Action is the foundational key to all success
Pablo Picasso
A three-month plan called the 30-60-90 day plan is used to properly educate new sales team members or expand sales into new markets. It outlines all the steps and objectives in explicit detail so that salespeople can learn about their new organization or region and discover the best ways to achieve their highest (and healthiest) level of productivity.
Businesses are significantly more likely to capitalize on new territory when they have a strong 30-60-90 day sales plan.
Every 30-60-90 day sales plan should support the successful onboarding of new salespeople and should be reinforced and enhanced with the formal support of a mentor coming from the ranks of established, successful sales team members.
Companies, working together with new salespeople, can virtually guarantee the success of every new hire. If the recruitment process and the company is sound there is no reason for a salesperson to fail.
Creating a three-month plan can also be a fantastic resource for potential salespeople who want to make a great first impression during their interview for a new job. Arriving at the interview with a prepared plan shows that you are knowledgeable about sales. You will absolutely stand out from the competition. Additionally, it provides managers and representatives with a realistic picture of how effective a new recruit or region will be over the long term.
There’s no single way to format a 30-60-90 day plan
You can create a version that works best for you. Essential to the 30-60-90 day plan is it should support almost immediate selling. Don’t wait until you are ready to sell to start. Get ready to sell by selling. Typically, potential customers know best what they want and the fastest way to sell and close effectively is to get in front of decision makers as quick as possible.
The prospect writes the pitch!
Talk to enough prospects. Ask enough questions. Understand what the company’s ideal customer wants and you will have all the tools you need to close business.
By aligning your sales approach and pitch with customer’s needs in mind is the fast way to close. Understanding the customer’s needs is also the fastest way to learn your product. Getting in front of your customer is the faster way to get past the features and understand the benefits of your offer.
Selling benefits always trumps selling features.
If you want to learn how to sell your product get in front of prospects as quickly as possible and let them teach you how to sell to them – this is what ‘the customer writes the pitch’ means!
The basic idea is that each 30-day chunk represents a new area of focus:
30 – Active Education
60 – Massive Pitching
90 – Refined Closing
Such an outline might look something like this:
Day 1 to 30: Active Education enhanced by prospecting
A new salesperson spends this time learning as much as they can about the business, its clients, and its goods and services. To familiarize themselves with a new sales territory’s geography, demographics, market, and target clients. This is enhanced by immediately reaching out to potential customers with the goal of completing 100 client presentations in the first 90 days.
The 100 client pitch goal is essential to the success of the 30-60-90 day program because at the same time the new salespeople is learning the business, understanding the needs of the prospect and being mentored towards success. Much of the time during the first 30 days will be split between these key areas:
- Product education
- Developing a list of 100 potential prospects
- Using LinkedIn, social media, and email to warm the pipeline
- Begin the process of reaching out and warming the 100 prospects
- Working closely with your mentor to refine your approach
- Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Days 31 to 60: Massive Execution focused on pitching
The second 30 days is where a new sales representative begins putting what they’ve learned into practice. It is during this phase that salespeople begin really getting involved with the sales and performance tracking process. The salesperson, supported by the mentor, start to explore the new territory generating prospects, warming leads and forging connections.
This period is where the selling really starts and the calendar should be full of discovery calls as the salesperson begins to understand the prospect’s needs and, with the mentor’s guidance, devises a closing strategy.
- Continued product education
- Warming the 100 prospect target list
- Developing prospect engagement
- Understanding the prospect’s need
- Developing your pitch
Days 61 to 90: Refinement focused on closing
In the third month, you evaluate the deeds and results of the months before to pinpoint successes and shortcomings. These last 30 days should be spent leveraging all the work put into the pipeline to start closing business. As you succeed and fail, together with your mentor, the approach can be improved and you’ll make the necessary adjustments before shifting your focus to the future.
- Pitch and close
- Continue to engage and build relationships
- Add new prospects
- Build a pipeline management process that ensures future success
- Become a confident closer
The key is to not move too quickly. You won’t see any results from a hasty or jumbled 30-60-90 day sales plan. A methodical approach will deliver results and set the foundation for ongoing closing and management of the sales pipeline. The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track step-by-step performance against 30-60-90 targets is essential.
What advantages come from making a 30-60-90-day plan?
Writing a three-month plan has several advantages, whether you want to stand out during the interview process or want to have an influence during your first few weeks and months on the job.
Create a memorable impression:
Being well-prepared before you arrive demonstrates your commitment to achievement. This is especially valid when companies hire sales representatives. When a sales representative shows up to the interview with a 30-60-90 day sales strategy fully written down, hiring managers are frequently highly impressed (and appreciative).
A company that wants to ensure successful onboarding will support, guide and mentor this process with every new salespeople no matter how junior or senior.
In fact, if the recruitment process is sound there is no reason a salesperson should ever fail. A company that supports every new sales hire with a 30-60-90 day onboarding and sales success plan, supported by a mentor, simply cannot fail.