Sales Plan & Sales Process: 7 Strategy & Steps for Success

A successful business thrives on two key elements: a well-crafted sales plan and an efficient sales process. While the strategic sales plan provides a roadmap for revenue growth, the sales process ensures its execution by guiding potential customers through a structured buying journey. 

In this blog, we will explore how to make a sales plan, align it with an effective sales process, and scale it for long-term success. 

What is sales plan and process and what are the differences? 

A sales plan lays out in detail the goals of your business, who your target audience is, and how your company proposes to achieve the goals. All the aspects of your sales strategy are included in your sales plan.

It also details the roles and responsibilities of your sales division. The sales plan is communicated to the other divisions of the organization, too, so that every team works in tandem. 

The sales plan gives proper direction to the sales team and helps in monitoring progress by comparing it with the objectives. Your sales strategy can be successful only with a proper sales plan. 

Meanwhile, a sales process involves a series of steps taken by the sales team to convert quality leads into customers. Customers pass through various stages before finalizing a sale. The sales reps stay with the buyer through the entire journey. 

A sales process gives the sales team a proper direction and framework to close sales. 

Although both sales plan and sales process are critical for business success, they serve distinct purposes. Here’s a breakdown of their key differences:  

Now that we have discussed what is sales plan and what is sales process, and the inherent differences that lie within them, let us share why there should be a plan and a process. 

Why should there be a sales plan and process? 

A well-structured sales plan and an efficient sales process are essential for any business striving for consistent growth. Without a defined framework, sales teams may struggle with disorganization, inefficiencies, and lost opportunities.  

A strategic sales plan provides clear goals, while a well-established sales process ensures that sales professionals follow a structured path to convert leads into customers. Together, these elements create a foundation for success, improving productivity, revenue generation, and customer satisfaction. 

1. Ensures organized sales efforts 

A sales plan acts as a roadmap, defining revenue goals, target markets, and strategies to reach potential customers. Without it, sales teams may lack direction, leading to inconsistent efforts that fail to align with the company’s objectives.  

Similarly, a well-defined sales process streamlines prospecting, lead qualification, and deal closure, ensuring that every sales rep follows a consistent, effective approach. When both the sales plan and sales process work in harmony, businesses can optimize their resources and avoid inefficiencies. 

2. Improves sales forecasting and performance tracking 

Businesses need to predict revenue and set realistic sales targets. A strategic sales plan enables accurate forecasting by setting clear financial goals, while a structured sales process ensures that the team works methodically through defined sales process steps.  

Tracking progress at each stage—prospecting, qualifying, demonstrating, handling objections, closing, and nurturing—helps managers measure performance and refine strategies as needed. 

3. Enhances communication and collaboration 

For a sales team to function efficiently, collaboration is crucial. A well-structured sales plan communicates expectations across departments, ensuring that marketing, customer service, and product teams support sales efforts.  

Likewise, a standardized sales process fosters teamwork among sales reps by providing a clear structure for interactions with prospects and customers. When all team members understand their roles within the sales process steps, they can work together seamlessly to drive conversions. 

4. Creates a better customer experience 

A disorganized sales approach can lead to poor customer interactions. A sales plan ensures that sales reps are equipped with the right strategies to address customer needs, while a structured sales process enables them to guide prospects through the buying journey efficiently.  

By following a consistent set of sales process steps, sales teams can provide valuable insights, address objections, and tailor solutions to each customer's unique challenges. This results in stronger customer relationships and increased brand trust. 

5. Saves time and increases efficiency 

Time is a valuable resource in sales, and an undefined process can lead to wasted efforts. A strategic sales plan helps businesses prioritize their efforts, ensuring that the sales team focuses on the most promising leads.  

A well-structured sales process eliminates the trial-and-error approach, allowing sales reps to follow a proven methodology that maximizes efficiency. With a clear sales plan and a structured sales process, businesses can shorten sales cycles, reduce wasted resources, and close deals faster. 

With Compass, businesses can automate sales commission calculations, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing human errors.  

This powerful computation engine ensures 100% accuracy in payouts, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals rather than administrative tasks. 

6. Helps businesses adapt and scale 

Markets are constantly evolving, and businesses must be agile to stay competitive. A well-defined sales plan provides the flexibility to adjust strategies based on shifting customer preferences and industry trends.  

At the same time, a scalable sales process ensures that companies can expand their sales operations without losing efficiency. By continuously refining their sales process steps, businesses can improve their conversion rates, optimize workflows, and sustain long-term growth. 

7 Most important steps in creating a sales plan 

Sales plans should be created to suit the requirements of the particular business. Even though businesses differ in size and nature, you should adopt certain steps in framing a sales plan to keep it relevant. 

Step 1: Define the goals and objectives 

The first step in your sales plan should be a clear definition of goals. Your sales team should have an outline of goals, what is expected of them, who your customers are, which customer center needs more attention, etc. To outline the goals, a company also needs past sales data and an awareness of the current trends. 

Step 2: Analysis of the current situation 

Before proceeding with the plan, you have to know the real situation of your sales at the moment. Compare the same with your goals to know where you stand. 

Analyze your strengths and identify the hurdles your business is facing. Also, find out your resources and how they can help achieve your target. Building your sales plan based on these factors can help greatly. 

Step 3: Create an outline of sales strategies 

The next step is to create an outline for the strategies you plan to implement. These are the techniques your sales team will be using while dealing with the ultimate consumers. Sales strategies also include the determination of the various stages you will need to convert prospects into customers. 

While outlining the strategies, assigning responsibilities to the team and the respective members is important. This will help in measuring performance and also provide feedback. 

Step 4: Clear definition of the roles of the sales team 

All the members of the team should have clearly defined roles. This will help them carry on with their work without any confusion. Daily, weekly, or monthly targets should be assigned, and methodologies for comparison of the same with the goals should be stressed. 

The flow of information and instructions should also be notified to the sales team. Each member may have a different role than the other, but they should coordinate with each other to achieve the goals of the organization. 

Step 5: Inform other departments 

Coordination among all the divisions of a business is crucial for the business to be successful. A sales team does not work in isolation but rather in conjunction with the other teams.

Communication of the sales plan to the other departments and working jointly can help in improving the sales of the business. This will ensure that every team in the organization works to make the task of the sales team easy. 

Step 6: Make use of tools 

Automation helps make tasks easier. The preparation of an efficient sales plan is possible with the help of many automation tools. Your sales team should make use of such tools to have plans that produce effective results. 

There are several tools available online. You should choose one that suits your business. Make sure all the members of your sales team are trained to use the tools. 

Compass automate commission calculations, reducing manual errors and saving valuable time.  

The no-code plan builder allows businesses to design, publish, and manage compensation plans effortlessly, ensuring transparency and accuracy in sales incentives. 

Step 7: Tracking performance 

Outline how the performance of the sales team will be measured. This will help in learning how far you are from your goals. A sales plan should also include some flexibility to suit changing market conditions. 

Using tools to track progress helps in the process of analyzing performance. The progress should also be communicated to the other teams so that they know how the organization is progressing on its path to success. 

Compass provides advanced reporting capabilities, including real-time commission tracking, YTD earnings reports, and predictive analytics.  

By leveraging these insights, businesses can make data-driven decisions to optimize incentive structures and drive revenue growth. 

6 Sales plan examples 

As we have discussed above, businesses differ, and so do their sales plans. The following enlists some examples of sales plans. This would help you choose the right one based on your organization’s needs. 

1. Marketing alignment plan 

• Marketing is a more comprehensive term than sales. It includes a range of activities that start with building awareness about the brand and end with the distribution of products/services. 
• Your sales plan should be aligned with marketing to get the best benefits. Aligning the sales plan with marketing helps direct your efforts in the correct way. 
• Marketing identifies the leads and assists the company in taking steps to convert them into customers. 
• Associating this with a sales pitch makes a good sales plan. 

2. 30-60-90-day plan

• This sales plan defines the time frame in which the sales team is expected to achieve a certain fixed target. 
• Tracking the progress at the completion of 30-, 60-, and 90-day periods helps the salesperson/team to work more productively. 
• The progress tracked during the first 90 days helps to identify where you stand in comparison to the targets. 
• This helps to identify the weaknesses if any so that corrective measures can be initiated before it is too late. 
• The first 30 days involve learning about the plan, the next 30 days would be implementing the plan, and the last 30 days would involve optimizing the plan by using better strategies. 

3. New product plan 

• If your organization plans to introduce a new product, a separate sales plan should be prepared for the same. 
• Even if the business has a sales plan already in place, it is essential to create one for the new launch so that it is easy to determine the returns expected from this particular product. 
• The new product sales plan helps strengthen the prospects for the new product. The plan also includes market research, competition analysis, and a budget for the new product. 
• The plan will also outline the need to launch a new product and in what ways it will be beneficial to the company. 

4. Sales training plan 

• For every area of sales, there is a separate plan that also includes a training plan. 
• A training plan offers the basis for sales training programs. It analyzes the existing training plan and offers suggestions based on that. 
• The goals of the training plan are also clearly defined. 
• The plan also outlines how training will help improve the productivity of the sales team. 
• The sales training plan is communicated to each member of the team with a clear definition of their roles. 
• It also lets members know what they should have learnt by the end of training and how they should align their productivity toward improving sales. 

5. Market expansion plan 

• A business may diversify and explore new markets. In such cases, a new plan is prepared, which is called the market expansion plan. 
• The plan is precisely created keeping in mind the new market segment. These may be regions where the business has not set foot earlier. 
• Proper analysis of the location where the business plans to expand is part of the plan. 
• The plan outlines the cost involved, target audience, and modus operandi in the new region. 

6. Sales budget plan 

• Allocating resources is a part of the sales budget plan. It includes a forecast for a specific period based on the returns expected and the resources put into use. 
• The expenses predicted to be incurred are included in the sales budget plan. This consequently impacts the expected returns. 
• Your sales budget plan should include an element of flexibility to include unexpected expenditures due to market conditions. 

‍Now that you have understood the placing plans, let us understand how to set up a process. 

Seven steps in building a sales process 

Follow the below-listed steps to build a sales process. 

1. Prospecting 

The first step involves prospecting. It means identifying leads who are interested in your product. Prospecting is an important stage since the subsequent steps depend on the quality of leads generated here. 

Identification of your buyer persona through proper research is essential. You can explore links through LinkedIn, or other social media sites. Cold emails, invitations to webinars, and trade events are other ways to prospect for clients. 

2. Qualification 

Qualifying the leads is the second step. The sales team should analyze whether the leads will move to the successive steps in the sales process. This is achieved through communication with the prospects. 

Most sales teams use the BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timescale) methodology for qualifying leads. 

• Does the prospect have an adequate budget allocation to proceed with buying? 
• What is the authority level of the prospect you are communicating with to finalize the order? 
• Does the prospect have a need to buy, or will they postpone? 
• What is the timescale within which the prospects expect to buy? 

The analysis enables decision-making by the sales team. They can decide whether to proceed with the lead or not. 

3. Research 

Sales reps undertake research to find out more about the company they are dealing with. They need to know the prospect’s expectations. Only if the sales team is aware of the company’s goals, will it be able to understand the needs better. 

Research helps to understand the challenges faced by the company with the product they are using at the moment. It also helps in overcoming all the objections raised by the prospect. 

This process involves extracting more information about the prospect with extensive communication. A customized approach for each buyer helps to analyze them better. 

4. Demonstration 

Once qualified leads are identified, product/service demonstration would be the next step. The buyer should know the various aspects of the product and its usage. They should also be informed about the sales support team, who can help them with the product anytime. 

The buyer decided to proceed with your brand since they find it more suitable for their business. A demonstration should let them understand the specific use cases. This session will also be a doubt-clearance time for the buyer. 

Your sales reps should be accompanied by team leads so that they can respond to all customer queries. 

5. Handling objections 

During the sales process, the customer may raise a lot of objections. The sales team should find ways to suitably rebut their objections so as to assist them decide in favor of your brand. 

Objections may be on the basis of price, trust, comparison with competitors, lack of need, lack of urgency, and lack of authority. The sales reps should listen, understand, communicate, and follow up with the buyers to provide suitable solutions to them. 

Objections are common, and the sales reps should not be bogged down. They should consider this an opportunity to learn more about the prospect. Handling objections with empathy brings about a change in the situation. 

6. Finalize the deal 

This is the penultimate stage in the sales process. Here the sales team closes the deal with the buyer, which implies that the buyer is convinced about your brand. 

Closing the deal would involve negotiation, preparation of quotations, and signing of the contract. The finalization stage involves the role of sales team leaders who communicate with the buyer to confirm all terms and conditions. At the end of this stage the prospect becomes your customer. 

7. Nurturing 

Now you have a customer who needs to be onboarded. Nurturing is one of the stages in onboarding a customer. This step is essential to retain the customers for a long time. 

A satisfied customer is more likely to recommend your brand to others. This way your brand gets more exposure. Connect with the customer to see if the product satisfies their expectations. Act on the feedback you receive from the customer. 

Creating a customer base is not an easy task so it remains of utmost importance to nurture the customers gained. 

Conclusion 

A sales plan and a structured sales process are indispensable for any organization aiming for sustained success. While the strategic sales plan sets clear objectives, the sales process ensures efficient lead conversion.

By optimizing sales process steps, leveraging automation, and tracking performance metrics, businesses can enhance productivity, drive revenue, and improve customer experiences. 

Start building your sales plan today and refine your sales process to unlock long-term success with Compass. Schedule a call now! 

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