Sales are down. The head of sales shows the sales plan, the salespeople nod, and a week later the business owner hears again: “We’ll push to close.”
I would not yet conclude that people do not want to sell. First, open the sales plan itself. If it contains only a monthly amount and each salesperson’s share, the department has not been given an action plan. It has been given a number it will later be measured against.
That is a convenient number for a report. But it does not answer the main question: what needs to happen in specific deals today for the month to end differently?
The amount was split between salespeople. The reasons to buy were not
Usually, the monthly target is split across people, weeks or working days. It looks neat: everyone knows their amount, and the head of sales sees the percentage achieved.
Now take one salesperson and ask them to show where their share of the sales plan will come from. Not in general terms such as “from the current sales funnel and new leads”, but by source:
- which existing customers might return, and on what basis;
- which deals have already reached the point of a customer decision;
- how many new enquiries usually turn into a conversation with a suitable buyer;
- where a new customer is needed whom the team is not yet working with.
If the answer starts with an amount and ends with hope that activity will deliver, the arithmetic has not turned into work for the sales team.
The problem becomes even clearer when a company has several products or different sales cycles. One large order and several quick sales cannot simply be combined into an average order value, with everyone then required to close the same number of deals. For a large order, there may not be enough suitable opportunities being worked on. For a quick sale, what may be missing is a fast response and follow-up contact. There is one number, but different constraints.
A missed sales plan can hide three different problems
The first possibility: there really are too few opportunities. There are not enough suitable customers being worked with, and the current source of enquiries does not cover the gap. The question then turns to marketing, the customer database, the partner channel or another source of demand. There is no point pushing salespeople harder: persistence alone will not bring customers in.
The second possibility: there are enough opportunities, but deals stall within the department. A customer did not get a reply in time, no next step was agreed after a meeting, a concern was not addressed, a previous customer was not contacted again. Here, new leads can even do harm: they will enter the same process and make the queue longer.
The third possibility: deals are moving, but the sales plan rests on an assumption the business has not checked. For example, the calculation includes a product that customers used to buy differently, or large deals where the customer’s decision is due later. In that case, salespeople may be doing their jobs properly, yet the promised amount still has no basis.
From the outside, all three cases look the same: the percentage achieved is behind target. But the solutions are opposite. In one case, more incoming enquiries are needed; in another, the salespeople need to change how they work; in the third, the target and timing need to be recalculated.
So “they are missing the sales plan” is not yet a diagnosis. It is an overall number, and the head of sales must distinguish the causes behind it.
Motivation strengthens action, but does not choose it
The obvious solution is to remind people about the bonus, increase activity or hold a daily review of percentages.
This can work if salespeople already know which deals to work on, exactly what to change in them and where there is real room for more sales. Then the extra attention helps maintain the pace.
But if the route has not been worked out, motivation intensifies everything at once. Salespeople make more calls using the contact list that is easiest to work with, move dates in the CRM system, offer a discount earlier or keep a customer in the forecast without a confirmed decision. There is more activity. There is no stronger basis for the sales plan.
The check is simple: after the conversation about the sales plan, has the salesperson’s list of specific actions changed, or only the expected amount? If only the percentage on the screen has changed, the head of sales has set a target but has not organised the work to achieve it.
The head of sales must show the gap, not a promise
A practical review of the sales plan does not start with the question “who will bring in how much”. First, you need to separate the work already under way from what is still missing.
For current deals, the head of sales shows:
- what decision the customer needs to make;
- what fact confirms that a decision is possible this month;
- what the salesperson does next;
- where there is a risk and what the head of sales has already changed.
For the missing part of the sales plan, they show a different calculation: how many opportunities need to be added and of what kind, where they could come from, and whether the usual path of a deal can be completed in the time available.
If the missing sales require customers who are not there yet, this must be stated before the last week of the month. If the required deals are already there but have stalled without a next step, the task is also clear: do not accept the promise “we’ll push to close”; examine where the deals have stalled.
This is not a sales plan designed to predict the future precisely. The customer may delay their decision, the market may change, production may limit volume. The head of sales has a different task: the department must spot early which assumption no longer matches the facts and change its actions before the failure becomes the month’s result.
What to check in one week
Do not rebuild the whole planning system. Take one week and one set of sales.
At the start of the week, divide the target into three parts: deals with confirmed progress, deals with an untested assumption, and sales for which there are no opportunities yet. For each active deal, record the customer’s decision, the salesperson’s next step and the deadline. For opportunities that are missing, record the source and the person responsible.
At the end of the week, do not ask only about the percentage achieved. Compare what has changed:
- Have new facts emerged for deals with confirmed progress, or just new dates?
- Which assumptions were confirmed, and which had to be dropped?
- Where did the salesperson carry out the action without the customer moving forward?
- Where was the action not taken, and what did the head of sales do afterwards?
- Are the missing enquiries starting to come in, or are they still just a line saying “new leads needed”?
After one week, it is too early to judge revenue. But it is already clear whether the head of sales can turn a target into work: the department distinguishes a deal from a hope, notices the gap sooner and changes its actions based on the facts.
If this has not happened, a new sales plan template will not help. You need to examine one recurring gap and check the chain: the task given to the salesperson, its execution, oversight by the head of sales, correction after a deviation.
Where RENTROP fits in
That is why, in “turnkey sales management”, we do not stop at a monthly number and a report on it.
The head of sales manages deals and salespeople every day: checks the next steps, sees deviations and changes the team’s actions. The business development director checks the quality of this work: what facts the sales plan is based on, where the head of sales spotted a risk and what they did before the end of the month. AI helps find stalled deals and recurring mistakes in data and communications, but decisions and oversight stay with people.
The business owner retains control of the product, prices, marketing budget and acceptable risk. RENTROP is responsible for daily sales management within the agreed scope, rather than promising revenue regardless of demand and the business’s capacity.
A sales plan does not start with the amount the department must bring in. A sales plan starts with actions that let the head of sales see in time whether the amount is still achievable or the route already needs to change.
If you want to check your sales plan, ask the head of sales to remove the percentages from it for ten minutes and show three things: active deals, untested assumptions and missing opportunities.