PLAN FOR SUCCESS

If you don't have a destination, you'll never get there ...

Everyone gets lucky on occasion. However, consistently achieving success requires careful planning. The old adage that "Luck is the residue of design" is very true in sales. High performance companies establish aggressive goals and then develop plans to achieve those goals. They plan for success, but by anticipating roadblocks, competitive threats and delays, they are prepared to deal with any contingency. This healthy obsession with planning ensures that they will reach their goals.

Effective planning is necessary at each of these levels:

Corporate strategic planning What are our corporate goals and priorities for the next 12-18 months? What's our strategy to achieve those goals? What are our core competencies? What are our target markets? What programs do we have to generate revenue and find new customers? What are we doing to ensure that we have skilled, motivated and loyal employees? Key account /Territory strategic planning What are our customer's needs for the next 12-18 months? What solutions can we propose? Where do we have relationships and where do we need to build them? What are the obstacles to our success? What actions must we take to be successful? What will our competition do and how should we prepare for it?

Sales call planning Where are we in the sales process? Who are we meeting with? What are our goals for this meeting? What are their needs, concerns, history with our company, etc? What are we proposing? What are the objections we're likely to hear and how will we respond? What are the suggested next steps?

Taking the time to develop, implement and revise plans is critical for a company's sales success. Crossland Partners has extensive experience building strategies and plans at all levels. We can guide and facilitate your planning process to ensure that you have considered all the factors that can impact your success.