One of the top requests I get from blog subscribers is for advice on how to create the best 30 60 90 day Sales plan. There is a lot of value to customizing your plan to demonstrate your mastery of the sales profession and build confidence in your boss or differentiate yourself from other candidates in the interview process. A great 30 60 90 day plan for Sales Managers, VPs and Reps can be a huge edge in your career.
There is certainly value in a simple, basic 30 60 90 day plan, and I offer a free template for those who want to keep it simple. However, I would argue Sales positions are unique enough that they require their own customized plan. Sales jobs tend to be highly competitive, and Sales interviews tend to require a unique but consistent set of specialized content that you just won’t find in a basic template.
I’m going to spend time in this blog to share some tips for building a 30 60 90 day plan for sales managers, sales VPs and sales reps. But if you’d prefer to skip all that and download my 30 60 90 day Sales plan you can do that now.
Download my 30 60 90 Sales plan template
This plan template is customized for the unique needs of a sales professional. It’s designed to help you demonstrate that you know how to build a plan and attack a sales territory by combining the art and science of sales. If you don’t feel like buying a ready-to-use template but you’d still like some tips for building your own 30 60 90 day sales plan, continue reading and I’ll share some advice so you can do it yourself.
The purpose of the 30 60 90 day plan is widely misunderstood. It has nothing to do with helping you “get up to speed” or “hit the ground running” and everything to do with aligning your boss and management team to a definition and framework for success.
The plan is designed so your hiring will be declared an unequivocal success after 3 months by the people who matter most to your career. It’s designed to guarantee the success of the major projects you take on. It’s not about making sure you focus on learning or training or any of the other misinformation out there. No one cares about that. The purpose of the plan is to set the foundation for your career advancement.
While the basic goal of all 30 60 90 day plans is the same, you can and should customize your approach based on the situation you’re in and the role you hold or would like to hold. I’ve given some advice below on how to customize your plan for Sales positions.
The 30 60 90 day plan for sales VP, manager and rep roles has two fundamental uses. In the interview process it can help you land the job. And once you have the job it can help you build a reputation as a smart and savvy sales executive. It’s about demonstrating that you understand how to build and execute a sales plan for a territory, region, country or global mandate.
Here are three keys to help you build a great plan:
If you want to differentiate yourself from other candidates applying for a sales job, or just to impress your boss with your approach to planning a sales territory, you must start by defining your target with precision. Most reps and sales managers don’t take this seriously enough and aren’t scientific in their approach to identifying the “perfect customer”. My recommendation is to spend the first phase of your sales 30 60 90 day plan for Sales on defining your highest value target customers. This includes conducting interviews and profiling your most profitable customers, building a “perfect” customer profile as the basis for your building high quality pipeline, and mapping high value customer targets based on those profiles. These are the fundamentals of a good sales plan and belong at the front of your 30 60 90 day Sales plan.
Here is an example of what I mean from my template:
The difference between average sales professionals and exceptional ones is often the model they use to attack a territory or quota. Many people take a “best effort” approach. They rely on salesmanship and intuition to hit a number. While that may work some of the time, it’s not a strategy that is going to set you apart from others. My recommendation is to spend the second phase of your 30 60 90 day plan on dissecting your quota and building a model that shows exactly how you’re going to hit it.
Here is an example of what I mean from my template:
This is where you need to combine the art and science of sales. Now that you’ve show you can quantify your target and model your business, you need to demonstrate you the art form of sales. My recommendation is to spend the last phase of your 30 60 90 day plan showing the tactics you’re going to use to build pipeline and develop customers. If you do this effectively, your boss or future boss will know you have everything it takes to be an effective sales professional.
Here is an example of what I mean from my template:
If you want my ready-to-use 30 60 90 day Sales plan, you can download it here.
