In the past seven days, I’ve had the privilege of running two offsite sales planning sessions. I often tell people that running these sessions is my absolute favorite part of the job. There’s something special about getting a group together in the same room to brainstorm, challenge, and collaborate—all with the goal of building a strong, strategic plan that everyone believes in.
When I send out the agenda for these meetings, it often looks something like this:
Agenda:
- Target Accounts
- Goals
- Strategy
- Actions
- Obstacles
- Personal/Professional Development
The common response? “How will these topics take more than an hour or two to cover?” The reality is that just covering these six bullet points can take anywhere from one to three days, depending on the size of the team.
I’ve come to realize that while most leaders and some sales reps might think about targets, goals, strategy, actions, obstacles, and development at some level throughout the year, they rarely dive deep into any one of these areas. Even more rarely do they work through the process of connecting them into a cohesive, linear plan. And, they don’t often clearly articulate their thoughts on these topics to their teammates or leaders. This is why, when we get in a room together with someone like myself who can facilitate, push, and prod when necessary, so many new ideas come to light. It’s always rewarding to see the lightbulbs go off when a teammate mentions a past tactic or sales hypothesis that suddenly resonates with everyone.
Building a sales plan that is realistic, actionable, and capable of making a massive impact isn’t all that hard. Most of us already have about 75% of the plan floating around in our heads. But the reality is, many plans never get executed beyond a month or two. This is where sales leaders become so critical in the sales planning process. It’s our job to ensure the plan is measurable and to hold our teammates accountable to these plans. If we consistently hold our team accountable to the plan, and we’ve put in the effort as a team to create solid sales plans, the natural outcome is increased sales results.
The plan gives us the items we need to have visibility on, and the rep presenting the plan gives the leader the right to hold them accountable to it. As I always say: enhance visibility, prioritize accountability, and we’ll drive more sales.
Happy Sales Planning!
Cheers!
