 
• Examples include conversion rates, average deal size, and customer acquisition cost. 

13. Implementation timeline 

• Create a timeline outlining the key milestones and deadlines. 
• Ensure alignment with broader business timelines. 

14. Risk analysis and contingency plans 

• Identify potential risks to the sales plan’s success. 
• Develop contingency plans to address unforeseen challenges. 

15. Monitoring and evaluation 

• Establish a process for monitoring and evaluating sales performance . 
• Regularly review and adjust the sales plan based on feedback and results. 

When businesses throw in these key elements into their sales plan, they’re basically mapping out how to hit their sales goals and improve overall performance. 

Best Practices for Sales Planning  

Best laid sales plans often subscribe to a few standard “best practices”. 

These go a long way in ensuring the plan’s effectiveness. Here are some key ones: 

1. Developing your sales team  

• Continuous Training: Implement ongoing training programs to keep the sales team updated on industry trends, product knowledge, and effective sales techniques. 
• Mentorship Programs: Foster mentorship relationships within the team to facilitate knowledge transfer and skill development. 
• Performance Reviews: Conduct regular performance reviews to identify areas for improvement and provide constructive feedback. 

2. Defining roles for the sales team  

• Clear Role Definitions: Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each member of the sales team to avoid confusion and overlap. 
• Specialization: Consider specialization within the team (e.g., inbound sales, outbound sales, account management) to leverage individual strengths. 
• Goal Alignment: Ensure that individual roles align with overall sales and business goals. 

3. Developing prospecting strategies  

• Targeted Prospecting: Tailor prospecting strategies to target specific market segments identified through thorough research. 
• Utilize Technology: Leverage CRM tools and other technologies to streamline prospecting processes and manage leads efficiently. 
• Multi-Channel Approach: Implement a multi-channel approach to prospecting, incorporating email campaigns, social media, and traditional outreach methods. 

4. Training programs to bolster sales competencies  

• Soft Skills Training: Include training modules that focus on developing soft skills such as communication, negotiation , and relationship-building. 
• Product Knowledge: Ensure that the sales team has in-depth knowledge of products or services to effectively communicate value propositions to customers. 
• Role-specific Training: Tailor training programs to address the unique needs of different sales roles within the team. 

5. Performance metrics and measurement  

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish and track KPIs that align with sales objectives, such as conversion rates, lead generation, and revenue growth. 
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Use analytics and data to make informed decisions about sales strategies and resource allocation. 
• Regular Performance Reviews: Conduct regular reviews to assess individual and team performance against set metrics. 

6. Collaboration and communication  

• Interdepartmental Collaboration: Foster collaboration between sales, marketing, and other relevant departments to ensure a cohesive approach. 
• Regular Team Meetings: Conduct regular team meetings to share updates, discuss challenges, and brainstorm strategies for improvement. 
• Open Communication Channels: Encourage open communication channels within the team to facilitate the exchange of ideas and feedback. 

7. Adaptability and continuous improvement  

• Agile Approach: Foster an agile mindset within the sales team to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs. 
• Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops to gather input from the sales team, customers, and other stakeholders for continuous improvement. 
• Benchmarking: Regularly benchmark sales performance against industry standards and competitors to identify areas for enhancement. 

Implementing these best practices can contribute to the development of a high-performing sales team and the formulation of productive sales strategies. 

Utilizing Tools & Resources in Your Sales Plan  

Meeting your strategic goals hinges on integrating the right tools and resources into your sales plan 

Here’s how you can go about it: 

I. Incorporating CRM data into your sales plan  

• Customer segmentation:  
• Utilize CRM data to segment customers based on characteristics such as demographics, purchase history, and preferences. 
• Tailor marketing and sales strategies to address the unique needs of each customer segment. 

• Predictive analytics  
• Implement predictive analytics using CRM data to forecast future sales trends and identify potential opportunities. 
• Use predictive modeling to prioritize leads and focus efforts on prospects with a higher likelihood of conversion. 
• Lead scoring systems  

• Utilize lead scoring systems within your CRM to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert.  
• This helps the sales team focus on high-potential opportunities. 
• Workflow automation:  
• Implement workflow automation tools to streamline and automate routine tasks, reducing manual effort and allowing the sales team to focus on high-value activities. 

• Real-time analytics   
• Provide the sales team with real-time analytics dashboards that offer instant insights into performance metrics, allowing for quick adjustments to strategies as needed. 
• Minimize distractions and maximize productivity by ensuring your team is seeing only what is relevant.  

• Sales performance management   
• Sales performance tools like LeadSquared’s Ace , feature leaderboards and gamification to create friendly competition. Real-time rankings and rewards encourage a motivated and competitive spirit among team members. 

• These tools track key performance metrics, allowing individuals to set and monitor goals. The transparency promotes accountability, fostering a results-oriented mindset and encouraging continuous improvement. 
• You can break down targets into smaller units by specific cycles to see how your team performs in regular intervals. Performance tracking tools can help you gain increased visibility into you team’s performance by analysing various aspects of their goal, dependencies in the process and more.
• Ace, for example, enables you to analyse not just the performance of your direct team but also their respective hierarchies. If you’d like to see how Ace further helps influence the performance of efficiency of your sales reps, book a free demo now ! 

II. Outlining the use of other software and resources  

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools  
• Explore AI-driven tools for sales forecasting, lead scoring, and personalized customer interactions. 
• Leverage AI algorithms to automate routine tasks, freeing up the sales team to focus on strategic activities. 
• Integration with marketing automation  
• Integrate sales tools with marketing automation platforms to align marketing and sales efforts. 
• Ensure a seamless handover of leads from marketing to sales for a cohesive customer journey. 

• E-learning platforms  
• Utilize e-learning platforms for ongoing training and development. 
• Offer a variety of learning resources, including videos, webinars, and interactive modules, to cater to different learning styles. 
• Customer feedback software  
• Implement customer feedback software to gather insights directly from customers. 
• Analyze feedback to identify areas for improvement and incorporate customer suggestions into the sales strategy. 

III. Choosing the right sales channels  

• Social media integration  
• Integrate social media platforms into your sales strategy for customer engagement and lead generation. 
• Utilize social listening tools to monitor conversations and trends relevant to your industry. 
• Mobile sales apps  
• Develop or utilize mobile sales apps to empower the sales team to access critical information and collaborate while on the go. 
• Ensure mobile apps are user-friendly and provide real-time updates. 

• Global expansion strategies  
• Consider global expansion by identifying and entering new international markets. 
• Tailor sales channels to local preferences and regulations, considering factors such as language and cultural nuances. 

Getting the hang of using tools and resources is a continuous journey. By constantly tweaking strategies, you set the stage for long-term success in sales planning. 

How Does a CRM Help you Plan Sales? 

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems serve as indispensable tools in refining sales planning strategies.  

By replacing guesswork with precision and basing conclusions on data-backed insights, a CRM system injects agility and impact into your sales plan. Here’s the nitty gritty of how that goes down:  

1. Centralized data management  

• Insightful consolidation: Seamlessly gather and organize vital customer information, ranging from contact details to purchase history and preferences, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of clientele. 
• Lead prioritization: Effectively manage potential leads by meticulously storing pertinent details, enabling strategic planning and allocation of resources. 

2. Accurate sales forecasting  

• Analytical precision: Leverage historical sales data analysis to discern patterns and trends, enabling more accurate projections and informed decision-making. 
• Pipeline visualization: Gain valuable insights into the sales pipeline, facilitating proactive measures to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate risks. 

3. Efficient activity planning  

• Structured planning: Exercise meticulous control over sales activities through task scheduling and tracking, ensuring optimal utilization of time and resources. 
• Seamless integration: Harmonize sales activities with calendar schedules, minimizing conflicts and streamlining operational efficiency. 

4. Strategic lead and opportunity management  

• Lead progress tracking: Monitor lead progression through the sales funnel, adapting engagement strategies based on evolving customer behavior and preferences. 
• Opportunity optimization: Systematically manage sales opportunities to maximize potential deals, fostering a methodical approach to achieving sales targets. 

5. Targeted customer segmentation  

• Segmentation precision: Employ segmentation criteria such as demographics, behavior, and purchase history to tailor sales strategies to specific customer segments, enhancing engagement and conversion rates. 

6. Effective communication and collaboration  

• Comprehensive documentation: Maintain detailed records of customer interactions, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic planning for future engagements. 
• Collaborative integration: Foster teamwork and synergy among sales teams through centralized platforms for information sharing and collaborative efforts. 

7. Performance analysis and enhancement  

• Analytical insight: Harness the analytical capabilities of CRM tools to evaluate sales performance metrics, identifying areas for improvement and refining strategies for optimized results. 

In summary, a powerful CRM like LeadSquared streamlines sales planning by centralizing data, enabling accurate forecasting, supporting activity planning, managing leads and opportunities, facilitating customer segmentation, promoting communication and collaboration, and providing performance analytics for continuous improvement.  

With LeadSquared, your sales plan transforms into a dynamic roadmap, driving efficiency, maximizing opportunities, and propelling your business to unprecedented success. Ready to transform your sales planning and propel your business to new heights? 

Book a demo!  

Conclusion 

A solid sales plan is the cornerstone of a successful business strategy, guiding your team towards achieving revenue goals and fostering long-term customer relationships.  

As you delve into the intricacies of sales planning, consider the game-changing capabilities offered by LeadSquared. This all-in-one CRM solution seamlessly centralizes customer data, refines sales forecasting, streamlines lead management, and enhances team collaboration.  

A good sales plan clearly outlines revenue targets, identifies key customer segments, and incorporates strategies as per your market segment and competition. 

A sales plan is only effective if it reflects a thorough understanding of your customers and your sales team. What do your customers want and is your team equipped to deliver?   To know the answer to that, you need real-time analytics.  These analytics serve as a compass guiding your sales plan and ensuring it stays relevant. 

That depends entirely on the market and its components, including shifts in customer behaviour, trends in your niche and competitor strategies.  However, a general rule of thumb calls for a quarterly assessment of your sales plan and its effectiveness. 

Saleha Mariam is a marketing enthusiast with an affinity for all things business and a fondness for the written word. She is presently interning at LeadSquared as a Content Writer. You can reach her on LinkedIn or write to her at [email protected]

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How To Build a Strategic Sales Plan + 10 Examples

• March 28, 2024

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

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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Blog What Is A Sales Plan? | How To Create Your Own + Sample Sales Plan Template

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

Researching your target audience for a sales plan

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

Planning a strategy for prospecting

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 Build a Sales Strategy Plan for Your Business

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Building and developing a sales strategy plan is arguably the most crucial activity your business will engage in. Whether focused on B2B sales strategy, inbound, outbound, small-to-medium business (SMB) or enterprise, the company needs a dependable source of income to survive.

The key to achieving dependable revenue is in tying specific sales activity to solid, thoughtful, and data-backed objectives formed with the company’s long-term goals in mind.  

While proponents of the adage  stop planning, start doing  have a point in case (no sales strategy plan succeeds without execution) I would argue it’s akin to the famous idiom  shoot first, ask questions later.   

Without a sales strategy plan in place, sales reps and directors make decisions based on what is in front of them at that given time. Not because they’re careless or foolish, but rather unaware of the company’s long-term goals. As a result, it becomes challenging to tie sales activity to specific data-backed objectives.     

So, to create dependable, long-lasting growth throughout the business, sales directors need a strategy. And that, ladies and gents, starts with a solid sales strategy plan.

What is a sales strategy plan?

A sales strategy plan is a company’s roadmap for securing dependable, long-term revenue through the retention and acquisition of new and existing customers. 

They typically encompass everything from specific tactics, market strategy, processes, objectives, forecasting, budgeting, and timeline. Also, plans vary in length, often spanning over a year, maybe two, with an added focus to each fiscal quarter.       

Most businesses’ sales strategy plans are top-down, with revenue targets commonly stipulated by investors, shareholders, and other C-Level executives with a vested financial interest in the company. These are either achieved through the increase of revenue, reduction in expenses, or a combination of both.     

How to develop a sales strategy plan

As I just mentioned, its those at the top that generally implement sales strategy plans. Someone decides on an arbitrary revenue or growth figure based on external factors, divides the number evenly amongst sales territories, and hits the trigger button. 

The problem with this approach is that it’s far too simplistic . It fails to take into account which markets and territories could support the most growth, the continually evolving customer journey, competitors, market maturity, etc.

Consequently, these poorly-planned strategies lose traction over time, create confusion amongst the sales team, and fail to achieve their overall objectives.

So, to build a successful sales strategy plan directors should follow this five-stage sales strategy plan template:  

• Put the customer at the center of your business
• Align with overall business goals

SWOT Analysis

• Go-to-customer strategy

Setting goals

Customer centricity.

Every company starts and ends with its customers. Period. This is why how you hold your customers, or the customer experience you want to create, is the driving force behind all sales strategy plans. 

While customer experience isn’t exclusively a sales issue, we inevitably find ourselves communicating with them daily as they build their primary relationships with our brand. 

Therefore, the experience they have with the sales team shapes their opinion of the company, and in extension, how they share that experience with their peers or through social networks, either good or bad.

As a result, customer experience is critical to the success of the sales strategy plan, forcing sales teams to think about:

• How they want their customers to view the brand?
• Around which fundamental values do they want to build their customer experience?
• Are the field reps aware and communicating appropriately during their face-to-face visits?

What I’m trying to say is, before engaging in budget talks, sales forecasting , and annual sales objectives, the entire organization and sales team need to put the customer at the heart of everything. They need to take an outside-in approach to the sales plan and consider what kind of experience they’d like to create. 

Corporate alignment

The sales team is responsible for executing the corporate strategy. Sure, marketing, customer success, and other internal and external communication programs play a part in creating awareness around the brand, but it’s sales that get the job done.

It’s important to note that this means more than just hitting target revenue. Senior executives are concerned about market positioning, maturity, customer perception, and what they stand for as a brand. As a result, they will have various goals other than pure revenue, such as:

• Increase market share
• New product line revenue
• Increase share of wallet
• Territorial expansion

The “big picture” enterprise goals must be taken into consideration when building a sales strategy plan. If not, the entire future of the organization is put in jeopardy.

Let me give you an example.

Imagine you are given an annual target revenue of $99m at a company with three primary service plans. 

The first represents your traditional business model, the one your sales team has sold for years. It’s a maturing market, and your company has a solid reputation and an established client base.

The second service plan is an ambitious entry into a new vertical and market segment. It’s a potentially lucrative gamble being a relatively unexplored segment, but the sales team lacks experience and reputation. 

The third and final service plan requires expansion into a new sales territory . Again, this is an unexplored ground that senior executives have earmarked for potential in the future.

As the sales director, you have two options to hit your target revenue of $99m. You could:

• Focus on your traditional service plan . Your sales team knows the market well, has an established reputation amongst industry leaders, and with a bit of luck, could reach target revenue without worrying too much about the success of the new service plans.
• Develop a sales strategy plan balanced across all three . You might decide to split your annual revenue target into three, smaller $33m pieces – one for each service plan. You choose to reallocate resources and training budget to help with the two untested plans.

If it were you, what option would you choose? Option 1 or Option 2?

Hopefully, you avoided the potential trap of Option 1. 

While it may bring you short-term success (your target is to hit $99m after all), the long-term future of the company is at risk. Investments made within these new divisions that widen the organization’s revenue plan may be forced to scale back or shut down completely, severely impacting the company’s long-term growth strategy. 

Another critical step in building a sales strategy plan is SWOT analysis . This tactic is handy when assessing the challenges your organization faces when venturing into a new market or under pressure from increasing competition, by looking at a company’s:

Opportunities

By analyzing each of these areas, businesses can build on their strengths, mitigate their weaknesses, uncover new opportunities while blunting the various threats that may crop up down the line.

So how do you undertake a SWOT analysis?

First of all, you will need to allocate an hour, maybe two, to gather a diverse group of colleagues (both internal and external if possible) as well as company leadership. This diversity is critical in providing differing perspectives on each of the four points of your SWOT analysis.

Once you’ve gathered everybody, I recommend handing out a pad of sticky notes and asking each person to come up with five separate points for each quadrant. Doing this exercise first gives every member of the team a voice while reducing the pressure of “group think.”

To help in your analysis mull over some of the following questions: 

• What are your most substantial assets?
• Which of those assets would you consider the strongest and why?
• What is unique about your company?
• What advantages do you hold over your competitors?
• How skilled are your sales team?
• Which of the business processes are most successful?
• What are the potential areas for improvement?
• What is it customers are saying they would like to see more of?
• Are there any physical or tangible assets the company lacks?
• Are there skill gaps within the sales team?
• Where do your competitors have an edge?
• What are some of the current market trends?
• Is the market expanding or constricting?
• Are there any upcoming industry events?
• Do you need to consider any upcoming regulatory changes?
• Is your chief competitor losing traction with their customer base?
• Is there something clear and obvious missing from your market?
• Are there any competitors that could be a potential threat in the future?
• Is the current customer base satisfied with your services?
• Is the sales team happy?
• Is customer behavior changing?
• Are there any legal threats facing the company in the near future?

Once you’ve completed this exercise, you should end up with a prioritized list of points up for debate amongst the leadership group. You can then convert these points to real-time strategy and add actionable objectives to the sales strategy plan.

Go-to-Customer Strategy

This section of the sales strategy plans focuses on how, as an organization, you can most effectively reach your target customer base.

Figuring out the pros and cons, risks, and costs to all the possible routes to your customers is an extremely time-consuming, complex task. Sales directors must look at:

• Field sales
• Inside sales
• Channel partners

Each route also has its subset of implementations, such as SDRs, territory account management, product specialists, outsourced lead scoring, the primary account managers…the list is truly endless!

What’s more, the go-to-customer strategy is a continually evolving process that needs constant revision to match real-time market changes.

Fortunately for us, sales author David Brock came up with three questions to help analyze core issues within the customer-go-to strategy:

• How do we find and engage all our target customers?
• What’s the most effective method in engaging them?
• How can we achieve this at the lowest possible cost/risk?  

So let’s start by answering our first question. 

To do that, we need to know who our customers are. Now, this doesn’t include everyone; you need to identify your company’s “ sweet spot .” What is your company the absolute best at doing in the world, and who benefits from it?

As soon as we begin to move away from that sweet spot, the quicker the win rate plummets and the costlier the sales cycle becomes.

To answer the second question, we need to look at our customer’s buying process. How do they initiate contact with the business? Is the first touch online, or through outreach via the outside sales team? How do they want to buy from us? 

The simplest and easiest way to find out is by asking your customers. 

Finally, after settling on the customer’s preferred method or process of engagement, how can we achieve this with the lowest cost/risk? The most economic risk deployment model is rarely the cheapest, so strike a balance between both customer and budget allowance.

Now that we’ve taken an in-depth look at our organizational objectives, market positioning, customers, and devised a go-to strategy, it’s time to put this all together with some actionable goals.

Setting  goals for sales reps  is mandatory. Not only as necessary incentives that push them to the limit, but also for keeping their activity aligned to overall business objectives.

This is why all sales goals should follow the SMART principle:

TIME-SENSITIVE 

The more specific you can be when setting sales goals, the more likely your team is to hit them. 

Their primary goal is probably to increase revenue. So instead of giving them an arbitrary figure, ask yourself how much would you like to increase revenue? By when? Why? And How? The more specific you can be, the better.

To evaluate your field sales team’s progress, asses them against some form of quantitative yardstick. If not, how can we know they’re on track or, more importantly, if they are falling short, how we can interject and provide the necessary support?

When setting goals, directors need to toe a fine line between ambition and reality. Yes, we want ambitious objectives that force our reps to go above and beyond what’s expected, but on the flip side, set them too high, and it has the opposite effect – demoralizing and alienating the team from management.

Find that sweet spot somewhere in the middle, and you’ll find your reps much more driven to carry out your sales strategy plan.

The sales goals directors and managers set have to be tied to a relevant, quantitative objective. It goes back to the point I made earlier regarding corporate alignment. If the sales strategy plan fails to execute the bigger picture set out by the company executives, then its future success and longevity are put in jeopardy.

Let’s take a look at a quick example.

Imagine our corporate team tasks us with increasing market share by 20% over the next financial year. 

As sales directors, we must decide on the most cost-effective yet risk-averse strategy to achieve that goal. One option would be to increase our Share of Wallet by  boosting customer retention  figures or reducing churn. 

Now, an actionable sales objective for our reps would be to improve our customer satisfaction ranking, or in other words, where a customer places us against our competitors in loyalty and satisfaction.

Time-Sensitive

Finally, our sales goals need an expiry date. If sales reps believe they have all year to hit their objectives, then where’s the incentive? Again, it will need to be achievable as I alluded to earlier, but with just enough stick to get things moving at the business end of the quarter.

Well, I hope that’s given you a head start when developing your next sales strategy plan! Just remember, there is no one-size-fits-all sales plan. Customize the sales strategy plan template provided to fit your needs, those of the organization, and their goals. 

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What is a Sales Plan? Steps, Tips, and Examples

A sales plan outlines steps to achieve sales goals.

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Do you want to close more deals and skyrocket your sales revenue? A well-crafted sales plan is the key to success. In fact, companies that have a defined sales process see 18% more revenue growth than those that don't.

But what exactly is a sales plan and how do you create one? In this ultimate guide, we'll break down the essential components, walk you through the planning process step-by-step, and share examples and templates. Plus, discover how AI can automate repetitive tasks to save you time.

By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap to smash your sales targets. Let's dive in!

Components of an Effective Sales Plan

A well-crafted sales plan is essential for achieving your revenue targets and keeping your sales team focused on the right activities. Here are the key elements to include:

• Company mission and positioning. Outline why your company exists, the value you provide, and how you're positioned against competitors.
• Number of calls and emails per day
• Number of demos per week
• Number of new deals per month
• Team structure. Identify the roles, responsibilities and expertise needed on your sales team to execute the plan.
• Target customers. Clearly define your ideal customer profiles and buyer personas, including their attributes, challenges and goals. Building a robust prospect list helps in targeting the right customers.
• Sales process and methodology. Map out your sales stages from prospecting to closing deals, and the specific activities and tactics for each stage.
• Action plan. Prioritize and schedule key projects and milestones by week, month or quarter. Balance short-term wins with long-term investments.
• Metrics and measurement. Determine the primary and secondary metrics to track for each sales stage, and the tools you'll use to measure performance, such as automating sales prospecting .

By thoughtfully defining each of these components, you'll create a roadmap to keep your entire sales organization focused, aligned and equipped to achieve your revenue goals.

In the next section, we'll dive deeper into the sales planning process and how to develop your own strategic sales plan step-by-step.

The Sales Planning Process: Key Steps

Creating an effective sales plan involves several critical steps. By following a structured sales planning process, organizations can align their efforts, anticipate challenges, and position their teams for success. Here's an overview of the key stages:

1. Establish Clear Objectives and Metrics

The first step is defining your sales goals and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you'll use to measure progress. This provides a clear target to work towards and helps keep everyone accountable and on track.

For example, your high-level objective may be to grow revenue by 20% this year. Supporting KPIs could include metrics like number of new customers acquired, average deal size, and conversion rates at each pipeline stage.

2. Analyze Data to Inform Strategies

Gather and analyze relevant data to gain insights into your target market, customer needs, and sales team performance. This includes reviewing historical sales data, market research, competitor analysis, and feedback from customers and reps.

Use this information to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities that should shape your sales plan. For instance, analyzing win/loss data may reveal a need to adjust your sales process or enhance rep training in certain areas.

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3. Define Your Target Customers

Clarify exactly who your ideal customers are and how your offering uniquely serves their needs. Develop detailed buyer personas that outline key characteristics, goals, and challenges of each customer segment you're targeting.

A well-defined target customer profile guides everything from prospecting tactics to sales messaging to the KPIs you track. It helps reps focus on the right opportunities and enables more personalized, value-based outreach.

4. Outline Your Action Plan

Break your high-level objectives down into specific, time-bound initiatives and tactics. Map out the exact activities, tools, and resources needed to achieve each goal.

This tactical plan should cover things like target prospect lists, outreach cadences, key sales enablement assets to create, training programs to implement, and any new tech or headcount investments required.

The most effective sales planning processes are collaborative, iterative, and agile. Seek input from frontline reps as well as leadership, and build in milestones to assess and adapt your plan based on results.

By investing the time upfront to work through these sales planning steps, you'll be well-equipped to drive predictable revenue growth. Next up, we'll explore the key components to include as you build out your sales plan.

Essential Components of a Thorough Sales Plan

A well-crafted sales plan serves as a roadmap for your sales organization, aligning efforts and driving progress toward key objectives. To be effective, your plan should cover several critical elements, from defining your target customers to outlining the strategies and tactics that will help you reach your goals. Let's explore the key components to include:

1. Clearly Define Your Target Market and Customers

The foundation of any sales plan is a clear understanding of who you are selling to. This means going beyond basic demographics to develop detailed buyer personas. Outline the key characteristics, goals, pain points, and decision-making criteria for each customer segment you're targeting.

For example, if you sell marketing automation software, one of your personas might be marketing managers at mid-sized B2B companies. You would note their typical challenges, like proving ROI and aligning with sales, as well as their motivations, like advancing their careers by driving leads and revenue.

2. Set Specific, Measurable Sales Goals

Your sales plan must include concrete revenue targets and sales goals. These should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Consider your growth stage, industry benchmarks, and historical performance when setting targets.

Break annual goals down into quarterly and monthly targets. For instance, if your revenue goal for the year is $10M, your Q1 target might be $2M. Drill that down further into monthly or even weekly goals. The more specific, the better - it keeps the team focused and accountable.

3. Detail Your Sales Strategies and Tactics

This is the heart of your sales plan, where you outline exactly how you will achieve your targets. Describe the sales methodologies, channels, and tactics you will employ at each stage of the sales process.

Will you focus on inbound leads, outbound prospecting, or a mix? What will your sales cadence look like in terms of touchpoints and messaging? How will you handle objections and negotiate deals? Dive into the specifics of sales demos best practices here.

4. Define Your Action Plan and Responsibilities

Translate your high-level strategies into a concrete action plan. Break initiatives down into specific tasks, set deadlines, and assign clear owners (e.g. have SDRs make 50 calls per day, AEs conduct 10 demos per week, sales enablement create new pitch deck by X date).

Everyone should understand their role and what they are responsible for delivering. Build in checkpoints to assess progress and course-correct as needed. Regular one-on-ones and team meetings are crucial to keep everyone on track and surface any obstacles to address.

A thorough sales plan connects all the dots from your company vision down to the daily activities of each rep. By clearly defining your target customers, setting concrete goals, detailing your sales process, and turning that into an actionable plan, you equip your team for success.

Eager to see these elements in action? Up next, we'll explore some real-world sales plan examples and templates you can adapt for your own organization. You won't want to miss these battle-tested resources!

Battle-Tested Sales Plan Templates and Examples

Seeing real-world examples of sales plans can provide inspiration and guidance as you create your own. Templates are also incredibly helpful, allowing you to plug in your specific information while ensuring you cover all the essential components. Let's explore some of the most effective sales plan templates and examples.

1. One-Page Strategic Sales Plan Template

For those who prefer a concise, single-page format, this strategic sales plan template is ideal. It prompts you to fill in your target market, revenue goals, key strategies, timeline, and metrics - all on one easy-to-digest page.

This format works well for quickly communicating the core elements of your plan to busy executives or other stakeholders who need a high-level overview. You can always expand on each section with additional detail in supporting documents as needed.

2. 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Template for New Hires

Onboarding new sales reps is a critical task, and a 30-60-90 day plan provides a framework for ramping them up effectively. This type of template outlines key milestones and expectations for a rep's first three months on the job.

For example, the first 30 days may focus on product training, shadowing calls, and learning the CRM. The next 30 days can emphasize building pipeline and delivering demos, while the final 30 days target closing their first deals. Customize the specifics based on your team's onboarding process.

3. Account-Based Sales Plan Example

Account-based selling has gained popularity in recent years, especially for B2B companies targeting high-value customers. An account-based sales plan zeroes in on specific accounts, outlining tailored strategies to engage key decision-makers.

This type of plan often includes in-depth research on the target accounts, identifying their unique pain points, goals, and buying process. It may also map out a multi-touch, multi-channel outreach strategy leveraging tactics like cold outreach , personalized emails, social selling, direct mail, and executive events.

Need help with cold outreach and sales automation? Learn how to automate your sales and focus on closing more deals.

4. Tips for Customizing Sales Plan Templates

While templates provide a helpful starting point, it's important to adapt them to your unique business context. As you customize a template, consider the following:

• Align your sales goals with overarching company objectives
• Tailor your target market definition based on your ideal customer profile
• Adjust your strategies and tactics to reflect your specific sales process and buyer's journey
• Modify the timeline to match your business cycles and seasonality
• Select KPIs that are most relevant to your sales motion and industry

Remember, the most effective sales plans are living documents. As you implement your plan, continually review and refine it based on results and changing market conditions. Regularly revisit it with your team to track progress and make data-driven adjustments.

Armed with these examples and customization tips, you're well on your way to crafting a winning sales plan. The time you invest upfront will pay dividends in the form of a more focused, aligned, and high-performing sales organization. We've covered a lot of ground - thanks for sticking with it! But don't lose steam now; put these insights into action and watch your sales soar.

Conclusions

Understanding the fundamentals of a sales plan is crucial for aligning your sales efforts and achieving growth objectives. In this guide, you discovered:

• The vital components that make up an impactful sales plan
• How to develop a structured process for creating your plan
• What specific sections and information to include in your plan document
• Helpful templates and examples to guide your own plan creation

Don't let your sales potential go untapped - put these insights into practice and craft a winning plan. Without a solid sales plan, you're essentially flying blind, leaving revenue on the table. Additionally, consider incorporating lead enrichment to improve lead qualification and enhance your sales strategies.

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Home / Blog / Sales Strategy: What’s Most Effective? A Great Message!

Sales Strategy: What’s Most Effective? A Great Message!

Publish Date November 22, 2019

Post Author by Tim Riesterer

Post Topics Acquisition , Expansion , Messaging

How do you create the best and most effective sales strategy? A lot of advice out there tells you that as long as you have a documented plan, a solid process, and a bullpen full of reps who know your solution inside and out, you’re ready.

Well, not quite.

The problem is, most sales strategies are too internally focused. They succeed in documenting internal procedures but lose sight of the messages and skills your reps need to communicate value to your prospects and customers.

Consider the following insights:

• Research from SiriusDecisions  shows that  the number-one inhibitor to sales achieving quota is an “inability to communicate a value message.”
• In corresponding research in which SiriusDecisions asked executive customers about the quality of interactions with salespeople,  only 10 percent said sales calls provide enough value to warrant the time they spent on them.
• A  Forrester Research  study revealed that  only 15 percent of sales calls add enough value,  according to executives surveyed.
• The Forrester study also showed that  just seven percent of surveyed executives say they would probably schedule a follow-up.

In other words, if your sales force can’t communicate value—why your solution is different, better, and worth more—your sales strategy won’t help you get more sales.

So, what can you do?

In this article, you’ll learn 10 tips for building a sales strategy that actually works. Each one is backed by behavioral research and has been rigorously studied to be effective in B2B selling situations.

But first, it’s important to step back and clarify what it really means to create a successful sales strategy.

What is a Sales Strategy?

A sales strategy is defined as a documented plan for positioning and selling your product or service to qualified buyers in a way that differentiates your solution from your competitors.

Sales strategies are meant to provide clear objectives and guidance to your sales organization. They typically include key information like growth goals, KPIs, buyer personas, sales processes, team structure, competitive analysis, product positioning, and specific selling methodologies .

Most of these guidelines are helpful for communicating goals and keeping your sales reps on the same page. Where most sales strategies fall short, however, is that they’re too focused on the internal workings of your organization. The actual skills needed to have winning conversations with buyers—along with the messages reps need to be successful—are merely an afterthought.

When you boil it down, the goal of every sales strategy is to make sure your salespeople hit their quota, right? And it’s the messaging element—what salespeople say, do, and write in order to create perceived value—that wins or loses the deal.

To truly be effective, your organization’s sales strategy needs to focus on customer conversations. These skillfully delivered conversations are what creates a distinctive purchase experience, demonstrates value for your buyers, and separates your company from the competition.

With that in mind, here are 10 things to keep in mind when creating a sales strategy.

10 Keys to Developing a Successful Sales Strategy

1. build a powerful value proposition in your messaging.

Most prospects either don’t recognize or can’t articulate the root challenges they struggle with on a daily basis. So, even if you sell a truly remarkable product, your buyers probably won’t recognize the real value you offer to their organization. That’s why you need to create a powerful and persuasive message.

In fact, Forrester’s research found that 74 percent of executive buyers will give their business to a company that illustrates a buying vision , compared to vendors among a group of commodity suppliers.

This isn’t just about touting your product’s features, hoping that your buyer chooses you over your competition. That approach only puts you at value parity with similar solutions, and it forces a competitive bake-off.

Instead of talking about what you do and why you think you can do it better, create a buying vision that defines a new set of challenges that align with your distinct strengths. This powerful value proposition will uncover previously Unconsidered Needs for your prospect, create contrast, and drive the urgency to change using stories and insights.

2. Create the Urgency to Change

Most companies unknowingly position themselves for a competitive bake-off of features and benefits. They answer the “why should I choose you?” question for their prospects. But in doing so, they miss a critical first step.

The truth is that the majority of buyers prefer to do nothing instead of change. In fact, 60 percent of deals in the pipeline are lost to “no decision” rather than to competitors .

Staying the same is safe and comfortable, while change is associated with threat and risk. To break through Status Quo Bias and get prospects to leave their current situation, you need to tell a story that makes a compelling case for why they should change, and why they should change now.

Successful sales strategy requires you to understand your real competitor—the status quo. Help your prospects make the decision to change before you try and convince them to choose you. Answering these questions is what differentiates your solution and sets the tone for your buyer’s entire Deciding Journey.

3. Tell a Compelling and Memorable Story

When salespeople prepare for conversations with prospects, they usually focus on getting all the facts straight about their offerings. But the most accurate information in the world won’t resonate if you can’t connect with your customers in a memorable way.

Telling personal stories and using metaphors and analogies  helps bring your message alive  in a more compelling way than simply reciting facts and data. Storytelling paints a vivid picture for your buyers, illustrating the contrast between their current situation versus what’s possible, and connecting what you offer directly to their unique situation.

Once you start sharing stories in your sales conversations, your customer relationships will become deeper and more rewarding.

4. Speak to the Customer Deciding Journey, Not Your Sales Process

A sales process is a set of repeatable steps that a salesperson uses to lead a prospect to purchase. Typically, the sales process involves several steps like prospecting, qualifying, discovering needs, negotiating, and closing. This would be an ideal checklist to follow if all your buyers were robots being taken through an assembly line. But that’s just not the reality.

Selling today isn’t a predictable progression that you’ve decided is how your prospects and customers should buy. What you’re really up against today is a Customer Deciding Journey —a series of key questions your buyers are asking as they look to address specific business goals.

Instead of being “program-centric” with a one-size-fits-all sales strategy, you need to be problem-centric, addressing the specific needs of your buyers as they arise with situationally relevant messages, content, and the skills to deliver them.

5. Don’t Rely on Buyer Personas in Your Sales Strategy

Customer profiles and buyer personas sound good in theory. The idea is to collect common demographic attributes, attitudes, and behaviors of your target audience to help frame and target your messages. But when used as a superficial profiling approach, personas can lead your messaging astray .

Persona-based selling assumes that the behaviors or actions of your target buyer are motivated by their internal characteristics. In reality, buyers are motivated by outside influences that challenge their status quo and convince them to change. These outside influences might include rapid growth within the company, inefficient or unsustainable processes, or broader changes that affect their industry as a whole.

The real drivers behind behaviors and behavior change are the challenges within your buyer’s  situation , not their professional  disposition . So, instead of focusing your sales strategy on a lot of inconsequential attributes, speak to your buyer’s situation and why their current approach is putting their business at risk.

6. Avoid the “Commodity Trap” in Your Sales Strategy

Too often, salespeople base their messages on the needs that prospects tell them they have. Then, they connect those identified needs to corresponding capabilities, in standard “solution selling” fashion.

The problem with this approach? You fall into the trap of commodity messaging along with your competitors, who are likely constructing their value message in response to the same set of inputs. As a result, you sound just like everyone else, leaving your prospects indecisive and without any real urgency to change.

Instead, you need to introduce Unconsidered Needs that extend beyond the identified, known needs and solve for those. Introduce prospects to problems or missed opportunities they’ve underappreciated or don’t even know about. Then, connect the Unconsidered Needs you’ve identified to your differentiated strengths, which are uniquely suited to resolve those risks.

Research conducted by Corporate Visions  found that  a provocative messaging approach that begins by introducing an Unconsidered Need enhances your persuasive impact by 10 percent.

7. Lead with Insights, Not Discovery Questions

Many salespeople try to be a “trusted advisor”—asking their buyers discovery questions, diagnosing the customer’s needs, and then presenting a solution that fits the criteria. But this approach does you and your customer a disservice.

To be of real value to your buyers, it’s not enough to say, “Tell me what you want; I’ll get it for you.” Buyers want salespeople who will tell them what they should want. They want you to sift through all the information that’s out there and deliver insight into what they’re missing that will improve their performance.

This means more than just finding data and statistics online. A fact without a story is just a data point. To make it real for your buyer, wrap your insights in a story that connects the dots for them and provides context within their world.

8. Align Sales and Marketing

Too often, sales and marketing are siloed departments, each with individual goals that appear compatible. Marketing creates sales messaging and tools and generates leads for the sales team. Sales teams use the messaging and tools to transform those leads into revenue. But  a lack of alignment and gaps in your process  can sabotage your efforts.

You might hear the following complaint from both sides: “We’re doing our job, but they just don’t get it.” The problem with these goals is that they foster an us-versus-them attitude and miss the big picture. Sales is a design point for better marketing. If Sales is the storyteller of your organization, then Marketing is the story builder.

Ultimately, these two teams share—and must be aligned to achieve—one purpose: to persuade buyers to choose you.

Get our State of the Conversation Report, The B2B Content Disconnect ,  to learn how to drive action and conversions with insights-driven content, before and after a sales rep enters the picture.

9. Tailor Your Sales Strategy for Customer Expansion

Most sales and marketing teams spend the majority of their budgets and effort on customer acquisition and demand generation. Meanwhile, the majority of your annual revenue likely comes from your existing customers, through renewals and upsells.

Nearly half of the companies  surveyed by Corporate Visions  invest less than 10 percent of their marketing budgets in customer retention and expansion. Clearly, your customers are highly underrated yet powerful growth engines within your company. And you shouldn’t overlook the potential of this untapped revenue stream.

The challenge is, retention and expansion require a distinct messaging and customer conversation approach. Existing customers are in a different position than your prospects—one that carries a unique buying psychology.

While customer acquisition is all about  challenging the status quo  to highlight the benefits of switching to your solution, customer retention and expansion require you to reinforce your position as their status quo. In fact, research shows that using a provocative, challenging message when you’re trying to renew or expand business with your customers will increase the likelihood that they’ll shop around by at least 10-16 percent .

Check out our e-book,  To Challenge or Not to Challenge ,  to discover research-backed insights into when you should (and shouldn’t) challenge your buyer’s status quo.

10. Enable Ongoing Situational Training

Most training and learning efforts are based on a collection of competencies, supported by a curriculum and catalog that gets scheduled on calendar-based interest and availability. But what does that have to do with helping the company’s business strategy, responding to shifting market demands, and intervening to fix emergent needs when they arise?

To be as effective and efficient as you need to be today, your sales training has to rise to a new level of flexibility, customization, and situational relevance. Using a flexible, on-demand training model enables you to deploy it at a moment’s notice to solve problems as they occur, and tackle initiatives as they arise.  Training your sales team for situational agility equips them with the messaging and skills they need relative to the customer conversations they’re having.

Take Your Sales Strategy Beyond “Best Practices”

Most of the so-called “best practices” out there won’t help your sales team succeed. Instead of following a fill-in-the-blanks template, create a strategy that communicates more value in your sales conversations.

Get our sales e-book,  Winning the Four Value Conversations , to get more research-backed sales messaging and skills for building a sales strategy that actually works.

Tim Riesterer

Chief Strategy Officer

Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions, is dedicated to helping companies improve their conversations with prospects and customers to win more business. A visionary researcher, thought leader, keynote speaker, and practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales management, Riesterer is co-author of four books, including Customer Message Management , Conversations that Win the Complex Sale , The Three Value Conversations , and The Expansion Sale .

43+ Sales Templates (Free & Paid)

Table of contents

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Let’s face it—your sales team is busy. They’re so busy, in fact, that they spend less than 30% of the week actually engaging with prospects. As a sales enablement professional, part of your job is to ensure that they have more time to do their jobs. 

That’s where these sales templates come in. Think about how many prospects a seller may be juggling at the same time. Now consider the fact that many of these prospects are at all different stages of their buying journey. It’s no wonder why 42% of businesses say they lack the ability to produce personalized content quickly. 

Sales professionals may know the value of personalized content that targets prospects at different stages of the sales cycle, but that doesn’t mean that they have the time to generate this content. From sales emails to sales decks to invoices, there’s a lot of content your sellers are handling on a day-to-day basis. These sales templates give them a starting place for their content personalization needs, saving them valuable time while also helping them utilize tried-and-true engagement tactics.

What are Sales Templates?

Sales templates are pre-designed documents or resources used by sales teams to streamline and standardize various aspects of the sales process. These templates help ensure consistency in communication, improve efficiency, and maintain a professional image across all sales activities. They come in a variety of categories, including email templates , invoice templates, and forecasting templates, and they provide a basic framework for sales teams to customize.

Spekit offers a library filled with sales templates that help your team better connect with their prospects. From learning how to use valuable sales enablement tools to unpacking different sales methodologies to providing structure for important sales interactions, you can use these free sales templates to empower your reps. 

Sales Email Templates

Your sales team can build upon these sales email templates to personalize each email, which can increase your open rate by 29% and your click-through rate by 41%. For even more personalization, you can start with these templates and then personalize them with the help of an AI email writing tool .

1. Cold Email Template

This cold email template, courtesy of Zendesk , is a great option for getting in contact and introducing yourself to a prospect. In this template, you introduce your product or service, address that your product or service helps with a particular pain point, and provide a CTA to move forward with a meeting.

2. BANT Post Cold Call Follow-Up Email Template

This post cold call follow-up email template by Spekit fits right in with your BANT framework. With this email template, you utilize the four main pieces of BANT: address their budget, establish your authority, target their needs, and set a timeline. 

Spekit is a sales enablement platform that can help you optimize your sales emails, as well as other essential sales practices. With Spekit, you can generate content with a simple prompt, summarize lengthy content, and get AI-driven content recommendations that help you further your relationship with a prospect. 

You also get Spekit’s just-in-time learning , where your sales professionals receive bite-sized bits of content wherever they’re working to help foster an environment of continuous learning.

3. Warm Email Sales Template

A cold email is best when you’ve had no prior interactions, but sometimes a warm email is a better option. This warm email template, courtesy of Zendesk , allows you to reintroduce yourself to someone you’ve already met, offer more information that adds clarity to what you’ve already discussed, and provide a CTA to move forward with a more formal meeting.

4. Useful Resource Email Template

Providing value from your first interaction can enable you to establish yourself as an authority on a particular topic. One of the easiest ways to offer value is by including valuable information and content in your introductory email, like in this sales email template by HubSpot .

Spekit makes finding the right content to send simple. With Spekit’s AI-powered content recommendations , Spekit unpacks your email and previous interactions and sends you the content your prospect wants to see—delivered to you right in whatever email platform you use.

5. Introduction Email for Sales

Nielsen found that 77% of people trust referrals from their friends and family , making it the most persuasive source of new product information. This sales email template from Pipedrive enables you to utilize existing relationships to build new ones. With this template, you can reach out to previous connections to ask them to make an introduction to someone that they think will benefit from your product or service.

Sales Playbook Templates

A sales playbook establishes a standard set of expectations for your sales professionals, ensuring that your sales team is on the same page and reaching their goals. These sales playbook templates help you build your own set of standards.

6. Standard Sales Playbook Template

This sales playbook template by Spekit provides your sales team with the building blocks for a solid sales playbook. Through this template, your team will learn a structure that guides them through using sales enablement tools to research prospects, build relationships, and convert leads.

7. E-commerce Sales Playbook Template

This downloadable sales playbook template by Visme is focused on the unique needs of e-commerce companies. The template includes the company’s selling structure and pain point solutions, but it also provides users with a place to store all company information. This info can be helpful for training, even beyond the sales team, including training for call center workers , marketing professionals, and customer success representatives.

8. SaaS Brand Sales Playbook Template

Visme’s SaaS-focused sales playbook template gives sales teams a place to keep track of their own company information, as well as other essential information needed for quota attainment, including ideal company profiles, content repositories and guides for utilizing said content, and sales methodologies.

Sales Invoice Templates

Nearly half of all businesses handle up to 500 invoices per month. Make invoicing easier on your sales team by providing them with these handy sales invoice templates:

9. Cost Estimate Template

This downloadable sales invoice template by HubSpot is an example of what to send when your prospect asks for a quote. If you have a product or service and the cost is variable and depends on multiple factors, this cost estimate template addresses the price breakdown. 

10. Product Invoice Template

Microsoft has a number of sales invoice templates , including this template example, which is ideal for invoicing for a particular product or group of products. In addition to breaking down the cost, this invoice template has more spots for important product information, like the delivery date and shipping method.

11. Basic Invoice Template

This basic invoice from Square is easily customizable and straightforward. You can include essential branding elements, like your logo and color palette. The template is also already filled with all the basic invoicing information you need, like the billing info, itemization, and payment terms.

12. Branded Invoice Template

Your brand is a crucial part of your business’s identity. By using an invoice template that can be tailored to fit your brand, such as the invoice template examples provided by Adobe , you can ensure that even your invoicing stays on brand. When you send out these types of invoices, you further solidify your brand identity in the minds of your customers and prospects.

13. Contractor Invoice Template

If your company functions as a contractor, this invoice template from Canva is a straightforward way to ensure your invoice stays on-brand and isn’t forgotten. This invoice is simple and doesn’t contain any unnecessary information. You include your payment information, the invoice date and due date, the payor’s information, and a breakdown of your services.

Sales Forecasting Templates

Building an accurate sales forecast is vital for keeping your sales team on track and hitting your monetary goals. These sales forecasting templates can set your team up for success.

14. Sales Forecasting and Spend

Spekit’s customizable sales forecasting and spend template is an all-encompassing template that helps you paint a full picture of how much you’re spending and how much you expect to bring in. Beyond simply making predictions, you can make data-backed decisions on your spending and projections of your financial growth, keeping you out of the red.

15. Long-Term Sales Analysis Forecasting

This sales forecasting template by Close is ideal for companies that have been in business for a while and have already kept track of their historical sales reports. This template utilizes 12 full months of historical sales data, as well as data and insights for the company dating back over the course of the past five years. This template lets you look deep into the past to influence your forecasting for the future.

16. Startup Sales Forecasting

Not every company has a lot of historical data to help them predict the future of their sales. This sales forecasting template by Zendesk is designed with startups in mind. With this template, startups can track their average revenue per unit and month-over-month growth rate to see how many units the business would have to sell to reach their desired revenue.

18. Monthly Sales Projection Forecasting

This downloadable sales forecasting template by HubSpot is easy to read and is broken down by quarter. At a glance, you can see how you estimate you’ll perform according to your current sales cycles and then compare each quarter’s projections. This template also tracks which deal was won by which sales rep, which also enables you to track your sales reps’ performance each quarter.

Sales Project Management Templates

A successful sales enablement strategy must be organized and save your sales reps time—not add to it, especially considering the limited amount of time they currently have to engage in actual selling. These project management templates keep your sales team on schedule and save them from time wasted due to being disorganized.

19. Cross-Functional Project Plan Template

This cross-functional project plan template, courtesy of Asana , uses the tools provided by the project management platform to create a project plan that bridges the gaps between multiple teams, like sales, marketing, and customer success. This project management template is ideal to use if you want more than one team to have oversight over a project.

20. Platform Training Template

A part of project management is being able to use the platforms required for the project. During your sales enablement training , use platform training templates, like this ZoomInfo Best Practices Template , to ensure your sales team has the resources to use the tools needed for any project. Spekit has a number of platform training templates , from Salesforce to HubSpot and beyond.

21. Customer Projects Template

Especially helpful for creating connections and collaboration between the sales and customer success team, this customer projects template by Monday.com provides multiple teams with insight into a customer’s journey and the projects surrounding a particular client. With this template, you can view completed projects and track the movement of ongoing projects for a particular client.

22. Process Documentation Template

Whether you’re onboarding a new hire or advancing the sales training of a long-time employee, there are many policies and procedures your sales team needs to learn—but the only way to do that is if you have the documentation to support your training. Use this project documentation template by HubSpot to create uniformity in how you handle similar projects and support your sales professionals’ learning.

23. Ultimate Project Management Dashboard Template

If you want to track the status of a project all in one place, this project management dashboard template by Smartsheet can help. This template lets you keep track of the timeline of a particular project, update your team on the status of each task in the project, visualize the time spent on each task, and see at a glance if you are on budget or over budget.

Sales Deck Templates

A sales deck is a presentation that lets you show off your product or service to your prospect, and you may only get one opportunity to wow your audience. Use these templates to build something that truly impresses.

24. People-Focused Sales Deck

Visme has a variety of sales deck template options, like this sales deck, which utilizes color theory and people-focused and community-focused images to tell a story of how the company is driven by its friends and neighbors to provide better business solutions.

25. Bold Sales Deck

This sales deck template by Pitch utilizes a bold design with bright colors, dramatic slides, and customizable text focused on important talking points. With this template, companies can show prospects that their business is one that isn’t afraid to take risks and inspire them to take action.

26. High-Performance Sales Deck

Utilizing dynamic animation and slides built around performance statistics, this sales deck template by Storydoc uses numbers and figures to show why your company is the best company to work with. It’s a visually engaging deck that will keep your prospect interested.

27. Customer-Focused Sales Deck

While many sales deck templates feature slides that focus on the problem that the company is attempting to solve and the solutions they put in place to fix that problem, this sales deck by Pitch takes your proposal a step forward by providing plenty of space to show how the solution has already helped their customers. If you’d like to make case studies the focus of your sales deck, this template is a perfect place to start.

28. Sales Presentation Deck

This sales deck by Canva is a thorough presentation for your sales reps to use to show off your product or service to your prospects. In addition to talking about the problem your product solves, the solution you created with your product, and case studies on how your current clients are performing, this deck also breaks down additional important information, such as your pricing plans, how your product works, and where your product is available. 

This template also contains a slide dedicated to what you’re striving to do next, helping your customer envision a future with your business.

Sales One-on-one Meeting Templates

More than half of sales reps say that the most crucial factor in them reaching quota attainment is support from sales leadership , which just goes to show how vital sales coaching and one-on-one time is. Use these sales one-on-one meeting templates to optimize your coaching time.

29. General One-on-One Sales Meeting

This one-on-one meeting template by Leapsome provides sales managers with a general list of agenda items. This template offers suggestions on what to talk about, but it’s customizable to fit what you’d like to talk about with your team.

30. OKR Goal Setting One-on-One Meeting

This one-on-one meeting sales template from Hypercontext utilizes objectives and key results (OKRs) to establish goals for your sales reps. This format of one-on-ones allows your sales professionals to review their previous successes and plan for an even better quarter.

31. Sales Manager and Sales Rep One-on-One

If you feel that the general one-on-one template is too general, this sales-specific one-on-one template by Atrium may be a better option for you. This template already contains agenda items that are tailored for the relationship between a sales manager and a sales rep.

32. Peer-to-Peer One-on-One

One-on-ones don’t have to just be between an employee and a higher-up. A peer-to-peer one-on-one can happen within someone’s team, but it can also provide an opportunity for cross-functional collaboration and break down data silos. This template by Hypercontext offers a structure for making sharing information between teams easier.

33. Sales Manager and Account Executive One-on-One

Vouris offers one-on-one meeting templates for a variety of relationships, including this one-on-one template designed for a meeting between an account executive and a sales manager. One of the benefits of this template is that it has space to track the answers to each question over time, so you can see how your account executive is improving throughout their time with the company.

Sales Pitch Templates

A sales pitch is how your sales team introduces your company to your prospect. These sales pitch templates help them paint a thorough picture of what your product or service can do and help you keep your prospect interested and engaged.

34. ROI Calculator Template for Sales

This ROI calculator template enables your sales team to help their prospect understand their pricing proposal and the financial benefits of signing up for your solution. As your sales team pitches, this template gives them the ability to highlight the cost benefit of your product.

35. Sales Demo Opportunity Template

Research shows that you only have between three and seven seconds to get someone’s attention before they become distracted, which may be why the CEO of Hipmunk, Adam Goldstein’s two-sentence sales pitch is so effective. Goldstein used this formula to secure more than $55 million from investors.

37. Ed McLean Cold Email Sales Pitch

Ed McLean was considered one of the best copywriters of all time, which is why his style of writing is still among the most effective ways to pitch new customers. This cold email sales pitch by Mailshake is inspired by McLean’s writing and utilizes charm and honesty to make connections with new potential customers. 

38. The Pixar Pitch Template

If you’re a fan of Pixar movies, you might already be familiar with the Pixar sales pitch , even if you don’t realize it. Through this sales pitch template, you can tell a story that keeps your audience engaged. First, you explain the backstory and then the problem that background creates. 

Then, you get into your solution, followed by two ways in which that solution has helped previous clients. You wrap it all up with a happily ever after in which you guide your prospect to envision their happy future with you.

Sales Battle Card Templates

You can think of a sales battle card as a type of flashcard, like those you may have used to study for a test. But instead of historic dates and people or your multiplication table, battle cards hold important information and talking points that sellers need. These templates can help you build your own set of sales battle cards.

Spekit and battle cards go hand-in-hand. With Spekit, important battle cards pop right into your sales professionals’ workflow. You create the battle cards, and Spekit ensures that your sales reps see that card right when they need it most.

39. E-commerce Sales Battle Card Template

This sales battle card by Visme is designed with e-commerce companies in mind. With this battle card, e-commerce businesses can provide their sales team with talking points around use cases, plans and pricing, and how to address common customer pain points.

40. Head-to-Head Competitor Sales Battle Card Template

Battle cards can be used to store not only information on your own company but also on your competition. This competitive sales battle card by HubSpot includes talking points for sales reps when they need to go head-to-head against a particular competitor. You may want to develop one of these battle cards for each of your top competitors.

41. Software Solutions Battle Card Template

This software-focused sales battle card by Visme helps sales professionals gain a complete picture of how to talk about their product, as well as who the product is for and why it was created. It also contains a helpful visual so sales reps know at a glance what features are in each plan or package, ensuring that they’re always guiding prospects toward what type of plan they truly need the most.

42. Objection Handling Battle Card Template

Learning to handle objections is an integral part of your sales team’s training, and the success they have at handling objections is a sales enablement metric that’s worth tracking. You can prepare your sales reps for handling objections better by providing them with battle cards built around this sales battle cards template by Klue , which breaks down common objections and offers talking points on how to address them.

43. How Customers Use Our Product Battle Card Template

One of the key parts of using battle cards is highlighting the ways in which your business’s products or services stand out. This battle card by Pipedrive puts the focus on the usage cases of a particular product, allowing the sales rep to show off the solutions it solves and why customers choose to work with your company.

Get Started with Free Sales Templates 

Providing sales representatives with the content that they need to gain more conversions is an essential part of your business’s sales enablement measures. But content shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all solution. You may be targeting a specific type of prospect according to your ideal customer profiles, but that doesn’t mean that your prospects all have the same pain points, day-to-day challenges, and needs. 

If your prospects are all individuals, shouldn’t your content be individualized to fit who they are and what they need and want the most? These sales templates provide your sales reps with a starting place to build more personalized connections. These templates are supported by time-tested engagement tactics, ensuring that you’re giving your sales team the support they need and the content that will make their prospects excited and ready to buy.

Looking for even more templates? Spekit offers a free content template library to support your sales enablement efforts. Spekit’s library features sales methodology frameworks, essential platform training resources, cold call scripts, and much more.

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