As a business owner, you must certainly know how difficult it is to lead a B2B sales team without a well-defined business strategy plan. It’s like going on a hike or a road trip without a plan. 

You may reach your destination. But along the way, you’ll be faced with endless wrong turns and missed opportunities.

Having said that, a sales strategy in business plan gives your team a clear direction. It turns big-picture goals into actionable steps.  In short, developing a sales strategy is a clear path to sales success –  and every salesperson must know how to build one.

Here, we will cover everything you need to know about creating a sales strategy. Stay connected with us and get ready to set your sales efforts for guaranteed success!

Steps To Create A Smart Sales Strategy In Business Plan

List Your Company’s Mission, Vision, And Positioning

One major goal of sales strategizing is to get everyone aligned and working towards the same objectives. That means each member of your sales team needs to understand what your company aims to accomplish. They must be able to figure out the USPs of your products/services and how your business outshines the competitors. 

So, begin building the sales strategy in business plan by listing your company’s:

✅Mission

✅ Vision

✅ Value proposition

✅ Competitor overview

Define Your Target Market

Identifying your target customer is very crucial while defining the sales strategy in business plan. We often see sales companies chasing after the wrong prospects or trying to upsell the wrong customers. 

Avoid this mistake and make your ideal customer profile. The customer profile is a detailed description of a customer who represents your target market. It focuses on factual information like:

✅Industry

✅Size of company

✅Annual revenue

✅Buying behaviors

✅Pain points

Forecast Your Sales And Set Realistic Goals

Your sales strategy in business plan should have an end goal with a number marker. Use any metrics you want – sales, customers, revenue, etc. 

Realism is essential when you determine what you want to achieve with the sales strategy. While setting goals for your team, avoid wishful thinking. Take a look at last year’s forecast and results to find out what will be realistic this year. 

Examine Your Sales And Marketing Toolkit

List the go-to resources your sales team already uses. For instance – customer relationship management (CRM), software, or task management software.

Here are some of the software tools your sales strategy in business plan must essentially use:

DATA AND LEAD PROSPECTING TOOLS

• LeadLander: Website visitor tracking
• TechCrunch: Start-up and technology news
• Seamless.ai: Contact data source
• BuiltIn: Start-up and tech directory
• SalesHacker: Sales tips, strategies, plans, and news
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Contact and company database

SALES AND MARKETING TOOLS

• Salesforce, Pipedrive: Sales forecasting, reporting, and CRM
• MailChimp, SalesLoft, CampaignMonitor: Email marketing tools
• Hunter.io, Outreach.io: Email outreach
• Olark: Customer engagement
• Marketo, Outfunnel: Marketing automation

Go Over Your Sales Prospecting

More than 50% of salespeople admit that sales prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process. 

Certainly, this will be one of the biggest roadblocks your sales team will face too. So, make sure your prospecting sales strategy in business plan is well-defined and up to date. 

Make it clear how the sales team must generate leads. For example – the sales reps may use outbound tactics like store visits and cold calling. Whereas the marketing team can use inbound marketing tools like social media posts, emails, and paid advertising.

Determine Your Sales Goals

Now, it’s time to narrow down your sales goals. A sales goal is typically anchored to revenue targets. For instance –closing 50 deals or securing 80 customers per sales rep. 

“Ambitious but achievable” – is how your company’s sales goal should be. Each target should motivate your sales team to reach or stretch for their objective. But it should also be realistic considering factors like available market, time period, team headcount, or past sales performance. 

Distill All The Above Into Your Sales Action Plan

Although every step of the sales strategy in business plan is vital, the action plan is considered the “key deliverable”. This is where you must get tactical. Drill down specific strategies you will use to turn your sales goals into reality. 

Here is an example:

Sales Goal: Close at least 50 deals during Q4

• Send 200 cold-emails per day
• Conduct 10 demos per day
• Design a referral call script
• Boost commissions on referrals by 7%

Identify Potential Partnerships

Which are the companies that can help you in executing the sales action plan? Find out which individuals or companies are targeting the same customers as you. 

Your aim should be to identify Complementary Service Providers that are not in direct competition with you. They must offer a product or service that complements yours. 

What do you have to offer these organizations, and what do they have to offer you? You may discover many ways to boost each other’s business.

Merge Your Sales And Marketing Strategies

Sales and marketing are interrelated to each other. Your marketing persons bring in high-quality leads, and your sales department converts those leads into paying customers. Make sure relationships between the two departments are seamless.

Keep Track Of Meaningful Metrics And Continue Optimizing

You may feel like you have the best sales strategy in business plan right now. But you have to continue to evaluate it to make sure it remains that way. 

One easy way to do this is to always be tracking metrics that show how well the strategy is currently working. You can create sales reports at regular intervals, and track your company’s overall expected number of lead contacts against the actual number. 

Ready To Make Your Sales Strategy A Success?

Connect with RoofTop Sales today! Our leadership programs provide you with the skills needed to build a powerful sales strategy in business plan. We align our sales training courses to your key business metrics to ensure you hit your sales goals and see measurable improvement. 

Take the next step towards your sales success now!