The Business Bulletin
The challenge of sales Every business owner has faced the challenge, at one point of generating sales whilst being busy “doing” what they sell. If they’ve had an increase in business, it ties them up and doesn’t allow any time for sales generating activities. The result is what I call “the roller coaster of sales”. Working in this way will cause cashflow problems and can lead to stress.
What can be done to stop this?
Create a sales plan – and use it!
Good question, and one that I am
A sales plan maps out the goals that
frequently asked by my clients. The
you wish to achieve for the year ahead.
answer lies within the way that their
It is a visual document and can be
business is structured and here are my
as simple as an Excel spreadsheet,
can be used to plan your marketing
5 top tips to put in place, which when
nothing fancy or complicated. It
activity. The trick with this though,
actioned will stop that roller coaster
breaks down the year, on a month-
is that it needs to be monitored
and give you back control.
to-month basis, details the sales you’d
regularly; I work with mine on a weekly
like to achieve, and the actual sales achieved. By using this document, you can plan, spot dips in revenue and put actions in place to prevent that. This helps to monitor cash flow and
Issue 10 – Sales and Marketing | 19
