Four Step Sales Action Plan

Use this sales development plan to help your team hit their target achievement goals

One of the best ways to set your sales team up for success is to create an action plan. Instead of simply assigning target sales goals and leaving them at that, an action plan reverse engineers how your team will reach those numbers, laying out the best tactics and strategies.

This post will walk you through four steps to create an action plan to improve sales performance, along with sales action plan ideas and tips to keep your team on track to achieving the target.

Look at past performance.

The first step to meeting sales goals is to conduct an in-depth audit of your process. Analyzing your team’s past performance can help you understand trends and identify opportunities for improvement. For example, is there a particular software, strategy, or process that needs updating?

Look at the entire sales funnel to see where reps are losing opportunities. Is there a particular point in the process where prospects are lost? You should also take note of what’s working well, so you can replicate that success in the future.

Once you have a better idea of what’s working well and what isn’t, you can adjust your strategy and consider how to meet sales goals in the future.

Analyze problem areas.

If your team has struggled to reach target sales numbers in the past, you need to identify the reason for that challenge. It could be an internal issue, like a gap in training or knowledge, or an external factor, such as a change in the market.

Was there a recent change in marketing strategy that could explain the issue? Did your reps feel well-equipped to deal with any sales objection thrown their way? If you can’t find the source of the problem, it may be worth evaluating if your target numbers were realistic from the beginning.

One of the best ways to understand the challenges holding your reps back is to simply ask them. During one-on-ones or team meetings, touch base to see your reps’ struggles with the sales process. You may uncover a software or skills issue you would have missed.

Make changes to your sales action plan.

Based on your findings from the steps above, you can build an action plan to close those gaps. For example, if you’ve identified a skills gap, you can create a training plan for that particular skill. If your lowest conversion rates are during cold calls, that’s what you’ll focus on training and coaching.

External challenges can be more difficult. If the market has changed, your action plan might include adjusting your messaging strategy or delving back into customer research. 

Another common challenge is a misalignment between sales and marketing. Your sales action plan may involve ensuring more open communication between these two functions or facilitating a meeting to align on lead qualification criteria. 

Add coaching to become more effective.

A good sales action plan example includes coaching. Training is a significant first step to building specific skills, but one-on-one coaching is necessary to see long-term improvement. 

Your sales action plan should consist of a detailed coaching plan, including how often you’ll meet with reps, any  coaching models you might use, and how you’ll support your team in reaching their goals. Regular meetings with individual reps are crucial for keeping the entire team on track to reach quota.

During these meetings, you can work one-on-one to build a customized improvement plan for each rep to hone their strengths and shore up any weaknesses. Over time, you’ll see how instrumental coaching is to reaching sales targets–companies that provide quality coaching reach 7% greater annual revenue growth.

Work with Predictable Revenue to create your action sales plan

Creating an action plan is the first step to building an effective outbound sales strategy. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a sales plan. The steps above are a great way to get started, but when it comes to implementation, the best strategy depends on your team and target market.

At Predictable Revenue, we specialize in building custom outbound strategies, backed by testing and tailored to your company.  We’ve helped thousands of companies grow their revenue with outbound sales development.

If you need help creating your action plan, click here to get in touch. Our expert coaches can review your current initiatives, identify areas for growth, and work with you to create a detailed action plan to reach (or exceed) your sales goals.