Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

Plans - Improve effectiveness and efficiency. Don't waste time.

Plans improve Effectiveness and Efficiency

Effort spent in planning will reap rewards in sales effectiveness and efficiency.

Planning tools include Territory Plans , Account Plans & Opportunity Plans.  These plans are most effective if stored on a Sales Automation system to ensure that the information is retained and communicated as required.

Territory Plan

A Territory Plan focuses on the segmentation of accounts and opportunities in a defined territory in order to prioritize which ones in which to invest sales resources. It will normally include:

• Customer Profile and Qualification Criteria
• Market Analysis
• Segment Accounts by Business Potential and Current Business Relationship
• Alpha  High Future Business Potential – prioritised by level of current relationship
• Beta – Moderate to Low Business Potential, high level of Current Relationship
• Delta – Little or no near term Business Potential, insufficient data to accurately assess potential, low level of current relationship
• Territory coverage strategy
• Messaging Strategy
• Resources allocated to Alpha, Beta and Delta accounts.

Account Plan

Opportunity Plan

Each Opportunity will have its own plan. The size of the plan will be in relation to the size of the opportunity. It will normally include:

• Business Pain/Issue
• Value Proposition
• Customer Rules
• Analysis & Presentation
• Is it compelling?
• Key Player List
• Coverage strategy
• Access to key personnel?
• Qualification Status
• Solution Creation status
• Evaluation Plan /Buying Process
• Competitive Strategy
• Analysis of Strength and Position
• Negotiation & Close Strategy
• Implementation Plan