COM 539 Week 6 Sales Plan Example

Growing From $41 Million to $50 Million: A One-Year Sales Plan for an Industrial Floor-Care Equipment Maker

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

COM/539: Communications: Selling and Customer Engagement

Week 6 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Lakeview Floorcare Systems, its sales team, customers and figures are composites written for a model paper.

Over five weeks, this course has analyzed the sales organization of Lakeview Floorcare Systems, the invented Wisconsin builder of scrubbers and cleaning robots. Direct sales reached $41 million last year against a $48 million target. The analysis found a leaky process built around demonstrations rather than buyers' decisions, prospecting that relied on stale lists, relationships that ended at the purchase order, representatives who adapt well only to buyers like themselves and negotiations that gave away price. This paper assembles a one-year plan to reach $50 million.

Objectives

Total direct revenue: $50 million, up 22 percent.

By segment: hospitals and health systems from $11 million to $15 million; distribution warehouses from $14 million to $17 million; schools and universities from $9 million to $10 million; airports and other facilities from $7 million to $8 million.

By product: robotic cleaners from $3.3 million to $9 million.

Retention: repeat purchase or service renewal from 64 to 75 percent of accounts.

Pipeline Model

Reaching $50 million requires about 205 orders at an average of $244,000 per account-year, including service. Using Week 1's improved targets, 16 percent of first meetings converting to orders, representatives need about 1,280 first meetings and, at 40 percent of qualified leads becoming first meetings, about 3,200 qualified leads, fewer than last year's 3,900 unqualified ones but better targeted.

Why Not Just Hire More Representatives?

The vice president's first instinct was to add six representatives. The analysis argues against it for now. With an 11 percent conversion from first meetings, new representatives would add activity to a leaky process; at about $140,000 each in salary, benefits and travel, six would cost $840,000 a year and need nine to twelve months to become productive. Fixing conversion first means existing representatives produce more, and new hires added later will join a process that works.

Segment Priorities

Hospitals and health systems are the priority segment: Week 3 showed large account potential, and robotic cleaning fits their labor and infection control needs. Warehouses remain the largest segment and grow with e-commerce. Schools buy on public budget cycles, so representatives will time proposals to spring budget planning. Airports and other facilities will be served mainly through dealers, freeing direct representatives for higher-value segments.

Strategies

Process. Adopt the buyer-centered process from Week 1 with exit criteria at each stage and business cases in every proposal.

Prospecting. Follow Week 2's plan: ideal customer profile, referrals after every 90-day review, rapid response to inbound inquiries and retirement of purchased lists.

Accounts. Apply Week 3's account plan to the top 30 customers, who represent 45 percent of revenue, with quarterly business reviews and committee maps.

Selling skills. Coach on adaptive selling and listening, as Week 4 recommended, using recorded meetings and monthly reviews.

Negotiation. Use Week 5's approach: interests, justified first offers and concessions traded for volume, term and service.

Research Support

Kumar et al. (2008) studied a business-to-business firm that shifted its sales campaign to focus on customer value, targeting customers based on predicted lifetime value and tailoring contact, and found improvements in revenue and return on investment compared with the prior approach. Their findings support Lakeview's focus on profile-fit prospects and key accounts. Ahearne et al. (2007) found that salespeople's use of customer relationship management technology improved their knowledge, targeting and adaptive selling and, through these, performance. Lakeview's system holds valuable data but is used mostly for reporting; the plan makes it a planning tool. Verbeke et al. (2011) found that selling-related knowledge and adaptiveness were among the strongest drivers of performance, supporting investment in product and customer knowledge.

The plan asks for fewer leads, not more; it asks representatives to choose them better and lose fewer.

Team and Resources

Two robotics specialists to support representatives in robot sales and pilots.

A key account manager for the top health systems.

A sales enablement coordinator to build business case templates and training.

Training: adaptive selling, discovery and negotiation workshops, 12 days per representative per year.

Technology: configure the customer relationship management system for stage criteria and account plans; add call recording for coaching with buyers' consent.

Budget: about $1.4 million, including $720,000 for new roles, $280,000 for training, $180,000 for technology and $220,000 for pilots and events.

How the Weeks Fit Together

Each part of the plan answers a finding from earlier weeks. The process redesign responds to Week 1's discovery that deals stall after demonstrations and in proposals. The prospecting changes respond to Week 2's finding that referrals and inbound inquiries convert several times better than cold lists. Key account plans respond to Week 3's discovery that Lakeview's largest customers were left alone after the sale. Coaching responds to Week 4's recording, in which a representative adapted only to buyers like himself. Negotiation discipline responds to Week 5's finding that concessions were given rather than traded. Because each strategy addresses a known problem, progress can be measured against a known baseline.

Compensation

Commissions will add a component for retention and service renewals and a bonus for robotic sales in the first year, so that representatives are paid for the behaviors the plan requires.

Dashboard and Review

Leading indicators: qualified leads by source, first meetings, stage conversion, proposal stage time, quarterly business reviews held. Lagging indicators: revenue by segment and product, win rate, average deal size, retention and forecast accuracy. Sales leaders will look at the dashboard every week and revisit the plan's assumptions each quarter.

Support From Other Departments

The plan depends on partners outside sales. Service must deliver training within two weeks of installation so customers see value early. Finance must approve a leasing partner by the end of the first quarter. Marketing must build the business case templates and referral program. Each department head has agreed to these commitments, and progress will appear on the same dashboard the sales team uses.

Risks and Contingencies

A downturn in warehouse construction could slow that segment; the plan would shift effort to hospitals and schools. Robotic adoption may lag; pilots will test demand early. Representatives may resist new processes; involving top performers in designing templates should help.

Quarterly Milestones

Quarter 1: process and stage criteria live in the system; specialists hired; first training workshops; top 30 account plans complete.

Quarter 2: referral program running; first robotic pilots under way; pipeline at least $30 million in qualified opportunities.

Quarter 3: proposal stage time below 55 days; at least 8 robotic orders.

Quarter 4: revenue run rate on track for $50 million; retention at 72 percent or better.

Reviewing these milestones each quarter gives leaders early warning if the plan falls behind and time to shift resources between segments.

Conclusion

Lakeview's path to $50 million runs through better selling rather than more selling: a buyer-centered process, targeted prospecting, strong account relationships, adaptive representatives and smarter negotiation. Research on customer-focused campaigns, sales technology and performance drivers supports each element. Clear goals, resources, compensation and a dashboard turn the course's analysis into a plan the sales team can execute.

References

Ahearne, M., Hughes, D. E., & Schillewaert, N. (2007). Why sales reps should welcome information technology: Measuring the impact of CRM-based IT on sales effectiveness. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24(4), 336-349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2007.09.003

Kumar, V., Venkatesan, R., & Reinartz, W. (2008). Performance implications of adopting a customer-focused sales campaign. Journal of Marketing, 72(5), 50-68. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.72.5.050

Verbeke, W., Dietz, B., & Verwaal, E. (2011). Drivers of sales performance: A contemporary meta-analysis. Have salespeople become knowledge brokers? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(3), 407-428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0211-8