Without a Plan, You’re Going Nowhere Fast!

A territory plan is an essential sales management tool. Without one, a sales goal is just a number.

Without a territory plan, your sales reps will not know what it takes to meet their goals. And you will have no assurance they can get there. You’ll be flying blind.

February is the time to conduct planning sessions with each of your sales team members to identify where their sales will come from, what activities they need to engage in to make their sales a reality, and how they will make up any shortfall between their sales targets and identified opportunities.

I recommend having a planning session with each of your sales reps and account teams.  Your reps should prepare in advance and arrive ready to discuss how they will meet their goals. Each rep’s goal should consist of three elements:

• Flow Business – Will happen (called “flow” business because it just seems to flow every year)
• Strong Opportunities – Likely to close with routine sales efforts (better than 50/50 chance)
• “Stretch” Opportunities – Will require focused sales efforts to close (less than 50/50 chance).

Based on this, you can create an action plan for your sales reps including timeframes to perform activities so they close business this year.  You will also be able to develop an action plan to aggressively cover the territory to find and close opportunities that your sales reps have not yet identified.

TechCXO and Wallace Management Group leads and facilitates one-day and multi-day planning sessions for companies serious about meeting their sales goals.  We help clients prepare for the sessions so that they are as productive as possible. Then, we facilitate the meetings to ensure that each of your reps – and you – know exactly what is supposed to happen this year and how it will get done.

Contact David Wallace at (203) 856-9400 to schedule planning sessions for your team.