Hello! In this article we will talk about how to create a sales plan.

Today you will learn:

• Why is a sales plan needed?
• How to calculate and formalize it;
• How to get employees to fulfill the plan.

Why do you need a sales plan?

Do you need a sales plan for your enterprise? The answer is unequivocal - yes. And not only for those who sell specific goods, but also for workers in the service sector, it is also simply necessary.

1. For labor organization. The enterprise must function as an established mechanism, when each employee has a goal for his work and knows what he must do to achieve it. Employees must have clear ideas about what awaits them after the sales plan is met or not met.
2. To increase profits. Try moving a salesperson from a fixed salary to a minimum wage and a bonus for meeting the target, and you will see how the employee's motivation will affect the company's income.
3. For development. fades if it stands in one place. Setting a goal and achieving it is the task for a successful entrepreneur. Otherwise, he will be overtaken and crushed by more ambitious businessmen.

Types of planning

The basis of any sales plan is an understanding of the minimum and maximum quantities of goods the company must sell in order to exist.

The most important thing for beginning entrepreneurs is the minimum acceptable value; it marks the “bottom” below which it is no longer possible to function. For companies that have embarked on the path of growth and development, achieving maximum plans is more important.

There are several types of planning:

• Promising – long-term strategy for 5-10 years;
• Current – ​​developed for the year, clarifies and adjusts long-term planning indicators;
• Operational and production – tasks are divided into shorter periods (quarter, month, etc.).

Rules for creating a sales plan

The volume of possible sales depends on many factors. When creating a plan, you need to take into account all the points that are important to your area.

For example, these could be:

• Seasonality;
• Dynamics of development and trends in the market;
• Reasons for the decline in past periods;
• Changes in politics, economics and legislation;
• Changes in assortment and prices;
• Sales channels and potential buyers;
• Employees;
• Advertising.

Procedure for developing a sales plan

A complete annual plan, based on in-depth analysis, takes several months to create.

To get an adequate result and not miss anything you need to:

1. Analyze trends in politics and macroeconomics. How does the country's GDP change? What is happening to oil and gas prices and exchange rates? It would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the opinions of experts and leading economic media.
2. Study the market situation. Will demand increase or decrease? Have new competitors and potential customers emerged?
3. Display sales statistics for past periods. For the year in general and for each month in particular.
4. Analyze the causes of decline and growth. This could be seasonality, changes in company policy, new assortment, personnel changes. When making a plan for the next year, be sure to rely on significant points.
5. Compile sales statistics separately for sellers and departments. It will be too optimistic to focus on the leaders, but try to bring the average value a little closer to them.
6. Form a base of regular customers. How much profit do they bring, how often and what goods do they come for? Of course, this stage does not apply to companies focused on one-time sales.
7. Set a goal. Based on the analysis done earlier, it is already possible to imagine what sales were last year, and how much they can be increased in the future. It is better to set two goals: feasible and ideal. It is the presence of the second that will remind you that you should not stop there.
8. Discuss the plan with subordinates. Set deadlines and personal instructions.
9. Make a budget. Having a clear sales plan makes it easier to calculate how much you will have to spend on purchases, advertising, and employee bonuses.

Methods for calculating the sales plan

When calculating planned sales, you can use the following methods:

1. Subjective: surveys, questionnaires, decisions based on the entrepreneur’s experience;
2. Objective: test sales, analysis of early periods, demand statistics.

There is no universal method for developing a sales plan for any company. Each enterprise chooses its own method, based on the needs and characteristics of its activities.

There are many methods, but you don't have to know them all. It is enough to select several that are suitable for a specific business and use them together.

Let's take a closer look at several basic methods used in calculating the sales plan.

Time series analysis

Moving average

Using the moving average method, projected sales in the future period will be equal to the sales volume for past periods of time. This does not take into account any other factors. The more periods are taken into account, the more accurate the forecast will be, which is why this method is not effective for young companies.

Example. The stationery store sold 2700 ballpoint pens in 2016, 3140 in 2015, 2900 in 2014. Forecast for 2017: (2700+3140+2900)/3=2910.

Exponential smoothing

A method for creating short-term forecasts based on the analysis of historical data. Convenient for forecasting the development of retail sales. Allows you to calculate how much goods will be needed in the next similar period (month, week).

The smoothing constant (SC) can be from 0 to 1. At an average sales level it is 0.2-0.4, and during growth (for example, holidays) - 0.7-0.9. The most appropriate value of the KS is determined empirically - the value with the smallest error over past periods is selected.

Formula:KS * Actual demand for the current period + (1-KS) * Forecast for the current period.

Example. During the month, the stationery store sold 640 notebooks against the previous forecast of 610, KS - 0.3. Forecast for the next month: 0.3*640 + (1-0.3)*610= 619.

Decomposition and seasonality factor

The decomposition consists of seasonality, trend and cyclicality. In practice, many entrepreneurs stop at using the seasonality coefficient. It is used to create a sales plan based on historical income for a business whose turnover depends on seasonality.

Step 1. Determination of seasonal dynamics. A clear digital indicator here is the seasonality coefficient.

1. Take last year's total sales and divide it by 12. This will give you the monthly average.
2. Divide the sales amount for each month of the accounting year by the average.

Example. Over the past year, the store made sales of 850,000 rubles. Of these, 44,000 in January, 50,000 in February, and so on. Average monthly value 850000/12 = 70,830 rubles. Seasonality coefficient for January: 44000/70830=0.62, for February: 50000/70830=0.71.

As a result, each month will receive its own coefficient. For reliability, it is worth calculating such coefficients for several past years and leaving their average value for further actions.

Step 2: Define your goal. For example, let's say you set a goal to increase sales by 20%. The calculation is simple: you need to add 20% to the amount of sales for the previous year.

850000+20% = 1,020,000 rub.

Step 3. Make a sales plan for the month. The general plan for the year must then be divided into smaller periods - in our example, these are months.

1. Divide the annual goal by 12 to get an average plan for the month.
2. Multiply the average plan by the seasonality factor for each month.

Example. Average monthly plan: 1,020,000/12 = 85,000 rubles. Plan for January: 85,000*0.62 = 52,700 rubles, plan for February: 85,000*0.71 = 60,350 rubles.

The result will be a sales plan for each month. If the monthly plan is met, the overall goal of increasing sales for the year will be achieved. It is much easier to monitor the implementation of the plan over short periods of time and take prompt measures than to try to catch up with the goal in the last months of the year.

Preparation of a sales plan

The sales plan as a document consists of several points.

Let's list all the main ones in order:

1. A header consisting of a title (“Department Sales Plan...”) and an indication of the author (“Compiled by...” then the position and full name of the person who compiled the plan).
2. The first point is employees and achievements. Here it is worth listing all employees of the department, indicating the need for new personnel, if any, and also mentioning key achievements over the past period.
3. The second point is the results of the past period. For clarity, you can include in the document a graph of sales growth and decline, provide total values ​​not only for the department as a whole, but also for each employee in particular, and indicate in percentage terms how much the previous plan was overfulfilled or underfulfilled.
4. The third point is a plan for the future period. The plan amount is indicated, the main planned transactions are listed, clients who are ready to enter into a contract and other points that ensure a guarantee of profit in the new period.
5. The fourth point is necessary measures. Further, we are talking about the actions that have yet to be performed to achieve the goal. These could be changes in pricing policy, promotions, updating the company’s technical base and many others.
6. Date and signatures of the managers who approved the plan.

All employees of the company should familiarize themselves with the resulting document. Only after collective discussion and approval can the plan be officially recognized as the “compass” along which the company will move in the new year, quarter or month.

Structuring the plan

A sales plan is a map for the development of any business that sells goods or services. Without this map, things run the risk of getting lost, going in circles, or even moving in the opposite direction. And the more detailed the map, the easier it is for the traveler not to go astray.

Based on the features, set goals in several directions at once:

• Regional and macro market share;
• Overall sales volume;
• Financial profit.

If possible, break down each large plan into more specific ones. For each direction, product, number of clients, and so on, depending on your business.

The larger the company, the more plans you will have to make. In addition to the general sales plan common to all employees, each branch, division, department, manager and ordinary seller should have their own goals.

Such detailed planning is necessary for every enterprise.

Structuring the plan should ideally occur across all available sections:

• Regions (where and how much will be sold);
• Sellers (who will sell and how much);
• Products (how much of what will be sold);
• Time (when and how much will be sold);
• Sales channels (to whom and how much will be sold);
• The nature of sales (how many sales are guaranteed and how many are only planned).

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1. Sales forecast instead of plan. The forecast can be part of the sales plan, but cannot in any way replace it. The forecast only describes a situation that may or may not occur in the future.

The plan contains a description of the goal that needs to be achieved and the conditions that will need to be met for this. It implies a set of specific tools with which the result will be achieved: promotions, employee training, price reductions.

Mistake 2. The plan is based only on last year's achievements. The analysis of the sales plan must take into account all important factors. It is unacceptable to discount the economic situation in the country and region, competitors, new technologies and other changes that will certainly affect sales.

Error 3.Uniting all customers into one whole. Even the smallest retail businesses have certain groups of customers. They can be united according to various criteria: those who buy the same category of product, regular customers or new customers who make random purchases at a retail outlet or find your products on the Internet. When forming a plan, you need to consider what you can offer each of the groups and what you can get in return.

Error 4. The plan does not indicate deadlines and responsible persons. In the sales plan, everything should be clear: what is the goal, when it should be accomplished, by whom and using what tools.

Mistake 5. The plan is not structured enough. Each department and seller in particular should have its own individual plan. Agree that when you don’t have your own plan, the temptation to place all the responsibility on your colleagues is too great.

Mistake 6: The plan was not discussed with the sales people. The plan will never be fully developed if it was drawn up by one manager, guided only by reports and graphs. Frontline salespeople should at a minimum have the opportunity to discuss the plan with management, and better yet, be directly involved in creating the sales plan.

Be sure that you made the plan correctly if, at the end of the period, it turned out to be 85-105% completed.

How to achieve the plan

It's one thing to make a plan for yourself. This can be done by an entrepreneur seeking to increase profits or a manager aimed at career growth.

But the situation is completely different with plans for subordinates. You should not severely punish for every failure to fulfill the sales plan and keep employees under a tight rein - this is ineffective.

It’s better to listen to the advice of experienced entrepreneurs:

1. Briefly, but as completely as possible, formulate what you want from your employees. It is better to convey this to them in writing.
2. Incentivize financially. The best employees deserve a bonus.
3. Set bonuses not only for 100% completion, but also for each passing of a certain minimum threshold (for example, 60%). The employee may not have fulfilled the plan, but it is clear that he tried.
4. Fine for systematic violations.
5. The entire vertical of employees (from an ordinary salesperson to a top manager) must be financially dependent on the implementation of plans.
6. Respect and value your employees and strive to ensure that they love their place of work and are interested in the development and prosperity of the company.

“For a ship that does not know where to sail, no wind will be favorable.”

Seneca.

“The essence of active sales: sales must be manageable and predictable!”

I think there is no need to explain the importance and necessity of planning. Planning is like a goal, a guideline and a place where you need to move. It is plans that help us move forward and conquer new peaks and cities.

Each department or organization has its own specifics and characteristics that must be taken into account when creating a development plan for the sales department, such as seasonality, experience, competition, etc. But there are also general points that help and that must be taken into account when building a sales line for the future.

First of all, the sales department development plan is based on from the profitability of the enterprise, which shows us a sample and example of the numbers necessary for the break-even existence of an enterprise. Therefore, this figure is passed down to the sales department as an indicator for the year and then monthly distribution occurs.

When operating a company for more than a year, it is necessary take inflation into account and also include this percentage of the previous period in the plan. Well, then we consider assortment innovations and the distribution of plans by product groups.

Must be noted planning the development of the sales department by product groups, and not based on total sales. This will eliminate sales in the main only popular, popular positions with customers (HotLine).

All these points will help to build planned figures for the department. But there are a number of features that need to be taken into account when planning.

— Potential number of clients.

There are large and medium-sized players among clients who do not work with you as suppliers to their full potential. AND only accept certain groups goods. These are the clients who make up reserve for manager. It is the work for such clients that needs to be planned individually and work with them constantly monitored. It is necessary to find out why they do not work for other groups and make an appropriate proposal.

— Assortment analysis. We compare the sold and not so sold product groups by line and manager, compare the number of clients selling the assortment that is falling in sales and prepare proposals and plan growth for these groups. Control of these actions is necessary.

Breakdown of sales department development planning into shorter periods will allow you to quickly influence the situation, a week can serve as a sample.

Below is a typical sample of a sales department development plan for a week.

The task of effectively managing a company's sales department is constant monitoring and planning. The ability to develop development plans and motivate employees to implement them lies at the heart of the company's prosperity.

Sales department development plan - what is it and why is it needed?

To develop a sales development plan for a company division means to describe the methods, principles and tactics of achieving goals identified from the overall strategy of the company. The implementation of the document simplifies the audit, leads to increased profits and the formation of a positive reputation in the market. The secret of effective sales lies in the ability to manage and predict.

Development tactics are a significant employee management lever that guides and motivates both newcomers and managers.

The absence of a document in a company leads to inevitable problems:

• Lack of motivation among employees. In the absence of a development project, employees do not see a goal for themselves, and therefore do not feel the results of their personal work.
• Department managers are not aware of the company's current goals. Employees cannot work simultaneously to increase all indicators: expanding the customer base, increasing profits or sales volumes. The sales department development plan describes specific tasks and how to accomplish them.
• Regular loss of clients and profits due to the lack of formalized tactics for concluding a deal.

Any of these problems negatively affects profits. If management regularly encounters such circumstances, they need to start developing a plan today.

Sales territory development plan - example of development

At the first stage of document creation, an audit of the previously formed system is carried out.

Knowing the following four points will be helpful in the future:

• Tactics for attracting new clients;
• Statistical data on the results for the reporting period;
• Correctness and content of service instructions;
• Ways to motivate employees.

The listed indicators should be studied in order to highlight the main purpose of the document, make it understandable and effective.

As a result, the company will receive a sales development plan, a sample of which is created in several stages:

1. Determining the main goal that meets the overall strategy of the enterprise. The project may be aimed at increasing sales, attracting new consumers or increasing profits.
2. Development of a system for monitoring project implementation. During development, several benchmarks are determined that need to be achieved within the reporting time frame.
3. Description of tactics for implementing the plan. Employees should receive instructions on how to consistently achieve their goals within the reporting time frame.
4. A list of specific actions required to be performed by each department employee.

At each stage of project creation, it will be necessary to make additional clarifications related to the specialization of a particular company. Management appoints employees responsible for achieving benchmarks and implementing tactics. Both department heads and the most proactive employees from among their subordinates can monitor the implementation of the document’s points.

Sales department development plan - an example of implementation in practice

After completing work on the project, it must be presented to employees and management. Before starting to implement new tactics, they discuss it with employees, accept and process objections. Collaborative work on the final version of the document makes the department’s development plan clear and reasonable for each employee.

By the way, how effective is your sales department? I suggest you check, for this I will leave you the self-diagnosis questionnaires of the sales department. Use it!

Get profiles

The final version of the document is issued to all employees, from management to subordinates, for signature. With their signature, the fighters prove their readiness to start working on new tactics.

Management needs to notify employees of how the plan's progress will be assessed. A good option would be to hold regular meetings where everyone reports on the work done. Responsible employees evaluate the overall results and adjust the further actions of their colleagues.

Sales territory development plan - an example of creating a new division

The creation of new divisions is a significant stage in business development. An increase in staff automatically leads to an expansion of the customer base and increased profits. The company consolidates its place in the market and improves its reputation. A sales department development plan, a sample of which is suitable for new employees and managers, may look like this:

1. Creation of a documentary base describing the tactics of negotiating and concluding deals. Depending on the specialization of the company, the number of documents can vary from 10 to 30.
2. In the third or fourth week from the founding of the unit, managers draw up lists of candidates for positions. After testing applicants, a personnel reserve is formed.
3. An employee is appointed who is responsible for developing working standards, organizing training sessions and formalizing business processes.
4. The qualifications of young fighters are being improved. To do this, they conduct trainings in various formats and exchange experiences with colleagues from other departments.

In just four months, the formed division will be generating stable profits. Thanks to continuous training, the qualifications of young fighters will increase, which will have a positive effect on the number of meetings and contracts concluded. New employees are more highly motivated: they carefully fulfill personal responsibilities and try to achieve better results than more experienced colleagues.

Sales development plan - an example of technology for entering other regions

As it develops, the company expands geographically. The opening of branches in other regions indicates the prosperity of the company and opens up new opportunities for developing related specializations.

The issue of opening a branch is associated with a number of concerns. Unknown competitors, market policies and target audiences force us to postpone plans for company development every now and then.

Owners of large enterprises mention two main problems in operating in the regions:

• Consumers do not intend to enter into contracts with an unknown company;
• Employees move to competitors and pass on information about clients for a monetary reward.

Two basic technologies for developing new regions will help avoid unwanted problems when opening a branch.

1. Preliminary remote discussion of prospects for cooperation with prospective clients in the new region. The first consumers are large companies, or vice versa – newcomers who have not yet become regular customers of competitors.

To interact with each client, a separate group is formed, which travels to the region to conclude a contract. If negotiations take more than 10 working days, it is advisable to open a headquarters in the region. Communication with the client at all stages will be under the control of management, and work in the region will not require extra investments.

2. If several contracts have already been concluded in the region, it is advisable to turn the headquarters into a sales office. At this stage, the number of clients should include at least a hundred medium-sized consumers and at least ten large clients. The company is moving to open an office and hire employees. If necessary, part of the production is transferred to the region.

Managers assigned to work with large clients establish personal connections. This way, merchants will expand their customer base and protect the new branch from the influence of competitors.

The two listed technologies will help expand the geographic location of the company without unnecessary investments of finance and personnel. Management will be able to monitor the actions of employees at each stage and detect deviations from the previously approved strategy in time.

© Konstantin Baksht, General Director of Baksht Consulting Group.

The best way to quickly master and implement the technology of building a sales department is to attend K. Baksht’s training on sales management “Sales System”.

Commercial organizations are created with one goal - obtaining maximum profit. For this purpose, planning and optimization tools are being introduced. The manager’s task includes not only effectively managing the staff, but also planning the company’s sales for the near future.

Today we will talk about what a company sale plan is, consider the characteristic features of the procedure, and development rules.

Planning is an effective tool for achieving your goals and running a successful business.

A sales planning plan is a document that implies the development of a general development strategy for a company. The department of the same name cannot work effectively without a description of general provisions and directions for further professional activities.

The development process is accompanied by the preparation of accompanying documentation and analysis of the current situation. Life often presents surprises, which are not so easy to deal with.

It is important to know! An experienced manager is obliged to calculate the reasons for failure to complete assigned tasks and minimize their destructive impact on the professional activities of the company.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a sales plan are contained in this video:

Features, goals and principles of planning

The task of authorized persons is not so much to predict the future as to evaluate available resources. Based on them, a preliminary model of the organization’s further work is created.

However, the main feature of the process is to create a motivating impact on staff. Make the immediate goals of the company their tasks, stimulate the activity of the work process.

Sales volume planning has several goals:

• development of logistics for distributing available resources to priority areas. Coordination of the work of subordinates in the field of optimization of actions performed;
• assessing the abilities and performance of those responsible for sales;
• control of the overall activities of the organizational structure;
• creation of effective management methods, development of a strategy for further development. You will learn what conflict management strategies exist in an organization.

It is important to know! The document indicates the volume of goods that need to be sold within a certain time period.

Depending on the direction of the impact, they distinguish: general (designed for all subordinates), individual (adjusts and sets the rhythm of work for individual employees) plan.

A professional manager adheres to the following principles when drawing up a company sales plan:

1. Achievability – at the stage of setting goals, it is important to take into account the capabilities of the team and the potential of the product being sold. At the same time, one cannot rely on the indicators of the previous period, since the situation on the market depends on many factors: the popularity of the product, its seasonality, the activity of competitive structures, the improvement or deterioration of the country’s economic indicators. It is important to take into account all of the above nuances when drawing up a document.
2. Specificity and measurability - the plan must operate only with numerical indicators, perhaps this is unacceptable here.
3. Time limitation – the presence of clear deadlines for completing assigned tasks stimulates employees to achieve positive results. Assess the capabilities of each manager, otherwise the miscalculation will be charged to the account of the person in charge.
4. Lack of resources – setting unrealistic deadlines or tasks does not help motivate subordinates (sales of 100 TVs in less than a month is an unbearable burden).
5. Unity - the sales plan provides for clear cooperation and symbiosis with other departments of the object in question. The provisions of the document should not conflict with the real situation within the structural parts of the company.
6. Continuity - interchangeability of tasks for the sales department is necessary to maintain the efficiency and working tone of subordinates.
7. Flexibility is a bad plan that does not tolerate correction. During the development phase, it should be possible to change some aspects of the plan.

It is important to know! It is not enough to draw up a high-quality document; the company’s personnel must have the capabilities to practically implement the plan.

Rules for completing assigned tasks

Consideration of the topic of sales planning requires a view from not only the manager, but also his subordinates. For them it is stress and at the same time motivation to increase personal effectiveness.

Let us state a few main rules that will allow you to achieve a positive result:

• Take an inventory of available tools that are potentially suitable for executing the plan. If a manager sees that his capabilities are not enough to complete the assigned tasks, he needs to contact senior management. You will find out what it is in the publication at the link;
• Use the potential of the sales funnel. It consists of converting ordinary visitors to a retail outlet into buyers;
• Segment your most profitable customers and give them maximum attention. The success of the operation will bring a raise for the current month;
• work on increasing the average bill - complementary products will help here, the cost of which allows you not to think about the seriousness or importance of the intended purchase;
• inform potential buyers about the company, main activities, product range;
• calculate the percentage of completion - to do this, divide the actual indicators by the planned ones and multiply the value by 100.

It is important to know! According to statistics, only 30% of citizens clearly know what they want to buy. The vast majority rely on the support of sales managers.

Why the plan fails

There are quite a few reasons, but marketing experts consider several of the most popular options:

• the presence of gross errors at the planning stage - this includes: incorrect formulation of the problem, its unattainability in current conditions;
• low competence of subordinates - managers do not have sufficient knowledge and skills to sell the product they have. Conducting advanced training courses for staff or observing their work and testing will help here. you will learn what factors and circumstances influence increased productivity;
• insufficient motivation - the introduction of a rating system, bonuses and competitions will awaken the hidden potential of employees and make them more proactive. The interest of managers in achieving results is the main task of a manager.

It is important to know! The above list of “sharp corners” is far from complete, but reflects the complexity and high level of responsibility at the stage of developing a company’s sales plan.

List of steps to create a plan

The document development process itself consists of many steps and operations, the consideration of which will provide the following numbered list:

1. Goal setting – the manager identifies tasks that are a priority for the staff or a specific manager. The list and achievability of the goal should correspond to the SMART strategy, which reflects relevance, time period, achievability and measurability.
2. Analysis of market opportunities - the responsible person analyzes the situation of the macro and meso environment, the market and the niche occupied by the company. Taking into account most risk factors will significantly increase the “survivability” and relevance of the plan.
3. Analysis of indicators for the last month/quarter - the operation will help determine the optimal seasonality of the goods sold and identify additional factors affecting sales figures.
4. Forecast – drawing up an objective and subjective opinion about the further development of events. The second relies on expert assessment, the first operates on historical reports.
5. Adjusting the sales forecast - comparing the forecast results and previously defined goals.
6. Planning for product sales - step-by-step instructions for achieving the required result, assignment of tasks according to the scale of importance and priority.
7. Practical implementation of the plan.
8. Control and adjustment – ​​support of the plan at the stage of its implementation, smoothing out “sharp corners” and mistakes made at the development stage.

It is important to know! Deviation of actual indicators from planned ones is a sign of errors made by the responsible person. His professionalism or capabilities were not enough to take into account all the factors influencing the final result.

Characteristics of indicators and analysis of the results obtained

Experts identify the following sales indicators that characterize staff productivity:

• quantity of goods sold per hour;
• average sales figures;
• number of items purchased by one consumer;
• conversion speed and quality of service ratio;
• the ratio of wages and sales volume.

It is important to know! The above example is relevant for retail sales of low or medium price products.

Any use of materials is permitted only with a hyperlink.

Entire departments using specialized software and approaches analyze the data and results obtained. The procedure involves going through several stages:

• characteristics of changes in the market situation;
• calculating the profitability of regional sales;
• reviewing current information about sold goods;
• comparison of marketing activity and results obtained (sales volume);
• correction of pricing factors, commercial conditions;
• modifying the plan and creating a backup strategy.

Conclusion

The company's sales plan is an effective tool for motivating mercenaries to achieve their goals. Clearly defined tasks set the vector of the company’s development and create conditions for increasing the efficiency of the work process.

You can learn how to competently build a sales plan for a company here: