3Q is the time to start to build your plan for next year

To meet your sales goals for next year, now is the time to begin to think about your Sales and Marketing Plan.  Annual Sales Planning is a process that cannot happen at a regular sales meeting or during a staff meeting.  It requires careful planning to ensure that the process is thorough and comprehensive. 

Start by scheduling your planning meeting now for the fourth quarter and spend some time and energy in this quarter gathering information and outlining the planning process.  BluePrint Growth Consulting recommends the following key steps to help you get ready for developing a great sales plan:

1.  Purpose & Clarity of Direction

If you do not have a clear sense of where you are today and where you are going you will not be able to establish common goals.  Make sure to take the time to clearly define your Vision, Mission and Values so you have a firm foundation for your sales plan.  Because these are the foundational elements of your Sales Plan be sure there is consensus on why the organization exists, and outcomes it seeks to achieve.   Take time before your planning meeting to assess the following:

• Mission – why you are doing what you do.
• Niche – core competencies, expertise, project type and/or specific industry sector.
• Vision – where you are trying to go.

These statements provide strategic direction and will clearly define your desired future so that you have a clear direction from which goals and objectives can be defined.

2.  Inventory Your Success

Understand where you are today.  Like all journeys, sales planning starts with a known position from where you can chart your course to achieve your goals.  Take stock of your organization’s strengths and weaknesses and look critically at your sales and marketing activities so you can be prepared to analyze your results and make adjustments for next year.  At a minimum take a look at:

• Proposal or Bid Hit Rates
• Marketing Programs and Results
• Sales Scorecards
• New Customers
• Website Statistics

 
3.  Know your Customers

Without a clear definition of who your customers are, what their needs are and how your services benefit them it is difficult to position your Organization in the marketplace. To get ready for a productive planning meeting, take time to segment and prioritize your existing and prospective customers:

• Segment your existing customers by market sector and identify which ones align with your purpose and direction.
• Identify how buyers in these sectors procure your services and what they value about the service you are providing.
• Conduct research to determine the growth of each market sector.

With this information available for your planning meeting you are prepared to make decisions about which customers to target and to how to prioritize your sales and marketing activities.

4.  Know your Competitive Position

Your organization may provide similar services as your competition, so without a clear definition of how you are different, customers are left with price as the basis of selection.  Focus on the following to clarify your competitive position:

• Assess your competition - Unless you have a market all to yourself, understanding your competition in each of your markets is essential to your success. 

• Review your Value Proposition -  Your value proposition is the thing that defines how your clients benefit from your service.  Before you start to draft a plan, make sure you understand your value, and if you aren’t sure what it is - ask your customers. 

Start now to meet next year’s sales goals

A well prepared sales and marketing plan helps to provide direction and focus for all employees and connects your execution to your strategy.  It points to specific results that are to be achieved and establishes a course of action for achieving them. Begin now to establish your sales planning process and position your organization to meet your Sales Goals. 

To learn more about how you can develop a Strategic Sales Plan to beat your competition, join us for one of our Workshops at the Society for Marketing Professional Services (eligible for 1.5 CPSM credits and 1.5 AIA CES LUs); or at Associated Builders and Contractors.  If you need some help getting started, contact us today.
​
BluePrint Growth Consulting helps Organizations in the Building Industry position themselves ahead of their competition by developing great sales strategies and great sales plans.  www.BDBluePrint.com

For more about the essential steps in creating a strategic sales plan contact us for a free copy of our Sales Planning Blueprint:
​

A PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS - 4 ESSENTIAL STEPS

In business we hear a lot about the value of setting goals, but successful organizations take the time to create a written Plan for how they will meet the goals.  For sales and marketing professionals this is especially important because missed sales goals can undermine broader company goals.   Research provides evidence that those who establish a practice of writing goals along with a system of accountability succeed nearly 75% of the time.  A well-crafted Sales and Marketing Plan captures your goals in a published plan that establishes accountability and creates a blueprint for success.  Here are four steps to help you create a Plan to meet your sales goals:

Step 1   Focus on a vision for your future

A clear sense of direction and clarity of purpose allows operations, sales and marketing departments to establish common goals that are aligned with broader company goals.   So take the time to clearly define your vision, purpose and niche expertise so you have a firm foundation for your Sales Plan.  Be sure to gain consensus on why the organization exists, and the outcomes it seeks to achieve. 

Set aside time to assess the following:

• Vision – where you are trying to go.
• Purpose – why you are doing what you do.
• Niche – core competencies, expertise, and specific customer market.

These items provide strategic direction and will clearly define what your desired future looks like so that you have a clear direction from which goals and objectives can be defined.

Step 2   Establish measurable goals

With a clear definition of where you want to go, the next step is to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) so you can measure progress toward your goals.  Make sure you clearly identify and write down who is responsible for what and by when.     

According to a study done by Gail Matthews at Dominican University, those who wrote down their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not.   The study also provides empirical evidence for the importance of establishing accountability and commitment, so it is essential write your goals into your Plan and get buy-in from everyone who is accountable for meeting your goals.

Step 3   Define the steps to get you where you want to go
​
This is the part where your Plan becomes actionable and defines the specific business development and marketing activities you will undertake to meet your goals.  According to Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal achieving goals requires that people understand the incremental steps needed to edge you closer to meeting goals. 

A well prepared sales and marketing Plan helps to provide direction and focus for all employees and connects your execution to your strategy.  It points to specific results that are to be achieved and establishes a course of action for achieving them and clearly spells out your goals, how you’ll pursue them, what you must do to get there, and what’s in your way. 

Step 4   Take action, review and adjust your process

While it is essential to write down and publish your Sales Plan, it is equally important to recognize that a sales and marketing plan is not just a document, book or binder.  What is important is that the Plan captures a defined process that defines how your company is going to achieve your goals.   By taking the time to map out and detail your Plan you will have a documented process that can be tracked, analyzed and improved. 

From Idea to Sales Success in 4 steps

With a clear Plan that outlines where you are today, where you want go and how you want to get there, you are positioned to meet your Goals for Sales Success. Follow our 4 step blueprint to success:

1. An Idea with a Purpose becomes a Vision
2. A Vision written down with a date becomes a Goal
3. A Goal broken down into steps becomes a Plan
4. A Plan with Action Items becomes a BluePrint for Success

To learn more about how you can develop a Sales Plan to meet your goals, join us for one of our Workshops at the Society for Marketing Professional Services (eligible for 1.5 CPSM credits and 1.5 AIA CES LUs); or at Associated Builders and Contractors.  If you need some help getting started, contact us today.

Raise your Sales Success Rate by Avoiding this One Big Mistake.
by Matt Handal, Guest Author

Have you ever had a meeting with a potential client that just went south? The client looked at you like you were crazy or maybe stopped it earlier than you hoped.  You’re left wondering what happened. You did everything right. You had your message. You had the right material. But something clearly went wrong.
 
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could prevent these kinds of client meeting disasters? You can, but only if you stop making one big mistake.  
 
Whether you're a seasoned business development or marketing professional, or someone just beginning a career in BD, a bit of wisdom can help you avoid mistakes that could not only kill a sale but also your career. 
 
Read more as Matt Handal - seasoned marketer, author, speaker and guest blogger at the BD Blog - shares an experience about when a client threatened to walk out of a meeting he was in and explains what that one big mistake is and how you can avoid it.
 
This Client Meeting Went South Real Quick 

I am Matt Handal and it was 2001. It was the post-Y2K era. Cell facilities and data centers were popping up all over the place. Nobody predicted the impending “dotcom” bubble bursting.
 
I was working for a mechanical/electrical/plumbing designer. I was the marketing coordinator for their pharmaceutical and central utilities groups.
 
We had arranged a meeting with the director of construction for a large pharmaceutical client that we hadn’t worked with before. They were planning a new research lab building. And we thought their director was coming in to hear us pitch.
 
We had our pitch well planned. The pitch revolved around what we called “six nines.” That’s an electrical and mechanical system that was up 99.9999% of the time. This is the kind of reliability data centers required because they have to run 24 hours a day.
 
This pitch was really going to impress our client. And I was going to sit there and watch our lead designers and senior vice president knock this guy’s socks off.
 
The Client And The Curveball 

But then the potential client showed up. He had a roll of preliminary drawings under his arm. He walked into our conference room, rolled out the drawings onto the table, and proclaimed, “Here’s my project. What do you guys think?”
 
Nobody was prepared for that. I saw my guys squirm. The senior vice president started explaining the “six nines” and how that would benefit his project.
 
“We really don’t need that,” he explained as he pointed to a closet that was to hold the handful of servers the research team needed.
 
So my boss rambled a little more. But then he went back to his pre-determined pitch, the six nines.
 
The client started to look frustrated. I had to save my boss. I thought that we needed to shift this conversation...and we needed to shift it quick. Six nines is for data centers. This guy is focused on the research aspects, I thought to myself.
 
So, I did something that, in retrospect, wasn’t the wisest thing to do. I, the fresh-faced boy who had never pitched a client, opened my mouth.
 
“Well,” I said to my boss. “Maybe you can explain the types of facilities that need six nines and those that might not.”
 
I had done it. Now my boss could take that and pivot away from the six nines. I imagined myself being paraded around the office by my peers for saving the day.
 
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” my boss said to me with a straight face.
 
Then the client said something I will never forget.
 
“If I hear about six nines one more time, I’m going to take these drawing and walk out the door.”
 
The Breakthrough Concept 

It wasn’t until years later that I truly understood what we did wrong. And it’s a mistake that I see people making on a regular basis.  It’s based on a concept that seems easy enough to understand but is extremely difficult to believe.
 
You can’t create a desire for your service or product.
 
Let me repeat that in a different way. You can’t sell someone something they don’t already want. You can only align their existing desires with your service or product.  That’s very hard to believe because you probably think people sell us stuff we don’t want all the time, right!? We’ve all heard about people who can sell water to a fish and prescription glasses to a blind man.
 
Well, it doesn’t work like that. Want to test it? Try to sell me some cat food. I don’t have a cat. I’m not going to eat cat food. Try to sell me cat food.
 
Looking back at our meeting, the client didn’t desire increased reliability. To make matters worse, we had no idea what he desired. Truth be told, we didn’t care what he desired. We had a bullet in the chamber and we were determined to fire it.  
 
Are You Making This Fatal Sales Mistake? 

Over the last 15 years, I’ve seen people make that fatal mistake over and over again. They develop their sales message, load it into the chamber of their gun, and run around trying to shoot clients.
 
They make no effort to find out or even consider their potential clients’ hopes, fears, and dreams (i.e. their existing desires). And since they aren’t aligning their sales message to those hopes, fears, and dreams...they end up trying to sell the client something they don’t desire.
 
Sure, if you search long enough, you’ll find some blind man that wants to buy prescription glasses. Maybe he just likes the way wearing prescription glasses makes him feel. But 99.9999% of the blind men you try to sell to simply won’t buy. Some will even get annoyed with you.
 
Raise Your Sales Success Rate 

If your sales message does not consider the hopes, fear, and dreams of your potential clients...selling is going to be difficult for you. You’ll meet such resistance that you’ll probably hate doing it.  But if you align your sales message with what your clients truly desire, selling will be far easier and you’ll be far more successful.
 
Now, you can always hire someone to uncover the hopes, fears, and dreams of your clients. Or you can do it yourself by meeting with potential clients.
 
If you want to tackle this yourself and would like a head start, check out my post on the exact scripts I use to get meetings with extremely busy people.