Ah, the time for New Year’s resolutions…we all have them even if we don’t readily admit it. And, for those of us in sales, we need to start planning for the coming year by capitalizing on the knowledge gained over the previous one. Reflect on what happened in 2013:
- Where did your business come from?
- Who were your top customers and what did they buy?
- What product lines did you have?
From there, determine how much growth is required for each product line and how you are going to achieve this.
Sales people don’t plan to fail, but often fail to plan. It is essential to analyze your sales territory and determine where and how you can grow your market share.
What resources are needed to execute successfully against your plan and to achieve/exceed your quota? If, on average, you attain 80% of your annual quota year over year, how are you going to get the other 20%? Determine the required growth in order to bridge that gap.
What plans are there for marketing? Be sure to have a discussion with your marketing counterparts to determine what is needed. What events will take place? These will not only need to be scheduled across your year but laid out at the start of that year so that each activity and event may draw maximum value.
In this context it is extremely important to remember that if your average deal closes after 60-90 days, you must be certain that all your planned activity is focused in the first 3 quarters to allow for the closing phase in the last quarter.
