Learn how to do an annual sales planning for e-commerce

Planning is essential for all areas of a business. When we talk about annual sales planning, then, the importance is even greater.

After all, every business has to generate sales and get a good revenue to survive and gain competitiveness in a market that is increasingly disputed.

In this context, it is worth emphasizing the need to think about what has to be done, so that you encourage your current and future consumers to materialize and repeat the acquisitions of the products or services that your brand offers in the market. Through a good survey, it is possible to move forward in approaching the right people, who will generate the opportunities you expect.

Here are the key steps to work out this plan efficiently. We will describe what sales planning is, what it is for, how it matters, how to develop it annually, what its benefits are, and what tools are needed. Keep reading!

What is a sales plan?

Sales planning is nothing more than a document that aims to guide all the professionals in the area in order for them to achieve success in their activities, their goals and their goals.

It is a manual (or guide) that has precise, detailed and clear instructions on the actions that the company will implement in the present and / or future. This is essential to speed up the workflow.

Effective sales planning has the responsibility to include all stages of the process in which potential consumers make a particular purchase. The document helps from the moment the prospect knows that the store exists until after-sales.

Through the plan, all of the company’s sales flow efforts are well aligned. In addition, conversion and loyalty strategies become much more efficient.

Another essential issue is that sales planning should be structured according to the various possibilities that exist within your business. As we will see throughout this article, the objectives of the company will determine the actions to be taken by the sales team.

In that sense, in order to build a good document, you will need to be clear about how far you want to get through it. This means that if the goal is to have 100,000 reais in billing (for example), this should be clear from the moment the plan is conceived, right?

If not clear, no problem. In the following topics, we will detail all the specifics you should be concerned about to have a plan that effectively contributes to the success of your business.

What is this document for?

A good sales plan serves to outline a strategy that drives value and encourages customer conversion, that is, increased sales. To do so, it is absolutely necessary that the document be structured in a way that becomes scalable as business opportunities increase. In this sense, there are some crucial steps:

Identify the time of the company and the team: if the company is in difficulties, sales planning is even more important. If you want to become a market leader, sales are equally important. About the team, you need to consider points such as goal achievement and productivity;
Knowing the customer deeply: the sales plan has as main actor the customer – after all, the document loses its reason without it. Thus, it is essential that the company knows its audience deeply, in order to understand its needs, in addition to outlining a profile of the people who will buy the solution offered by the brand;
Establish clear goals: the goals must follow the SMART methodology, that is, they must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and temporal;
Determine strategies of action: how could it not be, it is necessary to define the actions that will be effective at the moment in which the plan will materialize. It is necessary to determine, for example, if the strategies will be more aggressive or cautious;
Create flows for the process: remember that sales are made up of a sequence of steps that must be well organized and clear, which will set the right times for each action;
Set up a timetable for action: this prevents initiatives being delayed, ensuring a better use of opportunities;
Establish Metrics: Setting metrics and performance metrics is the only way to be aware of and ensure that the plan brings the expected results.

What did you think of those steps? Do they make sense? In the topic of doing a sales plan, such ideas will be detailed and “chewed” so that you can put your challenges into practice. Before, though, let’s see what the importance of annual sales planning is.

Why is annual sales planning important?

The sales plan is created so that the company reaches several goals, but the truth is that the document goes far beyond a guide. This is because its impacts affect even the consumers of the organization.

Thus, the importance of the tool lies in aspects such as direct contact, whether by email marketing, telephone or social network. But more than that, planning is important because it provides the benefits below. Follow us!

Creation of an integrated action

In a way, the sales team is the personification of the company. Thus, in several situations, it is with the seller that a potential consumer has the first contact.

Therefore, the plan integrates all areas of the company, and prospective customers will have a more pleasant and consistent experience regarding the acquisition of products or services. This enhances the image and gives more credibility to the brand as a whole, helping in its positioning and highlighting it in relation to the competition.

Help in team analysis

The integration of the team, together with the establishment of performance indicators and metrics, contributes to analyze and control the performance of employees. Through the plan, it is easier to see if the team is aligned or not with the strategy adopted (and if everything has been going as expected).

At the same time, it becomes much more practical to identify what salespeople are doing and why they gain motivation. If a team puts a plan into action and conversions skyrocket, management must be more attentive to that.

Improves sales results

As it should be, a sales plan is also essential to increase conversions (ie, the results of acquisitions) when done correctly. This happens at various times, including promotional dates like Black Friday.

Once you have defined which strategies are relevant to the audience, the power of persuasion towards the audience increases, which leads to more sales. This is also related to the fact that the team can generate more relationships and thus more conversions.

Therefore, a number of possibilities are established and it is therefore natural for the conversion rate to be high. As a result, revenue and profits increase.

Promotes productivity and motivation

One more advantage of the sales plan is that it ends up being essential for the productivity and motivation of the employees. Since everything is very well defined, the sales team is stimulated to meet the challenges.

Thus, achieving better results is a natural consequence. More productive and motivated sellers are undoubtedly essential for a more competitive and successful company in the market.

What are the benefits of sales planning?

By now, you have certainly identified several benefits that sales planning generates for a company, right? Below we will highlight some of these key advantages. Follow us!

Most engaged team

As we have already pointed out, through the sales plan, it is much easier to identify the role of each professional within the organization. No matter how much we speak of a single sector, when the goals are clear (and the goals to be achieved, duly defined), the day to day salespeople become more stimulating. In this way, the team’s engagement becomes much more intense.

Organized routine

Other great benefits of sales planning are: the organization and discipline brought to the day-to-day business. As everything becomes well structured, the routine becomes something more predictable, because it is totally oriented towards achieving the expected results.

So, beyond a doubt, attributes like organization and discipline are essential to determining numbers, billings and profits.

More sales

This is the main objective of the plan and, therefore, can not leave you out of the topic about its benefits. The number of sales increases naturally, per site or in physical store, due to the structure that the planning offers.

Of course, this goal will only be achieved if the plan is effectively effective. Therefore, it is necessary that the sales plan goes directly to the point, so that it can be used in the day to day of the company, helping in the growth of the professionals’ performance and the number of sales.

How to make an annual sales plan?

When designing your sales plan, you need to follow some essential steps. To begin with, it is necessary to focus on the three aspects that we highlight below.

Invest in the current consumers

We know that it is much easier and more practical to sell to existing consumers than going to the market to prospect new ones. Even aware of this, many companies end up not giving the right value to current customers – which can cause them to lose a share of the market.

Keep in mind that people who are currently buying from you already know how the process of acquiring your product or service works: that way it’s much simpler to make sales for them. Also, do not forget to encourage such customers to indicate new consumers.

Consult your sales team

Although this seems like an obvious question, many companies start a sales plan and do not comment on their employees. But it is essential that employees in this area are included because they are the ones who will be in the field of sales.

Therefore, it is crucial to involve, motivate and, above all, give credit to the team. Working with people is tricky, but also rewarding. Everyone likes recognition, does not it?

Do not forget the plan

One of the great problems of companies of all sizes is the lack of consistency in the processes of actions. Often planning is followed in the beginning, but then comes discouragement and a discontinuity occurs.

Therefore, it is necessary that the plan be well aligned with the team, so that it has clear and possible goals. It’s no good to have an excellent plan if it does not convert to actions that lead to conversions and sales.

What does it take to deploy sales planning?

After enumerating the steps to chart the sales planning, let’s highlight the items needed to effectively put it into practice. Check out!

Set your goals

First, you need to be clear about where you want to go – that way, it’s much easier to establish a destination. Then comes the time to determine what actions will be taken in order for the company to have access to the potential consumer.

Within the objectives, it is necessary, for example, to determine which sales techniques are more aligned with the needs and demands of the customers. In certain sales cycles, a more aggressive strategy ensures that conversion is more effective.

In other cases, there needs to be greater consideration by the consumer. In this context, it becomes feasible to invest in a more cautious approach.

In addition, it needs to be clear what points of products and services need to be highlighted. Similarly, the seller must know clearly when to advance to conquer a sale opportunity. The more relevant the objectives, the greater the chances that the strategy will succeed.

Align expectations

How could it not be, expectations must be well aligned among the different types of public. Everything should begin with an analysis of the company and its team.

If the brand is in a difficult time, the sales plan gains a very effective importance. On the other hand, if the company is well, but wants to move to new markets, the plan must contemplate actions that seek to deliver the expected results.

In relation to the team, it is crucial to align the goals and goals that must be achieved. If the team is failing to meet them, for example, the sales plan establishes itself as a great way to optimize the actions of the professionals in order to generate improvements of the results.

Within this scenario, it is also very important to perform an effective data analysis, showing the relationship between the sales projection and the acquisitions that were made. With this, it will also be possible to check the performance of the team individually and collectively.

Establish the necessary strategies

Strategies indicate the ways you intend to achieve your goals. In addition to the individual efforts of the sales team, it is critical to answer all questions asked by your potential customers.

From this scenario, you can:

identify the main points that can and should be addressed;
detect projects, situations or markets that the brand has been experiencing with great success (and therefore would like to explore more effectively);
understand if it is time to optimize the company’s product mix;
check that market trends are in line with the solutions the company offers in the market;
identify if there were sales messages with good identification with customers, so that they are better explored;
increase the reach of the company from certain products and services that have a good acceptance with customers and markets;
build a database in social media, in order to broaden the use of business references.

Measure the results

At this point, you have at hand some essential ideas to put sales planning into practice. So it’s also important to start looking at sales information and data (like the average ticket), so you can think of new solutions to optimize the results that the company has achieved so far.

As we said, it is very important that you know where you want to go. Therefore, the best way to increase sales and conquer markets is by understanding what is right or needs adjustments.

The numbers are the plane’s thermometer, and if things are not going well, it’s time to adjust the route. You should put the business in a context of sustainable growth.

In this sense, it is very important to highlight some metrics that can make a huge difference in the business as a whole. Among them are:

contacts and/or leads generated;
connections that were made to current customers;
connections that were made to potential new customers;
visits to potential consumers;
visits to new clients.

These numbers are essential, but of course you should not be attached to them. What’s important is to define the metrics that are most relevant to your business. Among them, we can highlight:

submitted proposals;
the follow-ups;
aditional sales;
the increase in average sales for former consumers, etc.

Make the necessary adjustments

As it could not be, it is necessary to change routes if there is such a need. We know that things on paper are different from reality. Therefore, the plan can not be plastered to the point of changing its particularities if a transformation in processes and approaches is required.

In other words, from the moment you check how your goals and goals are going in the course of sales planning, you should not “force the bar” if you see that something is not going as expected.

Often it is necessary to review the ideas of the plan. But you can rest absolutely, because this is normal.

Know that it is practically impossible to assemble a perfect sales plan without any kind of error and that is not subject to certain adjustments. Only pay attention and act immediately if the need arises.

What tools can help with the task?

There are several important tools for sales planning. Below, we highlight some that are essential for a growth strategy in this area. Follow us!

PipeDrive

PipeDrive was created in Estonia and later adopted by several startups operating in Silicon Valley. The tool is essential for sales to happen in an organized and intuitive way.

Skype

Although the eye in the eye is essential for good negotiation, it is not always possible to be close to the client. Skype is an excellent feature for remote conversations, as it has voice and video calls, through the computer or mobile application, and offers the possibility to share the screen.

Appear.in

When the video call involves more than two users, the appear.in is essential to the business routine. It guarantees usability and allows up to 12 participants (on the paid version) in a single call.

Buzzsumo

BuzzSumo is great for understanding your potential consumer. It is developed primarily for professionals who work with marketing and can bring excellent insight into customer needs.

Sales Navigator

This is a great tool of professional social networking LinkedIn. Through Sales Navigator, you can build a strategy for targeting or approaching potential customers, leveraging all the data and information professionals make available on the network.

So what do you think about finding out more about sales planning? As you can see, the market is very disputed, and it is necessary that companies reinvent themselves to sell more and better. Although the challenge is great, a brand can be established in a competitive and differentiated way.

Luckily, we have never had so many resources to apply in the day to day of the companies as today, which allows the realization of the actions in sales. So do not hesitate to make a good plan (aligned with the reality of the business and potential customers), so that the brand has a continuous growth.

If it is time to have a platform to optimize your strategy and achieve better results, contact us. We are ready to understand your reality and offer the best solutions!