Creating a Personal Business Plan for Sales Success

Over the past two months, the team at Sales Gravy has been working hard on our business plan for next year. Like so many other companies, we build an annual business plan because we need to know where we’re going and how to get there.  We’re not leaving our fate to chance. Our business plan is the compass that helps us navigate and stay on track to reach our goals.   Randomness is the Enemy of Effectiveness But what about you? Have you ever stopped to think that you need the exact same thing for your upcoming sales year? Without a plan, it’s easy to drift and fall into randomness—just waking up every day and hoping something good happens.  But here’s the deal: Randomness is the enemy of effectiveness.  If you don’t set a clear direction, you’ll never hit the target you’re aiming for. You’ll be like a boat without a rudder—drifting and, eventually, ending up someplace you never intended to go.  Yogi Berra said it best: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.”  Trust me, “someplace else” isn’t where you want to be at the end of next year. Adopt a CEO Mindset The difference between average salespeople and top performers often comes down to one key mindset: top performers don’t act like employees; they think like entrepreneurs. The moment you start treating your territory as if it’s your own business, your mindset changes. You stop feeling like a cog in the wheel and start seeing yourself as the driver, not the passenger. Your company shoulders the big financial risks—providing you with the product, the brand, and the support. But you own your market, solve the problems, and build relationships that turn into revenue. You own your time and results. That’s the entrepreneurial mindset.  Creating Your Personal Business Plan Starts With A Vision To create your personal business plan, you start your vision.  Where do you want to be a year from now?  What do you want to accomplish in your territory or area of responsibility? What income do you want to earn? What awards do you want to win?  What does winning look like?  Define it. Get crystal clear. Then think about your values.  What do you stand for?  What kind of impact do you want to make? What kind of relationships do you want to build?  How will you show up for your clients, team members, and company every single day? Once you’ve nailed this down, put your strategy in place.  Break your territory into logical quadrants so that you know where you’ll be investing time each day.  Identify the industry verticals that have the highest potential. Pinpoint your ideal customers.  Segment your prospects and customers into High Potential, Medium Potential, and Low Potential.  Create a list of your top ten dream accounts, 25-50 conquest accounts, and 100-500 high-potential and medium-potential targeted accounts. This will help you attack your territory with a targeted vs random approach.  Identify your key competitors and do an analysis of each of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Then do the same for yourself. Define your daily battle rhythm, disciplines, and activities that drive pipeline growth.  Get intentional about your priorities and how you manage your calendar. After all, time is your greatest asset and as the CEO of you, your time is money.  Once you have clarity on your vision and strategy, get granular. A vision without action is just a fantasy.  Break Your Personal Business Plan Into Small Steps to Success Break your plan down into achievable goals. I’m a fan of activity-based metrics because you can control them. This is about setting standards that become non-negotiable habits. The key is to choose metrics that move the needle on revenue and are fully within your control You can’t always control who picks up the phone or who says yes, but you can control how many doors you knock on, how many calls you make, how many referrals you ask for, and how many proposals you give.  Start by setting your daily prospecting targets. For example, you might commit to making at least 30 outbound calls every morning before noon—no exceptions, no negotiations with yourself. Or maybe you set a goal to add five new qualified leads to your pipeline every single day. Perhaps it’s securing a minimum of five new appointments per week.  Push yourself to diversify your outreach. Set targets for LinkedIn connections and meaningful engagement.  Block time on your calendar to send personalized follow-up emails, record short video messages, or send handwritten notes that differentiate you from all the “just checking in” reps out there.  Consider a weekly goal for conversations with existing clients to deepen relationships and drive cross-sell and upsell opportunities that drive account expansion.  Align Activity Metrics To Your Big Goals Then, align these activity metrics with your year-end goals. If your annual quota is, say, $1.5 million, break it down by quarter, then by month, then by week.  If you know your average deal size and your historical close rate, you can figure out how many deals you need to put in your pipeline each month. From there, calculate how many prospects you need to engage to consistently hit that number.  This is how you move from “hope” to “execution”—and that’s where winners live. Your Personal Business Plan Should Be A Living Breathing Roadmap This plan won’t work if it just lives in your head. Write it down. Keep it visible. This is your personal roadmap.  At the end of each month and quarter, sit down and ask yourself:  Did I hit my targets?  Did I follow through on my daily prospecting standards? If you didn’t, why not?  Be brutally honest, assess the situation, and then adjust.  A personal business plan is a living document. Markets change, customers change, and even you change, so be willing to adapt. But don’t let yourself off the hook—use your plan to hold your own feet to the fire. This is your income and career we’re talking about. When you work like this—intentionally, strategically, and with discipline—everything changes. You walk into each day, week, and month with confidence because you know exactly what you need to do.  The Rainmaker Mission You have a mission, and that mission is to build a pipeline of high-value prospects who trust you, buy from you, and turn into long-term clients. Plus, when you own your territory like this, you’re not just aligning with your company’s goals; you’re leading the way. Your leaders, peers, and customers will notice.  Remember: Rainmakers don’t leave their success to chance. They don’t rely on luck or wait for opportunities to fall into their lap. They chart their course, track their progress, and adjust when necessary.  That’s what your personal business plan is all about. It sets you apart from the crowd and puts you in the driver’s seat of your career. Take Action Now Carve out the time over the next three weeks to think about, build, and hone your personal business plan. Get crystal clear on your vision, set those daily activity standards, and commit to hitting them.  A year from now, when you look back, you won’t believe how far you’ve come. More importantly, you’ll know exactly how you got there. Get your year started off on the right foot with our comprehensive on-demand course: The Essentials of Setting Winning Goals