Develop Sales Plan

• P1. Compare and contrast Sales Strategy, Sales Plan, and Sales Process.
• P2. Define the elements that need to be part of a Sales Strategy including:
  • a. company Situational Assessment (past and present sales, customers, profit, etc.),
  • b. ideal customer profile,
  • c. SWOT Analysis,
  • d. market strategy to grow accounts (with current and new products),
  • e. revenue goals,
  • f. company’s Value Proposition,
  • g. a detailed Action Plan with clear guidelines, priorities, and outcomes.
• P3. Create a draft Sales Strategy for a food processing case study company including:
  • a. survey of competing companies and conditions,
  • b. identification of opportunities available,
  • c. obstacles to overcome,
  • d. sales targets,
  • e. guidelines and expectations of salespeople,
  • f. sales effectiveness and innovation measures,
  • g. sales training topics, and
  • h. sales incentives

• P1. Understand the main elements of a Sales Plan including:
  • a. market strategy,
  • b. processes,
  • c. objectives,
  • d. revenue goals,
  • e. selling methods and metrics,
  • f. target customers,
  • g. customer segments,
  • h. prior period performance,
  • i. market conditions,
  • j. key performance indicators,
  • k. monitoring plan,
  • l. current sales force capabilities,
  • m. budget
  • n. timeline.
• P2. Explore the various types of sales plans including:
  • a. 30-60-90 plan,
  • b. Territory Plan,
  • c. Sales Budget Plan,
  • d. Sales Tactics Plan,
  • e. Annual/Quarterly/weekly Plan.
• P3. Discover the reasons for the importance of a Sales Plan including:
  • a. achieving dependable revenue through tying to specific activities,
  • b. decision made on specific data-based objectives,
  • c. purposeful activities to retain existing customers and acquire new ones.
• P4. Define data necessary to use in developing the Sales Plan including:
  • a. industry trend statistics,
  • b. company research,
  • c. sales team knowledge and experience,
  • d. customer feedback,
  • e. historical performance data, and
  • f. competitor intelligence.
• P5. Construct a basic Sales Plan to expand customer base through a case study.
  • a. Define the customer experience the company wants to achieve.
  • b. Review company business objectives like market positioning, maturity, customer perception.
  • c. Conduct a SWOT analysis using a diverse group of participants (internal and external).
  • d. Set SMART Sales Goals.
  • e. Determine a sales strategy highlighting the routes and tactics that will be used to reach customers.
• P6. Defend the Sales Plan to top management in a Role Play exercise.

• P1. Compare and contrast several Sales Process types. The types can include:
  • a. Target Account Selling,
  • b. SPIN Selling,
  • c. Signal Based Selling,
  • d. Command of the Sale,
  • e. Challenger Approach,
  • f. Value Selling,
  • g. Customer-Centric Selling,
  • h. Solution Selling,
  • i. Sandler Selling System,
  • j. Inbound Selling
• P2. Choose a Sales Process type that would be useful in the Food Industry and create a Sales Process with a clear set of selling steps.
• P3. Outline the sellers and buyers’ activities for each of the steps in the Sales Process developed in P2.
• P4. Critique other Sales Processes created in P2 and P3.

• P1. Review various types of Sales Reports including Product Performance Report, Sales Representative Report, Monthly Cumulative Leads Report, Client Contact Report, Signed Agreements, Satisfaction Survey and others.
• P2. Define the items that can be contained in a Performance (Product or Sales Representative) Sales Report including:
  • a. Daily, Weekly, monthly, and quarterly performance and sales metrics
  • b. Performance of various products measured by metrics such as volume sold, order amounts by customer, value of sales, profit, accumulated revenue, etc.
  • c. Performance of sales representatives measured by metrics like number of outgoing calls, meetings set up, sales opportunities, leads converted/created, sales closed, etc.
  • d. customer complaints
  • e. Revenue, expenses, and forecasts
• P3. Create Product Performance and Sales Representative Sales Reports using Case Study data.

To successfully market any product there must be a positive connection to customers whether they are internal or external. Collecting and using customer satisfaction feedback is important for driving continuous improvement as is a robust customer complaint system.

• P1. Distinguish between internal and external customers.
• P2. Explain the importance of performance, on-time delivery, quick resolution of customer complaints, and level of service on customer retention and relationships.
• P3. Describe various methods for collecting customer satisfaction feedback, including:
  • a. formal surveys,
  • b. informal feedback,
  • c. focus groups and
  • d. other methods.
• P4. Document the importance of using customer satisfaction feedback to drive continuous improvement.
• P5. Define and identify a customer complaint. Understand and apply the complaint handling process including documentation, action taken, and providing resolution to the customer.
• P6. Provide training to the team explaining how to handle customer complaints.

• P1. Provide support and constructive feedback to the sales team.
• P2. Define the most prevalent interpersonal skills used in the sales function of the food industry.
• P3. Understand the importance of continued development of interpersonal skills for employee and company success.
• P4. Describe why teamwork is essential to a successful marketing effort and to identify and solve problems.
• P5. Describe when, where, why, and how teams can be used effectively.
• P6. Explain how a team’s efforts can support an organization’s key strategies and effect positive change throughout the organization.
• P7. Identify processes to recognize ongoing competency and awareness needs and ways to meet these needs including bulletins, memos, meetings, mentoring, behavior modeling, coaching, on-the-job training, formal training, personal feedback, and other methods.
• P8. Practice the emotional intelligence skills in increasing empathy, collaborative communication, stress reduction, prevention of employee turnover, better team engagement, improved company culture and improved individual and company performance.
• P9. Recognize how our emotional health and physical health are related and the need for self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management in our work as managers.

• P1. Describe and distinguish between the common definitions of quality.
• P2. Understand the difference and relationship between quality assurance, quality control, and continuous quality improvement.
• P3. Describe what quality means to various stakeholders (e.g., employees, organizations, customers, suppliers, community, and interested parties) and how each can benefit from quality.
• P4. Create a quality plan, describe its purpose and objectives to achieve a company’s mission, evaluating processes, and continuous improvement needs.
• P5. Design quality tools, techniques, and concepts that can improve processes and deliverables (including products and services) and explain how the tools can be used to identify problem root causes and improve problem solving.
• P6. Select, interpret, and apply the basic improvement tools:
  • a. Flowcharts,
  • b. Histograms,
  • c. Pareto charts,
  • d. Scatter diagrams,
  • e. Check sheets,
  • f. Control charts,
  • g. Decision trees,
  • h. Root Cause Analysis, and
  • i. other Quality tools.
• P7. Create a Sales Department Quality Report that could be delivered at a Management Review meeting.
• P8. Provide recommendations in Management meetings which help achieving a company’s mission, evaluating processes, and continuous improvement needs.