How to build a monthly sales plan. An effective way to plan sales. Revenue planning: calculate the daily activity of managers

“If you don’t know where you are going, then you will get there,” is a quote from a famous person that I have altered.

It fully reflects the main problem of the business. Entrepreneurs go to big money, to higher profits. But to what exact number no one knows.

And if the leader of the company does not know this, how can employees know this? That's right - no way.

Therefore, it is very important to set goals for yourself and your employees. One of the goal setting tools is a sales plan. Without him now nowhere.

Reality, not a fairy tale

At one of my speeches for Alfa-Bank, I asked those sitting in the hall: “Who has a sales plan for the company?”

I hoped to see a forest of hands, because this is not just the basis of a successful company, it is an integral part of it, I saw a different picture, only 10-20% raised their hands.

Businessmen do not understand the whole need for setting a plan and refer to “We cannot determine a sales plan”, “We set. It doesn't work for us” or “Sales are too different and we can't predict them”.

These are just basic objections. I would even say excuses to make a sales plan.

In order not to dwell on this topic for a long time, we will highlight the main reasons why the preparation of a sales plan should be mandatory, and then we will move on to several techniques for setting it up. So, the main advantages:

1. Clear and understandable;
2. Motivational scheme from specific achievements;
3. Forecast of actions and resources.

You can list many more benefits, but these are the main ones. Everything else is derivative. I think point B is necessary, that's clear.

Salespeople cannot exist without a purpose. They will work (earn) exactly as much as they are comfortable (necessary).

“Want more?! This is already your problem. Enough is enough for me,” they think, working without a sales plan.

Important. In order for you to see the effect after the implementation of the sales plan, you need to associate it with the motivational scheme of employees. Otherwise, everything was done in vain.

Everyone gets in the way

When you decide that you need to form a sales plan, you must consider a huge number of factors.

And you need to do this before you start to put it. Because, you can form an excellent plan, but it will not work, due to the fact that you have not foreseen external and internal factors.

Seasonality. It is rare to find a company whose sales stay at the same level or grow smoothly throughout the year.

We usually see spikes up and down depending on the month or quarter. Such jumps can be called “season/out of season”. You need to pay attention to them and make adjustments to the plan.

Team. With a high turnover of staff, you will always have different indicators. Alas, this is a fact.

This is due to the fact that a new employee always needs time to adapt. And if it so happened that your team is new or incomplete, then reconsider your final numbers.

The situation in the world. I do not really like to talk about the eternal crisis in the world. But it is likely that your sphere is now sinking due to the situation on planet Earth.

The reason for this can be both sanctions and the general behavior of people. This must be taken into account.

Competition. It is foolish to neglect other companies that are fighting for your customers.

The most obvious example is the arrival of a federal player on the market. In such cases, it usually takes away a large number of customers. Therefore, your sales will naturally fall.

In order not to go through all the possible factors, just learn a simple thought for yourself - your sales plan does not depend only on how much you sold last year.

There are many reasons why you can sell more (new premises, more advertising channels, sales training) or less (office refurbishment, site relocation, manager on vacation).

Plans are different

When we talk about a sales plan, we think of one thing. But it's not right. There are different types and forms of a sales plan, both for different purposes and for different people.

Let's take a look at all of this now. At the time of reading, determine what you will have at the beginning of the path.

Measurement

The sales plan must be measured in money. And point. But I think otherwise. You can also measure the sales plan in units or actions.

Although at first glance this is nonsense, because the most important thing in business is the amount of money received in the cash register. But not all businesses need to count only money.

We have a car dealer as a client and we have set a sales plan for managers in cars. Because there was no point in putting it in money.

Since there was a personal sales plan, additional bonuses were provided for additional motivation to sell the increased configuration.

In the same salon there was a plan for the number of actions, namely the number of test drives carried out, which indirectly influenced the implementation of the plan.

How to measure

Duration

With a long period, from 5 years, it is difficult. Especially given the situation in the world. I call this kind of planning a forecast. This is a more appropriate word.

But the definition of a sales plan for the year, week and day is a must. For the year you put a plan first of all for yourself.

But for a week and a day for employees. This has a very good effect on efficiency, since your colleagues see every day whether they made a plan for that day / week or not.

And as a result, they decide what needs to be “plowed” before the month comes to an end in order to avoid failure to meet the sales plan.

Important. How to set a sales plan for long deal cycles? You set a plan in money not for one month, but for two, three.

And in order to make it easy to control, you need an “Action” plan for each of these months.

Personalization

Some companies have, in addition to general, personal sales plans. This situation is easy to notice in those companies where every man is “for himself”. This is good.

Indeed, in addition to the team game, you also give each employee to stand out from the background of everyone else and earn more by overfulfilling the sales plan.

It's even better when your entire sales department is divided into groups (shifts/directions).

Thus, in addition to the fact that there is a general sales plan for the company, there is a personal sales plan for everyone personally, so each of the groups / shifts has a separate plan.

As a result, everyone fulfills their personal sales plans, if someone does not have time, then the group helps him.

And if some group from the entire department is threatened with failure to fulfill the sales plan, then it helps them reach the common cherished goal.

Accuracy

Returning to our belief that "the sales plan consists of all the money that came into the company."

And again, we can divide this moment into different actions in order to raise the performance in the direction we need. For example:

1. For new clients;
2. For old clients;
3. By product;
4. According to accounts receivable;
5. On the return of departed customers.

Thus, we show our employees what is very important to us. And then, as a rule, they focus on one thing.

And most often it is either attracting new customers, or (worse) working only with old ones.

At this moment, they forget that they need to work with receivables, that you have a new product that needs to be sold, since it has a high margin, etc.

plan setting techniques

Now the question in your head is not “What?” but “How?”. How to calculate the sales plan? There are not only different types of plans, but also different development methods.

I know only 5 of them. But if you make a general cut of the classic business, then two approaches will suffice, which I will now tell you about.

If in your case they do not fit, then write in the comments, we will help you with advice for free.

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From the fact

The easiest way to develop a sales plan is from the previous period. If we have a history of the company's development in the past, then we do everything based on it.

By history, I mean a completed sales plan. Ideally, this is also a conversion, an average check, the number of sales and other indicators.

First of all, you need to understand the dynamics based on the graph, whether you are falling or growing.

After that, you need to measure this dynamics in numbers in order to understand what kind of natural increase you will receive if you work at the same level.

Everyone's height is different. The younger the company, the larger it is, when the “adult” companies are more and more stable.

Then you either leave this dynamic or add 5-30% to it. It all depends on how easy or difficult past periods were.

If last month the analysis of the implementation of the sales plan showed that you added 15% to the plan and they even exceeded it, then you need to increase the plan by 30%.

If, on the contrary, the plan was not substantially fulfilled, then it is necessary to lower it. But do not forget to analyze external and internal factors.

From desire

There is a technique for decomposing a goal into parts, it is called a sales plan.

It will help a lot if there is no data for the past period. For example, you either did not lead them, or you have a new direction. In this case, let's go from the opposite, from what we want.

Naturally, we may want more than we can. That's why I'm talking about the decomposition of the sales plan.

Example. You want to make a company turnover of 10 million rubles per month. To understand whether this is real or not, we decompose the whole process into parts. We determine what we need to do to get this amount (figures from the head):

• 100 transactions with an average check of 100,000 rubles.
• 1000 applications with a 10% conversion into a purchase

This is the most primitive and simple example. But it is already clear from it how to act. Thanks to these values, we can estimate the chances of success.

Or adjust the goal, if we realize that in our field this will not be possible to achieve.

For example, an average check of 100 tr. for us it is a fairy tale. Based on this, we need to either increase the conversion from an application to a purchase (for example, by implementing in), or build a more serious one.

Interesting. Decomposition is not only a tool for sales planning, it is also suitable for calculating the potential of any action. Including for evaluating the advertising channel.

Rules for a Successful Plan

Before you make a sales plan for your company, whether it is a plan “From the fact” or “from desire”, check through the decomposition.

Thus, you will not only once again make sure that it is real, it will also be useful for your employees. So that they see how many actions need to be done to get the result.

In addition to dividing actions into parts and taking into account important indicators (average margin, deal cycle, customer acquisition cost, etc.), you also need to take into account a few more basic points when calculating your sales plan.

I will talk about the most important ones that we celebrate during our practice.

Show daily execution. Employees need to see every day who has done how much.

This once again reminds them of the need to comply with the standards. It also creates healthy competition among all sales managers.

All this can be implemented both in the form of a table on A4 sheet, and on a TV in the center of a store or office, or in an online format.

Pay exactly as planned. If you pay an employee 1-2 times not according to plan, referring to the fact that he works and he will succeed, then consider that you have failed the idea. Since next time your employee will hope for the same outcome. And even offended if this does not happen.

Make the plan realistic. The point is obvious. But this affects a large number of leaders.

They set plans for their salespeople that they will NEVER do in their lives. Therefore, approach this matter responsibly and thoughtfully.

Don't discuss the plan. When approaching, it is customary for the team to discuss all actions. The only pity is that this does not apply to the sales plan.

Or maybe fortunately, since employees will always be unhappy with the distribution of amounts by month. They will always say "That's a lot". But sometimes there can still be exceptions.

Check resources and activities. You must also estimate the necessary resources and activities to successfully achieve the result. After all, not everything depends on the sales department.

You must also have everything set up, you must have a product or a sufficient number of hands to produce it. Everything should be in abundance from all sides.

Briefly about the main

It is imperative to make a plan. This is not discussed if you are planning to build a stable and fast growing company.

We also figured out how to properly expose. It is not difficult to do this. The main thing is not to complicate the content of the sales plan. After all, there are many ways to write a sales plan, and some of them are based on complex formulas.

I'm not saying that the two methods discussed in this article are ideal. They are enough for a classic business.

Increasingly complex options and a far-reaching strategic sales plan are needed when high turnover and a large company with a huge number of processes are at stake.

The overall well-being of the company and the prospects for its further development largely depend on a correctly drawn up sales plan, since the income received and the amount of revenue are directly dependent. But novice managers do not always have an idea of ​​how exactly to draw up a sales plan, what items it should contain.

Drawing up a sales plan: basic concepts

Without knowledge of the theory, it is quite difficult to gain a clear understanding of the company's capabilities in terms of increasing sales. The main concepts characterizing this area of ​​activity will be listed below.

Market potential. The total number of units of a product that the market can absorb. The potential can be assessed for a particular city, national economy, region, on a global scale. This indicator is not static, changing under the influence of many factors.

Sales potential. The theoretical ability of a single company to sell products on the market. In a market with a high level of competition, the sales potential of a firm depends on its ability to promote its products, pricing policy, technical improvements, and the actions of competitors. If the company is a monopolist, its sales potential becomes equal to the total market potential.

Sales forecast. Actual sales volume, calculated on the basis of the firm's sales potential, adjusted for existing market constraints (for example, the firm is not physically able to produce a product in quantities corresponding to its sales potential).

Sales quotas. The amount of sales revenue generated by an individual seller. This indicator characterizes the professional qualities of the sales staff and the effectiveness of their work.

Development of a sales plan

A quality sales plan should take into account two groups of factors: internal and external. The draft development of a sales plan, as a rule, begins with an analysis of external factors with its further adjustment, taking into account the financial condition of the company and its strategic objectives. External factors are:

• Macroeconomic indicators (growth/decrease in aggregate demand, business activity, exchange rate dynamics, average lending rate, cost of material resources). A preliminary assessment of sales prospects is given a year ahead, based on the trends of the national economy.
• Position in the core market of interest to the company. Particular attention is paid to the actions of competitors.
• Preferences and purchasing power of potential consumers.

An assessment of the state of the economic environment is fundamental for setting the company's goals for the short term. In practice, it is recommended to take into account as many market constraints as possible, thus making a pessimistic sales forecast, which will give the company a certain margin of safety.

Internal factors primarily affect sales statistics for recent reporting periods. Based on the analysis, the average sales per month, quarter, for the entire year are displayed. If a company has been operating on the market for several years, statistical data make it possible to identify trends in the decline and growth in sales, which must also be reflected in the plan. If a pronounced seasonality of sales is detected, appropriate adjustments are made to the plan. Attention is also drawn to the following points:

• Analysis of the activities of the sales department as a whole and separately for each employee. For a more detailed assessment of efficiency, it is desirable to take into account not only the number of deals made, but also the number of meetings, calls and other actions.
• Calculation of sales volume attributable to potential customers. The frequency of purchases made by them, the range of goods sold are studied.

Building a sales plan

After collecting and preliminary analysis of the initial data, you can begin to set a goal for sales. The main goal reflected in the business plan should be as realistic as possible, based on the financial condition of the company and the possibilities of production facilities.

Do not neglect the motivating properties of macro goals, the achievement of which, in terms of the actual performance of the company, seems impossible. If we additionally introduce a reward system for the most successful sellers, the sales volume will exceed the most optimistic expectations.

The prepared sales plan must be broken down into time periods (as a rule, the minimum period is a week) and presented to employees involved in direct implementation so that they can make appropriate changes to their work schedule.

At the final stage, a budget is prepared for future sales-related expenses. These include the acquisition of communications equipment, consumables, the development of promotional products, presentations. Also, funds are contributed to the budget, which will be credited to the most successful sellers as bonuses.

How to make a sales plan for a month: an example to study

There are several schemes for building a sales plan. In the proposed example, a simple and illustrative calculation principle is used, which uses the seasonal factor to forecast sales.

The first table contains Company A's sales data broken down by months and calculated seasonality factors for each period.

To calculate the seasonal factor, each monthly sales volume is divided by the average sales value (151.55).

In practice, the calculation according to this scheme should be carried out for the last few years. Thus, it will be possible to slightly smooth out seasonal fluctuations and develop a more accurate forecast. If in one of the periods a force majeure event occurs that significantly distorts the indicators, then these data are removed from the sample.

Next, the company sets the desired level of sales, taking into account its market share, plans to expand the volume and range of products. Suppose that Company A saw the prospect of sales growth for the next year by 20%, that is, in value terms:

1818.6 × 1.2 = 2182.3

The following table shows the planned sales volumes by month. The indicators are calculated according to the following scheme:

• The average monthly target for the next year is calculated:

2182.3 / 12 = 181,9

• The resulting value is successively multiplied by the seasonal coefficient of each month, taken from the previous table, as a result we get.

It should be noted that the result obtained is presented in a simplified form without correction for the level of inflation expectations in the next year.

There is a myth that it is impossible to draw up a plan for the work of a sales manager and effectively plan his work.

The question “how can you plan the actions of customers?” is set first of all by managers who sell well, but are too creative to control or are simply lazy, and secondly by managers who do not know how to manage the sales department and who were also once the same managers as in the first case. Therefore, the idea has taken root that it is very difficult or even impossible to plan the work of a manager.

Faced closely with the work of thousands of managers and hundreds of sales departments, I can safely say that only managers or departments where planning is set up in a quality manner can show a consistently high result! Therefore, as part of the development or creation of a sales department, first of all, it is necessary to seriously approach the preparation of a work plan for the manager and the entire sales department.

The main postulates of planning the work of a manager:

• 1. There are 6 hours in a working day;
• 2. Any action should be planned taking into account price/quality or in our case time/efficiency;
• 3. Focus on the Pareto principle, or the 20/80 principle;
• 4. 50% of the time to lay on the development of relationships.

Let us consider in more detail each of the postulates for drawing up a work plan for a sales manager:

1. There are 6 hours in a working day.

Of course, the official working day lasts 8 hours. But even the most organized have no more than six effectively used hours. A minimum of 2 hours is spent on coffee, cigarettes, conversations, personal affairs, reviewing the workplace, distractions from colleagues, etc. Of course, you can work more than 8 hours, but if you plan it, then the efficiency of work will gradually decrease. A person should have a personal life, personal interests, and once a week he can work overtime with a very important customer, but you don’t need to count on this, force majeure will still come out.

2. Plan any action taking into account price / quality or in our case, time / efficiency

When deciding on a particular method of work, it is necessary to correlate the time spent and the effectiveness of this action. I'll give you an example. Many textbooks say that before calling, it is imperative to study the client - what the media write about him, what kind of website he has, etc. I agree that if there are only 10 companies on the market and each call should be a bullseye shot, we have no right to make a mistake, then we need to use this principle.

But if there are thousands or even tens of thousands of clients in the database, is it really not easier to spend 1 minute on a call to find out everything, then what will you find out during 30 minutes of surfing? It's much easier for me to make a call, ask a few questions, and know everything I need to know about him.

Or second point. Most gurus say that nothing can be sold over the phone, the purpose of the call is only to make an appointment. 95% of the time it's bullshit. Life has changed, now a lot of goods and services are sold by phone, almost without meetings. Making an appointment without first understanding the prospects of the client, his needs and possible points of contact is simply unreasonable. Everything is very clearly calculated. First intuitively, then based on statistics.

3. Focus on the Pareto principle, or the 20/80 principle

It is clear that when a manager works for the first month, then for him any client is worth its weight in gold. But when he has a lot of them in his work, he needs to prioritize, rank them according to profitability and prospects. This does not mean that you do not need to pay attention to small customers. It just means that with a heavy workload, you need to devote more time to those who provide the main income.

4. Spend 50% of your time building relationships

In our country, it is difficult to sell without forming relationships, and in some industries it is almost impossible. Therefore, communication that is not directly related to the sale takes an experienced manager most of the time. This also needs to be taken into account. But make sure that the formed relationships develop sales. Relationships are important not only for revenue growth, but also for how pleasant it will be for the manager to communicate with the client. If communication is a burden to him, it will be difficult for them to sell effectively.

All of the above referred to planning "from above", incl. to control managers. As for the personal plan, approaches to planning the work of a salesperson may differ. There are two main approaches. The first approach is a planning system for creative and energetic people, those who find it difficult to sit in one place and do one thing. And a structured planning system for people who love clarity and consistency.

Now a little about the process of drawing up a work plan

The entire cycle of working with a client is divided into stages. The time for each stage is averaged. Depending on the industry, the work of a sales manager is planned. Depending on the term of the manager's work in the company, a certain time is allocated for clients at each stage. At the beginning of the manager's work, all attention is paid to the first stage of communication, that is, acquaintance and the beginning of a relationship. This stage is the most important even for an experienced manager. The flow of new customers should not dry up. Therefore, the first stage, most often cold calls, first takes 80% of the manager’s time, and for experienced ones 10%.

To be able to set up a sales plan correctly is a very important function of any leader. The plan should motivate the employee to work and help improve his performance. At the same time, the plan should coincide with the interests of the business and the current market situation. It is not always easy to fulfill all these factors. In this article, we will talk about how to correctly set a sales plan for a specific employee, sales department, retail store. We will also touch on the issues of setting short-term and long-term plans a little.

Methods for setting plans

There are some common methods for setting sales plans. Each of them has its pros and cons, and each is applicable in a particular situation. It is worth noting that the implementation or failure of the plan affects the salary of your subordinate. Long non-fulfillment leads to a lost bonus and negatively affects. Unreasonably low plans jeopardize the business, I have often come across that the business is working in the red, and at the same time all employees receive a big bonus.

In my opinion, the implementation of the sales plan should correspond to the success of the business. In this case, it is permissible to take into account the experience and qualifications of the employee. It makes no sense to put the same plan on the newly accepted seller and on the experienced one. The following are examples of setting sales plans.

Short and long term plans

The plan can be put up for a year or even a decade, or maybe for one day or even an hour. The method of setting it up depends on how long-term the plan is. Plans for short periods of time are considered operational and it is desirable that their exposure should be regulated. For example, all beginners are given the same plan for the first month. The development of long-term planning is carried out by the top management of the company, such plans are called strategic. Long-term plans are very individual and depend on variables such as the market situation, which is very difficult to predict over a long period of time.

ambitious plan

The essence of this technique is to put the plan twice as high as necessary. The calculation is made on the fact that the employee will certainly make 50% of the set plan. In short, this technique lays all the risks on the subordinate.

An ambitious plan is difficult to use consistently with the same employee. The employee will be in constant stress because of his non-fulfillment. Then the employee will get used to his lack of success and his motivation may decrease significantly.

Also, an ambitious sales plan is not set for someone who obviously cannot fulfill it for objective reasons. These may be: lack of resources or lack of competencies. You need to be very careful when setting an ambitious plan for newly hired employees. If an employee from the first days understands that he is not fulfilling your plans, either accustom him to constant failures, or he will simply quit.

Compare your plan with the salary of the employee, in the case of constant ambitious plans, staff burnout often occurs, and employees leave due to lack of bonus due to permanent.

An ambitious plan is good at startups when all employees have eyes on fire. It should be used only in conjunction with a highly motivated employee and the availability of the necessary competencies and resources. For the implementation of an ambitious plan, it makes sense to promise in excess of profit and put it on strong money-motivated sellers.

Always a workable plan

A plan that is always carried out is the dream of any subordinate. Many salespeople and managers will not believe that there are companies where employees are given a clearly feasible sales plan. But I came across such people, the seller in such a company has a bonus reminiscent of an accountant's bonus. I must say right away that I have not met many such companies and, as a rule, these are medium-sized firms.

The biggest drawback of a plan that is always feasible is the lack of employee motivation to find and develop new sales tools. In sales, you need to constantly be on the lookout for new customers. In order to advance in this search, you need to constantly try different methods and evaluate their effectiveness. By setting a plan that is always feasible, you teach employees to do the opposite. I actually saw a company that sold in, only sending it to the post office and waiting for a response. No, no, just a constant expectation that the client himself will find them. Managers were directly told that if the client did not call himself, then he did not need it. The company has already gone bankrupt and ceased to exist. The company died due to incorrect planning, but it happens that such a plan is set for individual employees. This does not destroy the company as a whole, but because of this, a separate link slows down the overall development. For example, the head of the sales department should be motivated to develop the sales department, and not just to always fulfill the same plan 100%

But if you thought that a plan that is always feasible is always bad, then it is not. There are times when it will help you. First of all, I recommend setting a feasible plan for employees who have just started working in their not highly qualified conditions. For example, if a salesperson with no work experience came to you, you should not set a big plan for him, set the plan that he will fulfill. This is especially true for daily plans, for example, if your task is to make one sale per day, then demand 1 sale from the intern in 3 days, and every day he must collect 5 warm contacts. And you, or help make sales out of these contacts.

I have also come across situations when the company or the market has changed dramatically in a negative direction for the seller. Such changes often lead to, in order to avoid it, feasible plans can be made and thereby support the staff. The plan is good because it can be gradually increased or decreased, it is very problematic to review the material motivation system every month.

tight plan

If the plan is always slightly higher than the previous fact, then it is called tense. An employee needs to do a little better each time. This is probably one of the most common methods of setting a plan. Everything is logical and the plan is achievable for the employee and growth is laid down. In general, such a strategy for setting a plan is good when an employee is just starting to work; growth compared to the previous period is quite logical and justified here.

But there are difficulties with experienced employees. Probably, you have met such a method of manipulation on the part of employees as purposeful non-fulfillment of the plan in order to reduce it. There is an opinion among sellers that if the plan is greatly overfulfilled, then it will be greatly increased, so it should not be overfulfilled. Experienced employees are well aware of the method of setting a plan and understand how to break it.

How to meet business needs

The above methods of setting sales plans do not take into account a very important thing - the needs of the business. Business lives with long-term plans and strategies, the budget is made for at least a year. , in which all actions are described in detail and a forecast of the results is made. And sometimes it happens that the laid plan ceases to be fulfilled and the backlog begins to accumulate. What to do with this backlog? The easiest way is to put it in the plans for the next months, but then there may be risks that we considered when setting up ambitious plans. At the same time, if you leave the plans unchanged, then all hope will fall on overfulfillment, and it does not happen so often.

There is no single answer to the situation described above, since there are a lot of additional criteria. However, it should be borne in mind that it is important to soberly assess the reasons for not fulfilling the plan and share responsibility between all participants in the process. It is important that responsibility is borne not only by subordinates involved in operational activities, but also by strategic management who were involved in planning. There are situations when the sales plan is in no way associated with the resources that are available for its implementation.

Presenting the plan to the seller

A plan that is billed to a specific seller is an example of a short-term plan. And I recommend setting a plan not only for a month, but also for every day. As mentioned above, it is best to develop a clear regulation for setting sales plans and bring this regulation to all employees. This will give the seller guarantees and stability in the future.

Conducting interviews with experienced salespeople, I can say that every second complains about the correctness of the sales plan. Therefore, I recommend that you be very careful about setting plans for sales consultants and closely link this process with staff motivation.

Presenting a plan to the sales department

Setting a plan for a sales department or a retail store has its own specifics. The main point that should be paid attention to is bringing a long-term development strategy. Each month, the sales team must take a step to achieve a long-term strategy. Therefore, the presentation of a sales plan should coincide with the preparation of a plan of measures that will allow this plan to be fulfilled. The head of the sales department needs to develop, so he needs to be taught long-term planning and connect it with his career and professional growth prospects.

How to set a plan for high sales season

Almost all sales have a season and an off-season. The season of high sales is when the market comes to life and the demand for the goods sold increases sharply. For example, they buy more air conditioners with scrap, and heaters in winter. Naturally, seasonality is important to take into account when setting plans. An incorrectly set plan for the season can lead to too high or, on the contrary, low salaries for salespeople and managers.

Many executives find it difficult to set a plan during the high sales season. First of all, it is difficult for those who did not have work experience a year ago. Because if there was such an experience, then you can simply track the dynamics of sales last year. If there is no such experience, then I recommend talking with more experienced colleagues, as well as using open data on the Internet. For example, many large companies publish data on revenue in the public domain, it’s not easy to find monthly data, but there are quarterly data.

Any company, whether it is engaged in construction, production of finished products, transportation, trade, etc., is interested in the growth of sales volumes. Based on existing practice, this can be achieved when planning sales.

The most realistic document drawn up in terms of sales will be if, when creating it, factors that influence the dynamics of sales of products of a particular enterprise are taken into account.

The Importance of Planning

Does the enterprise need to draw up a document that indicates specific ways and volumes of product sales? The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes. Moreover, sales planning is important not only for those who sell specific products. It is also necessary for those who work in the service sector. It is important:

1. For the proper organization of work. The enterprise needs to function similarly to a well-established mechanism. At the same time, each employee must be familiar with the purpose of his work and know what he needs to do in order to achieve it. When planning the volume of sales, it is also necessary that all team members have an idea of ​​​​what awaits them after the task is completed or if it is not completed.
2. For profit growth. When planning sales, salespeople can be transferred from a fixed salary to a minimum rate, adding a bonus to them if they complete tasks in terms of sales volume. This will certainly increase the motivation of employees and positively affect the income of the enterprise.
3. For development. Planning the volume of sales is simply necessary so that the business does not stand still. Setting goals and achieving them is a priority for any entrepreneur. Otherwise, he will be passed over by other, more ambitious businessmen.

Types of planning

What is the purpose of setting sales targets? The basis of any sales planning is the awareness of the minimum and maximum quantity of goods that the company needs to sell for its existence.

For start-up entrepreneurs, it is most important to decide on the smallest of these values. Planning a sales plan taking into account the minimum quantity of goods sold will allow the company to determine the lowest level of its existence, beyond which its functioning becomes simply impossible. The same firms that have embarked on the path of growth should carry out planning for sales of products at the maximum level.

Setting goals for implementation can be:

• prospective, taking into account a long-term strategy for 5-10 years;
• current, developed for a year with clarification and adjustment of long-term planning indicators;
• operational production, when planning and organization of sales are carried out for short periods of time (month, quarter, etc.).

What affects sales?

A number of factors affect the volume of sales of products. Among them:

• seasonality, depending on the season, month, etc.;
• dynamics of the market as a whole (it is declining or developing);
• actions of competitors that can affect sales volumes both from a negative point of view and from a positive one;
• changes in legislative acts (customs, tax, labor) that affect the competitiveness of business partners and buyers;
• assortment of goods (its increase or decrease, the inclusion of new product names in it or, on the contrary, their exclusion from the list of sales);
• a pricing system that provides for a decrease or increase in the cost of certain types of products, the introduction of a system of discounts, the provision of goods on credit, etc.;
• sales channels;
• buyers;
• employees included in the staff of the enterprise;
• activity of the company in the market to promote its products.

Stages of work

There are various sales planning methods. The simplest of them, but at the same time erroneous, is the accounting of results and profits received by the enterprise in past periods. Setting goals in this case will contribute to the existence of a typical situation in which sales planning at the enterprise seems to exist, but no additional efforts are required from managers to complete the tasks. Of course, for retail or wholesale organizations, sales analysis is very important. And planning in this case will be more effective. However, implementation analysis is only one of the steps to achieve the goal. Otherwise, the enterprise will find itself in a situation where management and salespeople will have different ideas about the “correct plans”, which, most likely, will not be feasible.

The correct solution of the task involves bringing to each seller his sales volume. At the same time, the sales plan must be drawn up with a breakdown for all quotas (sections). The hit in its interval should be in the range from 85 to 105%. Overfulfillment of the plan in the amount of 105-120% is also possible.

Consider what are the main stages of work on the preparation of such a document.

Analysis of market trends

What is the first thing to consider when planning and forecasting sales? An analysis of macroeconomic and political trends is important.

It is advisable to start planning the sales process for the next year already at the end of October or in early November of the current year. To begin with, an assessment of the political situation is made with a forecast of its possible changes. At the same time, it is recommended to analyze a number of economic indicators, including GDP and the price of oil, the level of negative activity of industrial production, the growth in investments in fixed assets, export indicators, etc. When passing through this stage, the forecasts of Fitch Ratings and Ernst Young are studied.

Analysis of the market situation

What is the next step in sales planning? This step will require an analysis of the current situation in the market. At the same time, it is necessary to find out whether the number of competitors of the company has increased, whether the demand for the products sold is expected to decrease, how likely it will be to comply with the previous sales plan? All of the above changes must be taken into account when passing through this stage. This will allow to assess the potential of the market and sales. The first concept means the maximum volume of goods that can be sold by all companies. Sales potential is understood as the amount of products sold by a particular firm, and the level of income expected to be received.

Obtaining specific data is possible when marketers or employees of the enterprise conduct an analysis of demand, as well as a competitive offer. In the course of work there is a comparison of forecasts and actual indicators. Based on the results obtained, it will be possible to judge whether the goal set for the enterprise has been achieved or not.

Analysis of previous sales

This step is very important for understanding the main factors affecting the volume of sales, including seasonal demand, etc. To conduct such an analysis, you should study all sales statistics for recent years. The most complete information collected greatly simplifies planning. In this case, it is recommended to build graphs reflecting the results obtained for certain periods (months, years, etc.). It is also necessary to derive an average sales figure. It will indicate the volume of goods sold in January, February, March and other months.

Definition of seasonality

What is the next stage of sales planning? This step will require determining if there is a seasonality in the business. To do this, it is necessary to clarify the reasons that influenced the decline in sales growth in previous periods. This may be a crisis or a human factor, dismissal of employees, seasonality, etc.

All these factors must be reflected in the preparation of a sales development plan for the next month. These metrics are being reviewed.

If there is a seasonality in sales, then in this case it will be necessary to subtract or add the appropriate amount of interest to the estimated volume of sales. Their value must be determined based on the analysis of data for previous years. After that, it is possible to calculate the profit that will be ensured by the implementation of the concluded contracts. Approximately 20% is deducted from the amount received, which will become insurance for unforeseen events.

Accounting sales managers

At the next stage of planning, an analysis of the activities of the sales department is carried out. This takes into account the contribution to the sales volume of each of the managers.

All employees must be given an individual description. It reflects the work done by them during the month. This is the number of "cold" calls, meetings held and contracts signed. It is also necessary to make a rough forecast for the number of agreements that each of the managers will be able to draw up during the next reporting period. Next, an average indicator should be determined for the entire department. Of course, you do not need to focus on leading experts. Such a sales plan would be simply unattainable. The average figures for the department will allow you to make more realistic forecasts.

Profit from Loyal Customers

When planning sales, it is necessary to analyze the percentage of sold products that are purchased by regular customers. In particular, it is important to understand the frequency with which they make purchases, and which of the proposed assortment they are most interested in. In the future, more salable goods will need to be emphasized. This product will be the main one in planning sales for other customers.

It happens that the number of goods sold is large in their various names. In this case, planning is carried out in the context of each product name.

According to market experts, only a business based on regular customers can become successful. However, this principle does not work for those companies that make one-time sales.

Predicting the number of customers

When planning sales, the cost of the first purchase made by new buyers for the company, as well as the number of concluded sales contracts, is calculated. In this case, special attention should be paid to the goals that are set for sales managers. For example, according to an employee, in 60% of cases, in order to conclude a new contract, he needs to meet with a client three times. Other potential buyers will have to talk more times. In this case, when scheduling, you need to calculate the number of meetings by dividing them by the number of working days. Based on these data, an approximate schedule for the sale of goods and services to new customers should be drawn up. Moreover, such planning must be personal. This will increase the employee's interest in the results, in improving professionalism, etc.

goal setting

When going through all the steps described above in the sales planning process, as a rule, company employees already form the necessary analysis of the current situation. At the same time, they have the necessary statistical plans that will form the basis of realistic sales targets. For example, based on the analysis of the situation that developed last year, it becomes clear that there are chances for an increase in sales by 25%. In this case, the sales plan will need to be drawn up taking into account the emerging prospects. In addition, it is desirable to set a macro goal for the company, the achievement of which is impossible. However, such a step is necessary for additional motivation and will allow you to use all available resources and make every effort to solve the main task.

Discussion with employees

The sales plan must be communicated to the company's staff. You need to discuss it with employees at the initial stage, as well as after achieving a certain result. It is possible that subordinates will help to make some adjustments to the document.

The sales plan must have deadlines for its implementation. The desired result can be broken down into weeks, allowing employees to slightly change their actions if something goes wrong. Further, the drawn up implementation plan must be approved by the head.

Expenditure budget

The next step in sales planning is the most critical. It involves the preparation of a budget for implementation costs. This is the planning of purchases of production and sales, the allocation of funds for advertising campaigns, the payment of bonuses to employees, etc. This task is not easy. After all, it is much easier to calculate the upcoming costs than to decide how much product needs to be sold in order for these costs to be justified.

A similar budget is adopted when planning purchases and sales at the same time. That is, in this case, the volume of production and commercial expenses, as well as the expected marginal profit, are taken into account. In addition, sales management involves tracking the indicator of revenue (shipment), as well as data on receivables and the receipt of funds in bank accounts.

Based on the sales and procurement planning data, a cash flow schedule is drawn up. It also allows you to predict the level of receivables and determine the timing of their repayment.

When planning sales and production, factors such as:

• product analytics in the form of its range, as well as the volume of purchased goods and products of its own manufacture, which will allow you to track marginal profit and profitability of sales, determining what is in consumer demand and what is not;
• analytics that takes into account distribution channels, which include retail and wholesale, commission trade, etc., allowing you to understand how quickly and profitably you can sell a product;
• data on customers, taking into account their types, classification by volume of purchases, etc., which will allow you to track the terms in which the repayment of receivables is expected, the identification of hopeless and overdue performance of contracts;
• geographic data analytics that allows you to track the intensity of sales in various regions and track purchasing power in them;
• analytics for managers (divisions), which allows assessing the performance of each employee, which is taken into account in their further motivation.

Sales and production planning is impossible without taking into account the expected cash receipts. They are intended to form the revenue side of the budget.

Planning of funds is carried out on the basis of already concluded contracts, from which you can learn about the price and terms of payment. At the same time, the terms of formation and repayment of debts of debtors are taken into account. An important task of managers is to monitor compliance by buyers with the terms of payment that were stipulated in the concluded agreement.

Software use

Sales planning is the starting point of an enterprise-wide planning system. Based on the projected sales volumes, the company sets certain goals for itself.

Today it becomes possible to plan sales and purchases in 1C. Various configurations of this program provide significant assistance in the work of the organization's personnel. They allow you to engage in planning in the context of customer categories, focusing on various criteria, including the following: belonging to a particular region, type of activity, etc.

Using 1C allows you to quickly and efficiently develop various plans, from detailed working plans to enlarged strategic ones, which are designed for overlapping time periods. So, with the help of the eighth configuration, enlarged plans for the year can be initially drawn up, on the basis of which detailed monthly plans are developed. The 1C program has convenient tools that allow you to automate the entire process of completing a task.

In the future, the configuration allows you to compare the initial data with the actual revenue received, analyzing the existing deviations.

Based on sales plans, the 1C program also builds production plans. To ensure a given cycle, the supply of materials is forecasted, and the level of warehouse stocks is also determined.