A must-have sales action plan for improving team performance

Are you losing deals and aren’t able to fulfill targets? 

Does disappointment strike repeatedly?

This can be avoided through a sale action plan.

Whether it’s sports or business, the best players abide by an action plan to create a win-win situation. 

An action plan is like a GPS in sales; it leads you in the right direction showing you where to go and what to do. 

The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important – Bobby Knight.

Action plan for improving sales performance 

A thought is incomplete without action. Just thinking that “I want to improve my sales performance” wouldn’t help.

Improving your sales performance is a goal; now, you need a plan of action to reach that goal. 

Here are some useful recommendations that can help you in creating a sales action plan for improving your sales performance,

1. Set short term priorities and establish a plan 

Most of the sales reps set priorities for the year. By the time they reach the end of the year, half are forgotten, and rest are carried forward to the next year.
So don’t go too far.

Set priorities for 90 days. Find out the top things that need your attention. 

If you want to improve your sales, your high-value deals should be in your top priority list. If they slip through the crack, you might miss out on lucrative opportunities. 

Take a look at your sales pipeline and make a list of all the high-value deals.

Create a plan of how you will close these deals. 

Refer to similar deals that you’ve closed in the past to find out which approach worked and can be used to close the current deals.

2. Create a weekly to-do list 

In sales, you need to stay organized and focused. Create a sales action plan for what you will do for the entire week. 

Plan it strategically and invest your time in the tasks that contribute to your sales. 

Play smart and automate the rest of the time-consuming tasks. Using the best CRM, you can automate tasks like sending a follow-up email or assigning tasks to teammates. 

You can even add activities of the week in a CRM that will be visible on the dashboard. This will reduce your chances of missing out on any activity. Most of the best CRM also gives you a calendar view of your tasks and appointments. So, you can easily plan and follow a schedule for the week. 

3. Note down your Greatest impact activity 

You need to identify your Greatest Impact Activity(GIA) and focus on it with unwavering determination. GIA is the one crucial activity that gives you the highest return on your time investment when done consistently 

By finding your GIA and completing it with utmost sincerity, you make strides toward the success you are endeavoring for. 

GIA is rarely the easiest activity of the list. However, being the most important, one it shouldn’t be avoided. For instance, making 35 prospecting touches each day or reaching out to prospects who haven’t responded in the past. GIA can help you move a deal forward to reach sales goals if done regularly. Make sure you find out the most important activities that you need to put first to reach your goal. 

4. Identify the best selling time 

Most sales reps call or send an email at any hour of the day, so they don’t get a response from the prospect.

Whether you are selling over the phone or using email to nurture and convert the prospect, ensure you choose the right time to call or send emails. 

Even your prospects are busy. They might not be available at certain hours of the day. So, avoid connecting with them during those hours; this will even help in saving your time. 

Put in little effort to find out the best time to call or send emails. Check the call logs to see when the prospect responded and how long did the call last. 

Check if the prospect has responded to your emails in the past. If yes, then check the time when those emails were sent. 

Research on the internet, too, for finding the best time to call and send an email. 

As per the data provided by CoSchedule, 10 am, is the best time to send an email. 

At Salesmate, we conducted a study to find the best time to call the prospect. After observing 12,480 calls spanned across 60 days, we found that 4 to 5 in the evening is the best time to call a prospect.

5. Analyze your weak points and plan steps to overcome the weakness 

You need to find where you are going wrong. Why aren’t you able to close deals? 

Till you don’t find out your mistakes, you cannot improve. So, analyze past sales. Take the help of a sales report to find out your performance gap. 

Give attention to your improvement areas. Tweak your approach to get better results. 

You can take the help of your seniors to get tips to address the challenges you are facing. Strategize and create a sale action plan of what different you can do to close your deals successfully. 

Wrapping up 

Having an action plan for improving your sales can help you in staying on the right track. So, plan the steps that you need to take to close your sales deal. For that, you need to set your priorities and organize your week. Without focus and planning, it isn’t easy to win the sales game. Besides, you even need to identify your weak areas and work on them to get the desired sales results. 

Invest a little time in strategizing and changing your approach. Eliminate the things that do not work for you in sales. Use the right sales tool that can help you in the sales journey. 

Advanced sales tools like Salesmate CRM can support your plan of action and help you in moving the deal forward. With this advanced tool, you can automate most of the time-consuming tasks and create customized reports to get vital insights. With the help of this high-end sales CRM, you can track your sales deals, nurture them, and convert them quickly.