Saturday, August 17, 2019

Basic Pillars Of Sales And Operations Planning

By Anthony Rogers


Planning is a crucial part of achieving the objectives of every business. How your sales and operations are organized determines the resources you will require, the ease with which you meet your targets and how well your overall business goals are met. There are principles of sales and operations planning that every business must adhere to.

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.

Make plans that grow gradually. The resources should address present day needs. Successful organizations have started small and grown gradually to where they are today. Do not waste resources on envisaged huge future activities until there is a signal that you will reap big.

Provide resources to important people and departments in your organization. This only happens when you understand the pillars that are driving your operations. Know who is selling and what they require to sell. If these people or entities are not facilitated well, they will not sell and your targets will not be met.

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.

Each business should have personalized plans. They reflect the market you are serving and goods or services you sell. The plans should address the unique concerns by your clients. Personalized plans also ensure that you do not set aside monies for activities that are not relevant to your operations. Set aside revenue for different seasons so that low seasons can be covered by the high seasons.

Consider cloud enabled systems to cater for document and information needs for your team in the field. Efficient sales teams require access to all documents while in the office and the field. A single document may need to be accessed by several staff members. A cloud based storage and information management system will make access to these documents easy.

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.

Monitor the effectiveness of strategies you have put in place so as to determine what works and what does not. The steps you take must deliver results envisaged. Develop short term, medium term and long term plans. Change or adjust the strategies whose performance is not as expected. You avoid spending too much money on strategies and processes that are not delivering expected returns. This would continue to hemorrhage your business.




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