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The Basics Of Sales And Operations Planning

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By Anthony Rogers


Successful businesses have mastered the best sales strategies. These strategies are developed as part of your overall market penetration plans. Sales and operations planning helps you to establish the approach you will give the market, resources to be provided and returns expected. Though each business is unique, there are underlying principles that will guide all your endeavors.

Planning receives the attention it deserves once you understand the benefits it brings to your business. This is the secret to better profit margins using the least resources. You have an idea of activities taking place at the business, resource implications and expected returns. Good plans also lead to reduced inventory excess since you have an idea of market positions and situation. The chances of stock-outs are also reduced. This allows you to meet customer expectations.

Business activities should be based on progressive growth. Set aside resources based on your present day activities. Have thresholds at the beginning and then collect data to determine areas that can be scaled. You avoid wastage of resources that could have been directed elsewhere and provided better returns.

Right people must be connected to necessary resources. Study the people and activities that are core to your operations. Assess what they require and ensure that they are adequately facilitated. If the persons or entities crucial to your plans lack necessary resources, success will be a mirage.

Integrate technology into your operations. This is meant to ease communication, make it faster and enable you to reach more people. It also reduces drag time for people in the field and those working in offices. Clients and agents should find it easy to talk to your team. Use technology to monitor performance of different channels and also make decisions based on actual business position instead of assumptions.

Develop personalized plans aligned to the sector you are serving and nature of business you are engaged. Buyers and consumers of different products demand unique treatment. The strategies that will satisfy one group are different from those that satisfy another. Your budget will also be unique. Allocate sufficient resources for the low seasons of the year and recoup the funds during high season.

Take advantage of cloud technology. It allows remote access to files so that your operations are faster. Agents in the field do not have to travel to the office to access files. Different agents can access the same file simultaneously. You also have an inexhaustible storage for your documents. Decision making and collaboration will be easier using cloud technology.

The plans must receive acceptance and support at executive level. These are the decision makers who will approve resources. They must allow persons on the ground to make the decisions as well as access resources they require to deliver on their mandate. Nothing much can happen when the executive does not support your activities.

The best plans must include a monitoring and evaluation to determine whether the steps taken and resources provided are delivering expected results. Short term measures must be audited to avoid continued spending yet the business is just hemorrhaging. The results of this monitoring will help you to develop new strategies that are more effective. After all, these plans are evaluated and changed on regular basis, based on market response and situation.




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