Sales Planning and Forecasting Seminars

@ only P1, 499+VAT per seminar, per participant

RESERVE YOUR SEATS ONLINE! WWW.TRAININGFORLESS.PH

or WWW.TFLCONNECT.PH

Seminar #1: Sales Management Plan Development
Date & Time: May 5, 2011 (8:30am-12:30pm)
Venue: New Horizon Hotel, Mandaluyong CIty

Sales Management can be a complicated process with various tasks and responsibilities laid out for the sales leaders to accomplish. Without a solid plan to guide the efforts of both the leader and the sales team, it can be twice as difficult and stressful.

The bottom line of sales planning is to create a map of strategies and activities that would manage your resources and lead your salespeople to deliver the expected sales results. This program presents valuable planning tools and techniques for sales leaders by helping them:

1. Stop and think in order to reflect on the big picture of the sales environment that they compete in
2. Assess the internal and external challenges and risks that their sales team face in achieving their sales goals
3. Set a clear direction and definition of what they want to accomplish that guide their team's sales performance
4. Learn the basics of applying strategies and tactics to achieve their sales targets
5. Set a good example for their salespeople by creating plans that are both results and activity-oriented
6. Lighten their loads through the use of scenario and contingency planning

Sales Plans are the foundation of good sales initiatives. Effective Sales Planning in a dynamic and constantly changing sales environment is a must. It should be focused on the goal and not treated as a tedious obligation to show top management. Properly done and maximized for its full potential, sales plans will make the sales leaders more confident and determined to achieve their sales goals.

Module 1: Analyzing your Sales Challenges and Driving Forces

A. Planning your Sales Direction
1. The New Mindset on Planning
a. Assessing your Threats, Risks and Urgent Issues
1) Internal Issues
2) External Issues

b. Risk Management vs. Risk Control
c. Traditional Planning vs. Scenario Planning
d. Promoting Effective Participation: Creating a Sense of Ownership and Sense of Urgency in your Sales People

2. Sales Planning: Adapting a Proactive Approach
a. Sales Priorities and Schedules
b. Analyzing Sales Objectives
1) Company Objectives
2) Sales Manager's (OWN) Objectives
3) Salesperson's Objectives
4) Anticipating and Addressing the Issues in Meeting Objectives

B. Elements of Sales Planning
1. Situation Analysis
a. Market Conditions
b. Sales Team Conditions
c. Company Situation
d. Product or Service Situation

2. Sensitivity to Internal and External Forces
a. Internal Champions, Competitors and Blockers
b. Changes in the Competitive Situation
c. Changes in Existing Customers and New Prospects

3. Specifying Goals and Objectives
a. How to Set Motivating Goals for your Sales Team
b. Providing Salespeople the Ability to Negotiate Goals with you
c. Assigning Quotas, Territories and Accounts

4. Developing Action Steps with Timelines
5. Creating Contingency Plans
6. Communicating the Sales Plan
a. The 2-Way Communication System
b. Barriers to Communication
c. Elements of Effective Communication

7. Celebrating the Achievements and Correcting the Shortcomings

Module 2: Planning your Sales Management System

A. Planning your Sales Strategies and Tactics
1. Strategic Plans
a. Clarifying Vision, Mission and Objectives
b. Strategic Direction: Where to Compete

2. Tactical Plans
a. Translating Strategies into Tactical Plans
b. Tactical Direction: How to Compete

B. Elements of Sales Management Systems
1. Sales Management Areas to Systematize
a. Strategic Focus
b. Sales Performance Strengths and Weaknesses
c. Sales Challenges and Opportunities
d. Sales Capabilities and Resources

2. The Common Mistakes in Sales Management
a. Unfocused Sales Structure or System
b. Misdirected Feedforward and Feedback Systems
c. Deficient Training and Learning Opportunities
d. Mismanagement of Time and Resources

3. Specifying Key Activities based on Strategies and Tactics
a. Setting Performance Standards and Measures - Quotas, Targets, Sales Activities
b. Assigning Tasks and Responsibilities based on each Salesperson's capability to Deliver

4. Conducting Effective Sales Coordination Meetings

Seminar #2: Sales Forecast and Budget Development
Date & Time: May 5, 2011 (1:30pm-5:30pm)
Venue: New Horizon Hotel, Mandaluyong CIty

The most common way to forecast Sales is to compute future sales goals by using past results and adding a certain percentage increment.

However, it should be understood that this can be prone to various problems and concerns.
1. It can de-motivate salespeople especially if they feels the forecasts are too unrealistic
2. Assuming that sales performance should be better than last year without considering all other pertinent factors could lead to failed expectations
3. Pushing salespeople to achieve higher sales forecasts without giving them a chance to participate could lead to resistance and negative performance.

In the case of sales budgets, the primary issue is that even though the Sales Group is a supposed to be a profit center, it is also one of the biggest cost centers in a company. The concern of top management is that the return on every peso spent should be greater, especially in challenging business times. This puts the sales leaders in a dire situation. As sales targets increase, the sales budgets decrease.

The key point is to understand the ROI concept that although for salespeople the customer is king, on the side of the company, cash is king. The returns should be justified and substantial enough to sustain the company's growth and success in the marketplace.

This seminar focuses on the importance of pegging sales forecasts and developing sales budgets with an ROI mindset. Not only returns in terms financial investments but also in terms of time, effort and other investments that we make in each customer in our client base. This program presents key concepts and tools to help the participants realize the importance of cost vs. benefit in forecasting, spending their budgets or investing their time and effort.

The expected result is to develop a more holistic mindset in the participants as they carry out their forecasting and budgeting functions. This would not only benefit their sales teams and their companies, but most importantly their most valuable customers to strengthen the sales relationships that they build.

Module 1: Forecasting Sales and Budgeting your Resources

A. Addressing the Important Issue: Big Expense, Small Returns
1. Justifying Sales Costs and Sales Benefits
2. The Value of the "ROI" Mindset
3. Targeting your Sales Activities to get Tangible Results

B. The Need for Sales and Marketing Integration
1. Stop Playing the Blame Game
2. The Focused and Diffused Sales and Marketing Strategy
3. Aligning the Sales and Marketing Thrust

C. Avoiding the "Rear-View Mirror" Forecasting
1. Forecasting to Please or Forecasting to Achieve?
2. Using Past Sales Performance as Basis of Forecasts
3. Scenario Planning: Prepare for the Worst but Hope for the Best
a. Best Case Scenario
b. Most Likely Case Scenario
c. Worst Case Scenario

D. Utilizing the Sales Budget to get the "Best" Results
1. The New Challenge: Higher Targets but Lower Budgets
2. Making Do with what you Have: The Creative Approach
E. Using Value-based Analysis when Investing on Customers and Prospects

a. Star Customers
b. Vulnerable Customers
c. Free-Rider Customers
d. Lost Cause Customers

Module 2: Managing and Balancing your Time and Tasks

A. Sales Activity Management
1. Identifying Time Wasters and Time Savers
2. The 3 Types of Sales Activities
3. The Dilemma of Tracking Sales Team Activities

B. Time Management Principles for Sales Managers
1. Setting your Priorities
a. High Pay-off vs. Low Pay-off Activities
b. The Have-to-do vs. Want-to-do Activities
c. Teaching Salespeople to Manage their Time

2. Understanding how Sales Priorities Shift
a. Developing Time-Use Consciousness
b. Analyzing your Goals
c. Matching Time Allotment to your Goals

3. Narrowing your Focus
a. Urgent and Important
b. Not urgent but Important
c. Urgent but not Important
d. Not urgent and not important

C. Goal-Oriented Time Management
1. Categorizing your Activities based on Goals
2. Clarifying the Importance of these Goals
3. Developing an Action Plan to reach your Goals
a. Developing a Schedule and Time frame that works for you and your Team
D. Charting your Valuable Activities daily - the MUST DO List

The P1499+VAT per participant, per seminar rate will be applied for reservations made until April 17, 2011 and paid within the assigned due date.

The P1, 699+VAT per participant, per seminar rate will be applied for reservations made starting April 18, 2011 and paid within the assigned due date and P1, 999+VAT per participant, per seminar will be applied for on-site payments.

[ Seminar Fee includes snacks, materials and certificate of completion ]