Sales planning. How to create a sales plan. Example of drawing up a sales plan Proposals for implementing the sales plan

Planning is one of the most effective tools for achieving any goals, and of course, for running a successful business.

Sales planning is one of the elements in the chain of the overall development strategy of an enterprise. Can a sales department work without drawing up a plan?

Yes, it can, but the efficiency of its work will then be much lower. If you want to increase production and/or sales volumes, then start with planning!

Stages of drawing up a plan

Making planning only on the basis of results and income received in past periods is the simplest, but very erroneous method. This leads to a “typical situation” when plans seem to exist, but their implementation and even overfulfillment does not require any additional efforts from managers. Of course, analysis of previous periods both for wholesale or retail trade enterprises and for production is very important and helps to identify seasonality. But this is only one step in sales planning.

1. Determining the main goal of the company

The first step is defining your goal. The goal must have characteristics by which it can be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. Therefore, when formulating a goal, take into account:

specificity and measurability of the result;
limiting the time limit for achieving the goal;
achievability and realistic goals;
“challenge” the goal - you can be proud of the achieved result.

2. Assessment of economic environmental factors

Here, general indicators for assessing the territory should be considered and taken into account: population size, income level in the region, presence of competitors, consumer preferences and purchasing power of the population as a whole.

3. Assessing market potential and sales potential

Market potential is the maximum quantity of a product that can be sold by all market participants. And sales potential is the volume and income that can be received by a particular company.

4. Analysis of sales of previous periods

This step is very important for understanding where the company is located, whether there is seasonal demand for goods, what factors can affect the increase in revenue and volumes of both wholesale and retail trade.

5. Drawing up a sales forecast

Sales planning is significantly different from forecasting. Because forecasting, based on an analysis of various factors, presents only possible scenarios for the development of the situation, taking into account market restrictions, but does not contain step-by-step instructions for actions that would lead to the implementation of the plan and an increase in income.

Subjective and objective methods are used. Subjective methods do not use analytical data, but are based on the subjective opinions of various groups of people:

opinions of personnel employed in wholesale or retail trade;
opinions of key executives;
Delphi method.

And objective methods are based on analytical and quantitative data:

market testing;
time series analysis (uses data from past periods);
statistical analysis of demand.

In practice, choosing an accurate forecasting method is very difficult; each of them may show an error, so it is better to use several methods. And companies often use scenario analysis. Usually two forecasts are made - pessimistic and optimistic. Based on pessimistic forecast data, since the company must be sure that even in an unfavorable situation it will be able to receive certain income and fulfill all obligations. The forecast is always less than the market potential and sales potential.

6. Adjusting the sales forecast

If the company's forecast and goals differ significantly, then it is necessary to make adjustments to either the marketing program or goals. This sales forecasting process will allow you to determine realistic metrics to create a plan.

7. Sales planning

The importance of such a tool as a sales plan in the enterprise management chain cannot be overestimated. Since it is sales volume planning that allows you to build plans for production, procurement, labor and other resources based on estimated income. As a management resource, sales planning includes the classic elements of the management cycle (according to Faillol's methodology): planning, organization, control, coordination, motivation.

8. Sales organization

For the successful implementation of a plan launched “from above”, it is necessary to structure it along various sections. This will give a clear understanding “from below”, to the sales department employees, of the requirements of the plan and the ways of its implementation:

By region - how much will be sold and where;
By time - how much and when we will sell;
By product – how much and what will be sold;
By clients (or sales channels) - how much we will sell and to whom;
For sellers - how much and who will sell;
By the nature of the sale (guaranteed and planned) - how much and how will be sold.

Guaranteed sales do not depend on the person representing the company; this is already formed demand. But the revenue from planned transactions depends largely on the efforts of the representative, and special attention should be paid to them when introducing new products, selecting new target customers or entering new territories in both retail and wholesale trade.

9. Monitoring the implementation of the plan

It is necessary to regularly monitor not only the implementation of each parameter of the plan structure, but also the quality of planning.

10. Plan coordination

If actual sales for any segment of the plan differ significantly from the planned indicators (overfulfillment or underfulfillment), this indicates poor planning quality, so it is necessary to analyze the reasons and take action to coordinate the plan.

Over-fulfillment is possible because the potential of a product (customer, region, vendor or marketing effort) was underestimated or planning was done on the basis of past periods. And failure to fulfill the plan is most likely a consequence of insufficient activity of the manager. Because it is only possible to expect that all customers will come and buy themselves if there is “guaranteed demand.” In all other cases, all monthly department plans must be projected into the managers' daily work plans.

11. Motivating staff to fulfill the sales plan

Every manager and leader must have good motivation. Their salary should directly depend both on the revenue of the entire company as a whole, and on the implementation of their individual plan. Separately, it is worth rewarding the implementation of the plan “in assortment groups”. Fulfillment of the plan should lie in the range, for example, from 90 to 105%, and overfulfillment from 105 to 120%.

Specialized programs for planning

Many companies carry out sales planning using excel tables. But there are a number of programs that can significantly simplify and speed up the development process, and most importantly, monitoring the implementation of the plan. They offer a wide range of data analysis functions that cannot be obtained using standard Excel capabilities.

One of these programs is “Operational Plan”, which is suitable for wholesale trade and production, and it can also be used for a retail network. Planning using excel is increasingly being replaced by specialized programs.

The goals and objectives of sales planning are inextricably linked. Planning must begin with a clearly formulated goal - what exactly and in what time frame you want to achieve. And having decomposed a certain goal into tasks, see what and how needs to be done to achieve the goal. To more clearly identify objectives, you will need to break down the company's key goal into components (3-5 second-level goals) and formulate tasks to achieve each of them.

An example of developing goals and objectives in this way for a manufacturer or wholesaler is given in the table.

№	Components of the overall goal for the company (second-level goals)	Tasks to achieve the goal
1	The commercial goal is to fulfill the sales plan for product B in the amount of 500 thousand rubles. per month in territory A in the period from 01/01/14 to 12/31/14	product B in rubles, in pieces. Conduct an analysis of sales of product A for the periods from 01/01/13 to 12/31/13, from 01/01/12 to 12/31/12 to determine seasonality and market share. Create a sales plan for 2014, taking into account seasonality. Create an individual sales plan for each manager in the territory.
2	The commercial goal is to increase the average shipment amount by 15% in the period from 02/01/14 to 04/01/14	Analyze the existing customer base, identify key customers who account for 80% of turnover (clients of group A), and customers with above-average turnover. Identify customers who have the potential to increase the shipment amount. Identify the factors influencing the increase in the amount of shipment. Make an offer to existing customers to increase the average shipment amount.
3	Qualitative goal to increase the number of clients by 10% in the period from 01/01/14 to 07/01/14 in territory A	Analyze the total number of customers in the market. Prepare commercial proposals for potential clients. Conduct negotiations and conclude contracts.
4	The qualitative goal is to develop and conduct an event for 50 clients (30% key and 70% potential) during the period from 02/01/14 to 03/01/14	Identify the needs of key and potential customers. Determine the topic and format of the event. Prepare a plan for the event (place, date, program, budget). Evaluate the effectiveness of the event.

Here, the company’s key goal is to fulfill the sales plan in the period from 01/01/2014 to 12/31/2014 in the amount of 6 million rubles. in territory A (500 thousand rubles/month x 12 months) - divided into commercial (or quantitative) and qualitative components and into 4 second-level goals.

The overall well-being of the company and the prospects for its further development largely depend on a correctly drawn up sales plan, since the income received and the volume of revenue are directly dependent. But novice managers do not always have an idea of how exactly to draw up a sales plan and what points it should contain.

Drawing up a sales plan: basic concepts

Without knowledge of the theory, it is quite difficult to gain a clear understanding of the company’s capabilities in terms of increasing sales. Below we will list the basic concepts that characterize this area of activity.

Market potential. The total number of units of output that the market can absorb. The potential can be assessed for an individual city, national economy, region, or on a global scale. This indicator is not static, changing under the influence of many factors.

Sales potential. The theoretical ability of an individual company to sell products on the market. In a market with a high level of competition, a company's sales potential depends on its ability to promote its products, pricing policy, technical improvements, and the actions of competitors. If the company is a monopolist, its sales potential becomes equal to the total market potential.

Sales forecast. Actual sales volume, calculated based on the firm's sales potential, adjusted for existing market constraints (for example, the firm is physically unable to produce a product in quantities corresponding to its sales potential).

Sales quotas. The amount of sales revenue generated by an individual seller. This indicator characterizes the professional qualities of sales department employees and the effectiveness of their work.

Development of a sales plan

A high-quality sales plan must take into account two groups of factors: internal and external. The rough development of a sales plan, as a rule, begins with an analysis of external factors with its further adjustment, taking into account the financial condition of the company and its strategic objectives. External factors are:

Macroeconomic indicators (growth/decrease in aggregate demand, business activity, exchange rate dynamics, average lending rate, cost of material resources). A preliminary assessment of sales prospects is given for the year ahead, based on national economic trends.
Position in the core market of interest to the company. Particular attention is paid to the actions of competitors.
Preferences and purchasing power of potential consumers.

Assessing the state of the economic environment is fundamental to setting the company's goals for the near future. In practice, it is recommended to take into account as many market restrictions as possible, thereby drawing up a pessimistic sales forecast, which will give the company a certain margin of safety.

Internal factors primarily affect sales statistics for recent reporting periods. Based on the analysis, the average sales per month, quarter, and for the entire year are displayed. If a company has been operating on the market for several years, statistical data makes it possible to identify trends in decline and growth in sales, which also needs to be reflected in the plan. If a pronounced seasonality of sales is detected, appropriate adjustments are made to the plan. Attention is also drawn to the following points:

Analysis of the activities of the sales department as a whole and separately for each employee. For a more detailed assessment of efficiency, it is advisable to take into account not only the number of transactions concluded, but also the number of meetings, calls and other actions held.
Calculation of sales volume attributable to potential customers. The frequency of purchases they make and the range of goods sold are studied.

Building a sales plan

After collecting and preliminary analysis of the initial data, you can begin setting sales goals. The main goal reflected in the business plan should be as realistic as possible, based on the financial condition of the company and the capabilities of production facilities.

You should not neglect the motivating properties of macro goals, the achievement of which from the point of view of the actual performance indicators of the company seems impossible. If you additionally introduce a system of rewarding the most successful sellers, the sales volume will exceed the most optimistic expectations.

The drawn up sales plan must be divided into time periods (usually the minimum period is a week) and presented to employees involved in direct sales so that they can make appropriate changes to their work routine.

At the final stage, a budget is drawn up for future expenses related to sales. These include the acquisition of communications equipment, consumables, development of advertising products and presentations. Also included in the budget are funds that will be awarded to the most successful sellers as bonuses.

How to create a monthly sales plan: an example to study

There are several schemes for constructing a sales plan. The proposed example uses a simple and visual calculation principle that uses the seasonality coefficient to forecast sales.

The first table contains data on sales of Company A, broken down by month and calculated seasonality coefficients for each period.

	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X	XI	XII	Bottom line
Revenue from sales	154.5	137.2	139.9	162.0	168.2	160.4	159.5	155.1	147.0	138.9	144.1	151.8	1818,6
Coef. seasonality	1,019	0,905	0,923	1,069	1,110	1,058	1,052	1,023	0,969	0,917	0,951	1,002

To calculate the seasonal factor, each monthly sales value is divided by the average sales value (151.55).

In practice, calculations according to this scheme should be carried out over the past few years. In this way, it will be possible to smooth out seasonal fluctuations a little and develop a more accurate forecast. If in one of the periods there was a force majeure event that significantly distorted the indicators, then these data are removed from the sample.

Next, the company sets the desired level of sales, taking into account its market share, plans to expand the volume and range of products. Let’s assume that Company A sees the prospect of sales growth for the next year by 20%, that is, in value terms:

1818.6 × 1.2 = 2182.3

The following table shows the planned sales volumes by month. Indicators are calculated according to the following scheme:

The average monthly target for the next year is calculated:

2182.3 / 12 = 181,9

The resulting value is sequentially multiplied by the seasonal coefficient of each month, taken from the previous table, as a result we get.

	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X	XI	XII	Bottom line
Coef. seasonality	1,019	0,905	0,923	1,069	1,110	1,058	1,052	1,023	0,969	0,917	0,951	1,002
Revenue from sales	185,3	164,6	167,9	194,5	201,8	192,5	191,4	186,1	176,3	166,8	172,9	182,3	2182,3

It should be noted that the result obtained is presented in a simplified form without adjustment for the level of inflation expectations next year.

SALES DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT: EVALUATION CRITERIA AND CONTROL TOOLS
Skriptunova E.A.
"Sales Management" October 2007

It has long been noted that the best salesman does not always become a good head of the sales department. A good boss is not one who knows how to sell well himself, but one whose subordinates sell well. The sales process and the sales management process are two different processes that require different abilities, knowledge and skills, are organized differently, and have different evaluation criteria. This article is addressed to sales department managers, both beginners and experienced ones. We will talk about how to place department management at a high level and ensure that this level is maintained.

In any case, the process of organizing or optimizing the work of the department should begin with an audit of all cases. The audit must be carried out upon taking up a position and then repeated annually, preferably at the same time (for example, during a seasonal decline in sales).

It is necessary to audit 4 groups of factors:

goals and objectives of the department and criteria for their achievement
sales processes and their documentation
current department management tools and their effectiveness
compliance of personnel with requirements arising from the goals and objectives of the department

Let's take a closer look at each group of factors.

Goals and objectives of the department and criteria for their achievement

Building an effective sales department begins with defining the goals and objectives of the department and describing the desired performance results. Ideally, the goals of the sales department should flow from the company's marketing strategy.

For example, a pharmaceutical company has developed the following marketing strategy:

Market positioning – manufacturer of unique pharmaceuticals. Advertising and PR - the main emphasis is on our own production, our own scientific developments and the ability to guarantee quality. The main way of promotion is participation in exhibitions and conferences.
Ensuring an increase in sales volumes by 20% and sales profitability by 5% by adjusting the assortment policy (item 3), sales policy (items 4-5), payment terms for customers (item 6).
The priority is the sale of pharmaceuticals of our own production (60% of sales volume and 80% of total profit). Supporting areas: purchase and sale of imported drugs (30% of sales volume and 10% of profit) and related products (10% of sales volume and 10% of profit).
Target clients: government agencies (clinics, hospitals, etc.), dealers.
Development of the distribution system (sales channels): opening of our own representative offices in large regions, 2-3 representative offices per year. After opening a representative office in the region, small clients are transferred to the representative office for service.
It is necessary to reduce the volume and timing of accounts receivable by introducing a flexible system: discounts for prepayment, a progressive scale of premiums for deferring payments for more than 20 days.

Based on this strategy, the following goals and objectives for the year can be set for the sales department:

Increase sales volume by 20%.
Increase the sales volume of pharmaceuticals of own production by 10%.
Increase sales of highly profitable items of your own production by 30%.
Ensure the participation of sales managers in exhibitions and conferences and provide appropriate training.
Work out the mechanism for working on government orders, including unifying tender documentation.
Develop a plan for opening representative offices for the next 3 years.
Open a representative office in Novosibirsk and Nizhny Novgorod.
Work out a mechanism for redistributing clients between managers after opening a representative office.
Develop and implement a system of discounts and allowances, including for payment terms and purchase volumes.
Optimize the motivation system for sales managers. Include a progressive percentage scale for sales volume and progressive penalties for receivables over 20 days old.

Accordingly, the criteria for assessing the work of the department will be as follows:

Dynamics of sales volume in general.
Dynamics of the share of pharmaceuticals of own production in total sales.
Dynamics of profitability of sales in general.
Dynamics of sales profitability by main product groups.
Dynamics of average terms and volumes of receivables.
Opening of representative offices according to plan and budget.
Deadlines for preparing tender documentation for government tenders (no violation of deadlines and, as a result, non-participation in the tender).

If the company has not developed (or is not documented) a marketing strategy, the task of the head of the sales department is to obtain the necessary data to formulate goals from his managers (commercial director or general director).

At a minimum, the following targets should be identified:

Desired sales volume for the company as a whole.
Priorities in various areas (product groups, territorial markets, customer groups), desired shares of various areas in total sales.
Desired level of marginal profit, in%.
Desired level of net profit, in rubles or other currencies.
Desired (maximum possible) level of receivables (in terms of volume and timing), including overdue receivables.
Desired (maximum possible) level of warehouse age (in days) and warehouse size (in physical terms or in rubles or other currencies).

The sales manager should interview his managers and ask the necessary questions. When conducting an interview, the head of the sales department should have on hand analytics on all indicators of interest to him for several, preferably at least three, previous years. By analyzing the dynamics of sales and other indicators, you can develop more realistic goals. It is likely that not all of the listed targets are relevant for a particular company, but it will not hurt to clarify the situation in any case.

Next, the obtained target indicators must be compared with the current state of affairs and, based on this information, the goals and objectives of the department for the year must be formulated. After all, if, for example, it is necessary to increase sales by 20%, then perhaps no fundamental changes in the activities of the department can be planned, but simply intensify efforts, which is called “cleaning up the tails.” If the task is to double sales, then it is impossible to do without serious transformations, including the development of new distribution channels or, for example, a radical change in the assortment.

It is worth keeping in mind that the lack of regular audits of the goals and objectives of the sales department leads to the fact that sales in the company turn into a routine, long-established operation. Which inevitably, even under other favorable conditions, after a few years leads to a serious drop in sales volumes. If there is some sudden change in the market (for example, the entry of a new major player, the appearance of a substitute product, a change in fashion, etc.), then there is not just a drop, but a collapse in sales. Therefore, the main question to which the head of the sales department must know the answer at any time of the day or night is “what are we doing, why are we doing it, what should we get in the end.”

Sales processes and their documentation

The next group of factors that need to be periodically reviewed is sales processes. Existing sales procedures should be analyzed and evaluated more frequently than department goals. When taking up a position, it is mandatory, then as problematic situations arise.

An audit of the sales business process must begin with identifying all existing business processes in the field of sales and their enlarged description.

For example,

The company has identified the following sales business processes:

Sales to regular customers under long-term contracts.
Maintaining contacts with regular clients. Expanding orders for regular customers.
Looking for new clients.
Concluding agreements with new clients.
Renewal of contracts with regular customers.
Registration of bonuses for clients.
Arranging business trips and hospitality expenses.
Processing returns.
Conducting reconciliations with accounting department.

It is possible that sales business processes will be different for different groups of goods (or sales markets), in which case they need to be considered separately.

For example, the business process “sales to regular customers” consists of the following stages:

accepting an application from a regular client
placing an order
transfer of an order for production and confirmation (clarification) of delivery dates
invoicing the client
control of delivery of goods to the client
checking receipt of goods by the client
control of the receipt of money from the client
preparation of documents for the client
sending documents to the client
verification of receipt of documents by the client

The primary analysis consists of checking the necessity and sufficiency of the selected elements of business processes. Already at this stage of analysis, it is quite often possible to detect unnecessary, missing or ineffective actions in business chains.

For example, the audit showed that not all sales processes are organized optimally and have the necessary documentation:

Sales processes and procedures	How is it carried out, what document is it regulated by?	Conclusion about the process. Necessary changes
Receiving an application from a client (all possible methods: by phone, email, fax, in person at the exhibition, etc.)	The procedure is not regulated. An application from a client by phone and email is accepted by the manager assigned to him. The department secretary accepts the application by fax and passes it on to the manager; faxes are not kept track of, and sometimes they get lost. Applications at exhibitions are accepted by any manager contacted by the client, but this rarely happens. It is also rare that an application is accepted at personal meetings during planned business trips to a client to maintain a relationship with him. If the manager is absent, his clients are not served, but wait until “their” manager comes to work.	In general, the process is carried out normally, with the exception of accepting applications in the absence of the manager. It is necessary to draw up a list of substituting one manager for another during his absence (vacation, business trip, illness) and approve this list with an order. Monitoring compliance with the order is entrusted to the HR department (it is necessary to ensure that vacations and business trips of replacement managers do not coincide). If both managers are absent for objective reasons (for example, illness), their clients are managed by the head of the department. The secretary needs to issue a list of distribution of clients to managers. It is also necessary to enter a fax log with the secretary and transfer faxes to managers against signature.
Placing an order (registration in the database)	Regulated by instructions for filling out the database. Difficulties arise when the client changes legal entity, since records are kept for each legal entity separately.	No additional regulation is required. It is necessary to task the IT department to consider the possibility of accounting for various legal entities as one client (group client).
Transfer of an order for production and confirmation (clarification) of delivery dates	The order is transferred by calling production and informing about the new order number. Sometimes failures occur due to the fact that the production manager forgets to take an order from the database. Sometimes several reminder calls are required, as well as several calls to confirm the ability to complete the order within the planned time frame.	Regulation of interaction with production is required: it is necessary to determine the timing of production's response to the sales manager's request and inform the sales department without additional reminders. It is necessary to discuss with the IT department the possibility of introducing automatic notification of production about the fact of placing a new order. Then one link in the chain (call to inform about the order number) can be shortened.
Invoicing the client	The manager issues an invoice to the client after receiving confirmation from production	No regulation required

The work of auditing sales business processes is painstaking and takes especially a lot of time when taking up a position. But if various problems arise in the future, information systematized in this way allows you to quickly understand the essence of the problem and find the most adequate solution. For the head of the sales department, it is vitally important to have excellent command of all sales technology, otherwise abuse and fraud on the part of managers cannot be avoided. We have often observed how many experienced managers conduct, in their own words, a “test of their boss’s strength”, openly deceiving him about their work. If the boss is in control of the situation, exposure of the sellers is inevitable and the manager’s authority grows. If the deception remains undiscovered, the boss will remain “empty” for managers and experiments on him continue. What this ultimately leads to, I think, is not worth explaining.

Often managers, in response to any instruction from a new boss, say: “this doesn’t work, we’ve already tried it.” This answer cannot be accepted under any circumstances. Because in 9 cases out of 10 it turns out that managers did this “something” in such a way that it could not work. And it is a step-by-step analysis (or even better, direct observation) of exactly what was done and how that allows the manager to understand the mistakes or stereotypes of his subordinates and avoid them in the future.

In addition, a thorough knowledge of sales processes is necessary to carry out structural changes in the department. To do this, the analysis is supplemented by compiling a list of functions performed by each employee. If the list of functions of one employee fits into one or more business processes, then this is good. But it often happens that there is no logic or connection with business processes in the distribution of functions between employees.

The next step in analyzing business sales processes is to compare the goals of the department and the processes that are currently carried out in the department. With current tasks, everything is usually relatively normal, but development tasks somehow quietly slip away from the manager’s attention. And the fact that the work was not carried out is discovered only at the end of the reporting period (year, half-year or quarter), when it is necessary to write a report. Or it is not detected at all. If the company does not accept the preparation of periodic reports. The manager may remember the task in a year or two and be very surprised why no one was looking into this issue.

For example,

The head of the sales department developed a department work plan for the quarter, which included the following points:

Fulfillment of the sales plan.
Reducing the volume of overdue accounts receivable by 20% for clients of group A.
Introduction of planning in the department (monthly plans and reports for each manager by customer groups and product groups)
Determining regional policy, setting priorities in the development of regions, determining sales plans for each region.
Development of regulations for interaction with the warehouse.

When summing up the results of the quarter, it turned out that only the first two points were fulfilled (and even then not in full), because It was on these that the head of the department reported to the general director at weekly operational meetings. And it was these points that fit into the main business sales process. Planning by customer groups was not introduced because... Customer categorization was not carried out, and planning by product groups required changes in the information system, but two managers (sales department and IT department) never found the time to meet and resolve this issue. The definition of regional policy was postponed because The manager at first wanted to redistribute clients between managers, but he also did not get around to doing this, and no regular work in this regard has yet been carried out. (In parentheses, we note that the process of distributing clients between managers must be regulated, and the reasons for the distribution must be clear to managers.) Well, interaction with the warehouse seemed to have improved by itself, and the manager simply forgot that he was going to develop regulations.

The easiest way to start an audit of sales processes is to study all existing regulations on this issue. Moreover, it makes sense to analyze not only existing regulations, but also those that have been canceled or “forgotten.” Those. the problem has already arisen, and appropriate regulations have been developed to solve it, and perhaps they were even followed for some time. But then everything quietly returned to normal. This situation, unfortunately, is not uncommon in companies where management is not regular. If such forgotten regulations are discovered, it is important to figure out why they never “worked.” The reasons can be very different, from the impossibility of implementing the plan due to objective reasons (for example, lack of appropriate accounting), or the simple reluctance of employees to change something in the usual algorithm of actions. Oddly enough, there are usually more subjective reasons, and it is enough to show managerial will and the regulations begin to be followed.

After analyzing existing regulations, it is very important to compare the algorithms enshrined in them with what happens in practice. This is where the manager may encounter a typical excuse from subordinates, in response to the question of why they do not comply with this or that regulation. Of course, from the point of view of subordinates, the regulations themselves are to blame, because they “don’t work.” But any document is just paper. Paper cannot work or not work on its own. People force her to work (or don’t force her, if they can’t or don’t want to). Therefore, the manager needs to figure out what exactly his subordinates are doing and what are the reasons for failures. The best way in this case is direct observation of the work of employees, as well as individual conversations with subordinates. When taking up a position, it is necessary to simply observe the work of each employee at least once a week for a sufficiently long period of time (at least an hour), and conduct at least one conversation per week. To increase the effectiveness of observation, it is best to request weekly work plans from subordinates indicating the time for completing certain work. And then choose a time for observations that will allow you to obtain more information.

For example, the work plan of A.B. Ivanov, manager for working with large clients, for a week is as follows:

*Day of the week*	*Time*	*Event*
Monday	9.00 – 9.15	Preparing for work, checking email, answering urgent letters
	9.15 – 10.00	Working with the database, generating a weekly sales report, preparing for a department meeting
	10.00 – 11.00	Department meeting
	11.00 – 11.30	Urgent calls to clients
	11.30 – 12.00	Clarification of the work plan for the week and for the day based on the results of the meeting
	12.00 - 12.30	Checking customer payments, reconciling with accounting
	12.30 – 13.00	Preparing reminder letters to clients with overdue receivables
	13.00 – 13.45	Dinner
	13.45 – 14.00
	14.00 – 15.30	Preparation of a business trip report
	15.30 – 16.30	Calling new clients, recording results
	16.30 – 17.00	Collecting applications from regular customers
	17.00 – 17.30	Application processing, invoicing
	17.30 – 18.00	Preparing for negotiations with the client, creating a presentation folder
Tuesday	9.30 – 10.30	Negotiations with the client
	10.30 – 11.30	Road to the office
	11.30 – 12.00	Checking mail, responding to urgent letters, clarifying the plan for the day, receiving instructions from the head of the department
	12.00 – 12.30	Checking shipments from the warehouse, information calls to customers
	12.30 – 13.30	Filling out database cards, entering information about negotiations held
	13.30 – 14.00	Dinner
	14.00 – 14.30	Checking mail, replying to letters
	14.30 – 15.00	Preparing a commercial proposal for a client
	15.00 – 16.00	Meeting with the marketing department regarding client A's sales promotion program.
	16.00 – 17.00
	17.00 – 18.00	Preparation of an offer for client A under the sales promotion program
Wednesday	9.00 – 9.30
	9.30 – 10.00	Discussion with the head of the department of strategy for interaction with client V.
	10.00 – 10.30	Telephone conversations with client B to expand orders.
	10.30 – 11.30	Calling new clients
	11.30 – 12.00	Entering information into the database, invoicing clients
	12.00 – 13.00	Preparation of proposals for the head of the sales region development department N.
	13.00 – 13.45	Dinner
	13.45 – 14.00	Checking mail, replying to letters
	14.00 – 15.00	Preparation for sending contractual documents, coordination with lawyers and accounting departments
	15.00 – 15.30	Conducting an audit of stationery, preparing an application for stationery
	15.30 – 17.00	Calling clients, accepting applications, filling out applications
	17.00 – 18.00	Preparing for negotiations
Thursday	9.00 – 14.00	Negotiations with two clients, lunch, road to the office
	14.00 – 14.30	Checking mail, replying to letters
	14.30 – 15.30	Registration of the results of negotiations, entering information into the database
	15.30 – 16.00	Preparation of proposals for the head of the department on a system of discounts for large clients
	16.00 – 17.30	Calling clients, accepting applications, filling out applications, issuing invoices
	17.30 – 18.00	Meeting with the head of the department on the negotiations and future work strategy, as well as on proposals for the development of the sales region N.
Friday	9.00 – 9.30	Preparing for work, checking email, responding to urgent letters, clarifying the plan for the day
	9.30 – 10.00	Calculation of customer bonuses for the month
	10.00 – 11.00	Meeting to optimize warehouse operations
	11.00 – 12.00	Calling clients, entering information into the database
	12.00 – 13.00	Preparing a monthly sales plan
	13.00 – 13.45	Dinner
	13.45 – 14.00	Checking mail, replying to letters
	14.00 – 15.00	Self-education, studying new sales articles, reading magazines
	15.00 – 15.30	Meeting with the head of the sales department on the system of discounts for large clients
	15.30 – 15.45	Meeting with lawyers on draft contracts with new clients
	15.45 – 17.00	Calling clients, filling out applications, issuing invoices
	17.00 – 18.00	Preparation of a report for the week, work plan for the next week

The head of the department for observation can choose, for example, a time period from 11.00 to 12.00 on Wednesday to see how calls are made and how the manager works with the database.

We have given a relatively good example of planning work time, when physiological cycles, business habits of our business environment and the basics of time management are taken into account. In practice, the plan may look so depressing that it won’t even get to the point of observation. It will be necessary to first teach the employee to plan correctly or plan at all if he has not done this before, which happens very often. Getting employees used to making such plans is very useful in any case. Even if you don't intend to watch them work. Already an analysis of such a plan can show the employee’s reserves for the use of working time, as well as “!gaps” in business chains. But, speaking about photography of working hours (and this is the name of the described procedure), we have already smoothly moved on to the description of management tools.

Current department management tools and their effectiveness

We emphasize that the analysis of management tools used in work is important for both beginners and experienced managers. When taking office, a newcomer must understand what traditions and stereotypes of his subordinates he will have to face, what rules should be preserved, which ones should be abolished, and which ones should be reintroduced. But an experienced manager also needs to evaluate his own management tools. Because over time, it is often forgotten why this or that tool was introduced and perhaps the need for it has already disappeared, but it continues to be used simply by inertia.

For example, the head of the sales department of a company selling services to organizations introduced a single weekly reporting for all managers on the number and results (possible result: agreement to negotiate, agreement to call back later, refusal with the opportunity to return to the conversation later, categorical refusal) of calls to potential clients for the week. This form was introduced for two purposes: first, to introduce a competitive element for managers, since the results were heard at meetings, and leaders and laggards were named; secondly, analyze the interest of various groups of potential clients and identify the most promising groups of clients. A year later, the situation in the department changed greatly. Prospective clients were identified and distributed among managers. Those. the purpose of the analysis was fulfilled, and competition between managers became impossible, since they were managing groups of clients with different potentials and using different sales technologies (not just calls). But weekly reporting remained the same, although it no longer worked for any of the purposes for which it was introduced.

To evaluate current management tools, it is necessary to understand what tools, in principle, the head of the sales department can use in his work. This:

Planning and reporting
Meetings
Motivation system, awards and bonuses
Visual information (stands with general sales schedules, indicators of each manager, regions of the company’s presence on the map, etc.)
Photo of the working week (WWF)
Joint negotiations, including in conflict situations, assistance in conflict resolution
Supervision (passive participation in negotiations as an observer, subsequent “debriefing” and recommendations)
Receiving feedback from clients (both initiated by clients and scheduled conversations with clients)
Receiving feedback from other company departments on the work of managers
Trainings, debriefing, mentoring
Test calls (conducting Mystery Shopping programs to evaluate the work of managers and train them)
Planning the professional development of subordinates (drawing up professional development plans, assistance in their implementation, monitoring implementation)
Testing, product knowledge certification and other tools.

It is very important to what extent the set of management tools used is adequate to the goals and objectives of the department. Both a lack and an excess of management measures used are equally bad.

If, for example, of all the management tools, the manager uses only assistance in difficult situations, then, obviously, there can be no talk of any management of the department. But it is also undesirable for the head of a department (as we observed in one small organization), having three experienced subordinates, to hold daily short meetings with them, weekly “debriefings”, collect weekly plans and reports (but does not comment on them in any way and does not makes adjustments), monthly tests for product knowledge, and jointly negotiates with almost all new and many regular customers. This “management” was in fact more like training the leader himself. And, of course, this manager gained some experience, in particular, he acquired an understanding of what staff resistance is. However, such experiments usually do not work for the purposes of the department.

Let's take a closer look at the most important management tools that any sales manager should have, which in practice are either not used at all or are used incorrectly. This includes planning and reporting, meetings and individual conversations with subordinates.

Planning and reporting

Introduction to planning and reporting management practices ensures real department management. If the head of the sales department does not draw up plans and reports himself and does not require them from his subordinates, then we can safely say that he does not manage the department. In this case, the department works as it wants or as it can. Subordinates usually perceive the need to draw up plans and reports negatively, calling them a waste of time. In fact, it often happens that employees avoid this work because having a plan forces them to work harder, the manager can see their results more clearly, and it is impossible to simply refer to the general workload. It also happens that the reluctance to make plans is caused by a simple inability to do so.

For the sales department, it makes sense to conduct planning and reporting in two directions:

Sales plan and report
Plan and report on the work of the department

These are two separate processes and, accordingly, two groups of documents. The sales plan contains all the necessary targets, specific sales figures, profits, etc. The department's work plan is more general in nature and contains all the activities that need to be carried out to achieve target indicators, including the sales plan.

Sales plan

Creating a good sales plan is a long and labor-intensive process. First, a general sales plan for the year is drawn up, broken down by months or quarters depending on the specifics of the company. Data for the base year must be indicated so that it is clear what sales dynamics are planned.

If production is fairly homogeneous, then the sales plan is planned both in physical terms, in units (pieces, meters, kg), and in value terms - in money. In this case, it is advisable to indicate the planned average price per unit of production. This is important so that it is clear from the plan how revenue growth is planned: due to rising prices or due to increased sales. If the assortment is heterogeneous, then planning is carried out only in cost terms.

It must be remembered that for management purposes monthly planning is more effective than quarterly planning. A quarter is too long, and when using quarterly planning, uneven loading inevitably occurs, both in production and in sales. At the beginning of the quarter there is a relaxation - after all, there is still so much time ahead, but at the end of the quarter there will definitely be a rush. Therefore, if general sales planning is carried out quarterly, then every quarter it is necessary to draw up a sales plan for the quarter, broken down by month (and in some cases, by week).

Each enterprise and each manager independently chooses the most convenient and informative format for a sales plan. The main thing is that the sales plan contains specific numbers, and it is clear what the planned sales dynamics are. If necessary, the sales plan is supplemented with 2-3 indicators that are most significant for the company in a specific period, for example, data on the average markup, overdue accounts receivable and warehouse volume.

If the company’s sales are not seasonal and uniform throughout the year, then the average monthly sales value for the previous year is used as the base. If there is seasonality in demand, then the base is indicated for each planned period (month, quarter).

If the company uses commodity lending to customers, that is, products are first shipped under a contract, and payment is made later (deferred payment), then in the general sales plan it is necessary to separately indicate revenue from shipments and revenue from receipts, as well as planned receivables (customer debts) . In this case, it will be possible to plan the movement of cash flows in advance and avoid cash gaps (for example, when the plan has been fulfilled under contracts or shipments, but the company does not have money even for the most necessary expenses).

Here is an example of a sales plan format.

Period	Revenue (by shipments), thousand rubles.	Revenue (by receipts), thousand rubles.	Accounts receivable, thousand rubles.
January 2008, plan
January 2007, fact
February 2008, plan
February 2007, fact
March 2008, plan
March 2007, fact
Total for the 1st quarter of 2008, plan
Total for the 1st quarter of 2007, fact
% increase
Average for the quarter, 2008, plan
Average for the quarter, 2007, fact
% reduction

The most common reasons for detailing the sales plan are:

Detailing by assortment (product groups, less often names)
Regional detailing
Detailing by clients (by segments)
Details of payment terms (prepayment, deferred payment)

Typically, detailed sales plans reflect the company's targets that it has set for itself and wants to constantly monitor.

So, if a company’s priority is a certain brand, then it is necessary to plan the share of this brand in total sales and separately monitor the dynamics of sales for this brand.

The form of a detailed sales plan may be different, but it is more convenient if it is identical to the general sales plan.

As an example, we will give the following format of a sales plan detailed by brand.

*Product type*	*Share of products sold, 2007, %*	*Share of products quarterly, 2008, plan, %*
	*quarterly average*	*1st quarter*	*2nd quarter*	*3rd quarter*	*4th quarter*
Brand "Comfort"
Brand "Optima"
Brand "Ecoplus"
Other brands
TOTAL

This table shows that the growth of the share of the Comfort brand is planned mainly by reducing the share of the Optima brand. Once such a conceptual table is created, the shares of the various brands are converted into value terms.

Detailed sales plans are closely linked to the company's marketing strategy. So, if a company decides to adjust distribution channels, then a detailed sales plan should be broken down specifically into distribution channels. For example, the company decided to reduce direct deliveries to stores and refocus on dealer companies; accordingly, the share of retail sales should decrease, and the share of sales to dealers should increase. Or the company has decided to expand into the regions; accordingly, the detailed sales plan should show how the share of regional sales is growing.

In parallel with the development of a general and detailed sales plan for the company, sales plans for each manager are also developed. First, it is necessary for managers to draw up their own sales plan in the same form as the company's sales plans. Next, the head of the sales department draws up a consolidated sales plan for all managers and compares it with the general sales plan. After which he makes adjustments to both managers’ plans and, possibly, general sales plans.

Sales department work plans

It makes sense to draw up department work plans both for the long term and operational ones. Long-term plans include plans for the year, quarter and month. The longer the planning period, the less detail is needed and vice versa. Operational plans include weekly and daily plans. We gave an example of weekly planning in the section “Sales processes and their documentation.” In terms of format, it is better to make operational plans as convenient as possible, down to a simple to-do list.

Annual plans must be clearly tied to the company's goals and take into account all existing priorities. It is best to draw up all long-term plans according to a single standard, which must indicate deadlines and those responsible. The annual plan is the basis of planning; quarterly and monthly plans are drawn up on its basis.

Example of an annual work plan for a sales department

Sales department work plan for 2008

Submission date: 11/25/2007

Prepared by: Petrov M.I.

№	*Goal, task or direction*	*Event*	*Term*	*Responsible*	*Required Resources*
	Fulfillment of the sales plan	Conducting an analysis of the customer base, identifying customers for whom it is possible to expand the order	January February	Head of Department
		Conducting an audit of your client base, identifying clients who have ceased cooperation	January	Sales Managers
		Conducting negotiations on the resumption of cooperation	February March	Sales Managers
		Negotiating the expansion of orders with regular customers	March, April	Sales Managers	Results of customer base analysis
		Attracting new clients at exhibitions, each manager visiting at least 3 exhibitions	May - October	Sales Managers	Opportunity to visit exhibitions
		Assortment analysis	March, April	Head of Sales Department	Information from the financial department about the profitability of each position
		Adjusting the assortment, removing unprofitable items with waning demand	May - July	Head of Sales Department	Information from the marketing department on developing market demand
	Optimizing department work, increasing labor productivity	Changing the format and frequency of planning and reporting in accordance with new tasks	January	Head of Sales Department
		Carrying out certification	March	Head of Sales Department
		Drawing up professional development plans for managers based on the results of certification	April	Head of Sales Department	With the participation of personnel service
		Adjusting the incentive system		Head of Sales Department
		Introduction of mentoring in the department (experienced over newcomers)	June	Head of Sales, Senior Managers
		Conducting training on time management	August	All employees	Organization of training - personnel service
		Taking self-photographs of working hours	September	All department employees
		Preparation of proposals for optimizing the structure and business processes in the department based on the results of self-photography of working hours	October	Head of Sales Department
		Submission of a new structure for approval	november	Head of Sales Department
	Reduced accounts receivable by 50%	Introduction of regular reconciliations with accounting department	January	Head of Sales Department
		Introduction of weekly control of the amount of accounts receivable	January	Head of Sales Department
			Until the 10th of every month	Sales Managers
		Weekly calls to debtor clients	On Wednesdays	Sales Managers
		Introduction of penalties into contracts	Since March	Head of Sales Department
		Introduction of a progressive scale of discounts and allowances for the terms of receivables	From september	Head of Sales Department	Together with the legal department
		Explanatory work with clients on new conditions	October November	Sales Managers
	Expanding sales markets, increasing the company's regional presence	Conducting an analysis of sales for the past year, selecting regions for the pilot launch of the “representative office” project	January March	Head of Sales Department
		Development of a plan for opening a representative office in the selected region	April	Head of Sales Department
		Recruitment of an employee for the direction of “regional development”	April	Head of Sales Department	Together with the personnel service
		Opening a representative office according to plan	October	Head of Regional Development
		Work out the mechanism for transferring clients to the representative office	november	Head of Sales Department, Head of Regional Development
	Improving the quality of customer service, reducing the share of abandoned customers and increasing the share of regular customers	Conduct a customer satisfaction survey	April May	Head of Sales Department, Sales Managers	With the participation of the marketing department
		Create a service quality improvement program	June July	Head of Sales Department	With the participation of the marketing department
		Develop regulations for handling customer complaints	July	Head of Sales Department
		Implement regulations, conduct training	August	Head of Sales Department

The process of planning the work of a department begins with the preparation by the head of a work plan for the department in general form. After this, he introduces managers to the general plan (or at least the main guidelines and priorities), then managers develop their individual work plans. The head of the department collects their individual plans from managers and gives feedback to subordinates on finalizing the plan if necessary. And then, taking into account the personal plans of managers, he finalizes the work plan of the department as a whole.

The reporting process works in reverse. First, reports are compiled by managers, then, based on their reports, the manager draws up a report on the work of the department as a whole. If you have a good plan, drawing up a report is not particularly difficult. It is enough just to note the completed activities and the quality of their implementation, unfulfilled activities and the reasons for their non-fulfillment, as well as planned steps to correct the situation.

Meetings

Meetings are a comprehensive management tool that allows you to quickly exchange information, coordinate the actions of subordinates, exercise control, and also increase team cohesion.

In the sales department, it makes sense to hold 4 types of meetings:

Daily five minutes
Weekly operational meetings
"Debriefings"

Daily five minutes.

At five-minute meetings, the manager informs the staff about urgent issues, and also hears a brief report from each employee on what the main sales indicators were for the past day, and employees can also ask the manager urgent questions. It is better to hold such meetings at the very beginning or at the very end of the working day. On the one hand, this is caused by the very purpose of the five-minute meeting (to check sales for the day), on the other hand, it increases discipline (employees will be forced to come to work on time or not leave early). If an employee cannot attend the five-minute meeting, because... for example, he negotiates with a client, he informs the manager in advance about his performance by phone or e-mail, and at the next meeting he reports two days in advance. Five-minute meetings should not last more than 10-15 minutes. You can even hold such meetings standing up so that there is no temptation to prolong the discussion. Five-minute meetings provide constant attention to the core activity of the department - sales. All other issues are best discussed at weekly meetings.

Weekly operational meetings.

Weekly meetings are best held after higher-level meetings. For example, if the head of the sales department attends meetings with the CEO on Monday at 10:00, then the meeting of his department can be scheduled for 12:30 on Monday so that there is time to take into account the information received at the meeting with the director to inform his subordinates.

The duration of operational meetings in the department should be 30–45 minutes. In addition to summing up the sales results for the week, at weekly meetings the following takes place:

informing staff about news
checking the implementation of instructions from previous meetings
checking the implementation of long-term employee plans and development activities (for example, preparing proposals for a discount system relates specifically to development activities)
discussing difficult situations with clients
discussion of issues requiring the involvement of related departments

It is very important to hold weekly meetings at the same time and on the same day of the week. If carried out from time to time, this leads, first of all, to a decrease in discipline. With this approach, it is very easy for employees to avoid meetings altogether, citing the fact that an important meeting, negotiations, or something else has already been scheduled for that time. A tight schedule makes it impossible to avoid meetings. In addition, holding meetings regularly on the same day of the week disciplines employees, forces them to work, evenly distributing the load, because every week it is necessary to report on these instructions, so there is no opportunity to postpone unpleasant, uninteresting or difficult work until later.

Based on the results of weekly meetings, it is imperative to draw up Minutes indicating those present at the meeting and the given instructions (with deadlines and responsibilities).

Meetings – brainstorming, discussions

Discussion meetings are not regular, but are held as needed. Using brainstorming, it makes sense to discuss issues that do not have a clear solution. For example, it is necessary to decide on what basis it is better to group the company’s clients, and what conditions to offer to these groups of clients. It is advisable to invite employees who have unique expert information to a brainstorming session. Those. The presence of all department employees at such a meeting is not necessary. However, if the meeting also serves the purpose of team building, and the issue being discussed concerns all department personnel (for example, a new motivation system), then everyone should participate in the discussion.

Such meetings can last 1 – 1.5 hours and take place in a more informal atmosphere than weekly operational meetings.

Meetings – “debriefings”

“Debriefings” can be either regular or irregular. Some sales leaders hold these meetings weekly, and some only when a significant precedent arises. The manager develops the meeting algorithm taking into account the specifics of the situation. For example, the following option is possible:

an employee describes a difficult situation he faced
meeting participants discuss (all together or in small subgroups) what was done correctly and what could have been done better
participants form a common solution to the situation
the participant who proposed the situation and the volunteer act out the entire situation again, taking into account the suggestions received
all participants discuss the results of the simulated situation.

When conducting “debriefing” meetings, the department head speaks out last, so as not to influence the position of the employees with his opinion, to give everyone the opportunity to speak, and at the same time to check the competence of his subordinates. It is necessary to reserve at least 2 hours for debriefing; it is better to do this at the end of the working day, for example, from 17.00 to 19.00

Individual conversations with subordinates

A conversation between a manager and a subordinate is the simplest and most universal management tool, but managers often neglect it, underestimating the importance of personal communication with subordinates.

Conversations with subordinates can pursue a variety of purposes:

Informing. For example, when hiring, the manager must introduce the new employee to his job responsibilities, the rules adopted in the organization, the reporting forms used, etc. In the future, information and instruction may occur regarding work plans, new projects, additional tasks assigned to the employee.
Control. It makes sense to conduct individual conversations when it is necessary to check the implementation of a plan, a specific task, to monitor the implementation of projects, etc.
Evaluating an employee and providing him with feedback. During the conversation, the manager can explain to the employee how he evaluates the results of his work, what has been done well and what has not been done well, and express wishes for the future.
Receiving feedback from an employee. For example, a new motivation system has been developed. The manager can have a conversation with the employee and find out how much he understands this system, whether he considers it fair, and whether he has suggestions for improving it.
Consultations with employees. Sometimes a manager may need the expert opinion of a subordinate, his opinion on a certain issue.

The effectiveness of a conversation with a subordinate as a management tool is determined by the following factors:

Clear understanding of the goals of the conversation

Before inviting a subordinate for a conversation, it makes sense to clearly define why you are doing this. Otherwise, situations are possible when a boss, having called a subordinate, for example, in order to bring him up to date on a new project, begins to give him a “whipping” for past projects along the way. Of course, a situation is possible when several goals are set for a planned conversation, but in any case they should not contradict each other and should not confuse the subordinate. Who, having returned from the boss, instead of getting down to business with enthusiasm, begins to rack his brains over the question “what was that and what does it all mean?”

Good preparation, drawing up a conversation plan

If you don’t plan a meeting, then questions will inevitably remain that the manager will simply forget to mention. Then he will have to call the subordinate again (okay, if only once).

Any conversation with a subordinate should consist of three parts:

Introductory part - it is necessary to explain the purpose of the meeting, its planned duration, expectations from the subordinate.
Main part. Here the actual goals of the meeting are decided. If you intend to provide feedback to a subordinate, then you first need to find out exactly how the employee himself evaluates his work, and only then, taking into account what has been said, give feedback. Moreover, any assessment must begin with positive aspects. This will not only put the employee in a constructive mood, but will also help him to more easily tolerate and accept negative aspects.
Final part. At the end of any conversation, it is necessary to check whether the subordinate understood everything correctly and answer all his questions. Next, it is important to take stock and agree on next steps. In some cases (for example, during an assessment conversation), it makes sense to formalize agreements in writing, in the form of a protocol. You should strive to end any conversation on a positive note.
Choosing the right place and time for conversation

If a long conversation is expected, for example, a discussion of an employee’s quarterly plan, then it is better to do this in a separate room. If the conversation involves issuing a short task, then this can be done at the employee’s workplace. You should not invite a subordinate into the meeting room only to inform him that the report was not submitted in accordance with the form, and the form needs to be redone. But you shouldn’t hold a “debriefing” on poorly conducted negotiations in the common room.

As for choosing the time for conversations, it is better to conduct them during relatively quiet hours and low productivity, rather than distracting the employee, for example, in the midst of calling clients. Sales managers usually have such less stressful hours at the beginning of the working day, until about 10.30 (only if the manager does not work with remote regions, then for him, on the contrary, the morning hours are the busiest), before and after lunch (from about 12.30 to 15.00) and at the end of the working day (after 17.30).

Compliance with the rules of conversation

Having drawn up a plan and voiced the rules of the conversation, you need to follow it and clearly monitor the time. If you see that some issue clearly does not fit into the planned time, but is very important, it is better to arrange a separate meeting on this issue rather than violate the regulations. Strict adherence to agreements on meeting times not only enhances the image of a manager who is able to manage time and keep his word, but also really saves working time.

Summing up the conversation and, if necessary, recording the results of the meeting in writing.

It is necessary to record agreements in the following cases:

employee assessment, recommendations for professional development
comments and suggestions for adjusting documents (plans, reports, concepts, regulations, etc.)
all new ideas that were voiced during the conversation and can be used in work

We have focused on only the three most important management tools. Only their competent use will allow the head of the sales department to significantly increase management efficiency. Other management tools are also important, but in relation to them we see significantly fewer stereotypes and prejudices, and accordingly their mastery is less difficult, but this is a topic for another discussion.

Compliance of personnel with the requirements arising from their goals and objectives of the department

The last, but no less significant group of factors influencing the effective work of the sales department relates to the human factor. Neither competent goals, nor optimal business processes, nor adequate management tools will help if the manager has incompetent employees subordinate to him. Either these employees are not enough. Or they don't want to work efficiently. In other words, it is necessary that the sales department be staffed quantitatively and qualitatively with employees with the necessary competencies, and that these employees are motivated to perform highly productive work.

Work with the personnel of the department is not routine, and quite often the head of the department begins to do something in this direction only if problems begin. To avoid this, it is necessary to carry out the following actions regularly, without waiting for critical situations:

monitor the optimality of the department's organizational structure
clearly formulate requirements for personnel when selecting them, including taking into account negative experience
Regularly check job descriptions (or job descriptions) of all employees for relevance
check that these instructions are being followed
develop evaluation criteria for each manager based on the tasks of the department and the functional responsibilities of the employee
monitor the effectiveness of the current motivation system and make changes to it in a timely manner (but not more often than once a year)
conduct employee certification and other assessment procedures
conduct internal and participate in organizing external employee training
monitor the job satisfaction of your employees

One of the common mistakes many sales leaders make is that they don't want to acknowledge the fact that not all people can sell effectively. And sometimes they waste effort, time and energy on employees with whom it is easier and more humane to part with right away. Don't torture them and don't torture yourself. But the opposite situation also happens. When a manager adheres to the theory “either he will swim or he will drown,” without even trying to teach his subordinates anything. As usual, the golden mean is optimal. It makes sense to spend time and energy on capable employees who have good potential and a desire to learn how to sell well. The latter in this case is of paramount importance. If a person does not want to be a salesman, despises his work or is ashamed of it, then even if he has the ability, there will be no point. You can, of course, try to overcome this stereotype and captivate the employee. But it’s always worth balancing the effort spent with the expected result. Because a company is not an educational institution, and the main task of the department is still to sell, and not to engage in re-education.

We looked at the process of managing a sales department and see how diverse and diverse the functions of a manager are. The head of the sales department manages both people and processes, and in addition, he needs to independently perform some types of work (analysis of sales, processes, customer base, assortment, maintaining key customers, etc.). And it is very important to find the optimal balance between management and executive functions. But success does not come to those leaders who simply do everything the right way. Moreover, it is very difficult to keep all the rules, principles, and tasks in your head. It is important at every moment to clearly understand what you are doing and why. And you also need to feel the situation and be able to break the rules if necessary and can lead to better results. The principles and postulates of management are, first of all, the support, the framework on which a competent leader builds his work. And only their conscious use gives the desired result and gives meaning to management.

Yakunin Alexey

Plan sales based on past periods -
the same as driving a car while looking in the rearview mirror.

The question of how much a company should sell goods (services) always arises. Everyone wants to set the “correct” plans, but everyone has their own understanding of what a correct plan is and how it is determined. As a rule, the owners want a lot, and say that the market allows it, but the “people” fight back in every possible way and explain, for their part, that life is hard, the market is not rubber, and competitors do not sleep.

Effective sales planning

Analyzing the work of our company's sales department, I noticed an amazing paradox! At the interview stage, employees (both ordinary salespeople and managers) talk very comprehensively and correctly about the need for planning. At the same time, it is regularly stated that planning sales- this is not just “satisfying the whim” of top managers or owners, but first of all the opportunity to adequately assess one’s role and significance for the company.

But if we regularly demand “sales planning” from sales department employees, we will sooner or later be faced with a feeling of superficiality of the process. On the one hand, employees diligently perform their duties. On the other hand, there are a number of reasons to doubt the effectiveness of such plans:

Sales plans may either not be fulfilled or significantly exceeded;
Plans are not adjusted (the seller can “plan” 200% of the average sales volume, while a few days before the end of the month he will sincerely prove that “there is still time”);
Sales plans are not projected into the necessary daily work plans. After all, in fact, sales can only grow due to three components:

a) Increase in the average bill for existing clients;

b) Increase in the number of clients;

c) Increase in frequency of orders.

If the workday schedule does not change radically (a standard number of contacts with a standard frequency and a standard goal - taking an application) - then you should not expect a fundamental change in sales. The head of the sales department states: “It’s good that my guys are analyzing the possibilities! It doesn’t matter that their analysis is far from the actual result. They set “strong goals”!” - this is already extremely important!

What is “sales planning”? Ideally, this is a regular management system that allows you to predict the financial and economic activities of the company and is a separate element of the sales system. In this case, if sales planning is a “management system,” then it must consist of elements included in the classic management cycle ( for example, according to Fayol’s methodology - “detail into stages”).

Fayol cycle

Planning stage

Sales planning should be carried out “from above”, from the first persons. There is no doubt that the quality of such planning depends solely on the adequacy and ambitions of these very individuals.

Organizing a sales plan

For the “plan from above” to be real and feasible, there needs to be a clear understanding “from below” of how to implement it. The optimal tool for this is structuring the sales plan into different sections:

Section plan

1. By region - how much and where we will sell.

2. For sellers - how much and who will sell;

3. By product - how much and what will be sold;

4. By time periods - how much and when will be sold;

5. By clients (sales channels) - how much will be sold and to whom;

6. By the nature of the sale - how much and how will be sold.

The last sales section is the most interesting. It includes the following categories:

Guaranteed sales are transactions that are conditioned by the past history of collaboration, the existing client base, and the relationship between the selling company and the client. They depend little on the person representing the selling company, because there is a guaranteed, already existing, formed demand. This type of sales is typical for companies that have been operating in the market for a long time with an already formed range of products.
Planned sales are transactions whose frequency is not clear; their result depends solely on the efforts of the person representing the interests of the selling company, that is, on the efforts of a specific individual. It is necessary to focus on this type of sales in the following cases:

a) If the company is just starting its activities;

b) When introducing new products to the market;

c) When the company enters new geographical regions;

d) When changing sales policies and identifying new target customers.

Monitoring the implementation of plans

Simple control over the “Plan-Fact” of sales is not sufficient. It is necessary to control the quality of planning. To do this, you need to regularly monitor and analyze the implementation of plans for each of the sections described above.

Sales plan coordination

If the actual sales in any area differ significantly from the plan, it is necessary to conduct a detailed analysis of this deviation and take action. Significant overfulfillment of the plan is only permissible in a situation where “a large client found us on his own, we did not plan to sell anything, but what can you do!” Unfortunately, over-delivery is usually associated with poor planning. Most often, it is not the potential of the client/product/region/seller that is analyzed, but the history of past sales. Such plans must be immediately criticized and corrected.

Failure to fulfill the plan for any section may be due to insufficient activity of the seller. As a rule, salespeople sit and wait for customers to “buy themselves.” This is only possible in case of “guaranteed demand”. All other sales plans must be projected into daily work plans.

Motivation to fulfill the sales plan

If fulfillment (and especially failure or overfulfillment) of the sales plan does not affect the level of wages of employees in the commercial department, it is impossible to overcome a formal attitude towards sales planning! People need to be clear about what they are “planning” for.

In system motivation employees should take into account a number of important recommendations:

Fulfillment of sales plans should influence wages “across the vertical”: salespeople - line managers - commercial director. If even one link is not sufficiently motivated for the process, there will be no result.
Fulfilling the sales plan is not a specific figure (for example, 200 thousand rubles), but a range. The plan was fulfilled 100% if the revenue amounted from 195 to 205 thousand rubles.
There must be a lower limit to the plan's implementation. For example, 50%. That is, if the revenue amounted to 150 thousand rubles, then the seller can receive some kind of bonus. But with sales below 100 thousand rubles. there is no question of a bonus.
Of course, if there is a lower limit, there must be an upper limit. Typically it is set at 120%. In our example, this means that revenue is in the range from 205 to 240 thousand rubles. is an overfulfillment of the plan, and this should be rewarded with an additional bonus. But sales above 240 thousand, at the same time, are a planning error and are encouraged by the same bonus as 240 thousand rubles.
Separately, it is worth noting “planning sales in the assortment.” And motivation for fulfilling these plans. For clarity, consider a simple example:

Example. Assortment sales planning

Let's say a company sells two products. Product "A" and product "B". At the same time, earnings on these goods are not the same. It is logical to differentiate the motivation of sellers, for example, by setting different percentages of sales volume. For product “A” - 10%, for product “B” - 5%. Obviously, with such motivation, sellers will focus on product “A”.

What to do, since sales of product “B” are also important? We will not deny that the company does not earn as much on them as on goods “A”. But it’s better to make money on two types of goods than on one! And it’s easier to start working with new clients with goods “B.” The so-called “bell method” can solve the problem. To do this, you need to separate two things: bonus accrual and implementation of plans. Yes, let the bonuses be awarded as they were: 10% for goods “A”, 5% for goods “B”. Let’s say that at the end of the month the total bonus was 15 thousand rubles. And we will pay this bonus for the fulfillment of plans. 50% bonus for fulfilling the plan for goods “A” and 50% bonus for plans for goods “B”. If the plan for goods “A” is fulfilled 100%, the seller receives 7.5 thousand rubles; but if at the same time the plan for goods “B” is fulfilled by 50%, therefore, the second half of the bonus is not issued. That is, the main bonus amount is awarded for more interesting products, but payments are made for fulfilling the plan for the entire assortment.

"Tricks"

At the end of the article, I would like to offer a few “tricks” that will help make sales plans in your company “alive”:

If you plan sales, plan your salary. The motivation of salespeople directly depends on sales results. While defending his “plan from below,” the seller must also “protect his planned salary level.”
Salespeople, planning their own sales, plan salaries for their superiors managers. This “trick” is a logical continuation of the previous one. When defending the sales plan for the company, the commercial director must indicate the expected level of his own bonus.
The sales plan must be built into the order chain management system. It would seem a completely logical sequence:

a) analyzing the market, you need to plan sales;

b) analyzing the sales plan, you need to plan production;

c) when analyzing the production plan, you need to plan the purchase of raw materials;

But in practice everything is different! Sales planning, even if carried out, remains an “internal tool” of the commercial department.

Planning "from the client". The idea of planning a company's sales based on past sales must be nipped in the bud! It is necessary to build a planning methodology based on an analysis of the potential of each client. That is, the sales plan of any seller must consist of plans for each of his clients.

Before doing the work, it needs to be carefully planned. The job of a sales manager is no exception. Not only the level of sales of the company, but also the bonus of the employee himself depends on proper planning of activities. In this article, we will figure out how to correctly draw up a work plan for a sales manager, and also provide an example of a sales plan for managers.

Planning the activities of a sales manager is usually carried out by a person who is interested in achieving a high level of sales and development of the company (this is either the head of the company or).

The sales manager's work plan can be divided into a monthly sales plan and a daily work plan.

Monthly plan

The monthly sales plan is set based on several indicators:

Last month's sales level.
Possible increase in sales volume due to additional sales to existing customers.
Possible increase in sales volume by attracting new customers.

When drawing up a monthly plan, you need to objectively assess market conditions and not set impossible tasks for managers.

Plan for the day

The sales manager’s daily plan should be drawn up taking into account the specifics and mode of operation of the company and its. But the principle of its compilation is universal and can be used everywhere.

“Rigid” and “flexible” tasks

The essence of this principle is to divide tasks into rigid and flexible. “Hard” tasks are tasks that require immediate solutions and are tied to a certain time period. These include:

Morning and evening planning meetings.
Conducting appointments and making calls.
Conferences, negotiations.

“Flexible” tasks are those whose execution time is not strictly regulated. However, they also have so-called deadlines - deadlines for completion. Therefore, it is still worth doing them in advance, but in the time free from performing “hard” tasks. This type includes the following tasks:

Preparation of reports and documentation.
Communication with clients via email.
Creation and distribution.
Training and advanced training (if required and permitted during working hours).

The first stage of drawing up a daily work plan for a sales manager is to enter all the “hard” tasks into the appropriate time intervals. It is most convenient to create a work plan in, since it allows you to save a specific task and not create it again in the future.

Introducing “flexible” tasks

Before adding “flexible” tasks to the work plan, you should rank them according to urgency and optimal implementation. In the immediate intervals between “hard” tasks, you need to include the most important “flexible” tasks and only after that plan the less important ones.

In the immediate intervals between “hard” tasks, you need to include the most important “flexible” tasks and only after that plan the less important ones.

Completing tasks at the optimal time for them allows you to reduce the time it takes to solve them. An example of the optimal time to solve such a task is to contact potential clients in the first half of the day. This rule will allow you to find contact persons at the workplace. You shouldn’t put off calls until the end of the working day, when you need to solve other problems.

After cold calling potential clients, you should switch to presenting the products or services offered to interested parties.

At the end of the day, you should leave the paperwork: preparing contracts and commercial proposals, making plans for calls for the next day. This is justified by the fact that at the end of the day, employees will try to quickly get through their routine work. At the same time, the desire of employees to get home as quickly as possible will not affect the quality of communication with clients.

Sales manager's working day plan

9.00-9.30 – morning planning meeting.
9.30-9.45 – preparation for calls.
9.45-14.00 – “cold” calls to potential clients.
14.00-16.00 – product presentations to interested parties, meetings with partners, conferences, seminars.
16.00-16.30 – appointment of meetings and presentations for the following days.
16.30-17.30 – filling out CRM, preparing commercial proposals, making a call plan for tomorrow.
17.30-18.00 – evening planning meeting, summing up the results of the day’s work.

To summarize, it should be said that planning work can significantly increase productivity and avoid downtime. A properly established planning system in the sales department will teach managers how to manage their time, which will benefit both the employer and the manager himself.

Proper planning of the work of a sales manager is the key to stable growth of the organization.