sales travel plan

And if (or more likely when ) those goals change over time, you need to regularly communicate those shifts and the strategic adjustments that come with them to your team.

Your sales strategy keeps your sales process productive — it offers the actionable steps your reps can take to deliver on your vision and realize the goals you set. So naturally, you need to communicate it effectively. A sales plan offers a solid resource for that.

For instance, your sales org might notice that your SDRs are posting lackluster cold call conversion rates. In turn, you might want to have them focus primarily on email outreach, or you could experiment with new sales messaging on calls.

Regardless of how you want to approach the situation, a thoughtfully structured sales plan will give both you and your reps a high-level perspective that would inform more cohesive, effective efforts across the team.

An effective sales org is a machine — one where each part has a specific function that serves a specific purpose that needs to be executed in a specific fashion. That's why everyone who comprises that org needs to have a clear understanding of how they specifically play into the company's broader sales strategy.

Outlining roles and responsibilities while sales planning lends itself to more efficient task delegation, improved collaboration, overlap reduction, and increased accountability. All of which amount to more streamlined, smooth, successful sales efforts.

Sales planning can set the framework for gauging how well your team is delivering on your sales strategy. It can inform the benchmarks and milestones reps can use to see how their performance stacks up against your goals and expectations.

It also gives sales leadership a holistic view of how well a sales org is functioning as a whole — giving them the necessary perspective to understand whether they have the right people and tools in place to be as successful as possible.

Sales planning isn‘t (and shouldn’t) be limited to the actual sales plan document it produces. If that document is going to have any substance or practical value, it needs to be the byproduct of a thorough, well-informed, high-level strategy.

When sales planning, you have some key steps you need to cover — including:

• Gather sales data and search for trends.
• Define your objectives.
• Determine metrics for success.
• Assess the current situation.
• Start sales forecasting.
• Identify gaps.
• Ideate new initiatives.
• Involve stakeholders.
• Outline action items.

When putting this list together, I consulted  Zach Drollinger — Senior Director of Sales at edtech provider Coursedog — to ensure the examples detailed below are sound and accurate.

Step 1: Gather sales data and search for trends.

To plan for the present and future, your company needs to look to the past. What did sales look like during the previous year? What about the last five years? Using this information can help you identify trends in your industry. While it's not foolproof, it helps establish a foundation for your sales planning process.

For the sake of example, let‘s say that I’m a new sales director for an edtech company that sells curriculum planning software to higher education institutions. My vertical is community colleges, and my territory is the East Coast.

Once I assume this new role, I‘m going to want to gather as much context as possible about my vertical and how my company has approached it historically. I would pull information about how we’ve sold to this vertical.

How much new business have we closed within it in the past five years? How does that compare to how we perform with other kinds of institutions? Are we seeing significant churn from these customers?

I would also want to get context about the general needs, interests, and pain points of the kinds of institutions I‘m selling to. I’d look for insight into figures like degree velocity, staff retention, and enrollment.

Ultimately, I would get a comprehensive perspective on my sales process — a thorough understanding of where I stand and what my prospects are dealing with. That will ensure that I can deliver on the next step as effectively as possible.

Step 2: Define your objectives.

How do you know your business is doing well if you have no goals? As you can tell from its placement on this list, defining your goals and objectives is one of the first steps you should take in your sales planning process. Once you have them defined, you can move forward with executing them.

To extend the example from the previous step, I would leverage the context I gathered through the research I conducted about both my and my prospect's circumstances. I would start setting both broader goals and more granular operational objectives .

For instance, I might want to set a goal of increasing sales revenue from my vertical. From there, I would start putting together the kind of specific objectives that will facilitate that process — like connecting with administrators from at least 30 community colleges, booking demos with at least 10 schools, and successfully closing at least five institutions.

Obviously, those steps represent a streamlined (and unrealistically straightforward) sales process, but you get the idea — I would set a concrete goal, supplemented by SMART objectives , that will serve as a solid reference point for my org's efforts as the sales process progresses.

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Step 3: Determine metrics for success.

Every business is different. One thing we can all agree on is that you need metrics for success. These metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs). What are you going to use to determine if your business is successful? KPIs differ based on your medium, but standard metrics are gross profit margins, return on investment (ROI), daily web traffic users, conversion rate, and more.

I kind of covered this step in the previous example, but it still warrants a bit more elaboration. The “M” in SMART goals (“measurable”) is there for a reason. You can‘t tell if your efforts were successful if you don’t know what “successful” actually means.

The edtech sales example I‘ve been running with revolves mostly around me assuming ownership of an existing vertical and getting more out of it. So it’s fair to assume that sales growth rate — the increase or decrease of sales revenue in a given period, typically expressed as a percentage — would be an effective way to gauge success.

I might want to structure my goals and objectives around a sales growth rate of 20% Y/Y within my vertical. I would make sure my org was familiar with that figure and offer some context about what it would take to reach it — namely, how many institutions we would need to close and retain.

Step 4: Assess the current situation.

How is your business fairing right now? This information is relevant to determining how your current situation holds up to the goals and objectives you set during step two. What are your roadblocks? What are your strengths? Create a list of the obstacles hindering your success. Identify the assets you can use as an advantage. These factors will guide you as you build your sales plan.

Continuing the edtech example, I would use the historical context I gathered and the objectives I set to frame how I look at my current circumstances. I might start by considering my goal of increasing revenue by 20% Y/Y. In that case, I would look at the company's retention figures — ideally, that would give me a sense of whether that needs to be a major area of focus.

I would also try to pin down trends in the colleges that we've already closed — are there any pain points we consistently sell on? I might take a closer look at how we demo to see if we might be glossing over key elements of our value proposition. Maybe, I would use conversation intelligence to get a better sense of how reps are handling their calls.

Ultimately, I would try to identify why we're performing the way we are, the inefficiencies that might be resulting from our current strategy, and how we can best set ourselves up to sell as effectively as possible.

Step 5: Start sales forecasting.

Sales forecasting is an in-depth report that predicts what a salesperson, team, or company will sell weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. While it is finicky, it can help your company make better decisions when hiring, budgeting, prospecting, and setting goals.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, economics has become less predictable. Claire Fenton , the owner of StrActGro — a professional training and coaching company — states, “Many economic forecasters won't predict beyond three months at a time.” This makes sales forecasting difficult. However, there are tools at your disposal to create accurate sales forecasts .

In our edtech example, I would approach this step by trying to estimate how my sales org is going to fare with the specific vertical we‘re pursuing in the time window we’ve allotted.

The method I decide to go with will depend on factors like how many concrete opportunities we have lined up — in addition to elements like the kind of historical data we have handy, how the reps working these deals tend to perform, and the degree of insight we have about our potential customers.

Let's say I consider those factors and decide to run something called a multivariable analysis. In that case, I could start by taking stock of the opportunities my reps have lined up. Then, I could look at the reps working those deals, their typical win rates, and the time they have to close — among other factors.

For instance, I might calculate that a rep working with a particularly large institution has a 50% chance of closing within the window we‘ve allotted. Using that insight, we could attribute 50% of the potential deal size to our forecast — we’d repeat that process with all of the opportunities in question and ideally get a solid sense of the revenue we can expect to generate in this window.

Step 6: Identify gaps.

When identifying gaps in your business, consider what your company needs now and what you might need in the future. First, identify the skills you feel your employees need to reach your goal. Second, evaluate the skills of your current employees. Once you have this information, you can train employees or hire new ones to fill the gaps.

Continuing the edtech example, let‘s say my forecast turned up results that weren’t in keeping with what we need to reach our goals. If that were the case, I would take a holistic look at our process, operations, and resources to pin down inefficiencies or areas for improvement.

In my search, I find that our sales content and marketing collateral are dated — with case studies that don‘t cover our product’s newest and most relevant features. I also might see that our reps don‘t seem to have too much trouble booking demos, but the demos themselves aren’t converting due to a lack of training and inconsistent messaging.

And finally, I find that a lack of alignment with marketing has prospects focusing on unrealistic outcomes our sales team can‘t deliver on. Once I’ve identified those gaps, I would start to hone in on ways to remedy those issues and improve those elements.

Step 7: Ideate new initiatives.

Many industry trends are cyclical. They phase in and out of “style.” As you build your sales plan, ideate new initiatives based on opportunities you may have passed on in previous years.

If your business exclusively focused on word-of-mouth and social media marketing in the past, consider adding webinars or special promotions to your plan.

In the edtech example we've been running with, I would likely ideate initiatives based on the gaps I identified in the previous step. I would start a push to ensure that our sales content and marketing collateral are up-to-date and impressive.

I would also consider new training programs to ensure that our coaching infrastructure is prioritizing how to conduct effective demos. Finally, I would start to work on a plan with marketing to ensure our messaging is aligned with theirs — so we can make sure prospects' expectations are realistic and effective.

One way or another, I would take the gaps I found and find concrete, actionable ways to fill them. I would make sure that these initiatives aren't abstract. Just saying, " We're going to be better at demos," isn‘t a plan — it’s a sentiment, and sentiments don't translate to hard sales.

Step 8: Involve stakeholders.

Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations with a vested interest in your company. They are typically investors, employees, or customers and often have deciding power in your business. Towards the end of your sales planning process, involve stakeholders from departments that affect your outcomes, such as marketing and product. It leads to an efficient and actionable sales planning process.

This step is sort of an extension of the previous two — once I‘ve identified the key issues and roadblocks obstructing my edtech startup’s sales org, I would start identifying the right people to fulfill the necessary initiatives I've put together.

In this example, I would tap some stakeholders in charge of our sales content and marketing collateral to produce newer, more relevant case studies and whitepapers we can pass along to the institutions we're working with.

I would also go to middle management and either offer more direction for coaching on demos or bring in a third-party training service to offer more focused, professional insight on the issue.

Finally, I would connect with marketing leadership to align on the benefits and outcomes we generally stress when pitching the schools we sell to. That way, we can ensure that the institutions we're connecting with have realistic expectations of our product or service that we can speak to more clearly and effectively.

Step 9: Outline action items.

Once you have implemented this strategy to create your sales planning process, the final step is outlining your action items. Using your company's capacity and quota numbers, build a list of steps that take you through the sales process. Examples of action items are writing a sales call script, identifying industry competitors, or strategizing new incentives or perks.

In our edtech example, some key action items might be:

• Revamp our prospecting strategy via more involved coaching and re-tooled sales messaging.
• Revamp administrator and college dean buyer personas.
• Conduct new trainings on demoing our software.
• See our new prospecting strategy from ideation to execution.
• Align with our sales enablement stakeholders for new, more relevant case studies and whitepapers.

Obviously, that list isn‘t exhaustive — but those are still the kinds of steps we would need to clarify and take to structure a more effective high-level strategy to produce different (ideally much better) results than we’ve been seeing.

One thing to keep in mind is that sales planning shouldn't end with creating the document.

You‘ll want to reiterate this process every year to maintain your organization's sales excellence.

Now that you‘re committed to the sales planning process, let's dive into the written execution component of sales planning.

Featured Resource: Sales Plan Template

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Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

Powerful and easy-to-use sales software that drives productivity, enables customer connection, and supports growing sales orgs

The Definitive Guide to Sales Route Planning

• Last Updated: May 16, 2024

• Sales route planning is the art of designing effective routes for field sales representatives to visit clients and potential consumers.
• Technology and automation, such as importing addresses and optimizing routes, can streamline the sales route planning process.
• Sales route optimization boosts productivity, reduces expenses, improves customer satisfaction, and provides a complete overview of field activities.
• Integrating robust sales route mapping software is crucial for efficient planning, considering factors like customer locations, traffic patterns, and market conditions.

Have you ever felt lost trying to organize your sales routes? Well, you’re not alone. 

With millions of salespeople navigating their routes across the United States, efficient route planning is essential. But don’t worry! 

This definitive guide is a one-stop shop for optimizing your sales routes. Whether you’re an experienced sales guru or just starting, we are here to help. You will find everything you need to know about planning sales routes here.

You’ll have everything taken care of, from choosing the right tools to using data to boost your sales. So, get ready to change the way you approach sales routes!

Table of Contents

What is Sales Route Planning?

Importance of optimizing sales route, how to optimize sales routes, top sales route planners of 2024, benefits of sales route planning, boost your field sales performance with smart routing.

Sales route planning creates optimized routes for field sales representatives to visit and connect with potential customers and existing clients efficiently. It prioritizes prospects with high sales potential or business significance by finding the best way for the sales team to travel from one customer to another.

With modern technology, sales managers can quickly create the most efficient sales routes by minimizing travel time and distance. Field sales managers rely on sales route planners to analyze customer data, plan optimal routes, and schedule their sales teams effectively.

The primary goal of sales route planning is to minimize sales reps’ travel time, considering factors like market dynamics, competitor behavior, and customer engagement.

Simplify Your Sales Routes

Streamline sales route planning with automated tools to enhance efficiency and effortlessly reduce travel time.

Optimizing sales routes can significantly impact your sales performance. Here’s why it matters:

• Strategic route planning helps sales reps effectively contact more prospects in less time, significantly increasing sales figures while increasing productivity.
• Effective route planning ensures resources are used efficiently, boosting profitability by reducing needless travel time and fuel expenses.
• By guaranteeing timely and personalized service, objective route planning promotes stronger connections and client loyalty through meaningful interactions.
• Effective route planning offers thorough insights into sales processes, enabling businesses to identify improvement areas and make well-informed decisions to boost overall performance.
• Real-time feedback from field sales reps helps identify areas for improvement, ensuring continuous refinement and optimization of sales strategies that improve effectiveness.

Therefore, optimizing sales routes isn’t just about efficiency; it’s a way to increase productivity, save money, make clients happier, and manage the field sales team effectively.

To optimize your sales routes effectively, start with technology tailored to the task. Here’s how you can maximize your route optimization :

1. Integrate sales route mapping software

Choose software that automatically optimizes routes based on priorities and integrates easily with your sales data. This guarantees that your time on the road is used effectively and helps identify new opportunities. By automating route planning , you can concentrate on client interactions and closing deals rather than getting stuck in logistical details.

2. Map customer locations

Utilize technology to map out high-priority accounts, revealing patterns like customer clusters and competitor hotspots. This insight helps facilitate prioritization and route modification. Arranging your trips strategically according to your customers’ locations is one effective way to save travel time and increase in-person encounters with important prospects.

3. Plan for flexibility

Plan for schedule changes and allow for flexibility while creating your route. Intelligent routing software can adjust to unforeseen cancellations and give more time to important customers. You can make sure that no chances are lost and that your schedule is optimized under dynamic circumstances by planning for last-minute changes. 

4. Consider traffic patterns and market conditions

Monitor market trends and traffic circumstances, and modify your routes in response to shifting client demands and demand forecasts . Utilize tools to determine the best routes in different scenarios. You may modify your routes to reduce delays and increase efficiency by accounting for external variables like traffic and market trends.

5. Record notes in CRM

To keep records up to date and identify trends for next route planning, take notes following each contact and enter them into your CRM. Keep thorough records of all your contacts with clients so you can monitor your progress, spot areas for improvement, and ensure a seamless handover between team members.

By focusing on these key steps and utilizing technology, you can optimize your sales routes for maximum efficiency and customer satisfaction.

While Upper is primarily known for its delivery route optimization capabilities, its powerful features make it a great option for sales teams trying to create effective multi-stop routes. 

Similar to delivery drivers, sales representatives may need to visit several client sites in one day. With Upper, you can easily import up to 500 customer addresses and let the software create an optimized route. Your reps will no longer have to waste time manually planning their days.

Upper stands out for its advanced routing algorithms, which take into account real-world constraints such as rep availability, time windows, travel distances, and traffic conditions. These algorithms guarantee that your representatives remain on track and make the most of their day.

Upper’s live tracking and route monitoring features are yet another important benefit. You can track your representatives’ specific locations in real time, so there’s never any doubt as to whether they truly visited a customer location. Upper continues to record its position data every 10 seconds, even if it is offline, providing full route visibility.

Key features

• Create unlimited routes: Upper allows you to create unlimited routes, giving you the flexibility to accommodate different schedules and locations.
• Import spreadsheet: This tool allows you to import numerous addresses directly from spreadsheets in XLS or CSV formats to save time and effort and speed up route planning.
• One-click dispatch: Unlike Google Maps, this facilitates sending your optimized routes to multiple drivers in one go via email, text, or directly to the driver’s app. 
• GPS tracking: It provides improved operational control and proactive problem-solving by providing real-time route progress tracking via live locations.
• Customer notifications: Keep your customers informed through automated notifications with real-time ETAs to prevent transparency issues and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Proof of delivery (POD): This enables you to capture your customers’ digital signatures, photos of delivered items, and notes for delivery confirmation.
• Actionable reports and analytics: Provide insights into the total number of stops delivered or missed per driver to facilitate focused improvements.
• API integration : Upper’s open API interface makes it easy to integrate multi-stop route planning into your current business systems.

Maximize Your Sales Time

Take control of your day with Upper's automated route optimization software, spending less time planning routes and more time selling effortlessly.

RepMove emerged from the challenges faced by its founder, Dillon Baird, as a field sales representative. Since he couldn’t find a suitable organizing tool, he created RepMove to suit his unique requirements.

RepMove is leading the way in industry innovation today, giving field sales representatives an effective tool to grow, organize, and perform well in their jobs. With its intuitive UI and customized features, RepMove is transforming the way sales-driven businesses run, enabling reps to maximize their routes, manage their processes, and succeed while on the road.

• Route optimization: RepMove helps users create effective travel routes between client locations to save trip time and increase productivity.
• Customer management:  To ensure individualized interactions, users may simply collect and maintain client information, such as contact data, visit history, and notes.
• Calendar integration:  RepMove easily connects with users’ calendars, enabling them to make appointments and synchronize them with their current schedules.
• Real-time updates: By receiving real-time alerts on traffic, route modifications, and appointment updates, users may swiftly adjust to unforeseen circumstances while driving.
• Performance tracking: It offers analytics and reporting capabilities for monitoring sales success, encompassing measures like revenue produced, client visits, and sales conversions.

3. Badger Maps

Badger Maps prove to be a valuable tool for field sales teams in terms of optimizing sales routes. Reps may quickly create their areas and mark the locations of customers using the ‘Lasso’ tool, which makes it easy to use. This eliminates the need for complex mapping.

Badger’s versatility across several navigation platforms is what makes it stand out. Depending on which app your team chooses, Badger interfaces easily with Waze, Google Maps, Garmin, or Magellan. Even with more than 100 client accounts loaded, the software maintains efficient and seamless routing.

Of course, no solution is perfect. Slow loading times and the inability to take notes on client updates were among the areas where our testing uncovered room for improvement. However, Badger Maps appears to be a perfect copilot for modern sales teams looking to maximize their time on the road.

• Targeted focus: To maximize your deals, you may use this tool to color your points and filter your possibilities according to predefined upselling or cross-selling criteria.
• Follow-up route planning: This makes it possible to check in for scheduled appointments, create follow-up appointments, and plan routes to accommodate them on additional travel.
• Stats and mileage tracking: This allows you to obtain information on their routes’ distance, travel time, and total duration. This feature helps you understand the performance and overall efficiency of sales routes.
• Detailed reports: They give you important information, such as check-in pictures, services rendered, and surveys, to help you plan your next trip more quickly.

Overall, these tools empower field sales representatives to optimize their routes, streamline their workflow, and drive success in their sales endeavors.

Planning a route involves more than just traveling from one place to another. It’s about optimizing your sales potential while revolutionizing your operation and saving time and money.

• Optimized time management: Strategic sales route planning ensures maximum client interaction, allowing you to focus on establishing connections and closing deals.
• Increased productivity: Efficient routes mean more time with customers, improving relationships and sales, and empowering your team to work better.
• Cost efficiency: Using optimized routes can help you save a lot of money over time by reducing fuel use, vehicle wear and tear, and needless miles.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction: Timely and reliable visits show your dedication to putting customers’ needs first and respecting their time, which fosters confidence and loyalty.
• Improved sales performance: Sales route planning focuses on key areas and leads, increasing conversion rates and revenue through strategic territory management, resulting in tangible sales and profitability growth.

Hence, sales route planning is a game-changer for businesses hoping to succeed, offering advantages ranging from time and cost savings to enhanced client connections and sales success.

Instantly Plan Most-efficient Sales Routes on Upper

Say goodbye to the old ways of route planning by taking benefit of Upper’s automated process. Start generating multi-stop routes now.

Sales routes can be planned manually by determining the distance between locations and scheduling visits accordingly. However, integrating sales strategy into this process is much easier when you use intelligent route planning software.

Some of the common challenges in effective sales routing include assigning tasks to an efficient sales representative, comprehensive sales targets, adhering to time restrictions, and, last but not least, adjusting routes in real-time.

The average salary for a sales representative in the United States is $76,425 per year, including a $10,900 commission per year. Additional opportunities for sales reps to earn may include commissions, cash bonuses, tips, and profit sharing.

Field salespeople must have strong communication and organizational skills. Building strong relationships with your customers is important because you need to convince them that you are the right person to sell your product to. Moreover, the salesperson should have a core knowledge of their product or service.

Considering features for route planning software depends on your business needs. Features like capacity, priority, and geography-based route mapping, real-time updates, report management, and automatic logging are essential for any sales route planning software.

Route planning is important for everyone associated with sales and marketing. When it comes to sales route planning, choosing intelligent routing software can make your life easier. The right sales route planning software allows field sales teams to operate efficiently. Reducing manual work also makes sales reps more productive, customers happier, and profits increase.

The next time you need an optimized route, you can switch to Upper. In addition to route planning, this software also offers route optimization, route planning, one-click dispatch, and proof of delivery. The stressful hours of route planning are also eliminated, so you can focus more on running and growing your business.

Rakesh Patel, author of two defining books on reverse geotagging, is a trusted authority in routing and logistics. His innovative solutions at Upper Route Planner have simplified logistics for businesses across the board. A thought leader in the field, Rakesh's insights are shaping the future of modern-day logistics, making him your go-to expert for all things route optimization. Read more.

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Sales | How To

How to Create a Sales Plan in 10 Steps (+ Free Template)

Published March 9, 2023

Published Mar 9, 2023

REVIEWED BY: Jess Pingrey

WRITTEN BY: Jillian Ilao

This article is part of a larger series on Sales Management .

• 1 Establish Your Mission Statement
• 2 Set Sales Goals & Objectives
• 3 Determine Your Ideal Customer
• 4 Set Your Sales Budget
• 5 Develop Sales Strategies & Tactics
• 6 Implement Sales Tools
• 7 Develop Your Sales Funnel
• 8 Create Your Sales Pipeline
• 9 Assign Roles & Responsibilities
• 10 Monitor Progress & Adjust Accordingly
• 11 Examples of Other Free Small Business Sales Plan Templates
• 12 Sales Planning Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• 13 Bottom Line

Sales plans enable businesses to set measurable goals, identify resources, budget for sales activities, forecast sales, and monitor business progress. These all contribute to guiding the sales team toward the company’s overall strategy and goals. In this article, we explore how to create a sales plan, including details on creating an action plan for sales, understanding the purpose of your business, and identifying your ideal customers.

What Is a Sales Plan? A sales plan outlines the strategies, objectives, tools, processes, and metrics to hit your business’ sales goals. It entails establishing your mission statement, setting goals and objectives, determining your ideal customer, and developing your sales strategy and sales funnel. To effectively execute your sales plan, assign roles and responsibilities within your sales team and have metrics to measure your outcomes versus your goals and objectives.

Ten steps to creating an effective sales plan

Download and customize our free sales planning template and follow our steps to learn how to create a sales plan to reach your company’s revenue goals.

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💡 Quick Tip:

Once you’ve created a sales plan, give your sales team the tools to execute it effectively with robust customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Use a CRM like HubSpot CRM to help your sales team collaborate on deals, develop sales reports, track deals, and create custom sales dashboards

1. Establish Your Mission Statement

A mission statement summarizing why you’re in business should be part of your action plan for sales. It should include a broad overview of your business’ products or services and your brand’s unique selling proposition. For example, you wouldn’t say, “We provide customers with insurance policies.” Instead, you might frame it as “We provide customers with cost-effective financial risk management solutions.”

It’s essential to fully understand your unique selling proposition before creating a mission statement. This allows you to learn why you’re different from competitors in your industry. It also helps you determine how your unique proposition suits a niche market better.

Steps on how to create a unique selling proposition

For instance, using the same insurance example above, you may realize specific markets are easier to sell based on that selling proposition. Therefore, it’s a good idea to narrow in on your mission statement by saying, “We provide startup businesses with cost-effective risk management solutions.”

2. Set Sales Goals & Objectives

Once you have summarized why you’re in business in a mission statement, begin setting sales goals . Typically, business goals will include one year, but may also include three- or five-year projections.

Steps on how to set sales goals

Here are a few options for how to set sales revenue goals for your business:

• Set sales amount: You may have a specific amount in mind for a sales goal. For instance, you may determine that $200,000 is a reasonable sales goal based on prior sales and your company’s ability to generate new business.
• Desired profitability: First, calculate the total anticipated expenses for the set time period to find the break-even point. From there, you can calculate how much revenue your team needs to bring in to make a certain profit margin. For example, if annual operating costs are expected to be $100,000, and you want to make a 30% profit, your sales goal is $130,000.
• Projected sales forecast: Based on an industry-standard or estimates you attained by running a sales forecast, you may find it’s better to use a projected sales forecast as your sales goal.

Pro tip: Projecting sales can be challenging without a suitable sales forecasting model. Our free sales forecast templates help you create simple, long-term, budget-based, multi-product, subscription-based, and month-to-month business sales forecasts. Some customer relationship managers (CRMs) like Freshsales have sales goal-tracking functionalities that allow you to set and assign sales goals for your team.

Five-year sales forecast template example (Source: Fit Small Business )

Sales goal tracking in Freshsales (Source: Freshsales )

Sales goals must reflect new business revenue and sales from existing or recurring customers. Then, you must add specific sales objectives that identify and prioritize the sales activities your team needs to complete to meet sales goals. This creates an objective way to measure success in hitting goals at all levels: organizational, sales department, team, and individual sales rep, which is an essential part of sales management .

For example, imagine your total revenue goal is $200,000 in year two and $300,000 in year three. You then add an objective, such as stating you want your business’ revenue from existing customers to grow 15% in year three. This can be measured by evaluating your percentage of revenue from existing customers in year three compared to year two.

3. Determine Your Ideal Customer

Determining the ideal customer or target market is the next step of your business plan for sales reps. It may have been accomplished when you developed your mission statement, but also when you set your sales goals and discovered how broad your market needs to be to reach them. Describing your ideal customer helps dictate who you’re selling to and your selling approach.

One way to establish your ideal customer is by creating a series of unique customer profiles . Each profile specifies key demographics, behaviors, interests, job positions, and geographic information about one of your ideal buyer types. Based on your customer profiles, you can then develop more targeted marketing strategies for lead generation and nurturing to move leads through the sales process more efficiently and close more deals.

Pro tip: Making a customer persona can be challenging, especially if it is based on the wrong data or if you just focus on the demographics. Check out our article on creating a customer persona to help you define your company’s ideal buyer types and guide your lead generation and marketing activities.

4. Set Your Sales Budget

After establishing your objectives and identifying your ideal customer personas—and before developing your actual strategies and tactics—you must identify a sales budget to work with. It should include estimated expenses for salaries, travel expenses, and the cost of any software tools or service providers used to help with sales and marketing. While these are meant to be estimates, research and due diligence should be done to avoid financial errors.

One way to set your sales budget, particularly for software tools and services you may be interested in, is to create and issue a request for proposal (RFP). Issuing an RFP allows you to post a summary of your needs to solicit proposals on potential solutions. In addition to providing accurate budget estimates from various qualified vendors and contractors, it may also help you discover cost-effective or high-performing options you were previously unaware of.

5. Develop Sales Strategies & Tactics

A sales strategy explains how you plan to outsell your competitors and accomplish your sales goals. It defines specific, detailed tactics your team will use to pursue your sales goals. These may involve using Google Ads, cold calling, and drip email marketing campaigns as part of a lead generation strategy. Available strategies differ depending on your company’s resources, skill sets, sales operation, and product or service offerings.

Strategies and tactics should be personalized for your ideal customers based on their unique interests, behaviors, and the best ways to connect with them. For example, some customer profiles show your ideal buyer generally only makes purchases based on trusted referrals. In this case, you could implement a referral strategy that provides incentives to generate more customer referrals .

Plus, different sales strategies will be needed to acquire new business vs keeping existing customers. When selling to existing customers, for example, your strategy could include cross-selling tactics where additional products are recommended based on prior purchases. The short-term cross-selling tactics could require customer service reps to send 30 emails per week recommending a complementary product to existing customers.

For a new business strategy, sales reps might rely on emotional selling methods when using cold calling as a tactic. Instead of product features, cold calling scripts would be geared to evoke feelings that lead to buying decisions. Tactics could reflect the objective of having reps make 15 cold calls each week. They could use a script that opens with a story about how a purchase made a customer feel or how someone felt because they didn’t purchase the product.

Pro tip: Ensuring your strategies are properly executed requires excellent sales leadership and a healthy environment for sales reps to operate in. Our how-to guide for building a positive sales culture shows you how to create an environment that promotes high job satisfaction, low employee turnover, and profitability.

6. Implement Sales Tools

Your sales strategy template should reference the software, hardware, and materials you use to manage the sales operation and make each team member more efficient. One of the most notable tools to include is the customer relationship management (CRM) system . It allows your team to organize contact information, streamline sales tasks, and facilitate communication with customers and leads.

HubSpot CRM , for instance, makes it easy to organize information about leads, contacts, and deal opportunities. Additionally, from a HubSpot CRM lead profile, you can initiate a conversation with that contact by calling, emailing, or scheduling an appointment.

HubSpot CRM contact profile (Source: HubSpot )

CRMs are also used to monitor and report sales progress. For example, many have dashboards and functionality, such as alerts, which make it easy to identify where your team may be underperforming. These could also tell you which leads are most likely to convert and should be focused on. Sales information such as deals closed, revenue generated, and leads created can be presented in a detailed report .

These types of insights can also be shown on the CRM’s system dashboard . Pipedrive is an example of a CRM that has a customizable dashboard that displays both activity information and performance-based data. Activity data include emails sent, received, and outstanding tasks to be completed. Performance-based data, on the other hand, have deals lost or the average value of won deals.

Pipedrive’s customizable dashboard (Source: Pipedrive )

Other sales enablement tools can make your sales team more effective. These include voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone systems , lead generation platforms, email campaign tools, content creation platforms, and task automation software. These tools can be found within CRM software or through CRM integrations and standalone applications.

In addition to technology tools, sales and marketing templates should be used to streamline outreach initiatives. Scenario-based, premade sales email templates , for instance, allow salespeople to have an email already crafted for their specific situation.

Creating and storing business proposal templates in your CRM also streamlines the contact procurement and business proposal generation process . This way, whenever a prospect says they’d like to receive a quote or you’re responding to a request for a proposal, you already have a customizable template ready to go.

Pro tip: Effective cold calling scripts sales reps can use as a guide when placing calls to new leads is a tremendous sales tool to include in your action plan for sales. Get started using our guide for writing a cold calling script , which includes examples and free templates.

7. Develop Your Sales Funnel

Setting up a sales funnel within your sales strategy template lets you visualize the stages of the customer journey, from becoming aware of your business to buying from it. By creating and understanding the different statuses of your leads, you can track progress and determine how effective you are at converting leads to the next stages in the funnel.

Using a sales funnel with conversion rates also makes it easier for you to adjust your sales strategies and tactics based on how effectively you’re getting leads through the funnel. For instance, let’s say you have 100 leads in the awareness stage of the funnel. You decide to cold call 50 of them and write a sales email to the other 50 to qualify leads by setting up a product demonstration.

After each campaign, you find you were able to qualify seven of the leads that were cold-called and only two of the leads you had emailed. Based on these funnel conversion rates of 14% (7/50) from cold calling and 4% (2/50) from emailing, you would likely adjust your tactics to focus more on calling instead of emailing.

Do you need help creating a sales funnel for your business? Our guide to creating a sales funnel explains the step-by-step sales funnel creation process and provides free templates and specific examples.

8. Create Your Sales Pipeline

Once your sales process’ sales funnel stages are identified, develop the sales pipeline stages . These stages include your team’s sales activities to move leads through the funnel. For example, you need to get a lead from the sales funnel stage of brand awareness to show interest in learning more about one of your services. To do this, you could add a sales pipeline activity like setting up a demo or presentation appointment through a cold call.

Adding your sales pipeline to your sales strategy is essential because it describes all the activities your sales reps need to do to close a sales deal. CRM systems like Freshsales allow you to create and track the pipeline stages for each lead or deal within the lead record.

Funnel view of Freshsales’ deal pipeline (Source: Freshsales )

Listing each pipeline stage also helps you identify tools and resources needed to perform the activities for each stage. For example, if you use phone calls to initiate contact with or introduce a product to a lead, you could develop outbound sales call scripts for your team.

After the initial contact by phone, you may use email to follow up after a call and then nurture leads throughout the sales process. As part of your follow-up, create and automate a sales follow-up email template to get them to the next pipeline stage.

The sales funnel shows where a lead is in the sales process. The sales pipeline, on the other hand, lists activities needed to drive leads to the next stage in the sales funnel. Both should be used in your sales strategy when defining the repeatable steps required to generate leads and close deals. Check out our article to learn how to create a winning sales process with insights on both creating a sales process and measuring its success.

9. Assign Roles & Responsibilities

Regardless of the size of your business or sales operation, your business plan for sales reps should include the role and responsibility of each person in the sales team. Each role should have a name, such as someone being a sales development representative (SDR). There should also be a summary of their responsibilities, such as “the SDR is responsible for setting up sales appointments using the activities listed in the sales pipeline.”

Measuring the performance of any sales position is simple through key performance indicators (KPIs). Specific KPIs should be used to measure performance for each role and should be included in your plan. Below are some examples of KPIs that can be used by the members of the sales team and their respective responsibility:

• Sales development representative: Responsible for introducing products and services, qualifying leads, and setting up appointments for the account executive. Performance is measured by calls placed, emails sent, and appointments generated.
• Account executive: Responsible for nurturing qualified leads, delivering the sales pitch , sending quotes, and closing deals. Performance is measured by business proposals sent, the average time in the proposal consideration stage, deals closed, and deal closing rate.
• Customer service representative: Responsible for managing customer needs, handling billing, and managing service tickets by assisting customers. Performance is measured by customer satisfaction, retention rates, and total tickets resolved.
• Sales manager: Responsible for the entire sales operation or team for a specific region or product/service line. Performance is measured by job satisfaction rates of sales reps, pipeline and funnel conversion rates, team sales deals closed, and team revenue growth.

While assigning roles in your plan, a sales rep’s territory could be based on geography, industry, potential deal size, or product/service line, creating more specialization for better results. Our six-step process on proper sales territory management is an excellent resource for segmenting, creating, and assigning sales territories.

This section of the business plan is also a prime spot for individually setting sales quotas for each rep or team needed to hit your organizational sales goals. Sales quotas should be a specific KPI for that sales role and be set based on the experience, skill level, and resources of that individual or team. These quotas should also be based on your organizational, department, and team goals and objectives.

10. Monitor Progress & Adjust Accordingly

Once the strategic business plan is in motion, monitor its progress to make any required adjustments. For instance, while your sales operation is running, you may find certain sales tactics are working better than expected, and vice versa. Your sales goal template should account for using that tactic more, as well as any new sales tools, budgetary changes, new roles, and possibly even a new sales goal.

As in the earlier example, if you found that cold calling was significantly more effective than emailing, reduce or abandon the email method in favor of cold calling. You could also invest in sales tools especially useful for cold calling, such as power dialing using a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system, or hire additional staff to place calls. All of these will be part of your updated business plan.

Pro tip: Focusing on the big picture by creating, executing, and adjusting a strategic business plan is one of the most critical traits of an effective sales leader. For more insights on what it means to be a sales leader and how to become one, check out our ultimate guide to sales leadership .

Examples of Other Free Small Business Sales Plan Templates

Apart from our free downloadable sales strategy template, other providers have shared their version of a free strategic sales plan examples. Click on our picks below to see if these templates fit your business process better:

HubSpot’s free sales planning template helps users outline their company’s sales strategy. It contains sections found in most sales plans, as well as prompts for you to fill out your company’s tactics and information. These include company history and mission, team structure, target market, tools and software used, positioning, market strategy, action plan, goals, and budget.

HubSpot sales strategy template (Source: HubSpot )

HubSpot’s sales goals template with the mission, vision, and story of the company (Source: HubSpot )

Visit HubSpot

Asana’s free sales plan template helps organizations analyze their current sales process, establish their sales objectives, identify success metrics, and plan actionable steps. The sales business plan template is embedded within Asana’s platform, automatically integrating aspects such as goals and measuring them against results or sales performance.

Asana sales plan example (Source: Asana )

Visit Asana

Sales Planning Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is sales planning.

Sales planning is creating a document that outlines your sales strategy, objectives, target audience, potential obstacles, and tools to achieve goals within a specified period. This may include your daily, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and long-term revenue objectives.

What is included in a sales plan?

A sales strategy plan template typically includes the following key elements:

• Target customers, accounts, or verticals
• Stock-keeping units (SKUs)
• Revenue targets or forecasts
• Strategies and tactics
• Pricing and promotions
• Deadlines and directly responsible individuals (DRIs)
• Team structure and coordination
• Market conditions

What are the different types of strategic sales planning?

The type of strategic planning for sales that you choose for your team ultimately depends on different factors. These include your revenue goals, available resources, the ability and bandwidth of your sales team, and your personal commitment to your plans. Once you have determined the details of these factors, you can choose from these types of strategic sales planning:

• Revenue-based sales action plan template: This is ideal for teams aiming for a specific revenue goal. It focuses on in-depth sales forecasting, improvement of conversion rates, and closing more deals.
• Sales business plan based on the target market: This plan is best for businesses that cater to several markets that are different from each other. In this situation, you must create separate sales goal templates for enterprise companies and small businesses.
• Sales goals plan: This focuses on other goals such as hiring, onboarding, sales training plans, or sales activity implementation.
• New product sales business plan: This plan is developed for the launch and continued promotion of a new product.

Bottom Line

While any business can set bold sales goals, creating a sales plan outlines how your team will achieve them. By following the best practices and 10-step process laid out above, your sales goal template defines what your sales process will look like. It will help establish baselines for accountability and identify optimal strategies, tactics, and the tools needed to make your team as efficient as possible.

About the Author

Jillian Ilao

Jill is a sales and customer service expert at Fit Small Business. Prior to joining the company, she has worked and produced marketing content for various small businesses and entrepreneurs from different markets, including Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Singapore. She has extensive writing experience and has covered topics on business, lifestyle, finance, education, and technology.

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10 Free Sales Plan Templates for an Effective Sales Strategy

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 15, 2024

Every sales team wants to win more leads and close more deals. But how do you make that happen? With a solid sales plan, of course! 

A sales plan gives your team a way to focus on your goals while taking only the necessary steps to get there. It has everything you need to win, which means it’s often a comprehensive guide—and that takes time.

And we’re guessing you’re already pressed for time. ⏲️

Fortunately, creating a plan doesn’t have to be complicated—with the right template, you can simplify the process.

That’s why we’re sharing this list of the best sales plan templates. Not only are these sales strategy templates absolutely free but they’ll also save you time so you can start closing those deals faster. ⚡

What Is a Sales Plan and Why Create One?

1. clickup sales plan template, 2. clickup sales and marketing plan template, 3. clickup sales strategy guide template, 4. clickup sales pipeline template, 5. clickup sales kpi template, 6. clickup b2b sales strategy template, 7. clickup sales calls template, 8. word sales plan template by business news daily, 9. word sales plan template by templatelab, 10. excel sales plan template by spreadsheet.com.

A sales plan is your roadmap for how to make sales effectively. Think of it in the same way that a business plan guides the strategy for your company or a marketing plan sets out how you’ll find, reach, and serve your ideal customers. 

A good sales plan sets out your sales goals , objectives, and sales activities. It considers your target audience, brand, products, services, and needs—and covers which sales tactics and strategies you’ll use to close deals, as well as which metrics you’ll use to measure success. 

Your sales plan is a practical plan that outlines who’s responsible for what, the resources you’ll need, and the overall goals you’re working toward. Without one, your sales team will feel lost and struggle to connect with your customer base.

With a strategic sales plan, though, the sales manager and the entire team will know exactly what you’re trying to achieve and the steps needed to get there. 📚

How to choose the best sales plan template

There are so many different sales plan templates out there. Some are designed for specific niche audiences, while others are more generic and easier to customize. How do you know which is the right template for you?

When you’re thinking about using a sales plan template, consider the following: 

• Ease of use: Is the template easy to use? Will everyone in the team structure and sales planning process be able to understand it fully?
• Customization: Can I personalize the template to match my sales goals?

• Collaboration: Can my sales team work on this template together?
• Integrations: When I create a sales plan, can I integrate this template with other aspects of my sales pipeline or workflow, like task management?
• Artificial intelligence: Can I use a built-in AI writing tool or copywriting tool to help me complete the template? Are there automation features that speed up the process?
• Platform: Which sales app is this template for? Do I have it already, or should I invest in it? What’s the pricing like?

Asking yourself these questions will help you figure out what your needs are, so you can then choose a template to match. 

10 Sales Plan Templates to Help You Close Your Next Deal

Now that you have a better idea of what you’re looking for, let’s explore what’s out there. Take a look at our hand-picked selection of the best sales plan templates available today for Microsoft Word and sales enablement tools like ClickUp.

Smart sales teams use a sales plan to map out their route to success. The best sales teams use the Sales Plan Template by ClickUp to simplify the process and ensure they don’t leave anything out.

This template is designed with all the structure you need to create a comprehensive sales plan that can drive results. Use this template to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) business goals; plan strategies and tactics; and organize all your sales ideas in one place.

The list-style template is split into sections that cover the executive summary all the way through to specific tactics and strategies. Beneath this, you can arrange tasks and subtasks, and see the progress at a glance. View task titles, deadlines, who’s responsible, approval status, and a visual progress bar.

Use this template if you want to consolidate all your sales tasks and initiatives in one area. Add your sales tasks and tactics, then tag team members so you can see what’s happening and hold everyone accountable. ✅

While sales and marketing teams often work independently, sometimes it’s useful to collaborate on shared goals. With the Sales and Marketing Plan Template by ClickUp , you can organize and run your sales and marketing operations from one location.

Our collaborative template makes it easy to set sales and marketing goals and objectives, visualize your tasks, work together on sales and marketing campaigns, and track your results in real-time. View the status of your sales and marketing projects, adjust your plans, and monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs)—all from one view.

This sales and marketing plan template allows you to split your tasks into sections. The examples in the template include revenue goals, competitive analysis, and action items, but you can customize these to match your needs exactly.

View tasks beneath these categories to see at a glance whether there are any roadblocks when a task is due, and who is responsible for it.

Add this template to your collection if you want to work more collaboratively with your marketing team—especially on preparing assets for sales calls or outreach programs. 📞

Before you can plan your sales tactics, you first need to decide what your overall goals are. The Sales Strategy Guide Template by ClickUp is your go-to resource for determining your approach.

This sales process template explains the benefits of having a well-defined approach and gives you a central place to create, review, and store your own. Everyone on your team can then access your sales strategy guide to help them understand what to do when prospecting and closing deals.

Our sales goals and strategy guide template is presented in a document format. Some sections and headings allow you to split your guide into different areas, making it easier to read and understand.

Use the prompts to fill out your own strategy guide details like your target market, sales strategies, and how you’ll monitor progress.

Use this sales strategy guide template to create a resource for your team. Make it the only destination for everything your sales reps need to know to execute an effective sales plan. 📝

Sales strategies are a must-have for any great sales team, but beyond that, you need a way to record and monitor specific tasks or initiatives. That’s where the Sales Pipeline Template by ClickUp comes in handy whether you need a visual into sales forecasting or your specific sales goals.

This sales pipeline template gives you one place to store all your daily sales-related tasks. With this template, it’s easy to work toward your sales goals, track leads, map out each step of the sales process, and organize all your tasks in one place.

You can view a task’s title, assignee, status, due date, complexity level, start date, and department—or customize the experience with your own custom fields. 

With ClickUp’s Sales KPI Template , you and your team can create and manage goals surrounding your sales initiatives. See instantly what’s in progress and when it’s due, alongside the task’s impact level.

This allows you to identify high-priority tasks to focus on and to react quickly if it looks like there’s a roadblock.

This sales KPI template includes:

• Custom Statuses: Create tasks with custom statuses such as Open and Complete to keep track of the progress of each KPI
• Custom Fields: Utilize 15 different custom attributes such as Upsell Attempts, Value of Quotes, Product Cost, No of Quotes by Unit, Repeat Sales Revenue, to save vital KPI information and easily visualize performance data
• Custom Views: Open 4 different views in different ClickUp configurations, such as the Weekly Report, Monthly Report, Revenue Board per Month, and Getting Started Guide so that all the information is easy to access and organized
• Project Management: Improve KPI tracking with tagging, dependency warnings, emails, and more

This template gives you a simple way to see which tasks are complete or in progress, so you can monitor the progress of your project and crush your sales KPIs. 📈

While there’s not a huge difference in the way we market to business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) customers these days, it’s still useful to have specific templates for niche needs. If you’re driving sales in the B2B space, you need the B2B Sales Strategy Template by ClickUp .

Like our first sales plan template, this one gives you space to communicate your sales objectives and revenue targets, but it also introduces other areas—like market research, stakeholder analysis, customer relationships, buyer persona, and customer pain points. 

This document-style template is highly customizable so you can make it match your brand style and sales approach. Fill in each section and use the supplied prompts to complete your B2B sales strategy document even faster. 

Add this template to your collection if you’re working in B2B sales and want to approach your process in a more organized way. Use the template to build a strong sales strategy, then share it with the rest of your sales team so they know how to execute against your sales and company goals. 🎯

ClickUp’s Sales Calls Template is designed to streamline the sales process, from tracking contacts and calls to managing sales opportunities.

The template includes custom statuses for creating unique workflows, ensuring that every call and client interaction is accounted for. It also provides an easy-to-use Sales CRM to manage and track leads, visualize sales opportunities in the sales funnel, and keep all contacts organized.

With additional features like the Sales Phone Calls SOP Template, sales professionals can empower their teams to make every call count and close more deals. ClickUp’s Sales Calls Template is a versatile solution for sales teams, aiding in everything from daily calls to long-term sales forecasting.

We’re big advocates of using ClickUp as the go-to place to store everything about your sales workflow, but if you’re limited to using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, then this template is a great option.

This sales business plan template has sections for your executive summary, mission statement, target customers, sales targets, benchmarks, and more. Each section has useful prompts to guide you on completing your new sales plan.

Use this template if you’re tied to using Microsoft Word and want a comprehensive guide on how to create your own sales plan or sales strategy. 📄

If you want a free sales plan template or want to choose from a variety of options, this collection of Word templates by TemplateLab is a good place to do that.

There’s a wide range of options available including sales process plans, lead generation plans, sales action plans, and sales report templates . Each template works with Microsoft Word, and you can customize the look and feel to match your brand or your sales goals.

Use this resource if you prefer to see a range of templates on one page, or if you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for until you see it. You can easily set your sales goals and the action steps needed to achieve them. 📃

Successful sales strategies need to be integrated with other teams—like your marketing department—to ensure your sales objectives are clear and possibly align with the overall marketing strategy too. Choose your specific sales goals, set revenue targets, and describe everything in detail with these Word sales planning and sales process templates.

The Excel Sales Plan Template by Spreadsheet.com is a comprehensive and user-friendly tool designed to assist businesses in developing effective sales strategies and managing their sales activities.

T his template is crafted with the aim of providing a structured framework for sales planning, enabling organizations to set clear objectives, track performance, and optimize their sales processes.

Reach Sales Goals With Free Sales Plan Templates

A strategic sales plan makes it easier to achieve your goals. Give your team the guidance and support they need with the help of a well-crafted free sales plan template.

If you’re considering making even more improvements in how you work, try ClickUp for free . We don’t just have incredible sales process templates: Our range of features and AI tools for sales make it easy for you to optimize and run your entire sales funnel and CRM system from one place. ✨

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SalesRabbit

Door-to-Door Sales App

Free Route Planner

Now you can enjoy a free sales route planner from SalesRabbit. Just download the app, plug in your contacts, and start visiting them quicker and more efficiently than ever. In addition to route planning, you can also manage your leads and appointments.

Multi-Drop Route Planner App

Create optimized travel routes Turn-by-turn directions make it easy to find where you’re going. Multiple Stops Map your route plan with multiple stops for free. Track leads visually Mapping software for outside sales professionals.

Appointment Setting Services

Filter by status Leads organized by importance, availability, and opportunity. Set appointments Free appointment scheduling software for sales reps. Get scheduled reminders An appointment reminder built into a field sales app.

Route Optimization and Planning

How to boost profitability and efficiency with a sales route planner.

Ever wonder how much time the average salesperson spends in a car or how many miles they cover during their career? Well, according to the Canadian professional sales association, the average outside sales representative travels over 19,691 miles per year by car.

In some industries, these numbers can be even higher, with sales reps covering between 700 and 1,000 miles every single week. With hundreds of meetings in different cities, even across states, planning an efficient sales route can be a huge challenge (often called the traveling salesman problem ).

Therefore, one of the most important things shaping your sales performance is having the right software that not only imports a list of your sales lead’s addresses, but keeps track of your upcoming meetings, prioritizes clients based on importance or availability time constraints and optimizes the entire route for maximum efficiency. 

So, let’s dive into how the best sales reps use software tools to quickly plan efficient routes using modern technology.

To navigate to the section which interests you the most, click below:

What Is Sales Route Planning?

Sales route planning: the modern seller’s best friend, how optimoroute makes sales routing easier than ever.

• How to Plan Your Sales Routes With OptimoRoute 

Sales route planning is the process of planning driving routes for field sales teams. It’s primarily used by sales managers to optimize the routes of their salespeople by minimizing travel time and distance. Planning the shortest, most efficient route can save salespeople hours every week, which, in turn, boosts the efficiency and profitability of the company.

Before modern technology, route planning was mainly done in excel spreadsheets. Manual sales route planning was a tedious process that took a lot of time and made it hard for sales managers to pinpoint the most efficient routes. Now, with the help of sales route planning software, you can find the fastest routes in just minutes, and provide your sales force a lot of extra time.

One common approach for field sales teams is meeting face-to-face with prospects to build relationships. That’s why a big chunk of a salesperson’s day is often dedicated to visiting prospects and clients.

When scheduling meetings, sales managers have to find a way for sales reps to visit each prospect within their assigned sales territory in the most efficient manner. However, managing a field sales team is more than just establishing a route that salespeople will follow when visiting as many prospective clients or customers as possible.

OptimoRoute conducted a survey with key industry experts discussing how to best tackle the issue. Depending on how it’s planned and scheduled, the sales route can either be a helpful time saver or a colossal waste of time, money, and resources.

Thankfully, the days of sitting with a physical map and planning your route with pins are long gone. And it’s not because of Google Maps. (With only 10 possible stops and no real route optimization features, Google Maps isn’t an efficient route planning tool .)

Instead, dedicated route planning software tools have made mapping sales routes much easier, so you can spend less time routing and more closing deals.

Let Software Handle the Routing

Once you have a list of qualified leads, you can simply import the list of addresses, and leave the rest to the route planner software.

The software will handle the routing, automatically arranging the addresses into the most efficient sales route.

Common Routing Challenges

• Efficiently assigning leads to reps based on their skills, rapport, or location.
• Planning long-term sales efforts and routes.
• Respecting time windows for planned meetings.
• Mapping routes to prioritize high-value leads during likely hours.
• Adjusting routes and schedules in real-time.

Most basic route planning tools can’t handle these challenges, but OptimoRoute offers a unique set of features to make planning the ideal sales route easy.

OptimoRoute is designed to handle the most complex workflows and find the best route by adjusting in real-time according to numerous factors.

This makes it the perfect ally for outside sales teams. Let’s dive into how the software changed the game for salespeople.

Take a typical sales manager managing a team of 10 medical field sales reps working for ABC Pharmaceuticals. Some key responsibilities of a typical sales manager include:

• Following up on anywhere between 150 and 200 field sales meetings per month.
• Ownership and client relations management for a multi-state area covering thousands of miles.
• Prioritization between planned meetings (high priority) and drop in cold sales (low priority).

Before OptimoRoute , planning long-term sales routes for field teams and taking ownership and reporting along a management hierarchy would have been a serious challenge. Simply, accounting for all the various factors like lead priority, meeting times, service areas, and more. Inevitably mistakes would happen, opportunities would be missed and the bottom line would drop.

In fact, when polled, field sales managers conclude that great routing software comes down to three key game-changing features.

1. Ability to schedule long term with weekly planning 

With OptimoRoute you can create optimal schedules and routes up to 5 weeks in advance taking into account important constraints that a field sales team would require. For instance, restricting the meeting to only a specific time window when the client is available. 

2. Set service areas to efficiently distribute leads among reps

Automatically assign territories to outside sales reps based on a specific location that they cover. OptimoRoute will then distribute new leads and meetings based on those areas allowing your sales reps to be more efficient and accomplish more while maintaining a strong relationship with clients and building rapport. 

3. Maximize high priority meetings, and fit in drop-in visits whenever possible

OptimoRoute also lets field sales managers prioritize planned meetings with VIP clients, to make sure they get handled in due time. The lower priority drop-ins are scheduled for when sales reps have time.

4. Never get lost or arrive late with turn-by-turn navigation 

Once a set of meetings or stops is scheduled, a manager can send them to teams on the ground directly to the mobile app (whether android or iOS). By selecting the next assignment, a field salesman can take advantage of turn by turn directions using their favourite navigation app.  

This saves time on manually inputting addresses, ensures you use the most efficient and optimized route, and reduces the possibility of human error along the way.

5. Record notes, impressions or reminders for any meeting 

Another great feature is remembering your prospective client’s important information or nifty details as you arrive at the meeting. Think about it, what was the name of their child or pet? Favorite sports team or a detail from your last meeting. This customer data can be added as notes in OptimoRoute and displayed just as you are arriving to the next meeting. 

How to Plan Your Sales Routes With OptimoRoute

Planning a multi-stop sales route doesn’t have to be a complicated process with a lot of manual work. To see a full guide on how a field sales team can set up customer visits read our step by step guide.  

With OptimoRoute, simply exporting and importing a list of leads from your CRM will get you an efficient route considering all essential factors.

Want to transform how you plan sales routes? Start your 30-day free OptimoRoute trial today .

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Blog Business How to Create a Sales Plan: Strategy, Examples and Templates

How to Create a Sales Plan: Strategy, Examples and Templates

Written by: Aditya Rana Mar 25, 2024

The difference between a company struggling to drive sales and one that’s hitting home runs often boils down to a well-crafted sales plan.

Without knowing how to write a sales plan , your sales reps will lack vision, not understand the market, and be ineffective at engaging potential customers.

Most businesses fail in sales planning because they don’t focus on their unique value. If you’re struggling with sales, here’s what you need to do: define your goal(s), create customer personas, and create an action plan for success.

One of the best ways to organize this information in one place is to use sales planning templates . In this post, I’ll show you how to write a sales plan (…with plenty of template examples included of course!).

Click to jump ahead:

What is a sales plan?

Benefits of a sales plan, how to create a sales plan, sales plan example, sales plan templates.

A sales plan is a strategic document that outlines how a business plans to convert leads into sales. It typically details the target market, customer profile, and actionable steps that must be taken to achieve revenue targets.

Here’s a great example of a sales plan that includes all these elements neatly packed into one document.

Every company needs a sales plan, but have you ever wondered why?

Why should businesses invest time and resources in creating sales plan when they could…well…be focusing on sales?

Sales plans are worth it because they tell sales employees what to do.

Without a sales plan, your sales efforts will end up becoming a disorganized mess. Let’s explore the benefits of sales plans in detail.

Help you identify and target the right market

A sales plan helps you figure out the target market that’s most likely to be responsive to your messaging.

I mean do you really want to waste your time trying to sell to someone who has no need for your product or isn’t interested in your offering?

But if you know who your customer is, you can target their pain points.

Help you set goals

All great sales plans require you to set goals that are actually attainable and budgeted for.

Without goals, your sales team essentially operates in the dark unsure of what success looks like and how to achieve it.

One of the best ways to set goals is by conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to understand the market landscape.

Help you forecast sales

Since sales plans require you to study historical sales data , you have the ability to understand trends, seasonality, and customer buying patterns.

This information can be used to accurately forecast future sales performance.

And when you chart it out visually like in this example, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your sales strategy.

Help you identify risks

Because sales plans require you to study the market, you’ll be able to uncover risks such as market saturation, competitors, and shifting customer needs.

With this knowledge, you have the ability to be flexible in your approach.

Besides market risks, sales plans also help you pinpoint risks within your company such as a lack of qualified leads or unclear communication between departments.

Improve customer service

It may sound counterintuitive but creating a sales plan also actually improves your customer service.

Researching and trying to understand customer needs means new insights that you can share with the customer service team which allows them to tailor their approach.

You’ll also be able to train sales service reps to anticipate questions and concerns so that they can communicate effectively.

Increases sales efficiency

Sales plans help standardize sales tactics and ensure sales reps follow the same best practices to reduce inconsistencies and improve effectiveness.

One of the best ways to standardize practices is to use a flowchart like in this example to make sure everyone knows what to do when facing a decision.

Increases your profits

Sales plans generally guarantee a boost in profits because it allows sales team to laser-focus on high-value opportunities instead of being headless chickens.

Reducing wasted effort and a higher frequency of closed deals is a win in my book any day.

One of the best ways to measure changes in profits is to use a simple template to review performance like in this example.

Help you understand customer needs

Contrary to what you might think, sales plans aren’t just about selling but also about understanding customers at a deeper level.

The process of creating a plan forces you to analyze customer data, buying habits, and pain points, all of which will help you understand what makes your customers tick and build trust and loyalty.

Here’s a great example of a customer persona you can edit to include in your sales plan.

A sales plan is a document that helps you maximize profitability by identifying valuable segments and outlining strategies to influence customer behavior.

Common elements most sales plans include:

• Sales goals : Information on revenue, market share, and more.
• Sales strategy: Information on how to reach potential customers and convert them.
• Target audience: Information on ideal customers and their needs.
• Metrics : Methods to track progress.
• Resources :  Tools, budget, and personnel needed to achieve sales goals.

Let’s take an in-depth look at how to create a sales plan.

( Note : You don’t need to include each of these points in your sales plan but I recommend you cover most of them to build a plan that’s well-rounded).

Define your business mission and positioning

Before you jump into tactics, build a strong foundation by defining your company’s mission and positioning.

Here’s why this step is a must-do:

• Your mission statement defines your company’s purpose and values and gives your sales team and customers something to relate to.
• Your positioning statement defines how your product or service meets a specific need and sets you apart from the competition.

Trying to sell without any alignment to company values will lead to inconsistent messaging and damage your brand reputation.

Here’s a great example of a sales plan template you can customize with your own brand’s mission and positioning statements.

Define your target market

Unless you think you can sell to every person possible, you’ll need to define your ideal target market.

Study your customer base and ask questions like: do most of the customers belong to a specific industry? Or do they all face the same pain point?

Also, keep in mind that target market can change over time due to changes in your product, pricing, or factors out of your control, so it’s important to review and update your target market frequently.

Understand your target customers

This step often gets mixed with the previous one, so pay close attention.

Your target customers are those who your business wants to target because they’re most likely to make a purchase.

You can figure out who your target customers are by creating customer profiles by breaking down your target market into smaller groups based on geography, behavior, demography, and more.

Here’s a great sales plan template where you can edit in your own customer persona.

When making your buyer personas, make sure you answer the following questions.

• Motivations and challenges:  What are customer pain points? What drives purchasing decisions?
• Behaviors and preferences:  How do customers research products? What communication channels do they prefer?
• Goals and aspirations:  What are your prospective customers trying to achieve? How can your product or service help them get there?

Define sales objectives and goals

Setting clear, measurable goals gives you a method to measure performance of your sales strategies.

More importantly though, they give your sales team targets to aim for which then allows them to work in a structured and focused manner.

Your sale goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This is to make sure they’re realistically achievable within a set timeframe.

Here’s a comparison of good sales goal setting vs a bad one.

• ✅Drive $100,000 in sales of product X by Y date using Z tactics
• ❌ Increase overall sales in each product line

You can organize this information using a template like in this example, especially if you have multiple product lines.

Define your value proposition

Your value proposition is a concise statement that explains why a customer should choose your product or service over the competition.

Here’s an example of a value statement:

“For busy small business owners, we provide a user-friendly accounting software that saves you time and money, allowing you to focus on growing your business.”

Here are some tips on defining your value proposition:

• Identify customer needs:  What are the core challenges and pain points your ideal customer faces? Understanding their needs allows you to position your offering as the solution.
• Highlight your unique benefits:  What sets your product or service apart? Focus on benefits you deliver that address the customer’s needs.
• Quantify the value:  When possible, quantify the value you offer. Can you demonstrate a cost savings, increased efficiency, or improved outcomes?

Map out the customer journey

Unless you’re extremely lucky, no one is going to purchase from you during the first interaction.

That’s why it’s crucial for you to know the steps a customer takes from initial awareness to purchase. Mapping out their journey allows you to personalize messaging and influence behavior.

Here are some tips on how to create a customer journey map :

• Identify the stages:  Break down the journey into distinct stages, such as awareness, consideration, decision, and post-purchase.
• Define touchpoints: Pinpoint the different touchpoints where your customer interacts with your brand (example: website, social media, customer reviews).
• Understand customer needs at each stage: What information are they looking for at each stage? What are their concerns and motivations?
• Identify opportunities to engage:  Identify opportunities to engage with your potential customers and move them along the buying journey.

Want some help creating customer journeys?

This customer journey map template is an excellent way to bring customer journeys to life.

Gather existing sales data

This step involves collecting and analyzing all available data on past sales performance.

This data is critical in helping you spot trends, patterns, and areas for improvement in your sales operations.

Perform sales forecasting

Sales forecasting is the practice of estimating future sales which can be presented as a report highlighting expected sales volume weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

Though not always 100% accurate, sales forecasting is key to writing sales plans because it’ll provide you with a clear picture of the ground reality which leads to better decisions on budgeting.

Here’s a template you can use to perform sales forecasting to makes the sales planning process effective.

Define your sales KPIs

KPIs are a fancy way of saying that you need to set metrics to track effectiveness of your sales strategy and team’s performance.

Some example KPIs you can include in sales plans are:

• Number of sales
• Sales revenue
• Average deal size

This sales report template is a great example of how you can include KPIs in your meetings to test performance and adjust strategy.

Identify gaps in the sales process

This step is all about analyzing your current sales process to figure out gaps and/or potential obstacles preventing you from achieving goals.

When you identify a gap, brainstorm potential solutions so that you can create a specific action plan.

Understand the sales stages

When writing a sales plan, make sure you cover each stage of the sales cycle. If you’re unsure of what the sales stages are, here’s a quick recap.

Prospecting

This is the foundation of the sales process where you identify potential customers who might be a good fit for your product or service.

Preparation

Once you have a list of prospects, you need to research their needs, challenges, and buying habits.

This is all about how you contact and communicate with prospects.

Presentation

This section is your opportunity to showcase the value proposition of your product or service. Tailor your presentation to address the prospect’s specific needs and demonstrate how your offering can solve their problems.

Handling objections

Identify common objections your sales team might encounter related to price, features, competition, or need. Develop clear and concise responses to address these concerns proactively.

Equip your sales team with effective closing techniques to secure commitments from prospects who are interested but might hesitate.

Plan your follow-up strategy based on the prospect’s decision timeline and the stage of the sales cycle. For longer timelines, periodic updates and information sharing through digital sales rooms can maintain engagement and provide valuable resources conveniently.

Organize the sales team

Organizing the sales team entails defining roles and responsibilities clearly to cover all aspects of the sales process effectively.

This might involve segmenting the team based on product lines, customer segments, or territories.

Here’s an example of how it might look:

Sarah — Sales Director — will lead the sales team, set overall strategy, goals and direction. Michael and Jessica — Business Development Executives — will focus on prospecting new leads. They will research potential customers, identify those who might be a good fit for the product, and qualify leads by gathering information and assessing their needs. William — Sales Development Manager — will manage the business development executives and ensuring they follow best practices. Chris and Lisa — Account Executives — will handle qualified leads. They build relationships with potential customers, present product demos, address objections, and close deals.

Using an org chart like in this example is a great way to visualize this information.

Outline the use of sales tools

Sales tools play a crucial role in streamlining the sales process and enhancing productivity.

Make sure you outline the tools your team will use, how they fit into different stages of the sales process, and any training required to maximize their utility.

This ensures that your team has the resources needed to engage effectively with prospects and customers.

Set the budget

Setting the budget involves allocating resources efficiently across various sales activities to achieve your objectives without overspending.

This includes expenses related to personnel, sales tools, marketing initiatives, travel, and customer entertainment.

A well-planned budget balances investment in growth opportunities with the overall financial health of the business.

Create a sales strategy and action plan

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork of what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it, it’s time to bring it all together into a single view.

Create an action plan which not includes your strategy but also concrete steps.

Your action plan should outlines specific activities for each stage of the sales funnel from prospecting (lead generation channels) to closing (structured process and follow-up strategy with timelines) and everything in between.

Performance and results measurement

Last but not least, your sales plan should present a clear and quantifiable means to track the effectiveness of sales activities.

How are you going to measure outcomes against predefined targets?

Performance measurement is key because it builds accountability and allows you to always have a pulse on customer behavior, preferences, and trends that’ll help you make decisions based on data.

If you’ve made it this far, give yourself a pat! I’ve covered A LOT on elements that you can include in a sales plan.

However, in most cases, you don’t always need to go that in-depth and instead should aim for brevity so that anyone in your team can stay up-to-date without having to worry about the nitty gritty details.

Here’s a sales plan example that’s brief but highly effective. It includes a summary of all you need in one document, a target market analysis, a customer profile, and an action plan.

Want even more sales plan templates for design inspiration or to customize and make your own?

This 30-60-90 day sales plan provides a great way to organize goals, priorities, performance goals, and metrics of success over three three timeframes: first 30 days, first 60 days, and first 90 days.

This sales plan is structured around key components that drive the sales process: objectives, strategies, tactics, and key metrics. It emphasizes a multi-channel approach to sales,, with a strong focus on measuring performance through metrics.

This sales roadmap is a great way to visualize activities such as defining strategy and generating leads to more advanced steps.

Conclusion: Save time on designing and updating sales plans and focus on growing your business with Venngage templates

Though there’s no secret formula for effective sales plan design, it’s good practice to include the basics or information on the target market, a customer persona, and a strategy on how you plan to sell.

What you definitely shouldn’t do is write a sales plan and then never look at it again.

And trust me, I know how time-consuming and frustrating it can be to edit your sales plan especially if you don’t have design skills. One small change might make the icons or numbers go all out of whack.

That’s why I recommend customizing our sales plan templates instead so that you can focus your energy on strategy.

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What Is Sales Route Planning? How to Improve Sales Route Planning

By Komal Puri | July 13, 2023

Sales route planning is a crucial aspect of any successful sales operation. It involves strategically mapping out sales routes to maximize efficiency, minimize travel time, and increase sales productivity. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of sales route planning, understand its significance, discuss when it is absolutely necessary, and explore effective strategies to optimize routes for sales. 

Additionally, we will delve into the challenges faced in sales routing and discover how intelligent route planning software can streamline this process, highlighting the benefits it brings to sales route planning endeavors.

What is Sales Route Planning?

Sales route planning refers to the process of designing and organizing a sales team's travel routes to customer locations. It involves determining the most efficient sequence and timing of visits, considering factors such as geographical proximity, customer preferences, and traffic conditions. Effective sales route planning ensures that sales representatives spend more time interacting with customers and less time traveling, resulting in increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and higher sales performance.

Why is Sales Route Planning Important?

Sales route planning plays a pivotal role in optimizing sales operations. By carefully planning and optimizing sales routes, companies can achieve several key benefits:

Time and Cost Efficiency

It is crucial for achieving time and cost efficiency in sales operations. By carefully planning and optimizing sales routes, companies can minimize travel time and distance for their sales representatives. This means that salespeople can visit more customers within a given timeframe, maximizing their productivity. By reducing the time spent on the road, companies can also save on fuel costs and decrease vehicle wear and tear. Additionally, with optimized sales routes, operational expenses are lowered as resources are utilized more efficiently.

Increased Sales Productivity

Effective route planning eliminates unnecessary travel time for sales representatives. By streamlining their routes, salespeople can spend more time engaging with customers, building relationships, and closing deals. With fewer interruptions and distractions caused by inefficient routes, sales representatives can focus on their core responsibilities. This increased focus and productivity lead to higher sales conversion rates and revenue generation. It ensures that sales representatives can make the most out of their working hours by prioritizing customer visits strategically.

Enhanced Customer Service

Optimized sales routes enable sales representatives to provide enhanced customer service. With shorter travel times, they can respond to customer needs more promptly. Salespeople can address customer queries, resolve issues, and deliver orders in a timely manner. This level of responsiveness fosters stronger customer relationships and improves overall customer satisfaction. By providing reliable and efficient service, companies can differentiate themselves from competitors and build a loyal customer base. Additionally, it allows companies to allocate resources effectively, ensuring that customers are served in a timely and consistent manner.

Improved Territory Coverage

It helps ensure comprehensive territory coverage. By dividing territories efficiently and assigning routes strategically, companies can ensure that each customer is visited regularly. This prevents any gaps in customer engagement and ensures that sales representatives are effectively covering their assigned territories. Improved territory coverage leads to a more even distribution of sales efforts, which can result in increased market penetration and customer retention.

Better Sales Forecasting and Reporting

It facilitates accurate sales forecasting and reporting. By analyzing the sales routes and tracking the activities of sales representatives, companies can gain valuable insights into sales performance. This data can be used to identify trends, evaluate the effectiveness of sales strategies, and make informed decisions to improve overall sales operations. It provides a structured framework for collecting data on customer visits, sales conversions, and other relevant metrics, enabling companies to generate comprehensive reports and analyze sales performance at various levels, such as individual salespeople, territories, or product lines.

Overall, it is vital for optimizing sales operations. It not only improves time and cost efficiency but also enhances sales productivity, customer service, territory coverage, and the accuracy of sales forecasting and reporting. By investing in effective route planning, companies can streamline their sales processes, maximize their resources, and ultimately drive growth and profitability.

When is Sales Route Planning Absolutely Necessary?

Sales route planning becomes indispensable in various scenarios. Here are three situations where it is crucial:

Expanding Sales Operations

When a company decides to expand its sales operations, whether by adding more sales representatives or targeting new customer segments, sales route planning becomes absolutely necessary. Without a proper route plan, the company risks inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

By implementing a sales route plan, the company can ensure that the growing number of customers is adequately covered. It allows for the strategic allocation of sales representatives to specific territories or customer segments, ensuring that no potential leads or opportunities are overlooked. This organized approach improves the overall productivity and effectiveness of the sales team.

Moreover, it helps minimize travel time and costs. When sales representatives have a clearly defined route to follow, they can optimize their travel paths, reducing unnecessary mileage and time spent on the road. This not only saves costs associated with fuel and vehicle maintenance but also allows sales representatives to spend more time engaging with customers and closing deals.

Geographically Diverse Markets

For businesses operating in geographically diverse markets, effective route planning is crucial. Such companies may have customers located in different regions, cities, or even countries. Without a well-thought-out route plan, sales representatives may struggle to navigate through these diverse territories efficiently.

It enables sales representatives to strategically plan their visits to various locations. It ensures comprehensive coverage of the target market by mapping out the most optimal routes and schedules. By considering factors such as proximity, traffic patterns, and customer preferences, sales representatives can plan their routes to minimize travel time and maximize customer engagement.

Furthermore, it helps in adapting to the unique characteristics of different markets. It allows companies to identify regional or local trends, preferences, and opportunities, which can be incorporated into the route plan. By customizing routes based on market-specific insights, businesses can enhance their sales strategies and improve customer satisfaction.

Limited Resources

When resources are limited, such as a small sales team or a limited number of vehicles, it becomes vital to maximize productivity and achieve optimal sales outcomes. With limited resources, it becomes even more crucial to utilize them efficiently and effectively.

It allows companies to optimize the allocation of resources. By strategically planning routes, companies can ensure that sales representatives are assigned to the most critical areas or high-potential customers. This helps in prioritizing sales efforts and focusing on areas that are most likely to generate revenue.

Additionally, it helps in reducing operational costs. By optimizing routes, companies can minimize travel distances, fuel consumption, and vehicle wear and tear. This not only saves money but also increases the overall productivity of the sales team, as less time is spent on non-value-added activities like excessive travel.

In summary, sales route planning is absolutely necessary in various scenarios. Whether it's expanding sales operations, dealing with geographically diverse markets, or managing limited resources, an organized and efficient route plan ensures comprehensive coverage, minimizes travel time and costs, and maximizes the productivity and effectiveness of the sales team.

Three Ways to Optimize Routes for Sales

Analyze and Prioritize Customer Data: Begin by analyzing customer data, including geographical locations, order frequency, and sales potential. Categorize customers based on their importance, and assign priority levels accordingly. This data-driven approach enables the creation of efficient routes that focus on high-priority customers, optimizing sales efforts.

Utilize Route Optimization Software: Leverage intelligent route planning software to automate the process of optimizing sales routes. These advanced tools utilize algorithms to calculate the most efficient routes based on multiple factors such as traffic patterns, travel distances, and time windows. By automating this process, it becomes faster, more accurate, and easier to manage.

Continuously Monitor and Adapt: It is an iterative process that requires constant monitoring and adaptation. Regularly review the performance of sales routes, gather feedback from sales representatives, and assess changes in customer locations or requirements. By regularly fine-tuning and adapting routes, you can ensure ongoing optimization and improved sales efficiency.

Sales Routing Challenges

Dynamic Factors: Sales route planning must consider dynamic factors such as traffic conditions, customer cancellations, and new leads. These variables can disrupt the planned routes and require on-the-go adjustments to ensure optimal sales outcomes.

Time Constraints: Creating efficient routes while adhering to strict time constraints can be challenging. Limited time windows, customer availability, and unforeseen circumstances demand careful balancing to optimize routes without compromising customer service.

Complex Territories: Sales territories with complex layouts, remote areas, or a high concentration of customers pose challenges in route planning. Navigating such territories effectively requires advanced mapping capabilities and specialized software solutions.

How Do We Create and Optimize Routes?

To create and optimize sales routes effectively, follow these steps:

Gather Relevant Data: Collect and analyze data on customer locations, order history, and sales performance. This data will serve as the foundation for route planning and optimization.

Define Priorities: Categorize customers based on their importance, considering factors such as sales potential, order frequency, and strategic value. Assign priority levels to customers to determine the order of visits in the routes.

Utilize Route Planning Software: Leverage intelligent route planning software to automate the process of route optimization. These tools generate optimal routes based on various factors, ensuring efficient scheduling and minimizing travel time.

Regularly Review and Adapt: Continuously monitor the performance of sales routes and gather feedback from sales representatives. Incorporate changes in customer locations or requirements to adapt and fine-tune routes for ongoing optimization.

How Does Intelligent Route Planning Software Work?

Intelligent route planning software utilizes sophisticated algorithms and advanced mapping capabilities to optimize sales routes. By considering factors like traffic conditions, customer locations, time windows, and historical data, these software solutions generate efficient routes that maximize sales productivity. Sales representatives can access these routes through mobile applications, enabling real-time navigation and updates on the go.

What Are the Benefits of Sales Route Planning Software?

Enhanced Efficiency: The software automates the route optimization process, saving valuable time and effort. It generates optimized routes that minimize travel time, maximize sales opportunities, and streamline operations.

Improved Accuracy: By leveraging advanced algorithms and mapping capabilities, route planning software ensures accurate and reliable routes. Sales representatives can confidently rely on the software's recommendations, leading to fewer errors and smoother sales operations.

Real-time Updates: It provides real-time updates, allowing sales representatives to adapt to unforeseen circumstances or changing customer requirements. This flexibility ensures that routes remain efficient and responsive to dynamic factors.

Enhanced Collaboration: With route planning software, sales teams can collaborate effectively. Managers can allocate territories, assign routes, and monitor performance centrally, facilitating streamlined coordination and improved team efficiency.

In Conclusion

Sales route planning is a critical aspect of sales operations, enabling companies to optimize travel routes, enhance productivity, and increase sales performance. By utilizing data-driven strategies, leveraging intelligent route planning software, and continuously monitoring and adapting routes, businesses can achieve significant improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

Embracing the benefits offered by sales route planning software empowers sales teams to navigate complex territories, adapt to dynamic factors, and achieve optimal results in today's competitive marketplace.

How FarEye Can Help with Better Sales Route Planning

FarEye is a cutting-edge technology platform that offers valuable solutions for improving sales route planning. With its advanced features and capabilities, FarEye can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of sales teams. By leveraging real-time data, intelligent algorithms, and route optimization algorithms, FarEye enables businesses to create optimized sales routes that maximize coverage while minimizing travel time and costs.

The platform empowers sales representatives with accurate and up-to-date information about customers, locations, and traffic conditions, allowing them to make informed decisions while planning their routes. FarEye's intuitive interface and user-friendly functionalities make it easy for sales teams to create, modify, and adjust routes as needed, ensuring adaptability and responsiveness to changing circumstances. With FarEye's assistance, businesses can streamline their sales operations, improve customer service, and achieve better sales outcomes through optimized route planning.

Komal Puri is a seasoned professional in the logistics and supply chain industry. As the Senior Director of Marketing and a subject matter expert at FarEye, she has been instrumental in shaping the industry narrative for the past decade. Her expertise and insights have earned her numerous awards and recognition. Komal’s writings reflect her deep understanding of the industry, offering valuable insights and thought leadership.

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How to create a sales plan (and 3 templates that do it for you)

There's a 25-year-old "South Park" episode I think about way too often. Working on a presentation with a coffee-addicted classmate named Tweek, the boys see a gnome stealing underpants from Tweek's dresser. They follow him to a cave, where they discover a network of gnomes executing a massive underpants-smuggling operation.

Explaining their business model, the underpants gnomes present this outline:

Phase 1: Collect underpants

Phase 3: Profit

In this post:

What is a sales plan?

A sales plan is a strategic document outlining goals and strategies for reaching predetermined sales targets. For the "South Park" underpants gnomes, it's the glaring question mark standing between their product and their profits.

What goes into a sales plan (including examples)

A sales plan has the information stakeholders need to establish sales goals, set strategies, allocate resources, collaborate across teams, track goal progress, and measure success. Basically, whatever the stakeholders need to make sound decisions about sales processes.

The specific elements of a business plan differ by factors like sales plan type, industry, product type, goal horizon, and organizational structure. Some may have just a few sections across a page or two, others a dozen or more over several pages.

While your sections may differ in number or phrasing, you can expect some version of these elements to go into most sales plans.

This section is where you set measurable sales goals. (In fact, this section is also called "Goals" in many sales plans.) Depending on your industry, common sales objectives include:

Total revenue growth

Market share expansion

Customer acquisition volume

Adoption rate increase

Obviously, you could just write "$100 billion" here and insert a Dr. Evil meme, then hope for the best. But the real objective of the objectives section is to come to attainable sales goals that align with broader organizational growth goals.

Increase market share by 5-10% this fiscal year

Target market

If your product is a massive eCommerce space with rock-bottom prices and free next-day shipping, write "Everyone" and move on. But since you're probably not Jeff Bezos, you'll need a detailed description of your ideal customer profile. 

Project managers of midsized technology companies with distributed teams seeking streamlined collaboration and task management

This is where you'll give the broad strokes of the approach you'll take to achieve your sales goals with your target market. Whether it's for entering new markets, expanding within existing markets, or launching new products, this generalized section communicates the stepping stones that will lead to your objectives.

Improved prospecting, generating more qualified leads, and tailoring sales processes to market research to make existing sales processes more efficient

These tactics are still theoretical and don't have to be set in stone at this phase. But this is a space to describe specifics like customer survey or beta testing methods, social media marketing campaign concepts, new sales techniques, or new ways of utilizing existing sales software and resources.

Leverage social media influencer outreach with influencer-specific promo codes

As anyone who's ever watched a heist movie knows, every great plan needs a crack team. In this section, you'll list either each member of your sales team or the team leads, depending on your team size. Beyond a simple list of names, here are some helpful elements to include about each:

Aptitudes or experience

Certifications or completed trainings

Hourly pay rate (for budgeting and forecasting)

Daily or weekly utilization limits

Associated accounts

This should help you outline a structure for assigning individual roles and responsibilities related to your strategies and tactics, ensuring you've got the people power to get the job done.

John Doe, UX specialist | $100/hour incurred expense | 20 hours/week floating utilization | Manager: Jane Doe | Responsible for analyzing survey data and making recommendations for UI updates

It's possible you may even need new hires, freelancers, additional trainings, certifications, or third-party agencies to do the things you need to do. List those here, so you can incorporate them into your time and expenses.

Stakeholders won't just want to know what you're going to do—they'll want to know how long it'll take. Outline your strategies by breaking them into key milestones and deadlines according to the personnel you have. This should also map to revenue projections as your strategies mature.

2/15: Complete market research | 3/1: Synthesize findings | 3/15: Schedule strategies for Q2 execution

The last thing you want is to create a beautiful, perfectly crafted sales plan and discover that you don't actually have the funds to execute it. Based on entries in the last few fields, you should have a good idea of expenses based on strategy resources, personnel utilization, timelines, and any purchases your team may need. 

Chart those here with estimates for any other potential expenses related to marketing, advertising, and sales promotion activities.

Sure, you've been making sales since you started executing your plan. But how do you know you're making enough sales to justify your efforts?

This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) come into play. By setting these during the sales planning stage, you allow stakeholders to measure the success of individual sales efforts, so you can report on how performance compares to sales targets over time. 

Potential challenges

If sales were easy, every company would be successful. Even at the planning stage, you should be able to see some possible roadblocks on the horizon.

The best plans are realistic enough to be actualized, so be realistic about what might stand in your team's way. Try to get ahead of challenges relating to things like target market sensitivities, general market conditions, internal resources, competition, seasonality, or campaign effectiveness. Then, come up with contingencies, so you're ready for these obstacles if they do arise.

Free sales plan templates

Here are three templates for the same general sales plan structure to choose from, depending on the level of granularity and presentation you're looking for.

Sales plan template 1: Comprehensive document

If you're looking to get buy-in for your sales plan from senior stakeholders, you'll need a document that can organize and communicate your research.

This comprehensive sales plan template includes fields for each of the sections outlined above. Just copy it, rename it to your liking, and then click into each field to start filling in the information outlined in this post. (For sections you don't need, just delete or fill with "N/A" and move along.)

Best for: Communicating every element of your sales plan in full detail with (virtually) unlimited space

Sales plan template 2: Summary document

Maybe you need a sales plan template that gets the point across quickly. This one distills the gist of a sales plan into six concise, actionable sections, so you can share the most important elements of every sales objective in one document.

If you need room for more objectives, just copy/paste an empty row.

Best for: Quickly sharing the fine points of a sales plan with only actionable takeaways

Sales plan template 3: Project workflow document

What does your sales plan look like on a day-to-day basis? If you're having a hard time translating that, use this template.

Just include your sequence of objectives and related tasks, include the person they're assigned to, and tweak the date ranges. You can even update the progress graph for each task as you progress through them.

Best for: Organizing tasks, roles, and timelines within a greater sales plan

How to start sales planning

Step 1: Start sales planning. Step 2: ? Step 3: Start selling.

Sales planning may not be that easy, but it doesn't have to be especially complicated, either. It should take enough time and resources to come up with a document that's persuasive and detailed but not so much that it cuts into the real money-making efforts themselves. 

Here are a few ways you can set your plan up for efficiency, success, and—maybe most importantly—stakeholder buy-in.

Start with competitor research

You may be tempted to start the sales planning process by outlining your objectives and tactics, but competitor research can go a long way in setting the stage for both. This can show you what works, how well it works, and what doesn't work. It can also show you opportunities to fill market gaps your competitors are missing.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but it can be very helpful to just reinvent what your competition is doing.

Don't shy away from established frameworks and methodologies

Here are a few benefits many of these can potentially bring:

Iterative internal processes

Improved collaboration

Predictable lines of communication between teams

More useful insights from stakeholders

More accurate internal data

More reliable goal-setting

Obviously, the benefits will depend on the types of frameworks and methodologies you use. But the real key to any of them is the ability to standardize some element of the planning process and make collaboration more efficient.

Collaborate with stakeholders to define success

You may have one definition of success, while your stakeholders have a completely different one. Remember that your objectives and KPIs need to have bases in two realities: the market's and your company's.

It's the job of senior stakeholders to align sales efforts with high-level goals that help keep the entire operation afloat. That means they may have goals in mind that conflict with your market research findings about sales potential. The sales team, on the other hand, may need to help align expectations with market realities.

Successful sales plans keep both parties on the same page. As such, it helps to collaborate before setting sales benchmarks to see what success can look like for all involved parties.

Don't forget about operations

S&OP helps align sales teams with operations teams to ensure they have the inventory needed to both keep up with demand and promote maximum stocking efficiency. Since inventory can take time and careful scheduling, it's best to get S&OP underway as early as possible. Demand forecasting, for example, is closely related to both sales and inventory projections, so combining these projections early is worthwhile.

Establish clear lines of communication

If all good plans require a team, then all good teams require sound communication.

Since sales campaigns require collaboration between multiple parties and teams, it helps to have open communication channels during the sales planning process. This could mean adopting an Agile workflow and establishing daily Scrum meetings, hosting regular "office hours," or even just checking in with team leads.

While you're setting up these channels, tap them to get more accurate insights into sales planning elements like budgets, assets, and resource needs.

Types of sales plans

While the sales plan templates in this post are somewhat generically designed for new product or feature launches, there are tons of other types of sales plans you can choose from. Many expand on specific elements already included at a high level in our templates, foregoing some of the other sections that aren't as relevant. 

If you know you want your plan to have a more granular focus on specific use cases, you could consider one of these options.

New product sales plan

This details the introduction and promotion of a recently launched or forthcoming product. Similar to the template and example in this post, it can be for a physical product, digital product, or service. It includes general information without getting too bogged down in details.

Best for: General sales planning for new products, services, or features

Milestone sales plan

Prioritizing timelines, this plan delineates sales objectives and targets to be achieved within specific timeframes. Typically, these timelines fall into weekly, monthly, and quarterly milestones. You can list these in a timeline section for any plan, but this plan is structured around those elements.

Best for: A bird's-eye view of the time a sales campaign will take

30/60/90 sales plan

This sales strategy outlines goals and priorities for the first three months of a new hire's tenure, typically focusing on short-term objectives. This can lean toward onboarding milestones to get the new rep up-to-date on sales processes.

Best for: Bringing on new sales reps

Sales budget plan

As a financial framework, this plan details allocated resources for sales activities and expenses to achieve revenue targets. This gets much more granular about the costs associated with sales, making that element of planning its primary focus.

Best for: Communicating nuanced expense figures

Sales tactics plan

Similar to a sales budget plan, a sales tactics plan is mainly concerned with one area of the sales planning process: the tactics. It takes a comprehensive approach to specifying the methods and techniques required to achieve sales goals and overcome challenges.

Best for: Communicating specific details about sales strategies

Sales territory plan

This one makes me think of classic mob movies—two families hashing out their territories in the Bronx over plates of spaghetti. It's a strategic outline of how you'll distribute sales resources within specific geographic areas or customer segments.

Best for: Segmenting sales efforts geographically

Sales focus area plan

This one highlights specific product lines, customer segments, or markets on which the sales team will concentrate their efforts. It helps align sales team members on their individual responsibilities.

Best for: Setting expectations for sales team roles

Market expansion plan

When you use this sales plan, you're taking a strategic approach to broadening the reach of a product or service by entering new geographical areas or targeting additional customer demographics. You can tailor it to go deep on a range of KPIs that suit your specific goals for saturation. 

Best for: Planning specifically for market growth KPIs

Marketing alignment plan

Marketing and sales—one hand (or team) washes the other. To help bump that cleaning sesh along, consider one of these plans. They help coordinate strategies, ensuring a solid connection between sales and marketing efforts.

Best for: Aligning sales and marketing teams

Growth action plan

This strategic roadmap details initiatives and steps to foster business expansion, increase market share, and achieve sustainable growth. It includes actionable strategies for making growth-oriented goals a reality.

Best for: Establishing actionable strategies for growth KPIs

Sales planning tips

As you build out your sales plan, you might find that you need a little help. Here are some of our top tips for sales planning:

Know your audience: The sales plan will either be for stakeholders, team members, or both. Write to their level and with the level of detail they need.

Start with SWOT: A SWOT analysis is a great way to get a quick, relevant picture of fundamental sales plan elements like aptitudes, challenges, and opportunities.

Budget carefully: Not every sales plan style includes budgets by default—but don't let this deter you. It's vital to know what you can afford before you start executing your plan.

Vary strategies: To reduce volatility, try to keep your sales tactics varied. This also helps you find the strategies that work best and back them with data.

Continue monitoring: You can't know if you hit your KPIs unless you monitor according to the benchmarks you're tracking.

Make a (sales) plan to automate

Hopefully this post has you pumped for sales planning—or at least finding a mysterious new three-step business model (or even just watching "South Park"). 

Related reading:

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Bryce Emley

Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. His work has been published in magazines including The Atlantic, Boston Review, Salon, and Modern Farmer and has received a regional Emmy and awards from venues including Narrative, Wesleyan University, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Pablo Neruda Prize. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry.

• Sales & business development

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Sales Route Planner - Get Optimized Routes in Seconds

For any field sales rep, route planning for multiple stops  is a crucial part of the job.

In the days of maps and atlases, it took a lot of time to plan your day. To find the best sales route , you had to study a map for hours, and even after that, you could still run into a closed street or have to stop along the way to ask for directions.

But even today, in the age of Google Maps, route planning still takes up too much of a salesperson’s time. Google Maps’ route planner falls short as a sales trip planner because it tells you how to get from point A to point B, but it doesn’t optimize your route when you have more than one stop , nor does it help you with any other aspect of the sales process.

Fortunately, field salespeople don’t need to worry about those problems anymore. With a sales route planner such as  Badger Maps , they can not only plan optimized routes to all their daily appointments - they can do much more.

Badger Maps helps you plan your daily sales routes in minutes , avoid possible roadblocks, and spend more time closing deals . 

Badger Maps is a field sales route planner that is designed specifically for salespeople to increase their productivity. The app is user-friendly, highly customizable, and 100% mobile, making it the best sales route planner app on the market.

Sales Route Planner

Why Is Badger Maps The Best Sales Rep Route Planner?

Create Shorter, Faster Sales Routes

Seamless crm integrations, easily visualize your accounts, check in after every meeting, find new leads around you, never miss a follow-up, get your sales team aligned, try out the best sales route planner, other route planners, google maps.

More Questions About Sales Route Planners

Why Is Badger Maps The Best Sales Rep Route Planner?

Badger Maps is a sales mobile app that streamlines your entire sales process and allows you to spend less time driving, less time on boring administrative tasks, and more time doing what actually matters - selling! On average, sales teams who use Badger Maps sell 22% more and drive 20% less.

So, how does Badger Maps yield such amazing results? How is it different from a regular route-planner such as Google Maps ? Through its great sales-specific features, that help you stay organized, on-time, and ready to close!

Route Optimization allows you to cut down your daily planning from hours to just minutes. By having the fastest route to all your meetings, you’ll save money on gas and connect with many more customers.

By colorizing your pins on the map, you can see at a glance where you will make the most impact , and plan your day accordingly.

If you find yourself with some downtime, you can take advantage of the lead generation feature and add new appointments or find new prospects on-the-go .

Plus, logging your meeting information is no longer a tedious process since Badger Maps  syncs all your meeting info with your CRM right from the field. 

The cherry on top? At the end of the week, you’ll receive an automatically generated custom report of your activity so you can easily analyze your sales performance. 

Read on to discover the amazing features that make Badger Maps much more than just a sales trip planner:

• Create Shorter, Faster Routes
• Easily Visualize your Accounts

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Badger Maps lets you select the accounts you want to visit and automatically generates the fastest, most efficient sales route . 

Saving time on sales route mapping and driving will give you more time to nurture new leads, meet prospects, and most importantly, close more deals. In fact, reps who use Badger Maps  save an average of 8 hours per week on planning , and meet with 2 additional clients or prospects each day.

Once you’ve created a route with up to 120 stops, you can go into Route Mode, where you’ll get turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps or Waze, guaranteeing you will never be late to an appointment . If at any moment while on the road you need to add an extra appointment or make a quick stop for food or gas, you’re all covered. You can easily add or delete stops and Badger Maps will automatically re-optimize your route.

As Badger Maps integrates with leading CRM’s such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, HubSpot, Insightly, NetSuite and many more, salespeople have the opportunity to mobilize their CRM , allowing them to access and update important customer information directly from the field.

The data you have in your CRM is vital to you as a salesperson. Here you will find all of your important customer information, so by integrating with Badger Maps you can have all of those important details at hand, helping you to increase efficiency in a variety of different ways.

Sales teams using Badger maps have reported an increase in CRM usage by 50% .

“CRM usage increased more than 50% once our sales team adopted Badger”

Regional Sales Manager, Danaher

Badger Maps Visualization options make territory management simple.

The colorize and filtering tools allow you to effortlessly plan your days. With a quick look at the map, you can visualize your top accounts, mass update information, see who’s generating revenue , and much more. 

Plus, filters are fully customizable, letting you visualize accounts based on priority, type, next step, or any other field you find useful.

Want to take action after viewing your accounts on the map? Just use the Lasso tool to select the accounts you want to visit, and voilà—you have an optimized route!

With the Check-in feature, you can log customer interactions as soon as they take place , making it easy to keep track of valuable information.

When creating a Check-in, you can select the type of customer interaction you had (i.e., meeting, phone call, email), write down your notes, and automatically sync the notes to your CRM, saving you time on tedious administrative tasks.

Since Badger Maps is available across all devices, you can access this information while in the field . Imagine how many more deals you can close with the right information on hand!

Every Friday, you’ll receive an automatically generated report of all your field activity for the week, making it easy to see where to focus your time and plan your next steps.

Ever had a meeting get canceled at the last minute? With Badger Maps Lead Generation tool that’s not a problem.

It allows you to search for prospects by business category and view their location and contact information.

So whether an appointment got canceled or you just have some spare time, you’ll find opportunities around every corner.

Studies have shown that 80% of deals need five or more follow-ups to close. With Badger Maps, you can make sure you never miss a single one.

The Follow-ups feature lets you add a date for your next follow-up appointment, and set an appointment reminder.

With Follow-ups to keep you on track, you will never miss an opportunity simply because you forgot to contact a prospect .

As a member of a sales team, it can be hard to stay up to date with what other reps are doing. The Badger Maps team-view makes collaboration easy. You can view the status of team member accounts, view territories, and access your team’s activity.

Managers get ‘Manager View’, which allows them to access team member Check-ins, territories, routes, and activity reports.

This information allows sales managers to understand what’s happening in the field, empowering them to make more strategic decisions that will help their reps .

Managers are also able to rebalance their reps’ territories and access or edit their routes at any time. 

With a sales management tool like Badger Maps, everyone on the team will be on the same page, regardless of where they are at in the field.

Badger Maps is the #1 field sales app  since it does much more than just planning routes. It helps field salespeople with every single aspect of their jobs, all the way from prospecting to closing. 

On average, sales teams using Badger Maps sell 22% more and drive 20% less. The best way to see the value of Badger Maps is by trying it out yourself. Start a free trial today!

When it comes to sales route planners, there’s no better option than Badger Maps . 

However, if you’re starting out in field sales and need to build simple routes or you don’t need your phone for navigation, there are some other good options you can try:

Price: Free

Main Features: Routing, Turn-by-Turn Directions, Live Traffic Conditions

Top Benefit: Easy to use

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5

Although it was not designed specifically for sales, Google Maps is a go-to option for simple sales routing . Google Maps is the leading route-planner on the market, and for good reason. It’s an easy-to-use and free route planner that’s available right on your smartphone. With just a few taps, you can create a route for travel by foot, car, bicycle, or public transport.

You can add up to 9 stops to your route , search for gas or food at any moment, and receive turn-by-turn directions with real-time traffic updates to remain on the quickest route to your destination.

As Google Maps is one of the leaders in the space, it is constantly evolving and revolutionizing how route planners work. With the help of AI, they have recently launched Immersive View , a feature that allows users to get a 3D view of a location, adding information such as the current weather and live traffic updates to give you a good idea of what’s happening there.

As a sales route planner, Google Maps falls a bit short since it does not optimize routes with multiple stops , which for busy salespeople is a must. A typical salesperson can meet up to twenty customers a day, meaning the Google Maps route planner just isn’t going to cut it.  

Nor does it include features that help with other parts of the sales process, like customer data logging or lead generation. 

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Price : $99/month

Main Features: Sales Data Visualization, Embed Maps within Websites 

Top Benefit: Data Analysis

Despite not having a route optimization feature, BatchGeo is still a good option as a sales route planner for a number of reasons.

It’s biggest strength is its ability to map valuable sales information such as customers, leads, and assets. After creating a map, you can visualize it in a number of different ways to analyze your data more accurately and make informed decisions.

While BatchGeo doesn’t provide turn-by-turn directions , it will work with an existing GPS on your smartphone to track your location. Maps can be emailed to anyone, meaning managers can dispatch routes from the office, and reps in the field can share routes between themselves. Users can also create multiple maps and store them on their device for future use.

With BatchGeo, you can actually import your customers’ addresses and plot and route to your destinations, but it won’t be optimized. You’ll need to do it manually.

As a multi-stop route planner, Batch-Geo can be used by salespeople, but it lacks key features such as route optimization, turn-by-turn directions, local traffic analysis, and all around flexibility that most sales professionals require.

Price : $0/month Starter, $30/month Plus, $60/month Pro, $90/month Enterprise

Main Features: Route Optimization, Data Visualization, Territory Management 

Top Benefit: Data Mapping and Visualization

Capterra Rating : 4.8/5

With Mapline, you can simply copy and paste your spreadsheet data into their web-based software and create a map with all your customer data.

Mapline makes it easy to analyze trends using segmentation and filtering, so you can rearrange your sales territories and make strategic decisions based on your data.

Mapline also allows you to create optimized routes , so after analyzing and segmenting your data, you’re ready to hit the ground running. They have also recently made some important updates that allow users to customize their stop points to ensure they are meeting their most important customers first.  

The only drawback? Mapline only works on your computer since they don’t offer a mobile app for now. 

Price : Free

Main Features: Turn-by-Turn Directions, Traffic Notifications, Mobile Speed Checks, Carpool

Top Benefit: Traffic, Hazard, and Police Detection

Play Store Review : 4.4/5

Although quite similar to Google Maps, Waze has a lot of features that make it an option worth considering for salespeople trying to plan simple routes. 

The best thing about Waze is that it uses real-time user data to show real-time road conditions and information about potential hazards and police locations.  

With Waze, you can also plan trips in advance and decide on the best departure time based on traffic, which might prove useful for some salespeople.  

Waze only allows you to add two stops , meaning if you want to create a route with a large number of stops, Waze’s trip planner is not going to be the solution for you. This can be too time-consuming for salespeople as they look to minimize their time on the road.

Waze is a fun alternative to most of its competitors, with cool and engaging themes and even options to get voice directions by your favorite celebrities! 

They are also currently beta-testing a new feature that informs users of roads that have a history of crashes, a feature that will be sure to delight users looking for the safest route to their destinations.

Badger Maps, the Highest Ranked App in Business to Business (B2B) Mapping Apps Category

Image credit to MatrixPlace, a sales consulting firm that wrote an Analyst Report on Sales Mapping Software

Badger Maps is the Leading High-Performer in Field Sales and the Only App Focused on B2B Sales in the G2 Grid "Leaders" section

Other Apps that are "Leaders" focus on Business to Consumer (B2C), Door to Door (D2D) or Retail Execution which is used to track order and inventory management, shelf space, end caps, and promotions.

BADGER PAYS FOR ITSELF WITH GAS SAVINGS

See the potential return on investment you can get by using Badger Maps with your field sales team.

The Best App for Field Sales People

Learn how you can maximize your sales routes & sell more with Badger Maps

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All about Sales Plans: Definitions, Tips, and Free Templates

By Kate Eby | July 27, 2018

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In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about sales plans: how they relate to sales forecasting and sales pipelines, as well as benefits, challenges, and tips for getting the most out of your sales plans.

Included on this page, you’ll find over 8 free sales plan templates , learn the difference between sales forecasting and sales planning , and find best practices for writing a sales plan .

Free Sales Plan Templates

In this section, you’ll find over 15 free sales planning templates in Microsoft Excel and Word formats.

Sales Plan Template

‌  Download Excel Template

Try Smartsheet Template

This template allows you to plan your sales goals with the flexibility and functionality of an Excel spreadsheet. This sales plan template is divided into 12 months and separate product lines. The template includes columns for the previous year’s performance, current sales goals, and outcome. Create a yearly sales plan, and compare data over time and across products.

Keep deals moving forward with sales pipeline management in Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform that allows sales teams to effectively manage pipelines by creating one location to track and manage efforts, surface open and at-risk opportunities, and provide real-time visibility to improve forecasting. See Smartsheet in action.  

Watch a free demo

Sales Leads Template

Try Smartsheet Template  

If you want to keep track of sales leads, but don’t need the full functionality of customer relationship management (CRM) software, this spreadsheet may be adequate for your business. The template has columns for detailed information about each sales lead, including contact dates and status — this allows you to keep track of communications with each customer, plan future contacts and follow-ups, and evaluate potential sales. You can also indicate lead sources on the spreadsheet to monitor your marketing efforts and track how customers are referred to your business.

Sales Tracker Template

This sales tracker template makes it easy to keep track of items sold, along with profit per item and total earned income. You can also track costs, including shipping charges and returns. This template is especially useful for a new business, online retail sales, or any small business that wants to track sales and profits.

Sales Pipeline Template

Try Smartsheet Template   ‌

This sales pipeline template is an alternative to CRM software and is designed with small businesses in mind, use it to keep track of contacts and estimated sales. It also provides a quarterly sales forecast, along with space to record deal status, projected closing date, and further actions. This simple template is easy to edit and serves as a management tool for your sales pipeline.

Sales and Marketing Plan Template

‌  Download Template in Word

Try Smartsheet Template  ‌

Creating an effective sales and marketing plan may involve market research and analysis, evaluating your competition, looking at your sales history, examining future sales projections, and more. Once you have adequate information to develop a sales plan, a template can help you organize the plan into steps that will drive sales. This sales and marketing plan template provides space for identifying your sales goal, target customers, strategies for attracting those customers, marketing tactics and messages, scheduled action steps, and results.

Sales Funnel Template

‌ ‌ Download Sales Funnel Template - Excel

This sales funnel template provides a visual representation of the sales process, along with whatever sales data you choose to include. The template can be used as a scorecard to evaluate sales progress, and the funnel makes it easy to visualize the steps in your sales process. This free template is a simple but effective tool for reaching sales and business goals.

Sales Report Template

‌ ‌ Download Sales Report Template

Track monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales activity with this free sales report template. Customize the template or use the existing columns to keep track of sales and pertinent data. This sales report template also includes a monthly forecast showing sales history and projections. Use this template to track progress, plan future goals, and create a sales report with pleasing visual design.

Sales Action Plan Template

Download Sales Action Plan Template

Create a sales plan with actionable steps and a scheduled timeline. This template features sections for listing clearly defined goals, methods for measuring success, action steps, ownership for each step, and deadlines. These are all important components of a sales action plan for reducing risk and increasing the probability that you will reach your sales goals.

Using a Sales Plan Template

Finding the right sales template provides easy organization and efficiency, which frees up resources and time that can go toward reaching business goals. A template can also be a powerful communication tool for sales and marketing teams to develop and track their progress against sales targets. Depending on the nature and scope of your company, some templates can be a component of an effective business plan.

The Basics of a Sales Plan

A sales plan outlines sale goals for a cycle, as well as the steps you will take to hit those targets. The sales plan document also defines tools, high-level tactics, target customers, competitors, obstacles, among other details. A strong plan will communicate company goals to the sales team, keep everyone focused on strategy, and delineate priorities.

What Is the Difference Between Sales Forecasting and Sales Planning?

While many people confuse the two terms, sales forecasting and sales planning are distinct concepts. A sales forecast is a future projection of sales based on business and environmental conditions, while a sales plan defines the concrete steps needed to achieve the sales forecast. You can create a sales forecast for your entire business or for a particular initiative over any period of time (examples include an economic forecast; an industry forecast; a company forecast; and a short-, medium-, or long-term forecast).

Sales plans are helpful tools when budgeting for advertising or travel costs, identifying new sales markets, planning for staffing needs, and creating a timeline to reach milestones. But a sales plan is just one piece of the business planning and management — and it relies on accurate sales forecasting. You can get free sales forecasting templates here .

Large organizations, small businesses, and startups can all equally benefit from sales planning. Sales forecasts and plans are most often used by the sales team, although marketers, executives, and even customers may interact with the documents as well.

What Is a Sales Pipeline?

A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospective buyers are in the sales process. A sales pipeline can quickly identify a prospect’s position in the buying journey; use that information to support them and respond to their needs appropriately.

While a specific buyer’s journey will vary based on the industry and type of products or services sold, there are three general phases of any sales pipeline:

A prospect initiates contact with a company and explains its needs.

A salesperson provides the prospect with a quote (including the product or service and price).

The prospect purchases a product or service (and thereby becomes a customer).

Use the targeted sales pipeline templates above to track potential customers’ journeys through the process.

What Is the Sales Funnel? 

The sales funnel is a visual representation of the average conversion rate of potential customers and qualified leads move through the sales process. Sales teams can use the sales funnel to help understand the volume of sales, as well as the percentage of each sale that has passed through each sales process stage.

The sales pipeline represents what the seller is doing during the sales process; the sales funnel shows the sales process conversion rates. The sales funnel feeds the sales pipeline; once a lead is converted into a prospect, they move into the sales pipeline.

Benefits of Using a Sales Plan

A high-quality sales plan is one of the key parts of the sales forecasting process as well as the operational plan and the marketing strategy. When done right, a sales plan can provide the following benefits:

• Guide and contribute to business growth.
• Communicate company sales goals, objectives, and strategic direction for the sales team and leadership.
• Expose new angles based on the research performed to fill out the items on the template. 
• Define needed actions during the sales cycle.
• Provide easy monitoring of sales team progress as linked to goals.
• Provide a high-level view of expenses, finances, and risks, as well as the competition and target customers. 
• Improve and track performance by keeping the team focused on the strategy, priorities and achieving shared milestones.
• Inspire and motivate stakeholders.
• Help keep customers and potential customers as the focus.
• Clarify team capabilities.
• Aid in comparison of targets and results.

Best Practices for Writing a Sales Plan

While creating the sales plan, take the following steps in order to create a quality and realistic plan:

• Perform a SWOT analysis.
• Review prior periods’ performance to gather data.
• Base the targets and goals on market research and historical data.
• Verify facts and data being used.
• Break down data by different sales groups (inside sales, outside sales, etc.).
• Make sure the sales team buys in to the plan.
• Identify patterns that can help reach target customers.
• Pick a time period that makes sense for your industry.
• Ensure that the budget is supported by the research.
• Ensure that sales objectives are linked to sales goals, and that sales goals are linked to business goals.
• Break down estimated expenses to meet sales goals into groups (commissions, sales training, sales tools and resources, contest prizes, team building, travel costs, food, etc.). 
• Use the SMART goals model (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). 
• Measure what you want to manage.
• Keep the plan updated throughout the sales cycle — it’s a living document.
• Keep the plan as simple as possible.
• Look for untapped market segments to target.
• Define the value proposition for potential customers.
• Map out the ideal customer journey.

Sales Plans Challenges

While a sales plan is a valuable tool, creating one does pose some challenges: 

• Creating a sales plan can be very time consuming.
• Inaccurate data will skew forecasts — verify your numbers before you finalize the plan. 
• It’s difficult to predict changing tastes, so forecasts may not be met.
• Rapid growth may increase the workload of the sales team, and throw off forecasts.
• Be careful not to move goalposts mid-cycle.
• Wishful thinking is easy to do, so be realistic and don’t ignore your own assumptions.
• Neglecting to consult with the sales team may prevent them from buying into the plan.
• Neglecting to get feedback from other groups can have a negative impact on the plan.

What Is Included in a Sales Plan?

The sales plan contains numerous sections that provide information to readers, and help guide decisions that will contribute to meeting sales goals.

• Mission and Executive Summary: Include a short history of the business for background.
• Team Structure: Provide a breakdown of the team by sales team, including each person’s role and capabilities. Also include plans for any future hiring.
• Target Customers: Break down the customer list into segments by products or product lines. Build a prospect list that includes referrals, renewals, upsells, and any new segments, and make sure to leverage existing customer relationships.
• Tools, Software, and Other Resources: Include a list of CRM packages or other sales tools (including training tools), and provide any relevant documentation.
• Positioning: Include competitor data, including a comparison of your products with theirs. Anticipate how market trends may impact your business.
• Marketing Strategy: Include pricing information, promotions, and any actions you have planned to increase brand awareness.
• Prospecting Strategy: List criteria for qualifying leads generated by marketing strategy. 
• Action Plan: Include a list of steps needed to hit revenue and sales goals.
• Revenue and Sales Goals: Include measurable, realistic goals that support the overall business. Additionally, supply information on how performance will be measured and monitored, and be sure to base projections off historical data.
• Budget: Include estimated costs (including training, sales tools and resources, team building activities, travel, food, contest prizes, etc.). Make a case for the budget you present.
• Schedule: Provide a timeline that addresses the length of the sales cycle covered by the plan (annual, quarterly, month, etc.).
• Other Items: Consider including a performance review of the prior sales cycle, as well as market and industry conditions that may impact sales.

Improve Sales Planning with Smartsheet for Sales

Sales planning is an activitiy to gain and retain customers, meet changing market demands, and ultimately, ensure business success. While premade templates can help you get started developing your plan, you need a tool to manage all of your sales processes and operations that is accessible to your team in real time and allows you to collaborate and track sales activity across multiple reps.

Smartsheet is a work execution platform that enables enterprises and teams to get from idea to impact - fast. Top performing sales organizations rely on Smartsheet to stay on top of leads, accelerate productivity, and exceed every quota.

Use Smartsheet to build a strong opportunity pipeline, reduce risks and identify blockers, and refine your sales forecast. Improve transparency to process and procedure, optimize operations with cross-department collaboration, and accelerate team output.

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How to Create a Sales Plan: A Complete Guide (Tips + Examples)

Write a sales plan that can adjust to change, and zero in on the actions that will hit your goals.

Scott Leese

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There is a world where sales planning happens once a year. You draw it up in January — “Whew, I’m glad that’s done!” — and everything goes as you planned. You hit your goals.

Meanwhile, on Earth, you create a plan, start to act on it, and everything hits the fan. A competitor launches a new product, an analyst switches up their report, and your best sales rep quits.

Below we share tips for how to create a sales plan that can bend, not break. You’ll learn why a plan is so important, see examples of the different types, and discover how to create one that brings you closer to your big, hairy revenue goals while also driving down costs.

What you’ll learn:

What is a sales plan, why is a sales plan important, sales plan process, sales plan types, how to create a sales plan, 5 tips for optimising your sales plan, attain quota faster and speed up sales ops .

Learn how Sales Performance Management helps you connect customer data to sales planning and execution. 

Put simply, a sales plan is a blueprint for hitting revenue targets. It begins when sales leaders define long-term company goals. Next, they set the stage for achieving those goals by establishing hiring plans, sales quotas, and a sales budget. Sales managers use these high-level plans to create strategies for their teams that will help them achieve long-term company goals, adjusting as market conditions change. They make decisions around compensation, territories, and customer segments. Finally, sellers translate the annual plan into account plans to close individual deals.

Sales planning provides clear goals and a way to achieve them. Without it, a business likely doesn’t what their revenue targets are or how they’re going to grow. But these are only some of the advantages of an effective sales plan. Here are a few other key ones:

Determines actions required to achieve goals

Sales planning lets you test and measure how different actions will affect your numbers, so you can choose the right path forward to hit your goal. You begin by adding up the numbers you know — how much your team will likely sell (based on past performance) and how much it will cost (based on your current resources). You’ll arrive at a prediction of the numbers you’ll hit.

If the prediction falls short of your targets, a plan helps you test different scenarios, so you can find the action that allows you to hit your target number in the most cost-effective way.

What if you hire more people? Increase your quotas? Level up your enablement program to increase win rates (the number of deals that close)? Sales planning gives you the framework to crunch the numbers until you find the reality that matches your dream.

Increases engagement

With a plan, your sales team has the support needed to meet both their personal goals and the company’s goals. When a new representative joins the team, for example, the plan tells them the daily activities they need to complete to help meet their sales goals. If an established sales representative begins struggling to hit their goals, the plan provides the resources to grow their customer base.

This level of support creates a more engaged sales team, which often means a higher-performing team. When the sales team has the support they need, the company has a better retention rate because the sales team is successful. The business also earns a reputation for having clear goals that help lead to success, making it easier to hire new sales representatives.

Increases revenue and reduces expenses

Simply put, a plan helps the business allocate resources correctly, which saves money. For example, leaders aren’t hiring too many sales representatives for one territory while hiring too few reps in others, which means money burned and opportunities wasted.

At the same time, a clear plan makes it easier for sales representatives to achieve their goals, which means more revenue for the company. Because the sales team is hitting their goals, they are less likely to leave, which saves money on hiring, training, and lost revenue due to open positions.

Many organisations think of sales planning as happening in the fall in preparation for the upcoming calendar year. While this may work for an established company, it’s not a realistic or sound approach for most companies.

Businesses should conduct a formal sales planning process annually, and then regularly review that plan throughout the year to make sure it still makes sense. Otherwise, the organisation may miss out on new opportunities to grow revenue and make changes that can reduce losses.

The frequency with which companies should review their plan depends on the stability of the business, market changes, and the complexity of the plans. Startups and new companies should review their plan at least every quarter. Established companies launching new products should review the plans for the new product lines at least every quarter, and perhaps monthly in the early days after launch.

The different types of plans are meant to bring together your company’s long-term vision, short-term tactics, and everything in between. Leaders set a five-year vision for where the company is heading. Then, sales managers step into a new time frame — the year ahead — and build sales forecasts and territory plans that help sellers hit their numbers. They come up with capacity plans to make sure teams are running lean and mean. Finally, sellers create account plans for every deal.

Let’s take a closer look at these different types of plans with the examples below.

Long -range plan

This is where leadership — the CEO, chief revenue officer, CFO, and VP of sales — comes together and sets the long-term path for the company. They’re thinking about where the opportunities are and how to seize them. For example, they might decide to grow annual contract value (ACV) by $30 million in the next five years while also slowing the rate of hiring — because they want to make existing sellers more productive instead.

Annual plan

The sales manager creates an annual plan to set more immediate targets that will help the company get closer to the goals established in the long-range plan. This plan begins with an understanding of the team’s capacity, or how much revenue they’re likely to produce. From there, territories, quotas, and compensation plans are set to ensure that sellers hit their numbers.

Let’s say the long-range plan is to achieve $30 million in ACV over the next five years while also making sellers more productive. In that case, a sales manager might set targets of $4 million in ACV in the first year and increase the quotas that sellers carry to achieve that goal rather than hire more people.

Territory plan

A territory plan focuses on a specific type of target customer. However, you shouldn’t just segment customers based on geography. Also segment them based on categories meaningful to the business. For example, if you want to sell to more enterprises, you might want to segment customers by organisation size and match sellers with enterprise expertise to enterprise companies . Territory planning makes it easier to assign sales representatives to the best territory for their expertise. For example, a salesperson who used to work as a registered nurse may be assigned to healthcare customers.

Account plan

Now that sellers know their targets and their territories, they take on planning of their own — customer by customer — with account plans. They strategise how to bring more value to every conversation and close individual deals . They research the needs of the customer, identify obstacles that stand in the way of selling, and list action items for how to build relationships to move each deal forward. Then, they work with different people within their company to execute their account plans. They might connect with business development representatives (BDRs) to get a foot in the door with new leads, or with solution engineers to create demos for presentations.

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To create your annual plan for the year and make sure it can adapt to change, gather all your sales data into one place. Then, study how much your people can sell (based on historical data) and set targets (and incentives) that will make your goal a reality. Use technology that can update all your plan data in real-time, so you can measure the impact of change and adjust to stay on track.

Ready to create your plan? Here’s how to take it one step at a time.

1. Connect plan data with your CRM

It’s important to build your plan in customer relationship management (CRM) software . When you have all your sales data in one place, updated in real-time, you have visibility into changes that put your targets at risk.

It’s also a time-saver. Without this single source of truth, you’d be spending weeks manually pulling in data from different systems to understand what went wrong. With every passing day, the gap between your plan and your reality would widen.

Imagine that you begin an enterprise sales push with 50 sellers in January, but two quit in March. A CRM can send you an alert that you’re under target. That real-time data is critical if you want to adjust your plan quickly to stay on track.

If your organisation does not currently have a CRM, look for one that uses AI , pulls in data from any source, integrates with your other systems, and helps automate repeatable business functions. If you already use a CRM, take a comprehensive look at your sales efforts by ensuring all sales and customer data is connected.

2. Understand your team’s capacity (how much they can sell)

Using your CRM data, take a look at capacity — or much revenue you predict your team can sell during the coming year. To calculate capacity, look at all metrics that affect sales output — including hiring data, a review of quotas and targets, and historical sales rep performance data — to predict future sales.

Using the example above, you might determine that based on the previous year’s performance, each seller, on average, can bring in $120,000 worth of revenue. However, now that you’re down two sellers, you’re short $240,000 in your capacity.

3. Work with stakeholders across the organisation

A sales plan drives the direction of the entire organisation, so it should represent the goals and input of all stakeholders. In addition to sales and finance, customer success, product teams, finance, and marketing should also be included in the process. If only the sales department is included in crafting the draft, then you run the risk of the CFO showing up with a half-billion-dollar plan, the CEO a billion-dollar plan, and the head of sales with a quarter-billion-dollar plan.

4. Measure the gap between your reality and your dream

Now that you understand the reality of who’s under your roof — and how much you think your team can sell — determine the gap between your revenue predictions and your revenue targets.

For example, imagine your target from the long-range plan is to hit $6 million in ACV this year. With a $240,000 drop in your capacity, as we showed above, you’ll need to figure out how you can still meet the goal.

5. Find the actions to fill the gap and reach your goal

It’s time to write your plan to achieve your targets. Begin with the backbone — your team — and outline what’s expected (quotas), what the rewards are (compensation), how to organise customers (segments), and how to assign the reps (territories).

Then, to close the gap and hit your targets, create “what if” scenarios to test the impact of different possible actions. The guideposts here should be cost savings and efficiency — how to hit your target by making the most of what you have. What if you hire two more people? (Straightforward, sure, but hardly cost-effective.) What if you assign your highest performers to more lucrative territories? What if you create an enablement program that trains your sellers in a strategic industry?

In the example above, you’re trying to find a way to add $240,000 to your capacity without adding cost. One of the scenarios you tested shows that a new enablement program might do the trick because training your sellers to sell more effectively can help you close more and bigger deals. This can be your Plan A. But since it will require investing in a new enablement program, you might want to come up with a Plan B as well that doesn’t require additional budget. For example, you might propose increasing each seller’s quota.

6. Present your proposed actions to leadership and execute

Make your case to leadership to gain approval on your proposed best action. Show them the data in your plan to demonstrate why your proposed solution will hit your targets and be cost-effective at the same time.

You might make the case for Plan A: investing in a new enablement program. If leadership balks because of cost, then it’s time to roll out Plan B: increase each seller’s quota instead. Sales reps might protest at first, but you can reframe it as an opportunity to make more money.

You’re in sales, remember? Finding the positive spin is what you do.

7. Keep adjusting and stay on target even as market conditions change

Change will come — whether from outside forces (a disruption in your customer base) or inside forces (a pivot in your product roadmap). The mindset shift is to take your plan down from the shelf, dust it off, and reimagine it as a living, breathing thing. It’s something you adjust continually throughout the year — with your sights pinned to your goal.

Sales plan examples

While plans can be exceptionally detailed, the following examples show the basic structure of two types of plans.

Basic annual plan

Goal: Increase sales by 15% to reach 10.5 million in 2025

Sales cycle: January 2025 to December 2025 Target average contract value: $100,000 Target close rate: 20%

Metrics to track:

• Conversations

Resources required to implement plan:

• 1 new entry-level sales representative
• 1 part-time admin support role
• Training for all representatives on new product launching in late 2024

Territory plan:

Territory: In 2025, The Widget Co is adding a healthcare vertical. While they currently have some healthcare customers, this new territory will be an area of growth.

Goal: Healthcare clients accounted for $100,000 in sales in 2024 Q1. Goal is 300K in sales in 2025 Q2.

Resources required:

• Shift 1 sales representative from government vertical (phasing out) to healthcare
• Dedicate part-time admin support to healthcare
• Allocate $50,000 in marketing budget for healthcare sponsorship

Sales planning only delivers the desired success if companies come up with the right plan for their specific business and goals. Without a plan that works for your specific organisation, you are not likely to see the expected results. Organisations that take the time to optimise their plan are more likely to enjoy better results.

Here are five tips for optimising your plan:

1. Collaborate early and often across the organisation

The most accurate plans are created when all departments work together. To ensure a cohesive plan, the needs of the entire organisation should be included in the very first draft — and as revisions are made. This ensures that the sales team has the right products to sell, and all leaders have skin in the game.

2. Include relevant details to help achieve the goals

While it’s tempting to include only the desired results, the most useful and accurate plans provide a roadmap for how to get to the destination.

The specific metrics you monitor should relate to goals that align with your specific sales plan. For example, if headcount is a current issue in your sales department, then tracking employee retention rates is important.

At the minimum, it’s recommended you track the following metrics to ensure sales efficiency:

• Average contract value
• Sales cycle

As noted above, consider adding other metrics that align with top-level goals. Think first about what the linchpin of the goal is (e.g. employees for retention goals) then identify all metrics related to it you should keep an eye on.

3. Consider the seasonality of your business

For sales, not all months are equal. Many businesses have seasonal sales cycles , such as slowdowns during the summer. By building this seasonality into the sales expectations, your plan will be more accurate than it would be if you set the same goals for every month.

For example, December has 15 to 17 effective selling days compared to 23 in other months due to the holidays and many customers taking time off the last week of the year. For that reason, most sales representatives are not going to close as many deals in December as they would in May.

4. Make goals based on the experience level of the team

While looking at the historical performance of the sales team is a good starting point, be sure to consider your current team, too. It takes a new sales representative time to build up their customer base and hit sales goals . Even with significant experience at other organisations, a new sales representative is not going to perform like a veteran in their first month. Create lower quotas for newer representatives as they ramp up and your plan will be easier to execute.

5. Use AI insights to build your plan

Historical data gives you a starting point for understanding what your team is capable of. AI tools can factor in additional variables, however, such as new sales representatives, new products, and even new competitors. By using technology such as sales planning software, you can keep sellers on track, configure plans easily, optimise in real-time, and improve operational flexibility.

Ready to turn your plan into a reality?

Complete the steps above, and you’re ready to roll. Study the real-time plan data in your CRM, measure the impact of the change on your goals, test different approaches, and go with the most promising one. This is agile sales planning. It says, “Bring it on!” to change.

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Scott Leese is the founder of Scott Leese Consulting. Armed with years of industry experience — and a proven track record of success — he focuses on a scalable approach to sales strategies, processes, people, and infrastructure. Scott is also a co-founder of Surf and Sales, a sales summit held ... Read More in Costa Rica. He an author and a 3X American Association of Inside Sales Professionals Top 25 Award Winner.

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Sales Route Planning with Maptive

Use route planning software to optimize your sales routes, allowing your reps to reduce their travel time and serve more clients.

Boost Productivity with Better Route Planning

How much money is your field sales team losing you? Sure they’re making sales, but they’re also burning gas, wasting time on bad routes, and arriving late to meetings due to poor route planning.

Luckily, there’s a simple solution to all of these problems. Maptive’s route optimizer makes planning routes easy. Quickly determine the fastest route between two or more stops to reduce your costs and increase productivity.

With the help of Maptive, your sales team will spend less time on the road and more time selling your products and services.

Simplify Outside Sales with Maptive’s Route Optimizer

When you use Maptive’s route sales route planner, you will:

• Schedule Sales Meetings Easier: Know exactly how long it will take to get from one stop to another so reps can schedule meetings accordingly.
• Plan Sales Routes Ahead of Time: Create routes with an unlimited number of stops. Reps can plan their routes before they leave so they’re better prepared.
• Get Turn-By-Turn Directions: Never get lost with clear and easy-to-understand directions for each stop.
• Reduce Travel Time: Your reps get to their meetings quicker, which is good for both you and your clients.
• Cut Costs: By optimizing your routes, you burn less gas, reduce wear and tear on your vehicles, and cut other travel-related expenses.
• Increase Productivity: Reps spend less time driving and more time following up with leads and serving existing clients.
• Meet with More Clients: Faster routes mean your reps can meet with more clients per day.
• Make More Sales: By traveling less and selling more, your reps will undoubtedly generate more sales and revenue for your business.

Advanced Features to Heighten Your Performance

Maptive is much more than just sales route planning software. Combine this tool with our many other features to discover new insights and take your business to the next level.

Maps Made for Your Business

Use a wide range of customization options to create a map that suits your unique needs:

• Change the shape and color of map markers.
• Choose from 15 different base maps.
• Insert custom images and use client logos to mark them on your map.

Only See What You Want To

Like any sales business, you likely have a lot of data. Displaying it all at once complicates your map and makes planning routes difficult. Maptive’s Filter Tool lets you decide what’s shown and what’s hidden.

Want to only see clients you’re meeting with that day? No problem. Want to toggle between leads and current clients? You can do that too. The power is in your hands.

Visualize Your Sales Territories

Effective territory management provides several benefits for your business:

• Ensure sales reps are only dealing with clients nearby. When combined with optimized routes, this reduces travel time and costs even further.
• Keep your accounts organized and make sure clients always deal with the same rep. This lets you provide better customer service.
• Balanced territories give all your reps equal opportunities, which leads to less employee turnover.

Build territories using established geographic boundaries, such as zip codes, counties, and states, or draw custom territories to suit the unique needs of your business.

Review & Export Sales Data

Want to know who’s making the most of their sales routes? Keep track of a wide range of data, including sales, clients, acquisition cost, revenue per sale, customer lifetime value, and more. Bring this data up within your map, or export it to a spreadsheet to share with your colleagues.

Get to Know Your Customers

Before you start planning sales routes for your clients, you should get familiar with their business and market. Display demographic data for a company’s local area, learn more about their customer base, and create a plan for them.

Maptive gives you access to a wide array of demographic census data, including:

• Citizenship status
• Transportation

The more your reps know about potential clients, the better chance they have of closing deals.

Team Up with Your CRM

A good CRM is the foundation of any successful sales business. So, any tool you use needs to seamlessly integrate with your CRM to provide the best results.

Maptive works with all the most popular CRMs, including Salesforce, Zoho, Keap, Pipedrive, HubSpot, and more. If you don’t find your CRM on our list, contact our support team to set up the integration.

Once Maptive is connected, your map will receive real-time updates whenever you add new information to your CRM. This ensures you always have the most up-to-date customer data when you’re scheduling meetings and planning routes.

Share Your Insights and Routes

Discovered a new trend on your map that you want to show your team? Need to give sales reps access to their routes? Maptive offers a number of sharing options:

• Save your map as an image
• Export data to a spreadsheet
• Send a link to your teammates
• Embed your map on a website

Add Our Mapping Experts to Your Team

When you use Maptive, you’re never alone. Our support agents are standing by to answer your questions and make sure everything works exactly how you want it to.

Check out our FAQ, send us a message, or start a live chat with one of our agents. Your success is our success, so we’re happy to help any way we can.

Start Planning Better Sales Routes Today

Are you ready to find the quickest routes, reduce your travel time, cut costs, and meet more clients? Start your Maptive free trial today to take it for a test drive.

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Understanding The Travel Sales Funnel: Why Is It Important To Map Every Stage

• Sales & Bookings

Did you know that 48% of marketers have put a major focus on improving their sales funnels?

And for good reason. A well-thought-out travel sales funnel can help you provide a seamless customer journey.

From the moment a potential customer discovers your business, to the moment they book a tour, you need to make sure that you guide them on a journey that helps to boost sales.

If you don't carefully plan out your travel sales funnel, you’ll be blindly targeting prospects with marketing messages and tactics that might not be effective at all. With a well-planned funnel in place, you’ll be able to increase conversions and achieve a better marketing ROI.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about creating an effective sales funnel for your travel business.

What is a travel sales funnel? 

A sales funnel depicts the different stages of the buyers' journey. It refers to the different steps a potential customer goes through as they discover your business, engage with your brand, and ultimately, become a customer.

It’s called a funnel because the top stages are very broad and the bottom stages are much more narrowed down. Whenever a new prospect discovers your business, your job is to move them down your travel sales funnel until they become customers.

Each of the different sales funnel stages requires different marketing tactics and messages to cater to your potential customers’ interests and knowledge as they progress through the buying journey.

What are the different sales funnel stages? 

From a broad perspective, your travel sales funnel can be broken down into four main stages.

1. Top of funnel 

The top-of-funnel stage is the most broad-reaching. This is where new prospects will discover and first come into contact with your brand.

This stage is also called the awareness stage , and it’s where your business reaches the widest audience. People who enter the awareness stage have a low chance of converting, as they have only just discovered your business.

2. Middle of funnel 

The middle of the funnel is also called the consideration stage . This is when prospects have discovered your business, and are learning more about what you do and what you can offer them.

Prospects at this stage are on their way to becoming customers, but there is still some work that needs to be done before they can get there. This section of the funnel includes most of the different stages of the buyers' journey.

3. Bottom of funnel 

The bottom of your sales funnel is also called the decision stage. This is when you’ve really narrowed down your prospective customers, and it’s when they are ready to buy. The people in this stage are MQLs or SQLs .

Although it’s the smallest stage of the funnel, the bottom is the most critical, as this is where you drive conversions. And where all of your marketing efforts pay off.

4. After Purchase 

Some sales funnel stages take a fourth stage into account. The after-purchase stage refers to how your business engages with existing customers after they have booked a tour. This stage is all about customer retention and generating brand loyalty (an after-sales service if you like).

Even though you have already converted the customer, it’s important to maintain a relationship with them. This helps you maximize the value from each customer that comes through your travel sales funnel.

Refining the Sales Funnel Stages 

The stages above provide a broad representation of your travel sales funnel. However, the different sales funnel stages do tend to go into a lot more detail than this, with each specific stage involving a variety of actions and decisions the customer faces.

Here is a more detailed look at the travel sales funnel.

Discovery 

This is the very top-of-funnel stage where a new prospect first discovers your brand. This could be because they searched for something that led them to your business ( inbound marketing ), or because you put out ads or outbound tactics that made potential customers discover your business.

Interest 

Once a prospect has discovered your brand, the next step is to build up their interest in what you offer. This is achieved through informative marketing content.

Appraisal 

Now the prospect starts comparing your travel business to other options and takes a more active approach to reach their buying decision.

Confirmation 

The prospect is close to making a purchase, but they just need to ensure your travel business is the right choice. Content like case studies and conversion-focused landing pages are used here.

Conversion 

This is the very bottom of the funnel, where the prospect actively makes a purchase and becomes a customer.

Each of these different sales funnel stages needs to work with each other and provide a seamless flow from one stage to the next in order for them to be successful.

Why is your travel sales funnel important? 

A travel sales funnel clearly organizes the different stages of the customer journey and helps you apply more relevant marketing and sales tactics to each stage.

By mapping out this journey with a funnel, your travel business can simplify the customer journey and gain a better understanding of where each of your prospects is in terms of making a buying decision.

Establishing a travel sales funnel also helps with measurability. You can apply KPIs and metrics to each stage of the funnel, and easily see where your prospects are dropping off and where you can optimize your sales funnel for better results.

Most importantly, your travel sales funnel provides a clear path that your prospects take from discovering your business to becoming customers. You can't just send a brand new prospect straight to a sales page - they won’t convert. Instead, you need to warm these prospects up with the right content and information. Mapping out a sales funnel will help you do this more effectively.

This goes to show how your travel sales funnel is a pivotal factor in guiding and establishing your marketing strategy.

Tying your sales funnel to your buyer personas 

When creating your travel sales funnel, it’s essential that you map out every stage based on your travel business’ buyer personas. Each target audience segment you have is different, which means that each business segment will have a unique journey when going through your sales funnel.

Your job is to ensure each segment has a relevant and valuable experience in your sales funnel. Getting this right is necessary for boosting conversions across all of your different customer groups.

For example, a family looking to plan a vacation is likely to take more time in the planning stage; compared to a solo traveler who just wants to snatch up a good deal. This means that you should create relevant content and messaging to help the family plan their trip. You should also have relevant content to help the solo traveler find the best deal and efficiently book it.

So, when you create your travel sales funnel, consider all of your different customer segments and the types of journeys they would have with your business. Then, ensure you offer relevant marketing content and use the right channels to engage these different audience segments during each stage of their journey.

This will likely involve a variety of different marketing channels, messages, automation, and tactics. By mapping these out in line with your different customer segments, these tactics will be more relevant. This will make them more impactful and effective.

Strategies to keep prospects moving through your travel sales funnel 

Now that you understand the different steps involved in your travel sales funnel, using the right strategies can assist in moving prospects successfully through the stages.

This entails delivering the right kind of content. It should be interesting, engaging content that talks about the prospect’s pain points and questions at the specific stage of their journey.

Depending on the target audience, the tactics you use can look different for each business. Here are some of the best strategies to implement for optimal engagement.

Awareness Stage 

As discussed, the awareness stage is all about attracting new customers and encouraging interest in your business in order to continue their journey through the funnel. Some of the best tactics for this stage are:

• SEO blog content
• YouTube videos
• Paid ads (search or social media)
• Social media content

Your ultimate goal should be to get them to progress to the next stage of your funnel - such as signing up for your newsletter.

Consideration Stage 

The middle of the funnel is when prospects have already discovered your business, and now they want to learn more about what you do and why your travel business is useful.

Some of the best content for this stage includes:

• Newsletters
• Lead nurturing campaigns (drip campaigns)
• Blog content that goes deeper into your prospects' pain points
• Case studies
• Testimonials and reviews

At this stage, you’re inspiring prospects, building trust with them, and getting them ready to book their travel experience with your business.

Conversion Stage 

Now your prospects should have all of the information they need to make a purchase. At this stage, your goal is to turn them into customers.

You can do this by continuing to share content like testimonials and reviews. Offering discounts or special offers can also be an excellent way to drive more conversions.

It’s also critical that you have a user-friendly travel booking experience for this specific stage. This is where you direct your prospects to your booking pages, so it is imperative that these pages offer a seamless experience.

Using a travel booking platform like WeTravel will help you optimize this process.

Retention 

Once your prospects have converted into customers, you should make a concerted effort to maintain relationships with them.

Email marketing and social media are two excellent methods to achieve a good rapport. This is especially effective if your email campaigns are personalized to your past customers.

Using a reputable CRM system will help you manage and understand your customers more effectively. This is important for targeting them with relevant content.

Conclusion 

Understanding the importance of the travel sales funnel and how the different stages work is paramount for optimal conversion rates.

Tie this into your target customer personas, and you’ll be able to provide a far more effective journey for each prospect that comes into contact with your business.

Get this right, and it will mean more tours booked with less effort. The better you understand your travel sales funnel, the more successful your travel business can become.

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