296 Sales Planning

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">“We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan”, is an old saw that is still true today.  Despite an avalanche of tools to help us plan well, we still manage to do a lousy job of it.  Another oldie goldie is “a good workman doesn’t blame his tools” and so this applies perfectly to the tech panoply we have at our fingertips. Having tools available and using them at all, much less effectively, is the bugbear of most sales organisations. The firm buys the tool or the monthly subscription, spends a lot of money on it, only to see the salespeople barely engaging with it.  The information stays in their head or on loose bits of paper, perhaps in a notebook or in an organiser.  Anywhere but where it needs to be, to be of any assistance to the marketing effort, to properly segment and go after specific, defined markets.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US"> Salespeople like people and they like talking to clients.  This is relatively easy.  Keeping records of those conversations is another matter.  Getting those records into the Client Relationship Management (CRM) system is a different ask.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US"> Setting up the meetings is a process which can be very poorly done in the hands of poor salespeople systems. The timing of meetings should be done with a mind to geography, so that you are not traipsing across town over long distances.  You need to be grouping the visits together, so the time lost travelling is kept to a minimum. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US"> There</span> <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">wa</span><span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">s a funny commercial you c</span><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang= "EN-AU">ould</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">see on the monitors in</span> <span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">the back of</span> <span lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US">taxis in Tokyo</span><span lang="EN-AU" xml:lang="EN-AU">.