THE BEST SALES PLAN TEMPLATE WILL ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

When I conduct a sales seminar or sales workshop, I introduce a sales plan template to the salespeople.  How do you recognize an effective sales plan template from a sales plan template that is just so much busy paperwork?  Simple.  An effective sales plan template asks questions that reinforce a proven sales process for the sales campaign being waged.

It took years for me to refine the sales plan template that will be part of your sales processif you enroll in one of my sales seminars.  My sales plan template starts where it should: at the very beginning of the sales process.  The first question is about resources that must be available or in hand for the duration of the sales campaign.  The resources the questions ask are vital for winning.  If you have them, great: move on to the next question.  If you don’t and you are not going to have them, don’t go further.  That is what an effective sales plan template should be designed to do.  Too, your sales plan template should mirror precisely the sales process to which you and your organization are committed.  Closing the Whales, defines the sales process for closing very large opportunities that involve enterprise saviness, corporate silo experience and organizational politics.  The effective sales plan template will probe those critical elements of complex sales campaign management.

Complex sales campaign management is about enterprise selling, understanding the politics of enterprise decision-making.  An effective sales plan template will guide you through that maze.  For example, beginning at the top of the organization, my sales plan template asks a simple question to which you must respond:  “List the CEO’s accomplishments in this job and his or her vision.”  As you can see, your sales plan template just forced you to research the last few years of history so that you are thoroughly acquainted with the CEO’s proud moments.  And you know what is important: you can bet that every one of the CEO’s direct reports and key staff members can recite those accomplishments chapter and verse.  If they can, you must be able to as well.  You can bet those same direct reports and key staff members can clearly articulate their CEO’s vision.  And, again, if they can, you must be able to do so as well.  An effective sales plan template forces a salesperson onto the right path.  Similar questions are asked of the CFO through the sales plan template.  In the case of the CFO, the sales plan template requires this insight: Summarize the CFO’s forecasting track record to the financial analysts.  I can assure you that everyone within the Finance Department Silo can answer that question in spades!  If so, you must be able to do so as well!

Read my book, and you will be able to predict the likely questions of the sales plan template I developed for guiding hungry salespeople through the maze of big opportunity sales campaign management.

Use the right sales plan template. Get your copy of Closing the Whales today!