Sales Planning - Corporate Strategies

Each and every level of an organization operates on meticulous planning and decision making. This is an important aspect not only for the lower-management, but also for the senior officials, who work in those areas where long-term plans are created and modified. Several heads of the organization decide what necessary changes are needed in a plan to boost their revenue.

Example

If a brand is liked by a lot of customers in the market, then the management may decide to launch some more new products of that brand in the market. They analyse the graphs carefully and select which sales plan is suitable for a particular product’s promotion to increase its sales. They also share tips on choosing the best strategy for the next three to five years.

Often such decisions are only taken on a senior managerial level as the junior staff members only follow those details that their seniors provide them. However, with regular training, the juniors can also help in identifying practical areas where their organization can show growth and achieve a better position in the market.

Types of Strategies

There are different types of strategies to make a sales plan successful. Most of them are long term strategies like determining the MRP, etc. However, some are medium-term (offers valid for a month) and short-term strategies (one-day offers) also. The toughest strategy to plan is the long-term strategy. It is a difficult process because these steps are followed by the organization for longer durations to reap the results.

Short-Term Planning

The word short-term emphasizes on short time spells of about ninety days to a maximum of one year. Here, the focus of plan is only on achieving an objective. The nature of these type of plans is tactical and are implemented on some higher frameworks.

Proper short-term planning is the key to success for sales managers. In short-term planning, the time taken for each and every activity is calculated because this type of a planning is often merged along with the departmental plans, where every step has some fixed amount of time.

Medium-Term Planning

The medium term planning involves setting slightly longer term objectives. Here, the key focus is on determining all the problems associated with a plan that’s been operational for some time, and then modifying the existing plan according to the requirement. This results in the organization’s product getting a progressive growth in the market.

Long-Term Planning

Long-Term planning is the combination of small-term planning and medium-term planning. This kind of planning is generally implemented in large organizations, because they create a plan only once in a long time-span of 2-3 years. Any changes in such plans are made only because of any change in market statistics.

Some useful steps undertaken while selecting a perfect sales plan −

● Determine the customer’s needs for a particular product.

● Try to build the product according to the customer’s needs.

● Build a strategic plan under the expert guidance of senior officials.

● Build a short-term plan, implement it and then convert it into a medium-term plan, if the results meet the expectations.

● At the end of one medium-term plan, analyze the results and if found positive, then implement it as a long-term goal.

It is a crucial step for an organization to select the appropriate plan, because the overall growth of a new product is totally dependent on the initial plan and employee knowledge.