The sales plan is a key tool of any company and is of particular importance to long-term established enterprises and startups. Anyone planning to start their own business, or already doing business, should have a planned sale at least 12 months in advance. Reading the previous sentence, you will probably think that in unpredictable times – such as the current pandemic – it is absolutely impossible to plan so far. But read a few facts about the sales plan below, and you’ll see that making it possible, important, and at times fun!
Sales plans change – it is a wrong assumption that once a sales plan is made, it remains the same until it is realized. In addition to innovative technologies, competitive activities and constant changes in life habits, pandemics, earthquakes, floods, weather disasters and all other unpredictable situations also change consumer habits.
The supply must follow the sales plan – if you cannot produce, but also deliver the quantities you have set out in the sales plan, then that plan loses its purpose.
The sales plan must be three-dimensional, which means that the same measure sells in three directions: piece, volume and value. Piece means that your entire team knows how many pieces of certain products need to be sold. Volume plan involves tracking the quantity of goods that must be sold. This information is important to you in order to plan the procurement of raw materials for production, but also to plan storage capacity and delivery capacity. Value means the total value of cash income that the sale must generate in a given period. This information is most important to finances so that they can make realistic cash flow plans within the company.
Creating a sales plan is not easy, but it is quite an interesting exercise because it helps you better understand the category in which you are competing with the competition and thus align business processes with the real needs of the market.
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Sources:
https://www.podrska-poduzetnicima.hr/clanak/kako-jednostavno-napraviti-dobar-prodajni-plan
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