What goes in a sales plan: a two-page template that turns the target into weekly calls

You've got one number for the year, and this plan turns it into the calls and meetings each week needs. It fits on two pages, so people still read it after the first month.

Copy it, print it, or download the Word or Excel file. Excel does the sums.

Sales plan: [your name or team]

Year: ______ Written: ______ Next review: [day] of each month

The number

• Target for the year: ______
• Last year: ______
• Why this number: ____________

Where it comes from

• From customers you have: ______
• From referrals: ______
• From new customers you find: ______
• Total: ______ (should match the target)

The maths, worked back

• Average deal: ______
• New deals needed: __ (new customers divided by the average deal)
• Proposals per deal won: __
• Meetings per proposal: __
• Calls per meeting booked: __
• Weeks you'll sell: __ (52 minus holidays and leave)
• Calls a week: __
• Meetings a week: __
• Proposals a week: __

Who you'll sell to

• The customer who buys fastest: ____________
• Where you'll find more of them: ____________
• Why they'd pick you: ____________

The months

The first 90 days

• By [date]: ____________
• By [date]: ____________
• By [date]: ____________

What could go wrong

• Risk: ____________ What I'll do: ____________
• Risk: ____________ What I'll do: ____________

The monthly check

• The month's actual against its target, and the year so far: ______
• The step that dropped: ______ (calls to meetings, meetings to proposals or proposals to deals)
• One thing to change next month: ____________

1. Write the target and say why it's that number. "Last year plus 10%" isn't a reason. A new product range or a full year in a territory is.
2. Split it by where it comes from before you do any maths. Existing customers and referrals need looking after. New customers need calls.
3. Work back only the new customers line: divide it by your average deal, multiply by your proposals, meetings and calls per step, then divide by the weeks you'll sell.
4. Name the customer who buys fastest. A plan that says "SMEs" won't tell a rep who to call first.
5. Put the monthly check in the calendar before you close the file.

Priya Nair is a made-up account manager at an office equipment supplier, and her rates are made up too, so put in your own.

• The number: S$480,000 for the year, against S$410,000 last year, because she has a full year in the territory and a new printer range.
• Where it comes from: S$300,000 from customers she has, S$60,000 from referrals and S$120,000 from new customers.
• The maths: an average deal of S$12,000 means 10 new deals. At 3 proposals per deal, 2 meetings per proposal and 15 calls per meeting, that's 900 calls over 45 weeks.
• Each week needs: 20 calls, 2 meetings and 1 proposal.
• Who she'll sell to: dental and physio clinics with 5 to 20 staff, found through customers' referrals and their trade association, who pick her for next-day repairs.
• What could go wrong: Harbour Dental, worth S$60,000 last year, reviews its suppliers in June, so she books their review for April.

The check at the end of August: S$305,000 against S$320,000, so she's S$15,000 behind. August had 5 meetings and 1 proposal, so meetings to proposals is the step that dropped. Next month's change is a proposal within two days of every meeting.

Here are the sums. S$300,000 + S$60,000 + S$120,000 = S$480,000. S$120,000 / S$12,000 = 10 deals, x 3 = 30 proposals, x 2 = 60 meetings, x 15 = 900 calls, / 45 weeks = 20 calls a week. 60 meetings / 45 is 1.3, and 30 proposals / 45 is 0.7, so each rounds up.

Write one plan for the team's number, then divide the calls, meetings and proposals a week by the number of reps. Two reps on Priya's plan would each need 10 calls a week.

If your reps sell very different things, give each one their own plan and add the targets up to the team's number. Give each rep their own months table either way, so a slow month has a name on it.

Fill in last month's row, then read these three things:

• The month's actual against its target, and the year so far.
• Which step dropped: calls to meetings, meetings to proposals or proposals to deals.
• If you're behind, the new calls a week: what's left to find, worked back over the weeks left.

Change one thing for the next month. Check your rates each quarter, and change the year's number only if the business changes.

The plan holds the number. Palby Sales Tracker counts the weekly work underneath it. It doesn't hold revenue or the months table, so keep those here.

Reps log a call, a meeting or a close with a tap on their phone, and the board shows each rep's counts. Rename the nine starting tiles to your team's words and change their points. Each rep can have a weekly points goal, and their target stays between them and their manager.

Needs you today lists anyone with no entry for 3 days, then whoever is furthest behind their weekly goal. See how goals and targets work.