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The genre, the manner in which advice to novice managers is written, is a kind of revelation from a manager who has at least once encountered hiring, training and working with sales managers. By reading the advice at the beginning of his career, a sales manager will be able to get around many of the “sharp corners” of professional development. The instructions are recommended reading for every novice manager who seeks to improve their efficiency.

So, “practical advice” for novice sales managers claiming the title “EFFECTIVE MANAGER”:

• Work is not a wolf, it won’t run away into the forest! Don’t rush to do your current work, put it off “for later”! Mind your own business, accumulate turnover. Why rush? Then you'll do all the work in one fell swoop on the last day! And if it doesn’t work out, then so be it... with her! You are not a horse!
• When holding meetings, do not set goals or objectives for your subordinates. It’s better to have coffee with them, talk about life, discuss your “bosses”. Be your guy, managers love it!!!
• When your manager sets goals and sales plans for you, answer quickly and without hesitation: “This is impossible!”, “They won’t buy from us!” Don't even try! Why bother you? You are not a business owner! You bear neither risks nor losses!
• When prioritizing your work time, always put solving your own problems first. It’s better to pretend that you don’t feel well, and in the meantime go to the country, to the store, call all your friends, get on Odnoklassniki, dating sites, etc. And put the company's priorities at the back.
• Do not fill out any work plans for the month/week/day in advance and, especially, reports on the fact of the past day, because to fill them out you still have to think hard, “What did I manage to do at work today?” You will lose half a day of your life on creativity! Moreover, the boss can also check what is written! But you don’t need such strict control - you have a lot of your own things to do!!! You are incredibly busy - “working.” Make this clear to your manager!
• Be smart!!! Pull your bosses more often - let them take the rap for you at the meeting, let them work, it’s nonsense that at the previous meeting you muttered something inaudibly, let them now take the rap for you!!! Look for excuses, because most likely you were overloaded with work, reports, vague tasks and thus were not allowed to show good results and prove yourself. EVERYONE is to blame, but not you!
• More often complain among your acquaintances and friends that in your company everything is “not like in normal/good/correct companies!” Complain, because it’s strange that the director doesn’t want to pay you for just going to work! The “Strange Leader” wants you, moreover, not only to produce results, but also to engage in your education and self-development! Management requires fulfillment of sales plans...

DO YOU NEED THIS?!

THOSE WHO HAVE DECIDED TO LEAVE THEIR PLACE OF WORK IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE, DO EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED ABOVE, AND NOT OTHERWISE!!!

To those who really interested in work, money, career, we suggest you start further reading “practical advice for effective managers.”

After all, an effective manager is precisely the manager who takes on what he has to do and brings the job started to completion, who creates conditions that motivate the team to achieve their goals, who achieves the planned sales plan!

Force yourself to manage yourself! So:

1. Don’t put off doing your current work “for later.” The accumulated work eats up your time, irritates you and your management, and leads to poor results when performing other tasks. Clearly define every day: what work should be done now, what should be done today, and what work should be done after all other tasks are completed.

2. Make it a rule every day:

• Read the email carefully. email every day, but not earlier than 16.00 (not from morning to evening or during breaks while chewing something).
• Complete the tasks assigned to you before you go home. Finish your plan for the day and leave calmly! Any manager will see this and will certainly appreciate it, and the result will not keep you waiting long!

3. Start by planning your own workflows. Make your work plan for the day, week, month. Enter in it:

• days and times for office work with documents and mail;

• convenient time for your meetings;

• initiate meetings with managers;

• plan to develop and study new products;

• plan preparations for meetings, etc.

4. Submit your work plan to your supervisor. Let him see that you work as an EFFECTIVE MANAGER!

5. Start keeping a “report on the actual work completed” for yourself “in a box”, in which every day, at the end of the working day, you can reflect on your actions, rate yourself on your progress and evaluate the time spent on this or that work.

6. Send your report on the work completed for the week to your manager. He will certainly evaluate your successes and give feedback in the mode “analysis of the results of the work done: goals – tasks – questions for discussion.” Feedback from your manager will be useful to you in any case.

7. Be demanding of yourself! Demand that you complete your tasks! This is the manager's responsibility!

8. Don't push your bosses over small things. The formula for contacting a manager should be: “I have a problem/question…. I see the following solutions to the problem:

Please tell me what to do, what solution to the problem/issue to choose?” Thus, you will demonstrate: firstly, your desire to solve this problem yourself; secondly, respect for the manager’s time.

This instruction was created in a comic form, but, as they say: “every joke has a grain of truth,” and here it is not small...

We hope that our short training manual will serve as a good instruction for novice managers in improving their work skills and will allow them to move one step forward towards the title of EFFECTIVE MANAGER!!!

Have you risen to become the head of a department, or has your business grown and the question of training your sales department employees has arisen?

Let's figure out how to do this. First, answer the question: have they already given people who will work as sales managers in your department, or do you need them? If they handed you people, then everything is bad. Well, not as bad as you thought. But it’s better when you recruit managers yourself. I’ll explain how this relates to department training.

1. Which is better - the old or the new department?

At the market, sellers are taught at random and whatever. Only a small proportion of salespeople achieve real skills after training. Therefore, if you want your managers to really sell, you need to teach them from scratch, oblivious to the scraps of knowledge they have. The ideal situation is when you can recruit managers yourself without work experience or training experience, because into an empty head you will put exactly the knowledge that is needed for sales.

If you get existing managers, you can enhance the effect of the training by saying that only those who successfully complete the course will remain employed. During the learning process, take a closer look at people and decide whether they will be of any use. You, of course, can test managers’ existing knowledge, break it down into levels, and conduct training in areas that are important for a specific group of employees. But this is difficult and ineffective, because a holistic system of knowledge about sales is not created.

2. Who should train the sales team?

Looking for a new coach? Use the services of an internal trainer for training, or send a person to study in one of those hundreds of courses that the Internet is replete with?

Answer a few questions:

• Do you want to train sales managers to sell in principle, or teach them to sell a specific product or service?
• Do you want managers from the department to increase sales after training, or to know the theory of sales?
• Do you want them to have knowledge of hundreds of techniques in different markets, or do you want them to automatically develop specific skills that they will use?

Do these questions seem stupid to you? To be honest, me too. Then explain why 90% of corporate sales training is conducted as if people do not know the right answers to these questions?

3. What is most sales training?

A specialist arrives for 1-3 days. He explains the theory of sales and says: “Well, how you use my knowledge depends on you.” You might as well buy your employees a sales book. There might have been more sense, because after the book you wouldn’t expect an explosive increase in sales. You can find effective sales trainings that are aimed at obtaining and practically consolidating sales skills.

4. What is the main task of training a sales manager?

Tell me the classic theory of sales?
Tell us how super-effective salespeople sell?
Show a super motivating clip from the sales films “Boiler Room” or “Wall Street”?
Play one role-play with a product that has nothing to do with your product?
This is all great, but none of these elements will help a sales manager learn how to sell a specific product.
Sales will only be helped by specific skills developed for a specific manager, on a specific product, with a specific type of client.

5. To organize effective training for your sales department, you need:

• test managers and identify their individual characteristics;
• study the product in terms of sales;
• study the portrait of clients with whom managers will have to work;
• talk about the skills that may be needed in sales;
• create an individual sales style for each manager;
• develop skills that correspond to your individual style to the point of automaticity;
• monitor the use of skills in sales;
• make adjustments during this process.

You must understand that training a sales department is not a one-time job, but an ongoing process. Firstly, sales managers are the most fluid contingent. You have to come to terms with this if you don’t plan to create the best conditions on the market for them. Therefore, you will have to constantly train someone. Secondly, any information is forgotten without use, even the most interesting and important. How can you control whether the manager uses this information? That's right: you need to go to a meeting with each manager at least once every two weeks. Analyze his weak points and in the next stage teach him what he cannot do.

Can this be done in 1, 2 or 3 days? Never. If you don’t need training for your sales department just for show, you need to develop a unique training system that will contain theory, practical application of this theory and skill development, taking into account the individual characteristics of the manager. I will tell you how to create a system or program for training a sales department in the process of work in the article “”

Alexander Makarov

Every commercial manager has encountered a situation when

• due to expansion of activities,
• due to changes in sales technology,
• due to the departure from the team of employees who acquired the halo,

We need to staff the sales department with new fighters.
In this case, two conditions must be met:

1. “Not just any” newcomers should come to the department.
2. These newbies should be able to get on the wing fairly quickly.

Otherwise, we risk failing to meet our sales plan. It is these two aspects that will form the basis of the training system for beginners.

I. “Not anyhow”

The trouble with the overwhelming majority of sales department managers is that, based on the selection results, we tell the candidate we like: “Write an application, probationary period is 3 months...”, but our thoughts are completely different!

In our thoughts, we are happy that we have finally found a more or less suitable person for the department. And this is a mistake! In our minds, we have already hired him, and all that remains is not to mess up too much during the probationary period in order to remain in the team. Two or three employees hired out of this habit, and the team will begin to work according to the old naval proverb: “The speed of a squadron of ten battleships and one kayak is equal to the speed of the kayak.”

Therefore, it is worth returning to the understanding of the phrase “probationary period”. Probationary - implies testing. Strength, flexibility, switchability, ability to work with a large amount of information - you yourself will determine the list of qualities required for this position. This will be your starting point for building a training system for beginners. A set of qualities can be created, for example, in the following form:
In our company, the probationary period is organized like this. After being hired, a newcomer receives a mentor and a training plan for the first week (about the company, about the product range, about distinctive features). He masters this material, and after 5 working days he will have the first face-to-face exam on his knowledge of the material. If a newcomer can’t cope and answers with a “C+”, then he’s from the company quits.

We do not consider it necessary to avoid the obvious in the hope that “he will reach his potential,” and keep a person at work for another six months who is not able to get involved in work from the first week and take his probationary period seriously.

Not every experienced seller is able to easily and clearly convey complex information to a beginner. Be careful when choosing a mentor. Only a few manage to combine practical experience and knowledge of psychology and unlock the potential of a beginner. Often theoretical knowledge is very simple and sounds like known truths. Difficulties arise precisely at the stage of “application” of basic principles and new experience to specific everyday actions.

Sometimes in the process of discussing the material, newcomers say: “Yes, we’ve heard this a hundred times and know it well.” Yes, we heard, but the problem is that this knowledge lies in the head as “dead weight”, is not used and does not bring results either to the company or to the person personally. But they are not used for a simple reason: from knowledge to skills it is necessary to go through the path of repetition and consolidation. Each of us knows how to bake pancakes, for example (as a last resort, you can look on the Internet). But to prevent the first pancake from coming out lumpy, you need to stand at the stove more than a dozen times, preferably under the guidance of a wise mentor, for example, your mother :)

In the next 2 weeks, the beginner studies the topic of negotiations, telephone service, typical objections and arguments for them. Every day, during the lunch break, he analyzes questions, makes small reports, presentations to his colleagues, and receives feedback from them. All this takes no more than 15 minutes. At the end of two weeks, the newcomer passes a second face-to-face exam, where not so much the volume and depth of knowledge is assessed, but his behavior in model situations (for example, a client requires special treatment because, according to the client, he personally knows the head of the company; a potential client demands a discount, promising that he will buy a lot in the future, etc.). If a newcomer passes the exam with a “C plus” or lower, he resigns from the company.

From the fourth week (we remember that 1 week is spent on knowledge of the product and the company, 2-3 weeks on knowledge of general sales algorithms), the newcomer learns in practice: he goes to negotiations with a mentor, calls clients, prepares specifications and commercial proposals as a junior employee . In addition, he reads literature from the corporate library (about which below), writes short essays based on the results of reading the materials in sections: “what will be useful to me in my work” and “what is controversial for me.”

Based on the results, the newcomer passes a final face-to-face exam before the “selection committee” (2-3 people, including the best sales people, the head of the department, the commercial director - your choice). After the exam, the employee receives (or does not receive) a “ticket” to work.

What does this approach give us:

1. The employee works during the entire adaptation period in good shape, because he knows that he can lose his job at any stage. Enters competition mode. Those newcomers who do not have the “I can do it, I will prove” trait in their character are “washed out” at the initial stage.
2. You can see a person’s qualities when working under stress (pressing deadlines, a large amount of information, new work standards), which allows you to understand how a person will open up in real conditions quickly enough. Two months is not a year.
3. The system trains not only the beginner, but also teachers, who also need to meet the requirements that they impose on the young specialist.

II. Quickly “get on the wing.” Training Tool Pack

The above-described format for placing newbies on the wing can only be carried out if you have the so-called “basic training package”.

What it may include:

1. The constitution of the company or the rules of employee dormitory in the team

It is generally accepted that the main thing is the professional qualities of a specialist, the rest is secondary. My experience suggests the opposite: it is the coherence of specialists’ actions and the ability to interact that largely determine the success of accomplishing strategic tasks. The rules for building working relationships should be transferred to paper. The result is a document that we in our company call the “Constitution”.
Excerpts from the Constitution of the DEVELOPMENT Company:
Article No. 2
Responsibility for accepting and understanding the order If the employee confirmed that he understood and will carry out the order, and no objections, questions or comments were received from him (or they were sorted out, and the employee confirmed that there were no questions left), any of his excuses related to non-compliance (or incorrect execution) of the order , are not accepted and responsibility for failure to comply lies entirely with the employee.
By saying “I understand” or “I will do”, you are responsible for your words. Dealing with Client Requests
The response to the client should be given within a day. Maximum 30 minutes before the end of the working day in his time zone. If we cannot give an answer on the merits of the question, then we must inform you when we can answer. And be sure to fulfill what you promised.

Article No. 11. Nothing gets swept under the rug.
If a question arises, a failure occurs, a misunderstanding or other event occurs, then its participants or employees who notice what happened bring it up for discussion with those who are directly affected by the situation. The result of the discussion (participants in the event, misunderstanding, etc.) is a specific solution that suits all parties. The parties jointly develop a solution that prevents the repetition of a misunderstanding or an event of a similar nature. If necessary, the decision is recorded on paper in the form of a standard.

Article No. 15. During
Any agreements or obligations regarding deadlines are public actions of an adult and responsible person and are fulfilled. In case of various overlaps, renegotiation agreements are created before the end of the agreed period.

Article No. 22. How to report a problem
When reporting problems to your manager, be sure to report:
1. What measures have you already taken?
2. What solutions can you offer?
3. How much time does a manager have to think:
3.2 "free"
3.3 “paid” (from what moment the loss counter will start).

2. Document “Introduction to Position”

We noticed that most of the delays, hiccups and questions a newcomer has regarding the company's operating mode. A newcomer, starting a new job, finds himself in the same position as a traveler in an unfamiliar city, where there have never been tourists: where to go, where is the right street, where is normal food and inexpensive accommodation?

Our task is very simple: to make sure that the newcomer begins to bring us returns as soon as possible. Therefore, all reasonable means that do not take up a monstrous amount of the department head’s personal time are suitable for putting him “on the wing”.

For these tasks, the “Taking on Office” document appeared, excerpts from which I provide below.

"Colleague! We welcome you as a new employee of the ABVGD company. Our company is already X years old, and during this time we have developed a number of rules that we all know about and try to follow. To make it easier for you to adapt to working in our company, we would like to introduce you to the most important of them.

Perhaps at the initial stage of working in the company you will have to endure some restrictions. Sometimes this is an inconvenient location of the workplace, sometimes the absence of a computer. This is not done intentionally, and these situations are not permanent. Our company is continuously growing.

Statements in the style of “I will do it when I have a computer...”, “... when I have my own workplace”, “... when I have more time” are not accepted in the company, since everyone is counting on each other in the current moment in time, not afterwards.

To make it easier for you to navigate the company at the initial stage, so that you know what issue to whom to contact, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the simple rules set out below.

1. Operating mode
Because working day(please pay special attention to the first word) starts for us at 8:00, then no later than 7:55 you must go through the checkpoint. Any later time is considered late, for which disciplinary action will be taken against the employee.

The working day ends at 17:00 (except for some categories of employees), exit through the checkpoint is allowed no earlier than 17:05.

If you are sick and cannot go to work, you must inform your manager as soon as possible.

If for some reason you cannot go to work for one or more days, then you need to write an application addressed to the director for leave without pay, have it signed by the manager and submitted to the personnel service.

You can view sample applications on the internal website, in the “Samples of documents” section.

2. Your immediate supervisor

This is a person who is directly responsible to the company management for your personal work. And if, in order to make this work more effective, you need help or advice from your manager, do not be afraid to ask for it. Remember that if you do not request information, no one may give it to you. Therefore, in everything that concerns:

• organizing your workplace;
• Your functional responsibilities (including familiarity with the job description);
• payment for your work (how and when wages are paid);
• rewards and punishments;
• any working moments

The manager is obliged to help you and give you complete information. If this does not happen, contact the personnel service.

3. Working with a computer and telephone
If, when working with a PC, you have questions related to software, the operation of e-mail and the Internet, or there are problems with the operation of your PC, printer, copier, then you need to contact the network and server support sector.

If your work involves communicating by phone, then check with your manager for the company’s single city number and your extension number. If the phone does not work, then call our telephone operator.

4. What information can be obtained on the internal website (http://……)
Our company has an internal website. You can get to it by left-clicking on the “Internet” icon on the desktop.
The site contains:

• telephone directory of company internal numbers with photographs of employees;
• company's news;
• list of the company's closest birthday people;
• weather forecast for the current day;
• training page where you can get acquainted with interesting articles;
• page “Official Documentation”, where you can get acquainted with sample documents.

5. Appearance of company employees
Our company attaches great importance to the appearance of its employees. We believe that appearance speaks about the neatness of employees, the image of the company, and its reputation. Therefore, business style is adopted for office employees. Men must be freshly shaven. We discourage the wearing of denim and obvious sportswear. We place especially high demands on employees who work directly with clients.

6. How to make phone calls
You need to know a few rules:

1. Exit to the city is through “9”.
2. To call within the region, dial “8”, followed by the locality code and telephone number.
3. In all other cases, it is recommended to use IP telephony...

Our company is very sensitive to incoming calls. If they call you, you must answer the phone no later than 2-3 times. If they call your colleague and he is not there, then you can intercept his call. To do this, you need to pick up the phone and dial “...” on your phone.

A very important note: when leaving your workplace (you went to the dining room or for a smoke break), organize your work in such a way that calls received at your number do not go unanswered. The company keeps statistical records of missed calls, and you may be punished for a missed call.

7. Solving economic problems
If you need to solve any household problem: the air conditioner is broken, something needs to be nailed or repaired, there is no heating in the radiator, etc., then you need to submit an application for the work to be completed electronically. The application is located on the internal website in the “Technical Documentation” section. If something urgent happens that requires immediate attention (a window breaks, a battery ruptures, etc.), then call the number “...”.

8. Conclusion
Who can you contact “…”. Position, full name, phone number.”

When reading any systemically important documents, I recommend that you use a simple principle. It sounds like this: “Read and ask 7 questions about what you read.” Does this mean that a newcomer has read the Constitution or "Coming into Office"? I shouldn’t just say, “I understand everything.” Its task is to pose questions to the written standards. Believe me, in a country where almost any instructions are read diagonally and only after an emergency, this simple thing insures you against the fact that a beginner did not understand anything, but was afraid to look like a fool and did not ask. And in a combat situation, he will be confused and will not be able to act according to the rule.

3. Book of Sales Standards

“The Book” is the quintessence of all successful finds, standard solutions in the field of sales and is developed in the department almost weekly. The task is simple: for any controversial sales situation that is repeated more than twice, develop a standard solution, transfer the situation from the category of “oh, damn!” into the “we act according to standard 18.2” situation.
Typical structure of a sales book:

• Block 1. Organizational Standards for the Sales Department
• Block 2. Standards for behavior with colleagues
• Block 3. Working with the cash register and cash book. Carrying out an inventory
• Block 4. Standards for the behavior of a consultant with a client on the trading floor
• Block 5. Standards for conducting a telephone conversation with a client
• Block 6. Standards for creating a positive company image
• Block 7. Standards for communication with representatives of third parties

Examples of standards:

• Standard for comments on your actions.
  The Consultant understands that the Client’s consultation cannot be interrupted. In situations where it is necessary to pick up the phone and answer another Client’s question, the Consultant must comment on his actions: “Please wait a minute...” or “Excuse me, please, I’ll answer the phone call...”.
• Standard for the behavior of a Consultant during an “influx” of Clients.
  In a situation where the Buyer drags on the conversation for more than 20 minutes, and other Clients are waiting for the Consultant, the employee is obliged to pay attention to the remaining Clients, warning them with the following phrase: “I ask you to wait a couple of minutes, I will definitely come to you.”

  Additionally, when there is an “influx” of Clients, you can use POS materials (booklets, brochures) to keep Visitors occupied.

4. Study Library

This is a set of books and films that allow beginners to conduct high-quality self-training in basic sales skills. In our company, we regularly buy books and films in order to be at the forefront of sales. Now the library has over 200 books and films.

An important note for you as the head of the sales department: You need the newcomer not just to read the book, but for him to start thinking, arguing, and comparing data. Therefore, ask him, based on the results of reading or viewing, to prepare an essay in which he would formulate answers to the questions: “What seemed useful to me and why” and “What seemed controversial to me and why.”

Our company has a standard for such an essay: 1 page of A4 size, 12 pt. I recommend that you include in your library:

1. Nikolai Rysev’s book “Active Sales”. Writes to the point.
2. Kenneth Blanchard's book, The One Minute Salesman.
3. Film by Training-Media “Goldfish”.
4. Film "The Devil Wears Prada"
5. Alan Pisa's book "Body Language" about the nonverbal side of negotiations.
6. Book by Gleb Arkhangelsky “Time Drive”.
7. Film "People of Honor". It's about how to love what you do.

Finally, training within the department should be conducted by the department head. Attracting third-party trainers is a good thing, but it has the “vacation syndrome”, i.e. happens rarely. But to be in good shape, you need to rest not only on vacation, but to take care of yourself every day - get enough sleep, take care of your health. The same applies to internal training - no one knows the characteristics and potential of your employees better than you.
To ensure that internal training is successful, take note of a few simple notes:

1. The final result of training must be formulated, including in terms of indicators
The goal of training should be specific and measurable (in units, money, time) indicators. The result of training should be the acquisition of skills (behavior, thinking, actions). For example: managers know how to professionally negotiate with clients, competently present a product, work with client objections, demonstrating to the client what benefits he receives by purchasing a product or service from your company. As a result, clients prefer to work with you because you offer them high level of service. But you need to be aware that training sellers in itself will not improve the quality of your products or optimize logistics and business process management.

2. Training should be tied to the management and behavioral standards in force in the company and apply to everyone involved in customer service
For example: You trained managers in the culture of communication with clients. A client comes to your company at the end of the working day, and there the security in pure Russian said everything she thinks about him, or the cleaning lady with a mop did not give him access. It seems like little things, but the client will not have the desire to make a repeat purchase. Moreover, he will want to recommend “Vote with your money” to everyone he knows for another supplier.

3. It is important to monitor and develop the knowledge and skills acquired by employees
Most often, it is the control function that is left to chance by managers. But it is here that the management lever is hidden, thanks to which your investments in employee training will pay off many times over. Your task is to keep your finger on the pulse and set the desired movement. For example: before conducting training within the company or sending an employee to a seminar, set tasks for him (“How will your training affect the results of the company as a whole, personally”) so that the employee does not treat training as a “freebie”. After all, what is always obtained easily and for free is most often little valued. And after training, the employee’s actions should follow, for example, the development of reporting, which allows for effective interaction between departments and saves the company’s time on more important tasks, and so on.
You have the right to demand specific constructive actions, because you have invested.

Great sales and grateful customers to you!

Hello! In this article we will talk about how to create a sales plan.

Today you will learn:

• Why is a sales plan needed?
• How to calculate and formalize it;
• How to get employees to fulfill the plan.

Why do you need a sales plan?

Do you need a sales plan for your enterprise? The answer is unequivocal - yes. And not only for those who sell specific goods, but also for workers in the service sector, it is also simply necessary.

1. For labor organization. The enterprise must function as an established mechanism, when each employee has a goal for his work and knows what he must do to achieve it. Employees must have clear ideas about what awaits them after the sales plan is met or not met.
2. To increase profits. Try moving a salesperson from a fixed salary to a minimum wage and a bonus for meeting the target, and you will see how the employee's motivation will affect the company's income.
3. For development. fades if it stands in one place. Setting a goal and achieving it is the task for a successful entrepreneur. Otherwise, he will be overtaken and crushed by more ambitious businessmen.

Types of planning

The basis of any sales plan is an understanding of the minimum and maximum quantities of goods the company must sell in order to exist.

The most important thing for beginning entrepreneurs is the minimum acceptable value; it marks the “bottom” below which it is no longer possible to function. For companies that have embarked on the path of growth and development, achieving maximum plans is more important.

There are several types of planning:

• Promising – long-term strategy for 5-10 years;
• Current – ​​developed for the year, clarifies and adjusts long-term planning indicators;
• Operational and production – tasks are divided into shorter periods (quarter, month, etc.).

Rules for creating a sales plan

The volume of possible sales depends on many factors. When creating a plan, you need to take into account all the points that are important to your area.

For example, these could be:

• Seasonality;
• Dynamics of development and trends in the market;
• Reasons for the decline in past periods;
• Changes in politics, economics and legislation;
• Changes in assortment and prices;
• Sales channels and potential buyers;
• Employees;
• Advertising.

Procedure for developing a sales plan

A complete annual plan, based on in-depth analysis, takes several months to create.

To get an adequate result and not miss anything you need to:

1. Analyze trends in politics and macroeconomics. How does the country's GDP change? What is happening to oil and gas prices and exchange rates? It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the opinions of experts and leading economic media.
2. Study the market situation. Will demand increase or decrease? Have new competitors and potential customers emerged?
3. Display sales statistics for past periods. For the year in general and for each month in particular.
4. Analyze the causes of decline and growth. This could be seasonality, changes in company policy, new assortment, personnel changes. When making a plan for the next year, be sure to rely on significant points.
5. Compile sales statistics separately for sellers and departments. It will be too optimistic to focus on the leaders, but try to bring the average value a little closer to them.
6. Form a base of regular customers. How much profit do they bring, how often and what goods do they come for? Of course, this stage does not apply to companies focused on one-time sales.
7. Set a goal. Based on the analysis done earlier, it is already possible to imagine what sales were last year, and how much they can be increased in the future. It is better to set two goals: feasible and ideal. It is the presence of the second that will remind you that you should not stop there.
8. Discuss the plan with subordinates. Set deadlines and personal instructions.
9. Make a budget. Having a clear sales plan makes it easier to calculate how much you will have to spend on purchases, advertising, and employee bonuses.

Methods for calculating the sales plan

When calculating planned sales, you can use the following methods:

1. Subjective: surveys, questionnaires, decisions based on the entrepreneur’s experience;
2. Objective: test sales, analysis of early periods, demand statistics.

There is no universal method for developing a sales plan for any company. Each enterprise chooses its own method, based on the needs and characteristics of its activities.

There are many methods, but you don't have to know them all. It is enough to select several that are suitable for a specific business and use them together.

Let's take a closer look at several basic methods used in calculating the sales plan.

Method	Advantages	Flaws	Short description
Analysis of customer expectations	Evaluation and detailed information about the product comes from potential consumers. Effective for new products	There may be errors when determining the buyer group. Dependence on the accuracy of estimates	Surveys of potential buyers are used to evaluate the product
Staff opinion	Accuracy	Low objectivity	The plan is drawn up based on the opinion of the sellers
Collective opinion of managers	Simple and fast	Collective responsibility	The assessment of managers is averaged, and if strong disagreements arise, a discussion is held
Delphi method	The most objective of subjective methods, the influence of group opinion is minimized	Long and relatively expensive	Company managers (or other employees) make each of their forecasts regarding sales volume (by product and period) and pass it on to the expert. He generates an anonymous summary and distributes it again to study participants, who study it and propose a new prediction. This continues until all disagreements are smoothed out.
Market test	Full check of consumer reaction to the product and evaluation	Openness to competitors, long and expensive	Test sales of the product are being conducted in various regions
Time series analysis	Objective and cheap	The method is difficult to implement, does not take into account the influence of marketing campaigns, and is not suitable for new products	Divided into three types: moving average, exponential smoothing, decomposition
Statistical demand analysis	An objective and understandable result allows you to identify hidden factors affecting sales	The most complex and time-consuming method	The forecast is made based on all factors affecting sales (economic indices, currency fluctuations and others)

Time series analysis

Moving average

Using the moving average method, projected sales in the future period will be equal to the sales volume for past periods of time. This does not take into account any other factors. The more periods are taken into account, the more accurate the forecast will be, which is why this method is not effective for young companies.

Example. The stationery store sold 2700 ballpoint pens in 2016, 3140 in 2015, 2900 in 2014. Forecast for 2017: (2700+3140+2900)/3=2910.

Exponential smoothing

A method for creating short-term forecasts based on the analysis of historical data. Convenient for forecasting the development of retail sales. Allows you to calculate how much goods will be needed in the next similar period (month, week).

The smoothing constant (SC) can be from 0 to 1. At an average sales level it is 0.2-0.4, and during growth (for example, holidays) - 0.7-0.9. The most appropriate value of the KS is determined empirically - the value with the smallest error over past periods is selected.

Formula:KS * Actual demand for the current period + (1-KS) * Forecast for the current period.

Example. During the month, the stationery store sold 640 notebooks against the previous forecast of 610, KS - 0.3. Forecast for the next month: 0.3*640 + (1-0.3)*610= 619.

Decomposition and seasonality factor

The decomposition consists of seasonality, trend and cyclicality. In practice, many entrepreneurs stop at using the seasonality coefficient. It is used to create a sales plan based on historical income for a business whose turnover depends on seasonality.

Step 1. Determination of seasonal dynamics. A clear digital indicator here is the seasonality coefficient.

1. Take last year's total sales and divide it by 12. This will give you the monthly average.
2. Divide the sales amount for each month of the accounting year by the average.

Example. Over the past year, the store made sales of 850,000 rubles. Of these, 44,000 in January, 50,000 in February, and so on. Average monthly value 850000/12 = 70,830 rubles. Seasonality coefficient for January: 44000/70830=0.62, for February: 50000/70830=0.71.

As a result, each month will receive its own coefficient. For reliability, it is worth calculating such coefficients for several past years and leaving their average value for further actions.

Step 2: Define your goal. For example, let's say you set a goal to increase sales by 20%. The calculation is simple: you need to add 20% to the amount of sales for the previous year.

850000+20% = 1,020,000 rub.

Step 3. Make a sales plan for the month. The general plan for the year must then be divided into smaller periods - in our example, these are months.

1. Divide the annual goal by 12 to get an average plan for the month.
2. Multiply the average plan by the seasonality factor for each month.

Example. Average monthly plan: 1,020,000/12 = 85,000 rubles. Plan for January: 85,000*0.62 = 52,700 rubles, plan for February: 85,000*0.71 = 60,350 rubles.

The result will be a sales plan for each month. If the monthly plan is met, the overall goal of increasing sales for the year will be achieved. It is much easier to monitor the implementation of the plan over short periods of time and take prompt measures than to try to catch up with the goal in the last months of the year.

Preparation of a sales plan

The sales plan as a document consists of several points.

Let's list all the main ones in order:

1. A header consisting of a title (“Department Sales Plan...”) and an indication of the author (“Compiled by...” then the position and full name of the person who compiled the plan).
2. The first point is employees and achievements. Here it is worth listing all employees of the department, indicating the need for new personnel, if any, and also mentioning key achievements over the past period.
3. The second point is the results of the past period. For clarity, you can include in the document a graph of sales growth and decline, provide total values ​​not only for the department as a whole, but also for each employee in particular, and indicate in percentage terms how much the previous plan was overfulfilled or underfulfilled.
4. The third point is a plan for the future period. The plan amount is indicated, the main planned transactions are listed, clients who are ready to enter into a contract and other points that ensure a guarantee of profit in the new period.
5. The fourth point is necessary measures. Further, we are talking about the actions that have yet to be performed to achieve the goal. These could be changes in pricing policy, promotions, updating the company’s technical base and many others.
6. Date and signatures of the managers who approved the plan.

All employees of the company should familiarize themselves with the resulting document. Only after collective discussion and approval can the plan be officially recognized as the “compass” along which the company will move in the new year, quarter or month.

Structuring the plan

A sales plan is a map for the development of any business that sells goods or services. Without this map, things run the risk of getting lost, going in circles, or even moving in the opposite direction. And the more detailed the map, the easier it is for the traveler not to go astray.

Based on the features, set goals in several directions at once:

• Regional and macro market share;
• Overall sales volume;
• Financial profit.

If possible, break down each large plan into more specific ones. For each direction, product, number of clients, and so on, depending on your business.

The larger the company, the more plans you will have to make. In addition to the general sales plan common to all employees, each branch, division, department, manager and ordinary seller should have their own goals.

Such detailed planning is necessary for every enterprise.

Structuring the plan should ideally occur across all available sections:

• Regions (where and how much will be sold);
• Sellers (who will sell and how much);
• Products (how much of what will be sold);
• Time (when and how much will be sold);
• Sales channels (to whom and how much will be sold);
• The nature of sales (how many sales are guaranteed and how many are only planned).

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1. Sales forecast instead of plan. The forecast can be part of the sales plan, but cannot in any way replace it. The forecast only describes a situation that may or may not occur in the future.

The plan contains a description of the goal that needs to be achieved and the conditions that will need to be met for this. It implies a set of specific tools with which the result will be achieved: promotions, employee training, price reductions.

Mistake 2. The plan is based only on last year's achievements. The analysis of the sales plan must take into account all important factors. It is unacceptable to discount the economic situation in the country and region, competitors, new technologies and other changes that will certainly affect sales.

Error 3.Uniting all customers into one whole. Even the smallest retail businesses have certain groups of customers. They can be united according to various criteria: those who buy the same category of product, regular customers or new customers who make random purchases at a retail outlet or find your products on the Internet. When forming a plan, you need to consider what you can offer each of the groups and what you can get in return.

Error 4. The plan does not indicate deadlines and responsible persons. In the sales plan, everything should be clear: what is the goal, when it should be accomplished, by whom and using what tools.

Mistake 5. The plan is not structured enough. Each department and seller in particular should have its own individual plan. Agree that when you don’t have your own plan, the temptation to place all the responsibility on your colleagues is too great.

Mistake 6: The plan was not discussed with the sales people. The plan will never be fully developed if it was drawn up by one manager, guided only by reports and graphs. Frontline salespeople should at a minimum have the opportunity to discuss the plan with management, and better yet, be directly involved in creating the sales plan.

Be sure that you made the plan correctly if, at the end of the period, it turned out to be 85-105% completed.

How to achieve the plan

It's one thing to make a plan for yourself. This can be done by an entrepreneur seeking to increase profits or a manager aimed at career growth.

But the situation is completely different with plans for subordinates. You should not severely punish for every failure to fulfill the sales plan and keep employees under a tight rein - this is ineffective.

It’s better to listen to the advice of experienced entrepreneurs:

1. Briefly, but as completely as possible, formulate what you want from your employees. It is better to convey this to them in writing.
2. Incentivize financially. The best employees deserve a bonus.
3. Set bonuses not only for 100% completion, but also for each passing of a certain minimum threshold (for example, 60%). The employee may not have fulfilled the plan, but it is clear that he tried.
4. Fine for systematic violations.
5. The entire vertical of employees (from an ordinary salesperson to a top manager) must be financially dependent on the implementation of plans.
6. Respect and value your employees and strive to ensure that they love their place of work and are interested in the development and prosperity of the company.

Today there is an urgent need to train sales managers, but it should be borne in mind that completing any one training is unlikely to improve the effectiveness of their work for a long time. To achieve sustainable sales growth, you need a systematic approach. Training a sales manager should be carried out in stages, in accordance with a pre-drawn plan.

Why is a systematic approach to learning necessary?

If you want to achieve serious results, then you need to approach training systematically, because:

• One training covers only sales skills.
• To implement and develop skills, a series of trainings is required.
• To develop a skill, it is important to organize a control system.
• If difficulties arise, the training program should be adjusted.
• Performance should be monitored at all stages of training.

3.3. - 1 day.

1. Practice:

4.1. Beginning of daily practice at work.

4.2. Developing your own individual “tricks”.

1. Result evaluation:

5.1. Testing the skills of a new employee.

5.2. Carrying out tests.

Also, in addition to an intensive training program, the plan can include stages of daily professional development: analyzing your own actions, watching free video trainings, reading useful literature (books, articles). Only such an integrated approach will achieve good results.