Sales Planning In A shifting Economic Environment

​Forecasting your business sales and preparing for changing economic conditions

​For the Building Industry, market uncertainty makes sales planning and forecasting a difficult task. So, forecasting your business and preparing for changing economic conditions is essential.

Maintaining your competitive position requires a resilient plan to guide your sales and marketing activities through the coming year. But recent uncertainty in the market have rattled the industry and the Construction Industry Forecasts show slowing growth in coming months.

So, how do you manage your sales in a shifting economy?

Start with a Plan

Businesses can’t control the economy in which they operate, but they can control how they manage the economic conditions to achieve their goals. Importantly, Leadership must focus their energy to ensure that all members of the organization are working toward the same goals and are prepared to deal with changes in circumstances.
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A bad economy raises the stakes for Business Development and increases pressure to meet sales goals. So, business leaders need to prepare for what they'll do to perform under pressure. Good planning prepares management, marketing and the BD team for an effective responses when the pressure increases.

Pay Close Attention To Your Business Development Process

It is essential to recognize that a sales and marketing plan is not just a document, book or binder. A good sales plan is rooted in a defined process that lays out how your company is going to achieve your sales goals and manage change. This ensures that the plan can remain relevant in a shifting economy.

A sales and marketing plan looks out 3 to 5 years and sets sales goals for your business, and identifies the steps you will take to meet your goals. Most importantly, a good sales plan breaks down the next 12 months into specific, measurable, and actionable goals for each member of the team.  This will ensure that the Plan reflects the overall business strategy and has the buy-in of all your departments. 

Most importantly, a good sales plan breaks down the next 12 months into specific, measurable, and actionable goals for each member of the team.  Getting It Done
Once you recognize the need to plan, you now have to get it done: facilitating the buy-in and commitment of your leadership team, business development and marketing. The planning process does not have to be complicated, but it takes some preparation.

BluePrint Growth Consulting recommends 3 steps to help you get started:

• Step 1: 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. Start by taking stock of your organization’s strengths and weaknesses and research what your competitors are doing. Identify current trends in the Industry and clearly identify who your customers are. Most importantly, take time to ask your customers what they value about your service and what you can do better to meet their needs.
• Step 2: Clearly define where you want to go. Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) for your team so you can measure progress toward your goals. Make sure you clearly identify who is responsible for what and by when. One of the most powerful things about establishing specific goals in your Sales Plan is that it becomes your scorecard – it includes indicators for how well you are implementing your plan. These indicators allow you to look critically at your sales and marketing activities and make adjustments on a regular basis. Monthly and quarterly reviews to analyze your results against the market allow you to make adjustments as the economy shifts.
• Step 3: Draft a plan to get you where you want to go. This is the tactical phase of your planning and lays out specific actions to be taken toward your goals. In an uncertain economy it is important to consider alternative scenarios for the coming year that reflect best case, worst case and most likely case scenarios. This allows all members of the team to formally acknowledge that things can happen to change your plan and it allows time to think about alternate decisions. Discuss what you will do if your circumstances change so your entire team is prepared to perform under pressure.

Staying Relevant – Review and Adjust

Once developed, the key to successful implementation is using the Plan to establish expectations for the sales and marketing team based on the sales goals and how your business will achieve those goals. Establish a schedule of quarterly progress reviews and make adjustments to reflect current market conditions and circumstances. In addition to measuring your progress against your plan goals, review the alternate scenarios considered and make the decisions that apply to the circumstances.
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Maintaining your competitive position in an uncertain economy requires a plan to guide your sales and marketing activities through the coming year. With proactive Sales Planning you will be armed to keep your finger on the pulse of the market and your customers, and armed to take action towards your goals.

With a clear plan that outlines where you are today, where you want to go, and how you will get there you will be in control of your future and positioned for success.

Here are 3 ways to get started now:

1. Email [email protected] us or call us at 856-430-2504 to find out how we can help you develop a Sales Plan to meet your goals.
2. Learn more about how we use our proprietary planning systems The BDblueprint and The SDblueprint to guide Client Success.
3. Join us for one of our Training Seminars for Sales Planning or Seller-Doer Training

Here is what one of our customers has to say about us...

 ...with Lori’s help, the Leadership Team created a 5-year plan to grow from 2 offices to 3 offices, from $150 million to $440 million (3x) in revenue, and from 30 to 65 Associates. Our actual results in year 4 of 5 is five office locations, over $800 million (5x) in revenue and 150 Associates. By the end of 2022, the target year, ADBI will be 5 offices with 160 Associates doing around $900,000,000 (6x)!! Thanks to the patience of Lori, and her skills in corporate planning and getting creative thoughts out of the ARCO leadership, we were able to position our company for this incredible growth."
Rob Steigerwald, CEO ARCO Design/Build Industrial, (Named one of the fastest-growing companies by Inc. Magazine) .