Plan The Work, Work The Plan
Good morning,
Pre-quarter sales planning gets a bad rap. It's often overlooked or rushed and, when done effectively, is the unsung hero of successful quarters. Today we're exploring why planning might need a rebrand, how you can blow your leadership away during planning, and why an effective plan will be the key reason you hit quota next quarter. Let's dive in.
Despite dedicating 25% of their time to planning, more than half (56%) of sales executives find the process inefficient (source). A staggering 31% are dissatisfied with their own sales strategies' ability to achieve long-term goals. These stats are wild given we’re talking about executives who should know how to effectively plan for the future. Notably, if nearly a third of leaders don’t believe their own planning + strategy will drive desired outcomes, what will their direct reports believe? This disconnect often stems from poorly defined planning objectives, inadequate internal communication, and a failure to address weaknesses within the sales team’s capabilities to execute.
But just because sales leaders find the planning process inefficient doesn’t mean it’s not valuable; it means that at least 31% of sales leaders are bad planners. A study by HubSpot revealed that effective planning leads to a 33% increase in sales productivity.
The Rebrand: Before you delete this email, ask yourself: is planning just a hoop I'm jumping through to appease management? If it is, you obviously have an annoying problem on your hands, but your leadership has a bigger problem: a plan is created in vain and never referenced again in the future. When done poorly, planning is a top down mandate of how things will be done in a future quarter that isn’t clearly connecting the dots of value delivered to customers and sellers. When done effectively, planning is a collaborative and regularly refined process that stays flexible based on customer and business needs. And what if this isn’t the case?
Improve the Process: Don't complain about your planning process feeling (or objectively being) flawed; be the thought leader your management expects to provide specific, actionable, quantifiable, and respectful feedback on a process change.
Planning Breeds Success: Why you’ll hit next quarter with a specific, actionable, and measurable plan:
Vision: Effective pre-quarter sales planning provides a clearer idea of what it’ll take to win the quarter ahead. When done right, it illuminates the logistics needed to achieve specific goals.
Prioritization: Without a well-defined plan, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential/expected customer interactions. Or worse— you think you’re being productive by handling troubleshooting issues or prioritizing having your inbox as close to zero throughout the day.
Value Delivered: Pre-quarter sales planning has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Better prioritization = more time helping your highest potential customers implement transformational change initiatives.
You wouldn't expect to survive submitting Mt. Everest in flip-flips. Why would you attempt to surmount lofty sales targets without appropriate preparation?
Build your next quarter sales plan for you. Make a plan that actually influences your internal workflow / go-to-market behavior.