Question

Create a sales plan for an organisation. Use your current or past place of employment, another organisation with which you are familiar or complete the plan for a hypothetical organisation.

Each Section should comprise 500–1,000 words.

Section 1: Organisational context

Describe the organisation that the sales plan is for. Ensure that you cover:

the nature of the goods/ services sold

the size of the organisation

vision/ mission of the organisation

values of the organisation

Section 2: Background to the sales plan

List the organisational strategic planning documents that you will use to create the plan.

Discuss how you will review previous sales performance and determine the strategies that were successful in the past.

Describe how you will undertake an assessment of market needs.

Describe how you will identify new opportunities.

Detail your target market and the profile of customers within it.

Section 3: Sales objectives and targets

Describe how the sales plan will actively contribute to the organisational strategic objectives and corporate image.

List the assumptions that you will base your plan on.

Determine the sales indicators and their associated targets.

Establish timelines for achieving each of the targets.

Describe how you will monitor the plan, including:

what will be monitored

how it will be monitored

when it will be monitored

how you will record the data measuring performance versus sales targets

Answer 1

Section 1 : The sales plan is for an organisation called AD Enterprises which is into garment manufacturing.The organisation is a startup with a work force of around 250 people of which around 50 persons are in staff and around 200 are workers. The organisation is located in a urban city which is a hub of manufacturing business for garments. There are skilled workers and the technology used by the company is being improved with increasing business. The machines and better technology makes it possible to customize designs. These garments are sold to multinational organisations which further sell them in retail outlets. With improved quality of garments, the goods are being exported to other countries offering new business avenues. Apart from garment manufacturing the organisation outsources various value additions like embroideries, handwork etc. The company has a sister concern too which is printing mill. It sells the printed textiles to organisations manufacturing garments. There is alliance between both companies which helps in vertical integration and better economies for both the firms as the business is steady and the production capacities are utilised well. Apart from being a business partner it also helps the two firms in doing regular product development for innovating as per the business needs and experimenting new techniques in printing. For a succesful Garment manufacturing business it is important to have quality raw material which is printed or dyed textiles. The textiles ahould also be processed well so that the rawness of manufacturing goes away. Proper quality check points at various stages of garment manufacturing is applied so that quality products are made. It is very important in the garment manufacturing business to meet the delivery timelines as the fashion business to which the garment manufacturing caters is a seasonal business. If the deliveries are delayed there is a risk of the product becoming irrelevant to the fashion trends and incurring loss to the business. Since AD Enterprises is a manufacturing unit it is important to factor in the holidays and leaves taken by the workers so that production during peak times can be handled and business orders do not suffer.

The vision of AD Enterprises business is to become a market leader in the field of garment manufacturing. The mission of the organization is to provide quality products at minimum costs. This mission statement helps the organization to compete better and make itself efficient in its operations. The values of the organisation are to be a family fun place where everyone can enjoy themselves. These values create a friendly work atmosphere and reducing the stress levels. There are healthy relationships between employees and they can enjoy their time at work.

Section 2 : The organisational strategic planning documents needed to create the sales plan include the business plan, financial statements which give a detail about the cost , expenses and the sales revenue. Organisational charts will be required to figure out the human resources available and database of propective employees. It will also help in the sales plan if business forecasting plans are available. The previous sales performances can be reviewed with the help of data analysis and group business meetings. The team can brainstorm together based on the numbers given in the previous sales plans targets and target achieved. The strategies which were successful in the past can be find out reviewing the trends in sales revenue, number of goods sold, promotional activities or discounts being undertaken. Sales strategies will also include the relevance of the product being offered to be sold and the popularity of the product with customers. Top sellers and slow movers can be identified.

Assessment of market needs can be made with the help of market research about the fashion trends. Rather than pull marketing, using push marketing strategies can help in increasing sales for the organisation.Participation in trade shows, increasing number of point of displays, having a website with proper details and tracking the number of visits, frequent interactions with customers through various offline and online channels like emails and incorporating their feedback in the business strategy can help in assessing the market needs. The aforementioned techniques can also be used to identify new opportunities.

Target market for AD Enterprises includes businesses looking for outsourcing design, development and manufacturing of garments. Profile of customers involve firms which are the interface between manufacturing and customers. It can be domestic firms or multinational corporations. AD enterprises can target companies which are looking for customised and specialized garments so that they can develop a consistent market for their products.

Section 3 : The sales plan will actively contribute to the organisational strategic objectives by helping to grow the organisation from a startup. A plan will help to stabilize the business and employ the resources available to optimum use. It will also help to identify the resources required to achieve the goals as per the sales plan. This will help in boosting the corporate image as it will create a place for the organisation in the market and establish AD Enterprises as a well known garment manufacturing unit.

The assumptions on which the sales plan will be based are the business will grow in the future, economy will improve, there will be no change in the government regulations and stable economic environment for the business to grow. There will be no natural disasters and currency rates will continue to be favorable to exports.

The sales indicators are the monthly and annual sales volumes in revenues and quantity, new customers acquired, monthly lead generation , conversion rate from reaching a new customer and closing the deal, cost of marketing activities, recommendation received from customers, market share and frequency of orders being received, repeat orders etc. The targets will be formulated based on past sales history and business plan. Various costs will be factored and the target profitabily margins will be included before reaching the sales targets.

Timelines for achieving the targets will be monthly, quarterly and annually since it is a manufacturing business and the leadtime for turnaround of a product is minimum three weeks.

The plan will be monitored on monthly, quarterly and annual basis. It will be monitored by recording the sales data, tracking the customer feedbacks, popularity of the products, timely delivery and sales revenue collection. Proper tracking of activities like new product development and demos to new customers will help in monitoring the direction of the sales. Regular analysis and record keeping of data is required for monitoring sales plan.

The data measuring performance versus sales targets can be recorded using various softwares designed for this purpose. This can involve simple software for office use like windows software, billing and accounting softwares like Tally , customized business software for sales management.