independent sales rep business plan

Business Plan Template for Sales Rep

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Creating a successful sales strategy can be a daunting task for any sales representative. That's why ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Sales Rep is here to simplify the process and help you achieve your sales goals effortlessly.

With our template, you'll be able to:

• Outline your sales strategies and objectives with clarity and precision
• Identify your target markets and analyze your competition effectively
• Develop accurate sales forecasts and track your key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Communicate your sales approach confidently to management and stakeholders

Don't let the complexity of sales planning hold you back. Get started with ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Sales Rep today and take your sales game to the next level!

Business Plan Template for Sales Rep Benefits

A Business Plan Template for Sales Rep can provide numerous benefits to sales teams and representatives, including:

• Streamlining the sales planning process by providing a structured framework to follow
• Setting clear sales objectives and defining strategies to achieve them
• Conducting a comprehensive analysis of target markets and competitors to identify opportunities and challenges
• Creating realistic sales forecasts and tracking progress against sales targets
• Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of sales efforts
• Facilitating effective communication of the sales approach to management and stakeholders
• Enabling sales reps to align their individual goals with the overall sales strategy
• Ensuring consistency and standardization in sales planning across the team
• Providing a reference document for ongoing evaluation and adjustment of sales strategies

Main Elements of Sales Rep Business Plan Template

To help sales reps stay organized and focused, ClickUp offers a comprehensive Business Plan Template specifically designed for sales teams, featuring:

• Custom Statuses: Easily track the progress of your business plan with statuses such as Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do, ensuring clear visibility of each task's status.
• Custom Fields: Utilize custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to add specific details and categorize your business plan, allowing for easy organization and filtering.
• Multiple Views: Choose from five different views to gain unique insights into your business plan, including Topics, which allows you to break down your plan by different topics, Status, which provides a clear overview of task statuses, Timeline, which visualizes your plan on a timeline, Business Plan, which provides a comprehensive view of your plan in a list format, and a Getting Started Guide to help you quickly get up and running with your business plan.

With ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Sales Reps, you can effectively plan, track, and communicate your sales strategies, ensuring alignment and success for your team.

How To Use Business Plan Template for Sales Rep

Creating a business plan for sales reps can help guide their efforts and set them up for success. Here are four steps to effectively use the Business Plan Template for Sales Reps in ClickUp:

1. Define your sales goals

Start by clearly defining your sales goals. Determine what you want to achieve, whether it's increasing revenue, acquiring new clients, or launching a new product. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals will help you stay focused and motivated.

Use the Goals feature in ClickUp to create and track your sales goals. Set key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your progress and success.

2. Identify your target market

Next, identify your target market. Determine who your ideal customers are based on demographics, psychographics, and buying behaviors. Understanding your target market will help you tailor your sales strategies and approaches to effectively reach and engage potential customers.

Use the Board view in ClickUp to create lists and cards for different customer segments. Add relevant information and notes to each card to guide your sales efforts.

3. Develop your sales strategies and tactics

Once you know your goals and target market, it's time to develop your sales strategies and tactics. Outline the steps you will take to reach your sales goals, such as prospecting, lead generation, networking, cold calling, email marketing, or attending industry events.

Use the task feature in ClickUp to create a checklist of sales strategies and tactics. Assign tasks to team members and set due dates to ensure accountability and progress.

4. Track your progress and make adjustments

Track your sales activities and results regularly to measure your progress and identify areas for improvement. Monitor key metrics such as conversion rates, average deal size, and sales pipeline velocity. Analyze the data to identify trends and make data-driven decisions.

Use the Dashboards feature in ClickUp to create visual reports and charts that display your sales performance metrics. Customize your dashboard to show the most relevant data for your business.

By following these steps and utilizing the Business Plan Template for Sales Reps in ClickUp, you can create a comprehensive and actionable plan to drive your sales success.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for Sales Rep

Sales reps can use this Business Plan Template to create a comprehensive sales strategy and track their progress towards their sales goals.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a winning sales plan:

• Use the Topics View to outline the different sections of your business plan, such as objectives, target markets, competitive analysis, and sales forecasts
• The Status View will help you track the progress of each section, with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do
• The Timeline View allows you to set deadlines and visualize the timeline of your sales plan
• Use the Business Plan View to get a holistic view of your entire sales strategy and easily navigate between different sections
• The Getting Started Guide View will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to use the template effectively
• Customize the template by adding custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to provide additional context and organization to your business plan
• Monitor and analyze your progress using the different views to ensure you're on track to meet your sales goals.
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Sales Representative Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Advertising & Marketing

Are you about starting a sales representative company? If YES, here is a complete sample sales representative business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

A sales rep is a sales professional who work independently, outside of and separate from any associated business offices. A Sales rep often sells a number of product lines, from a number of different businesses.

Starting this business is not an easy task, but to start; you need to become self-employed, which will give you the chance to every aspect of both sales and business operations, which may involve marketing, customer service, order processing and accounting.

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A Sample Sales Representative Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Sales Representative is also known as Manufacturers Representatives or plain Rep. A successful sales representative represents eight to 10 complementary products that are not direct threats or competitors.

It is now becoming an obligation for manufacturers both inside and outside the united states to make use of outside sales forces in place of employing in-house sales personnel, because using a rep workforce can be or rather is more efficient and better cost-effective way to sell products.

Notwithstanding that the demand in this industry is always on the high aspect, getting into this industry is not a child’s play. It is well noted in the industry that it will take you nothing less than one to two years to build a stock of enough products to represent that will make you a good living.

The cost of starting this business is not as high as one may expect, but you should note that having an equipped home office and a good vehicle are all that you need to start. But like many salespeople, the potential earnings are good.

Sales reps of our modern age are doing more than selling than the ones of the past years, which is why experience is very paramount. Some reps also train Agency workforce in the use of the products they sell, offsetting a cost their customers would otherwise carry.

Some reps who sell to wholesalers make joint sales calls with the wholesaler’s in-house sales personnel, training them to sell the rep’s products.

Also many sales reps sell industrial products to manufacturers and end users such as processing plants, HMOs and government agencies. Getting products to market can be done by working trade shows for your industry where both manufacturers and customers can be found.

2. Executive Summary

The name of our business is Lego Sales Consult. We at Lego Sales Consultant, hope to provide representative services to targeted business environments in Atlanta, Georgia.

We believe that writing down our business plan will help us organise our business and also seek to generate a significant increase in Agency sales and profits from the delivery of product marketing, product advertising, retainer consulting, project consulting, market research and industrial analysis, feasibility studies, and strategic analysis and reporting services.

We believe that we have the potential to become the lead figure in the industry, and there is also a probability that our target customer will completely reject the Advertising and marketing but we understand that it is part of the industry and only consistency can make us successful.

With our adequate research and understanding of the industry, we have created effective strategies that will ensure that our agency will reach the greatest number of potential customers and serve our clients properly. We will also design, build, test and deploy the methods we deem for or necessary in other to market the products of our clients.

We also hope to keep our clients in the known by reporting the progress of the campaign in real-time to provide our customers maximum flexibility. We will also take note of all necessary actions and corrections after every exercise in order to grow our business.

Our business plan has been created on the basis of three years of market research. All the data concludes the size and growth of the market and geographical segments, customer needs, perception, and buying behaviour trends have been on the upswing, and are expected to continue in this trend for the next three years.

We at Lego Sales Consultant’s believe that we are well prepared to fill the vacuum in the marketing niche, and will be the very best in the industry.

We at Lego Sales Consultants hope to specialize in successful sales and marketing campaigns.  The owners of Lego Sales Consultants, Nathaniel Clayton and Ephraim Joseph have over 12 years of experience as sales agent between them.

Nathaniel Clayton use to be a senior sales consultant at Promerit Advertising agency. Ephraim Joseph was a sales and marketing director for Liberty Business LLC. Both have been friends for a very long time and they share the same vision and goals.

3. Our Products and Services

We at Lego Sales Consultant’s plan to offer expertise in the services we plan to provide to the businesses in Atlanta, Georgia.

We believe that with the much experience we have in this field. Lego Sales Consultants will be able to sell and package its services in various ways that will give our prospective clients the opportunity to decide the sort of services they want from us. These include:

• Product Marketing
• Product distribution
• Agency advertising
• Retainer Consulting
• Project Consulting
• Market Research and Industry Sectors Analysis
• Feasibility Studies
• Strategic Analysis and Reports

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision at Lego Sales Consultants is to become the leading agency in the sales representative market and also in all Atlanta, Georgia within the first three year of operation.
• Our mission at Lego Sales Consultants is to offer our clients the best methods and tools in organising and implementing a successful sales and marketing campaign. We believe that our business will cut through the mumbo jumbo of pure awareness, mass marketing, increase sales, and improve client satisfaction with the agency.
• We believe that our agency will grab clients and products immediately and drive home the right message to the right audience.  Lego Sales Consultants will exceed our customers’ expectations in the industry.

Our Business Structure

We believe that our founding workforce will depend solely on our founders themselves, with little back-up from a team of six, but as the business grows, Lego Sales Consultants will employ a team that includes15workers that will work under a president and two vice-presidents.

Our management philosophy at Lego Sales Consultants will be solely based on responsibility and mutual respect. We believe that individuals who will work at Lego Sales Consultants will choose to stay with us due to our business environment that encourages “C4A,” which is:

• Competencies
• Connections
• Achievement

The three main management divisions at Lego Sales Consultants are Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Internal Business Management. We believe that the departments managed by the Sales and Marketing division will be: marketing, sales, products and services, research and development, and public relations operations.

The departments taken care of by the Internal Business Management division are: accounting, administration, and human resources development. Here are the workforces we hope to start with;

Agency President

Vice president

Sales Manager/Supervisor

Admin and HR Manager

Marketing and Sales Executive

Front Desk Officer

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counselling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• In charge of providing direction for the business
• Creates, communicates and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• In charge of signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Communicate Agency strategy to board of directors.
• Attends board meetings.
• Oversees revenue generation.
• Presides over operations.
• Identifies ways to maximize revenue.
• Works with audit committee to prepare budgets.
• Analyses financial reports.
• Ensures Agency policies and procedures are followed by each department.
• Attracts, retains and motivates staff.
• Reports and shares information with the board to ensure they are kept fully informed on the condition of the Agency and important factors influencing it.
• Identifies and leads new business opportunities.
• Ensures highly productive relationships and partnerships for the benefit of the organization.
• Sets goal, monitor work, and evaluate results to ensure that departmental and organizational objectives and operating requirements are met and are in line with the needs and mission of the organization.
• Works alongside community leaders, executive directors, major donors/funders, government officials, and senior staff/board members.
• Participates in and nurtures broad networks of alliances with others to exchanges knowledge and information about learning and change in support of change initiatives.
• In charge of managing the daily running of the agency, including sourcing equipment, effective resource planning and implementing agency strategies and operations;
• Carries out needs assessments, performance reviews and cost/benefit analyses;
• In charge of setting and meeting performance targets for speed, efficiency, sales and quality;
• Ensures all relevant communications, records and data are updated and recorded;
• Advises clients on products and services available;
• Liaising with supervisors, team leaders, operatives and third parties to gather information and resolve issues;
• Maintains up-to-date knowledge of industry developments and involvement in networks;
• Monitors random calls to improve quality, minimize errors and track operative performance;
• Coordinates staff recruitment, including writing vacancy advertisements and liaising with HR staff;
• Reviews the performance of staff, identifying training needs and planning training sessions;
• Records statistics, user rates and the performance levels of the centre and preparing reports;
• Handles the most complex customer complaints or enquiries;
• In charge of organizing staffing, including shift patterns and the number of staff required to meet demand;
• In charge of coaching, motivating and retaining staff and coordinating bonus, reward and incentive schemes;
• In charge of forecasting and analysing data against budget figures on a weekly and/or monthly basis.
• In charge of overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of studio equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carries out staff induction for new team members
• In charge of training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• In charge of arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Designs job descriptions with KPI to drive performance management for clients
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of HR Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Facilitates and coordinate strategic sessions.
• Works directly with clients in a non-advising capacity, such as answering questions, scheduling appointments and making sure all training concerns are properly taken care off
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily office activities.
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies business opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of music projects.
• In charge of supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients and music artists
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents the Agency in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for the company
• In charge of preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyses financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• In charge of financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• In charge of developing and managing financial systems and policies
• In charge of administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the company
• Serves as internal auditor for the company
• Services existing accounts, obtains orders, and establishes new accounts by planning and organizing daily work schedule to call on existing or potential sales outlets and other trade factors.
• Adjusts content of sales presentations by studying the type of sales outlet or trade factor.
• Focuses sales efforts by studying existing and potential volume of dealers.
• Submits orders by referring to price lists and product literature.
• Keeps management informed by submitting activity and results reports, such as daily call reports, weekly work plans, and monthly and annual territory analyses.
• Monitors competition by gathering current marketplace information on pricing, products, new products, delivery schedules, merchandising techniques, etc.
• Recommends changes in products, service, and policy by evaluating results and competitive developments.
• Resolves customer complaints by investigating problems; developing solutions; preparing reports; making recommendations to management.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; participating in professional societies.
• Provides historical records by maintaining records on area and customer sales.
• Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.
• Receives Visitors / clients on behalf of the organization
• Receives parcels / documents for the company
• Handles enquiries via e-mail and phone calls for the organization
• Distributes mails in the organization
• Handles any other duties as assigned my the line manager

6. SWOT Analysis

We at Lego Sales Consultants are taking our time to make sure we cover all aspects of preparation even before we open our doors. We understand the need for a SWOT Analysis. SWOT analysis is a process that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization.

Specifically, SWOT is a basic, analytical framework that assesses what an organization can and cannot do, as well as its potential opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis takes information from an environmental analysis and separates it into internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats. So it is plain why we need to do this, that’s if we want to be successful.

We employed the services of a well known firm known for its unadulterated analysis and results, and we believe they did all necessary research to come up with the analysis presented to us. Outlined below is the summary of the analysis done for us;

Our SWOT Analysis, which was very extensive and detailed analysed that our strength as a sales representative agency lies with the following factors: our selling and marketing power, our Excellence in fulfilling the promise, our goal of developing visibility to generate new business leads, our ability to create multiple opportunities from a single line of expertise, high quality service and customer satisfaction, and our awesome management team.

Our SWOT Analysis also noted that our weaknesses will come from the fact that being a new agency; we will find it hard to get manufacturers or businesses to give us the job of representing them. Also customers might find it hard to trust our sales persons. We do not see all this as weaknesses but as a chance to create a better business.

• Opportunities

Just like we must have explained earlier, businesses are now into employing external sales reps to help them market their products. They believe and it is true that these processes are more cost effective and more reliant than having in house sales and marketing department. We believe this and more is the more reason why the industry is very lucrative and massive.

Our SWOT Analysis noted that the threats we are likely to face may include unfavourable government policies, global economic downturn, new competitors, getting products and networking. We believe that Lego Sales Consultants is very much prepared and ready to take anything thrown to it from both external and internal forces.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trend

It cannot be denied those customers’ needs are becoming more diverse and often change from day to day, pushing heavily on the resources and capabilities of sales organizations. Some of these businesses depend on low-cost sales channels, such as online and telesales, for smaller customers and on high-cost channels, such as face-to-face sales, for key accounts.

But that doesn’t mean that customers increasingly do not want simple, fast, and inexpensive transactions, on the one hand, and highly complex solutions designed by experienced (and often global) teams, on the other.

It is also important to note that before the drastic recession, many businesses in many industries were constructing new channels to reduce the price of servicing smaller customers. Remote interactions, however, have stayed rare for bigger managed accounts, whose need for “face time” was always beyond challenge.

But cost pressures coming from the recession have moved many B2B vendors to re-evaluate that stance, with surprising results. Patrons of businesses are becoming much more comfortable acquiring the information they need from sales resources over the telephone or through Web conferences and video conferences.

Also, the classic use of granular customer data and predictive analytics is no more the domain solely of B2C sellers such as Amazon.com. B2B sales teams now believe that the uncontrolled adoption of these techniques has raised the volume and quality of sales leads and improved conversion rates.

8. Our Target Market

We at Lego Sales Consultants believe we have unique offering of services that will appeal to a large customer base. We at Lego Sales Consultants hope to concentrate on big corporations because we believe that they provide the maximum profit potential. The groups of potential clients and patrons for Lego Sales Consultants are, in order of importance:

• Big Corporations
• Medium Companies
• Small Businesses
• Regional (Provincial) Government Offices
• Individual Customers

Our competitive advantage

Within our business niche at Lego Sales Consultants, we believe that we do not have any competitors, but instead prospective business partners. This we are confident about because the agency will give its patrons solutions as well as value creations.

We also know and understand that our services have been and will always be looked for by companies ranging from high-level management firms to international market research companies. Businesses who want to market their products, boost their brand awareness, create a corporate identity, business development, channel development, and in-house market research will come knocking at our door to deliver the following value creations:

Consulting/Market Researchers/Traders/Suppliers

• Improved communication
• Access to new markets
• Broader products offering
• Lower cost of doing business
• New ways of adding value

Technology Providers/Manufacturers:

• Lower cost of sales
• Access to niche markets
• Better cost of identification

New business models (outsourcing alliances)

• Individual Clients:
• Shopping convenience
• Immediate delivery
• More frequent updates
• Access to more products and services
• Better pricing

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

We at Lego Sales Consultants plan to offer expertise in the services we provide to our patrons. With much experience in our field, we believe that Lego Sales Consultants will be able to sell and package our services in various ways that allows our prospective clients to choose their preferred benefit(s).

Our key fulfillment and delivery at Lego Sales Consultants will be provided by the principals of the business. Our core value is professional expertise provided by a combination of experience, smart and hard work, discipline, improvements, and education (in that order). We plan to gain income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

Our strategy at Lego Sales Consultants will focus first on maintaining the identity of the high-end buyer who appreciates quality service, but is also very demanding regarding value creations. We at Lego Sales Consultants will customize our services for each specific client. This approach we believe is called “individual sales strategy” because customization permits clients to participate in producing exactly what they want.

Our sales forecast at Lego Sales Consultants assumes that the yearly change in costs or prices will average 20%, which is a reasonable assumption for a new successful business. We at Lego Sales Consultants are expecting to increase sales modestly in 2017 and 2018, with sales growth accelerating in 2019-2022.

It is our expectation that the agency will double its starting sales within five years. Outlined below is our sales forecast for three, and it is worthwhile to note that these projections was done based on what is obtainable in the industry.

• First Fiscal Year-: $750,000
• Second Fiscal Year-: $1.4 million
• Third Fiscal Year-: $3.2 million
• Marketing Strategy and Sales strategy

We at Lego Sales Consultants believe that our marketing strategies will rely on the same basic principles as consumer marketing, but will surely be executed in a unique way. While consumers choose products based not only on price but on popularity, status, and other emotional triggers, we believe that our patrons will make decisions on price and profit potential alone.

We also understand that discovering new ways to build relationships through social media is currently a hot topic in the B2B marketing world. It is also well known that social media platforms have opened up two way conversations between businesses. We at Lego Sales Consultants believe that B2B marketing involves building valuable relationships to guarantee lasting customers — an important goal for any company,

We all know that the business to business market is the largest of all the markets, and exceeds the consumer market in dollar value. It is also very common that B2B marketing is largely employed by companies that make products consumers have no practical use for, such as steel.

However, it is also used by companies selling products and services bought by consumers and other businesses alike. We hope to market Lego Sales Consultants as huge business with a direct goal to take over the industry. We hope to do the following;

• We plan to introduce Lego Sales Consultants by sending introductory letters with our business brochure to individuals, households, corporate organizations, schools, players in the real estate sector, and all the people of Alexandria.
• We also plan to advertise Lego Sales Consultants in important financial and business related magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
• We also plan to advertise Lego Sales Consultants on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• We also plan to attend important international and local real estate , finance and business expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• We also hope to Create different packages for different category of clients (individuals, start – ups and established corporate organizations) in order to work with their budgets
• We also plan to make use the internet to promote our business
• We hope to encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We at Lego Sales Consultants understand our clients’ needs even before we decide to implement any marketing or advertising tactic. We understand that in consumer marketing, an effective advertisement can be blasted out over wide channels, and a percentage of consumers will be driven to buy the product.

But since B2B marketing is so much more specialized, we understand that many businesses run the risk of alienating their specific prospective candidates if they do not pay close attention to their needs before tailoring their services to those needs.

This is why we understand that our marketing plan must be focused in delivery and broad in application. This means that while consumer marketing can advertise very specifically ( one mass-consumed product advertised through print, television commercials and the Internet ) to a wide audience, our marketing plan at Lego Sales Consultants cannot.

Instead, we need to brand Lego Sales Consultants very broadly ( through email, corporate image and technical specifications ) to a very specific customer. We plan to promote our business through the following ways;

• We hope to place adverts on both print ( community based newspapers and magazines ) and electronic media platforms; we will also advertise Lego Sales Consultants  on financial magazines, real estate and other relevant financial programs on radio and TV
• Lego Sales Consultants will also sponsor relevant community based events / programs
• We also plan to make use of various online platforms to promote the business. This will make it easier for people to enter our website with just a click of the mouse. We will take advantage of the internet and social media platforms such as; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
• We also plan to mount our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Albany – New York.
• We at Lego Sales Consultants also plan to engage in road show from time to time
• We also plan to distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas all around Alexandria
• We plan to make sure that all our workers wear our branded shirts and all our official vehicles are well branded with our company’s logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Our major plan at Lego Sales Consultants is to make use of the extensive network of contacts both Nathaniel and Ephraim have with businesses all around United States.  We plan to make use of our internal expertise to launch an astounding strategy directed at a select group of its target customers. We at Lego Sales Consultants have close and effective relationships with our end-users, vendors (suppliers and sub-contractors), and even competitors.

We at Lego Sales Consultants hope to keep the prices of our services and commissions below the average market rate for our clients for the main time. We also hope to provide them with loans coupled with low interest rates that will bring them closer to the firm, and we hope to move our prices a little higher when we have achieved a substantial corporate identity in the micro lending and mortgage industry.

• Payment options

We plan to provide various a wide varieties of payment options to suit our clients at Lego Sales Consultants. We understand the need and the diverse countenances of people, and the way they understand and process things differently, and we tend to provide a suitable platform that will suit all and sundry equally. Listed below are the payment options that we will make available to Lego Sales Consultants.

• Payment through bank transfer
• Payment through online bank transfer
• Payment with check
• Payment with bank draft
• Cash payment

With reference to the above platforms, we have chosen a well renowned bank in the United States to aid in our business. We have chosen and opened a corporate current account with Capital one financial Corporation. Our bank account numbers will be made available in website and promotional materials to clients who may want to make cash deposit and it will also be given explicitly to clients on request.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

The founders of Lego Sales Consultants use to be well known sales agents for large multinational businesses, procurement, and construction contracting services and, at the same time, are experienced market researchers in global markets. They both decided after extensive research to start Lego Sales Consultants. Outlined below is the cost analysis of starting Lego Sales Consultants;

• The Total Fee for incorporating the Business in Atlanta, Georgia – $750.
• The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license – $25,000
• The Amount needed to acquire a suitable Office facility with enough space for standard sales agency in a business district 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) – $250,000.
• The Cost for equipping the agency (printers, fax machines, furniture, telephones, filing cabins, safety gadgets and electronics et al) – $100,000
• The Cost of Launching our official Website – $600
• Budget for paying at least 7 employees for 3 months and utility bills – $200,000
• Additional Expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $50,000
• Miscellaneous – $1,000

From the detailed cost analysis above, we need $627,350 to start Lego Sales Consultants. We have put plans together to raise all necessary funds for Lego Sales Consultants.

Generating Funding / Start-up Capital for Lego Sales Consultants

Lego Sales Consultants is a well licensed and registered sales agency which is capitalized by two principal investors, Nathaniel and Ephraim. They are the founders and financiers of the business and hope to remain so for now, with hope to accept partners at a very ripe and mature stage in the business. Due to less constraint in financing Lego Sales Consultants, we have outlined the few ways we can acknowledge funding and start up capital. These was may include;

• Generate part of the start up capital from the two principal investors
• Accept soft loans from family members and friends
• Agreeing to angel investors
• Apply for business loan from my Bank (if need be)

Note : We at Lego Sales Consultants have been able to generate an enormous $700,000 from our two principal investors, who aligned and individually prune out $350,000 each. We believe that the amount is substantially enough to run the business for the first three months, which by then we expect to sustain the business by the cash and incentives generated from our business proceedings.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

We at Lego Sales Consultants plan to combine unparalleled quality with a cost-effective package to create a consulting and sales service with many competitive advantages. We also know that our seasoned management are qualified for multiple services, such as: business development, market development, market intelligence, industrial sectors analysis, and channel development.

We at Lego Sales Consultants hope to provide a large range of services to anyone from a high-level marketing firm to a home-based business owner; clients can always count on quick, accurate services from Lego Sales Consultants.

We are Lego Sales Consultants will design, build, test and deploy all possible strategies to achieve our aim and create profits for our clients.  We also plan to report the progress of the campaign in real-time to provide our customers maximum flexibility.

We at Lego Sales Consultants understand that consultant costs (in US$/man-hour) in Atlanta. It is worthwhile to note that this analysis is based on the assumptions that the local senior consultants’ and senior engineers’ salaries have increased by 70%.

This is because the United States skilled manpower market offers one biggest man-hour cost in the world, even with the estimated average increasing 20% per year. To take advantage of this situation, Lego Sales Consultants plan to make use of United States resources for serving both global and regional markets. We also plan to make our employees comfortable and always keep our clients in the known.

Checklist/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
• Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
• Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with banks, financial lending institutions, vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress

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The Ultimate Guide for Independent Sales Reps

Many professionals working in the B2B Business-to-business commerce. sales industry dream about starting a business as an independent sales rep gaining the perks of being self-employed, including larger profit margins and flexible work hours. However, there are also some downsides and some complexities to consider. Therefore, we’ll guide you through the intricacies of getting started as an Independent sales rep in this guide. 

Why Do People Become Independent Sales Reps?

Any sales professional in the B2B Business-to-business commerce. space is a candidate to become an independent sales rep . While you’ll be completing similar work, independence means more control and flexibility over your pay, hours, and clientele. But, of course, it also means sacrificing your salary and benefits.

So, if you’re thinking about going independent, you probably want to achieve higher earnings, a better work/life balance, or both. The thing is, going out on your own isn’t all that easy. 

Choosing How to Work as a Sales Rep

If you’re thinking about becoming an independent sales rep, it’s worth noting that there’s more than one way to go about it. This guide for independent sales reps walks you through the two most popular approaches.

Taking The Solo Approach

The solo approach offers the most power for sales reps who want total control of their work opportunities and negotiating with clients. However, it also takes extra legwork on your part. If you’re accustomed to an employer putting work on your desk, you may be surprised at how many hours you have to spend looking for clients and securing work opportunities. Regardless, many independent sales reps thrive with the solo approach. Plus, it means you can nurture direct relationships with your clients, helping you to get referrals and positive reviews. With no employer or intermediary standing in the way, your business and earnings are 100% yours. 

Joining a Sales Rep Agency

If you think joining a sales rep agency is similar to getting another 9-to-5 job, think again. Unlike an employer, an agency can connect you with opportunities, and you can decide whether or not you want to take them. You can also set your rate. But, because the agency finds opportunities on your behalf, they expect you to pay a small fee. Depending on your marketing and networking skills, you may or may not benefit from an agency. With that said, it’s sometimes an excellent transitional option if you’re looking to dip your toes in the water of becoming an independent sales rep. So, you can join an agency as a side-hustle while staying at your current 9-to-5 or work with an agency as you build your solo following. 

Step-by-Step Guide for Independent Sales Reps

Learning about how you can approach work is essential, but what about a step-by-step guide for independent sales reps who are just getting started? Here’s what you need to do if you’re serious about taking the next steps.

1. Plan Around Your Clientele 

It’s tough to become an independent sales rep if you don’t have a network you can leverage to get your clients. Many sales reps start doing solo work on the side and choose to work with an agency. Evaluating your workload and finances requires understanding your clients, products, and service offerings. In addition, as a B2B Business-to-business commerce. sales professional, you know that sales cycles can vary. Without understanding the sales cycle(s) you’ll be working with, it’s hard to know when you’ll see your commissions roll in. Likewise, poor planning could lead to gaps in pay. You’ll need to plan around irregular earnings and try to find balance through good money management and staggering clients in your workload. 

2. Learn How to Protect Yourself

One of the most substantial complications as an independent sales rep is learning how to file your taxes as a self-employed individual, keeping up on your bookkeeping, using the proper payments software , and drafting contractual agreements that protect you. You shouldn’t underestimate any of these aspects when working on starting your business as an independent sales rep. You should consider consulting with a financial and legal professional to help you get these things in order. 

3. Adopt a Long-Term Focus 

As an independent sales rep, you’re likely to take a pay cut from your typical salary when you’re starting. So it’s essential that you have savings set aside to help you through this time, and it’s equally vital that you have a long-term mindset. Prioritize your clients that offer recurring commissions, which can help your income. Clients who pay out fast or have a shorter sales cycle should be at the top of your list. Building a foundation for clients like this will provide stability sooner. In addition, you can expand your sales portfolio to include a diverse set of non-competing, quality products, and services. From there, it’s about nurturing relationships with your partners so that they keep wanting to work with you. If you’re not making money, the business isn’t making money, so keep metrics on your deals and see where your money-makers are because you should be focusing your time and energy. 

If you’re ready to step out on your own and maximize your potential, apply to become a National Merchants Association’s ProAgent Partner. NMA’s ProAgent Partner Program provides comprehensive revenue-generating initiatives uniquely designed to help our agents maximize their earning potential and successfully build a profitable merchant A business that accepts credit cards for goods or services. portfolio. So get started today at https://legacy.nationalmerchants.com/get-started/ . 

NMA is a merchant A business that accepts credit cards for goods or services. advocacy group dedicated to reducing or eliminating the unnecessary fees associated with accepting credit card payments. Since 2004, NMA’s payment processing solutions have delivered tailored solutions, best-in-class customer service, and high-quality service offerings for businesses. Whether it’s high-risk or low-risk, brick-and-mortar or e-commerce, NMA will create the best processing experience for your company. For more information, visit us online at www. nationalmerchants .com or call (866) 509-7201.

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The Ultimate Guide for Independent Sales Reps

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Many professionals working in the B2B sales industry dream about starting a business as an independent sales rep gaining the perks of being self-employed, including larger profit margins and flexible work hours. However, there are also some downsides and some complexities to consider. Therefore, we’ll guide you through the intricacies of getting started as an Independent sales rep in this guide. 

Why Do People Become Independent Sales Reps?

Any sales professional in the B2B space is a candidate to become an independent sales rep . While you’ll be completing similar work, independence means more control and flexibility over your pay, hours, and clientele. But, of course, it also means sacrificing your salary and benefits.

So, if you’re thinking about going independent, you probably want to achieve higher earnings, a better work/life balance, or both. The thing is, going out on your own isn’t all that easy. 

Choosing How to Work as a Sales Rep

If you’re thinking about becoming an independent sales rep, it’s worth noting that there’s more than one way to go about it. This guide for independent sales reps walks you through the two most popular approaches.

Taking The Solo Approach

The solo approach offers the most power for sales reps who want total control of their work opportunities and negotiating with clients. However, it also takes extra legwork on your part. If you’re accustomed to an employer putting work on your desk, you may be surprised at how many hours you have to spend looking for clients and securing work opportunities. Regardless, many independent sales reps thrive with the solo approach. Plus, it means you can nurture direct relationships with your clients, helping you to get referrals and positive reviews. With no employer or intermediary standing in the way, your business and earnings are 100% yours. 

Joining a Sales Rep Agency

If you think joining a sales rep agency is similar to getting another 9-to-5 job, think again. Unlike an employer, an agency can connect you with opportunities, and you can decide whether or not you want to take them. You can also set your rate. But, because the agency finds opportunities on your behalf, they expect you to pay a small fee. Depending on your marketing and networking skills, you may or may not benefit from an agency. With that said, it’s sometimes an excellent transitional option if you’re looking to dip your toes in the water of becoming an independent sales rep. So, you can join an agency as a side-hustle while staying at your current 9-to-5 or work with an agency as you build your solo following. 

Step-by-Step Guide for Independent Sales Reps

Learning about how you can approach work is essential, but what about a step-by-step guide for independent sales reps who are just getting started? Here’s what you need to do if you’re serious about taking the next steps.

1. Plan Around Your Clientele 

It’s tough to become an independent sales rep if you don’t have a network you can leverage to get your clients. Many sales reps start doing solo work on the side and choose to work with an agency. Evaluating your workload and finances requires understanding your clients, products, and service offerings. In addition, as a B2B sales professional, you know that sales cycles can vary. Without understanding the sales cycle(s) you’ll be working with, it’s hard to know when you’ll see your commissions roll in. Likewise, poor planning could lead to gaps in pay. You’ll need to plan around irregular earnings and try to find balance through good money management and staggering clients in your workload. 

2. Learn How to Protect Yourself

One of the most substantial complications as an independent sales rep is learning how to file your taxes as a self-employed individual, keeping up on your bookkeeping, using the proper payments software , and drafting contractual agreements that protect you. You shouldn’t underestimate any of these aspects when working on starting your business as an independent sales rep. You should consider consulting with a financial and legal professional to help you get these things in order. 

3. Adopt a Long-Term Focus 

As an independent sales rep, you’re likely to take a pay cut from your typical salary when you’re starting. So it’s essential that you have savings set aside to help you through this time, and it’s equally vital that you have a long-term mindset. Prioritize your clients that offer recurring commissions, which can help your income. Clients who pay out fast or have a shorter sales cycle should be at the top of your list. Building a foundation for clients like this will provide stability sooner. In addition, you can expand your sales portfolio to include a diverse set of non-competing, quality products, and services. From there, it’s about nurturing relationships with your partners so that they keep wanting to work with you. If you’re not making money, the business isn’t making money, so keep metrics on your deals and see where your money-makers are because you should be focusing your time and energy. 

If you’re ready to step out on your own and maximize your potential, apply to become a LOLA POS.’s ProAgent Partner. LOLA POS’s ProAgent Partner Program provides comprehensive revenue-generating initiatives uniquely designed to help our agents maximize their earning potential and successfully build a profitable merchant portfolio. So get started today at https://www.lolapos.com/get-started/ . 

About LOLA POS

LOLA POS is a merchant advocacy group dedicated to reducing or eliminating the unnecessary fees associated with accepting credit card payments. Since 2004, LOLA POS’s payment processing solutions have delivered tailored solutions, best-in-class customer service, and high-quality service offerings for businesses. Whether it’s high-risk or low-risk, brick-and-mortar or e-commerce, LOLA POS will create the best processing experience for your company. For more information, visit us online at www.lolapos.com  or call (866) 509-7201 .

The LOLA POS Difference

At LOLA POS, we’re dedicated to eliminating the unnecessary and unreasonable fees that some processors charge to accept credit cards. Merchant advocacy is in our DNA, and we provide a unique, personalized experience unlike anything else in the market today.

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How to Become a Sales Rep [+Tips for First-Time Selling]

Published: October 15, 2021

There’s no such thing as a born salesperson. Great sales reps make it look easy, but superior performance usually indicates that a salesperson has taken the time to hone their skills and is constantly iterating to better help prospects.

Whether you’re new to the field or looking to simply improve your skills, read on to discover expert advice on becoming a sales rep and how to be a good one.

How to Become a Sales Rep

The great thing about a sales career is that you can start as a green pea and grow into a top-tier performer. Of course, virtually no one begins a career in sales with all of the required skills — but everyone has to start somewhere .

As sales is a fast-paced field, it can be intimidating to figure out where to start or even how to start. Not to fear, though — we asked seasoned salespeople for their best tips on how to become a sales rep and compiled their advice below.

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1. Figure out your life goals and determine if a sales career can help you get there.

Jill Fratianne , a Partner Channel Manager at HubSpot, recalls her first realization of what she wanted to do with her life: “I remember when I graduated music school I didn’t know squat about anything, I just knew after my last concert on stage at Symphony Center in Chicago that I wanted to be one of the donors looking down at someone like me that sponsored my full scholarship.”

Fifteen years later, after a hearty sales career that helped her perfect her craft, Fratianne is helping renovate an opera house and coming full circle on her post-music-school goals.

2. Read sales books.

Reading books is an especially valuable tip for aspiring sales professionals. There are many sales books available on a wide range of topics, from developing an entrepreneurial mindset and the psychological and behavioral aspects that affect sales success. Pick what best suits your needs, and read on to learn from experienced professionals about how to grow your skills and leverage the ones you already have.

If you’re unsure where to start, To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink and Inbound Selling by Brian Signorelli are high-quality options.

3. Get inbound sales certified.

Kyle Jepson , Senior Professor for HubSpot Academy, says, “ The Inbound Sales Certification is designed specifically for new sales reps. It gives actionable tips and strategies that salespeople can implement on their next call or in their next meeting, regardless of what industry they’re in.

There are other sales training programs that are worth considering that range from entirely online, on-site, or a hybrid model, so you can best incorporate your new course into your schedule.

4. Take introductory courses.

If you’re hoping for a more traditional sales training program, take introductory sales courses at a local university or community college. Many educational institutions offer business classes in sales development, and you can learn from experienced professionals to begin growing your skills.

5. Sell for a non-profit organization.

Selling for a non-profit organization allows you to test your networking and connection abilities, problem-solving, and closing skills in a low-stress environment while still obtaining on-the-job sales experience.

You’ll gain an overall understanding of what you do well and what needs to be improved upon, helping you become more focused on your development.

6. Follow the HubSpot Sales Blog.

Following the HubSpot Sales Blog will help you become familiar with cadence, terms, and sales subject matter. Reading about vocabulary, processes, and knowledge can prepare you for your first sales role, especially when you leverage tips from experienced salespeople and the expert insight they contribute to different pieces.

7. Talk with reps in your network to understand how sales jobs work.

Working in sales is different from virtually any other profession. You have to constantly learn new skills while chasing monthly quotas and targets, which can be stressful. Talk with sales reps in your network to understand how their positions work so you can get a sense of general day-to-day and the skills you should focus on developing to be successful.

If you’ve taken sales programs or university courses, talk to the teachers to see if they have specific advice for you or areas you should focus on developing based on their experience instructing you. This can also be helpful for networking, as you can let them know that you’re open to and interested in future opportunities.

Once you’ve gained experience in sales and you’re interested in moving up, independent sales may be on your radar. Read on to discover how to become an independent sales rep and how it’s different from regular sales positions.

How to Become an Independent Sales Rep

As the title suggests, an independent sales rep works for a company but is independently in charge of their operations (marketing, customer service, bookkeeping, etc.) and how they conduct business. Independent reps sometimes contract for multiple companies at once.

One of the most critical factors to becoming an independent sales rep is having sales experience, preferably in-house. It will be challenging to succeed in the role if you don’t understand how the sales process works, so developing the background is essential before embarking on a more independent journey.

In addition, having in-house sales experience before going off on your own helps you develop a network of contacts and relationships that can help you when you’re working independently, whether it be by introducing you to potential clients or becoming clients of yours themselves.

It’s also important to be a self-starter; that you’re comfortable working for yourself and able to work for yourself. This means that you don’t struggle if there isn’t anyone standing over your shoulder monitoring your progress because you can monitor your own progress and get your work done. It’s important to note, though, that you still have to report back to the business you work for; they’re just likely not monitoring your everyday progress.

Whether you’re an in-house or independent rep, you likely want to be good at your job. Below we’ll discuss this.

How to Be a Good Sales Rep

• Identify your goals.
• Recognize that sales is a process.
• Identify business pains.
• Measure every step.
• Sell to the right people.
• Embrace team selling.
• Conduct call reviews.
• Shadow your peers.
• Find a mentor.
• Ask the right questions.
• Build a personal development plan.
• Start a film club.

1. Start with your goals.

If you’re learning to sell, start from the end and work backward. Knowing your goals and measuring your performance against them (more on that later) is the most important place to start.

How many customers do you or your company need, and in what time frame? How many leads do you need to close that many customers? How many connections do you need to generate that many opportunities? And so on. Multiply your customer goal by the average sale price of your company’s product to get the amount of revenue you should be aiming for.

Make sure you set personal sales goals as well. You can always tell when a salesperson is in the top 2% of their organization. They command attention, work at their craft, provide a consistent experience, and execute. These behaviors and actions typically precede results.

Aim to be in the top 2% of your organization. Of course, it won’t happen tomorrow, and it won’t be easy, but always strive for the top.

2. Recognize that sales is a process.

Sales is not an art. Sales is a science and a technology.

Pete Caputa, CEO of Databox and former VP of Sales at HubSpot, and Harvard Business School professor and former HubSpot CRO Mark Roberge are some of the most successful sales executives I know. They’re scientists, and they excel at making the classic sales process scalable. If you’re not looking at sales as a process, you’re missing the boat.

Sales is changing rapidly, but some things will always be the same. To get customers, you’ll have to establish their needs and interest in your product, address inertia in their business, and determine a timeline to sell.

The way your company moves through the funnel, however, will be unique. If you treat every sales process the same, you could easily miss something. Understand that every business has its own playbook for a reason. So before you ever get on the phone with a prospect, sit with your managers to thoroughly understand your company’s process.

This will include learning how to position your product, gaining strategies for speaking with prospects, understanding your key value propositions, and discovering what your ideal customer looks like, just to name a few factors of any successful sales process.

3. Identify business pains.

You must be able to identify your prospects’ business pain and distinguish it from their run-of-the-mill business problems. If a step of their process is a slight annoyance, who cares?

Pain isn’t getting a cut on your arm — pain is your leg falling off. A true business pain is discussed every day in the executive office and the boardroom. Someone has probably set aside a budget to solve it. If it’s a critical factor to their business’ success, you’ve discovered a real business pain.

As a sales rep, you need to build trust with your prospects. Buyers need confidence that you understand their problem and have the resources to solve it. But your relationship doesn’t end after the sale — you are ethically required to live up to your promise. Prepare your prospects for the transition to your product and give them all the help they need, and you’ll have a happy customer on your hands.

4. Measure every step.

Anything worth doing is worth measuring, and anything that can be measured can be improved.

Remember when you set your goals? Be fanatical about measuring your performance against them. At the rate you’re selling today, will you hit your numbers by the end of the month? Are your closing strategies converting prospects to customers? If not, change something up.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to reach your numbers this month. If you measure everything you do, you’ll be able to solve problems as they arise.

In this day and age, there are boatloads of coaching resources. A simple Google search for an area in which you’re struggling will return a huge amount of material that can help you. Your managers will be more than happy to help you as well, especially if you’re asking for assistance before it’s too late.

5. Sell to the right people.

This principle is at the heart of the inbound sales methodology.

In the early days of my career, I spent a lot of time reaching out to people who didn’t want to talk to me. But for the last seven years, I’ve spent more time connecting with people who want to hear what I have to say.

That’s the power of inbound marketing. By creating or curating high-quality and helpful content and letting prospects come to you, you’ll save time and increase your probability of closing sales.

6. Embrace team selling.

When you're starting out in sales, you want to make a name for yourself. Many reps think the fastest way to do this is by blowing away the competition by themselves.

That approach can be isolating — and you miss out on a lot. Modern reps, no matter their experience level, should embrace team selling.

For example, if you're unsuccessfully trying to speak with the CEO of a large company, ask a sales leader if they can get you in the door by leveraging their seniority and making that first call.

I do this all the time for reps. Since I've been selling for 30 years, I have connections and clout a new rep simply hasn't built yet. All I ask is that the rep does the research and puts together a one-pager for me prior to the call.

Use the expertise on your team to close more deals. You'll learn valuable skills along the way, and you'll blow your quota out of the water.

7. Conduct call reviews.

Your team manager probably already conducts regularly scheduled call reviews, but sometimes that's not enough.

Identify salespeople within your organization who excel at different things. Know a rep who's great at closing difficult prospects? Sit in on a few of her calls, and have her review your most recent meeting with a tough prospect.

Admire a rep who's great at negotiating? Ask him to review a recent negotiation you conducted. Zoom in on different aspects of your calls and meetings, and get granular about improving each part.

8. Shadow your peers.

Along those same lines, you can learn a lot about excelling in sales by listening to the best — your peers and teammates alongside you.

Take some time each week, or each month, to listen to how your teammates conduct successful sales calls. Whether you're listening live or listening to recordings, you can pick up key phrases, rapport-building techniques, and closing strategies that you can personalize on your own calls.

9. Find a mentor.

It's important to check in with your peers to hone your selling skills and day-to-day workflows. But it's crucial to pair with a mentor who can help you plan and grow your career. This person should help you visualize where you see yourself one, five, and ten years down the road.

Identify a mentor who:

• Has found success in the career you aspire to
• Has accomplished certain achievements or milestones you admire
• Has experience that's applicable to your own career path

Once you've identified someone who has the experience and availability to be your mentor, set up monthly or quarterly meetings with them. And discuss how you both anticipate spending that time so that it's beneficial.

10. Ask the right questions.

This section should be broken into two distinct buckets:

• Ask the right questions of your manager: " Am I meeting expectations? " " How can I exceed expectations? " " What feedback do have for me about my performance? " These questions demonstrate that you're hungry for professional development. They're what will help you grow — and that's what a good salesperson needs to move their career forward.
• Ask the right questions of your prospect: Question-asking is an art form that is practiced and optimized over time. Work with successful reps on your team to find out which questions prove most beneficial when speaking with their prospects. And build your own library of probing questions .

11. Build a personal development plan.

Every salesperson has strengths and weaknesses. It is important for new reps to understand the things they do well and the skills they need to improve. Assessing the areas of the sales process that you do well, such as building rapport or asking good questions, is essential — you want to build upon a solid foundation of your strengths.

When you start out you are unconsciously incompetent – you don’t know what you don’t know. Then you become consciously incompetent – you do know what you don’t know, and you can make a plan to continue learning and filling in skill gaps. From there, you become consciously competent — you have the qualities you need to do the job well.

To facilitate this process, I like to ask new reps to assess their new skills and then create a personal development plan (PDP). This can be a simple document that defines the two to three things per month that a new rep should work on to improve their skills.

The rep should revisit this document with their manager or mentor on a regular basis to ensure they are on track with their learning. All salespeople should have a PDP, but it is especially helpful for new reps to build confidence in their skills.

12. Start a film club.

Professional athletes watch a lot of film and footage of their not only their own performance but of the competition as well. Salespeople can benefit from the same approach.

I recommend new salespeople build a film club to accommodate different learning styles with a handful of their peers who are also trying to improve their skills. Here’s how a sales film club can work:

• Set aside an hour, and have one person bring a recorded call and a standard evaluation template.
• Have the group listen to the call and take notes on what they hear.
• Beginning with the person who recorded the call, have participants provide feedback on what worked and what could be improved upon.

This group dynamic helps new salespeople work together to reduce their anxiety and learn together to improve their sales skills in a safe environment.

The most important piece of advice I could give you is to learn from your team today, tomorrow, and 10 years down the road. That's what makes you a great rep. And that's what makes sales a great career.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in May, 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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6 Steps to Create a Successful Sales Business Plan

Written By Michelle Richardson

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9 Stunning Sales Business Plan Templates to Close Deals

Written by: Orana Velarde

When sales and marketing teams work together, amazing things can happen for a business. Take, for example, the creation of an integral sales business plan that covers not only the goals the team aspires to but also all the data to support the actions, timelines, roadmaps and org charts.

Your business plan for sales and marketing activities is the guideline by which both teams undertake their tasks, aiming for a common goal. Creating a sales business plan collaboratively can help the teams see the big picture faster and be ready for any eventuality along the way.

In this guide, we will share nine business plan templates to help you build the perfect plan for your teams to work with. Share it digitally with your sales and marketing teams; they will be more productive and close more deals.

Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is a sales business plan, what is the sales business planning process, what goes in a sales business plan template, 9 business sales plan templates, sales plan faqs.

• A sales business plan is a document that outlines the goals, strategies and tactics of a company’s sales department, including current state and future plans.
• The sales business planning process includes figuring out the scope, organizing the team and assigning roles, collecting critical information in a centralized location, setting up branded templates, customizing the templates and collaborating with the team to finalize the document.
• The five different types of strategic sales planning are goal-oriented planning, account-based planning, product planning, relationship planning and sales process planning.
• Explore the nine templates provided according to sales business plan examples and choose the one that matches your sales goals.
• Sign up for Visme to create your sales business plans and all your sales and marketing collateral without needing any design skills.

A sales business plan—sales plan for short—is a document or presentation that defines the strategies your team will undertake to close deals, retain clients and bring in new leads. With a business plan , sales are contrastingly better overall.

Each section defines the steps toward hitting milestones and achieving goals. It lays a forecast for all activities that have to do with selling and hitting sales targets. The team members who benefit the most from a sales business plan are the sales reps and marketing strategists. It gives them all a vision of the big picture, a mission to aim for and a roadmap to achieving the goal.

Overall, a well-crafted sales business plan is crucial for optimizing the sales cycle and achieving success in the competitive world of sales.

To create a business plan for sales activities, follow an industry-standard format and add your team's unique content plus the company’s branded elements. Build a sales action plan based on your strategies and goals, backed up by your chosen sales plan template .

Here’s the path to take:

1. Figure out the scope

First, you need to know the scope of possibilities for the sales business plan you’re working on.

To figure this out, you need to answer these questions:

• What do you intend to cover in your sales plan?
• What aspects of the business will the sales plan cover?
• How far can this plan take you?
• Will it span weeks, months, a quarter, or an entire year?
• How many people will need to work together from how many teams?

This is the perfect opportunity to use mind maps . Visualizing your scope with mind maps makes it easy for you to organize the information and communicate it with everyone. And if you want to gather ideas from your sales team, brainstorming is the way to go.

Read this article to learn how to maximize your brainstorming meetings using online whiteboards.

Brainstorm the sales plan with your team using Visme’s infinite whiteboard . Our infinite whiteboard supports real-time collaboration and has more than enough space for you to lay out all the information.

Once you’ve mapped out your scope, create an outline for the overall plan. The outline will be the foundation for the pages and sections in your sales business plan. The next section, “What goes in a business plan” includes a list of essential sections that will help create a business plan for sales.

2. Organize the team and roles within the team

Part of the planning includes organizing a group of people who will work together to meet the goals laid out in the plan. Create a branded org chart visualizing team roles and responsibilities. Include this chart on a page in your sales plan; make it part of the process.

Using hotspots and hyperlinks, connect each team member's photo to their task list on monday.com or your favorite productivity platform.

Do you need more people to achieve the goals you’re pitching? Use this template to assign roles and tasks to team members.

3. Collect all information, analysis and data in one digital location.

No plan gets anywhere without data. Research, analysis, and investigation are your best friends at this point. Collect all the data you need and organize it in an accessible way. This will help immensely when building the sales plan .

Gather raw data about your current sales activities and performance, competitors, user persona, target market, industry analysis and more. Keep all visual documentation and relevant research samples inside a folder in your Visme workspace and name it accordingly.

Give access to those folders only to people involved in the project. The permission settings are in the brand controls for your workspace.

When you take advantage of the workspace organization features in your Visme account, you can plan your team's activity productively.

4. Set up a branded template

Are you regularly creating the same document more than once to share with different people? Branded templates are your secret weapon for any visual asset creation task. It saves time and serves as the guideline for all future versions of that document.

Applying your brand to industry templates is simple. First, pick one of our professionally designed templates, and then use our intuitive editor to change the color scheme, fonts and other design elements. You can also create a master layout to control fonts and logo placements.

Better yet, try Visme's Brand Wizard feature . Input your website URL and follow the steps. In the end, you’ll have a full set of templates with your brand colors and fonts.

5. Create each page in the document/slide in the deck

Transfer content from the outline to the document, section by section. Analyze and customize the visualization of each slide or page so it's optimized for the story you will tell. Yes, even sales plans can use storytelling techniques to be functional and effective. It’s the single most important communication tool in your arsenal.

Customize the sections, pages and slides with all the design elements available inside your Visme editor. Tap into all the interactive features to create an interactive sales business plan experience or make your digital PDF more engaging.

Take note of all the pages and slides as you create them to help you build the "table of contents" page. Use hyperlinking to let readers navigate the sales business plan however they wish.

6. Collaborate with the team

Involve the teams from the start. Task them with providing information or creating sections of the plan that pertain to their sector. Create the pages together, tag team members and leave comments to share information.

Ask managers for feedback through the Visme workspace; send them a live link to the project where they can leave notes and comments for edits.

Use a template to create an org chart that explains and details everyone’s role in the plan moving forward. When you make the process, plan and action collaborative, the team culture is strengthened. It’s a win-win in all directions.

7. Finalize and Share Your Plan

Take care of the last edits and proofread all the content. Double-check all image permissions and finalize all the layouts. Now that all the slides or pages are ready, it’s time to share and present the finished project. Use Presenter Studio to add a personalized message to the sales plan presentation, which is ideal for remote teams.

How do you wish to share the sales business plan with your team?

If there's any degree of interactivity in your plan, digital is the way to go. In the settings tab, publish your Visme project to the web and generate a live link to share with anyone you wish.

Download or share your sales business presentation as a video, a flip book, an interactive PDF or an interactive digital experience. All of these and more are possible with Visme.

There are templates, and then there are branded templates. A regular template has a color palette chosen by our designers for anyone to use. A branded template has all your company colors and fonts ready to fill up with content and finalize.

Here's a comprehensive list of the actual slides or pages in a sales business plan template. These apply to the document or presentation format of a top-down sales business plan.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

 Start with the stunning cover page, then follow up with an interactive table of contents and other pages such as:

• Executive summary. Summarize your company goals, sales objectives, revenue targets, and top-level strategies. This lays the foundation for the rest of your document.
• Business goals (SMART goals & KPIs). Provide clear goals that you'll use to guide your sales plan activities and resources. 
• Current sales performance.  Use data visualization to present an overview of your current sales performance. 
• Industry and market overview.  Provide actionable insights on data or trends to support your sales plan.
• Description of sales strategies and tactics.  Break down the sales techniques that will be used to execute your plan.
• Customer segments.  Define your customer persona , target audience or segmentation, answering the question, "Who do you plan to sell to."
• SWOT Analysis.  Take a look at your sales team or brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and potential threats. 
• Resources and team capabilities. Using the organizational chart , visualize the team roles and list resources to accomplish your goal.
• Timeframe for execution.  Provide an estimated timeframe you'll need to execute your sales plan. 
• Budget.  State how much you plan to spend or need to accommodate your sales plan's resources.  

Here’s the collection of sales business plan examples you’ve been looking for. They are available in different selling styles, covering an array of industries. Simply add your brand content with elements of storytelling to make it unforgettable.

If time is running out or you need a speedy start for your sales business plan, Visme's AI business plan generator can get it done in just a few minutes.

These business sales plans are a great starting point for sales managers looking for more templates to use with their team.

1. New Product Sales Plan

Plan the sales strategy for a new product with a new product sales plan template. Put together a strategy to promote the new product to existing clients and new prospects. Look at the data from previous campaigns and use it as the foundation for future product launches and sales plans.

The document-style sales business plan template below has all the pages you need to share information about the products, the goals, the KPIs to follow and the team in charge of getting it done. Finally, there are data pages for the budget and market analysis.

2. SaaS Sales Plan

SaaS companies need effective sales plans to grow their client base and increase quarterly revenue. A comprehensive sales plan for a SaaS company needs specific sections for each item and clear strategies for reaching team goals. Link to the materials the sales team will use, like sales playbooks and surveys .

This sales plan sample template, designed especially for SaaS companies, concentrates on the strengths, opportunities and unique selling points. The color blocks and data widgets offer a quick overview of the foundation, goals and team in charge of taking care of it.

Beyond creating a sales plan, you want to visualize your sales pipeline to see where your sales prospects are in the purchasing process.

3. 30-60-90-day Sales Plan

Maximize the efficiency of your sales team by utilizing this comprehensive sales action plan template. This 30 60 90 day sales plan example template is based on the idea of time. The strategies in the plan are laid out in three sections of one month each. Roadmaps have a timeframe, and there are three sets of goals. The purpose is to integrate new technology better or train a new sales rep into the team.

Get the most from your 30-60-90 sales business plan with the template below. Each page concentrates on the dedicated time period, explaining everything expected from the employee or the team.

4. Territory Sales Plan

Territory sales business plans are based on a specific geolocation or localization where the sales will occur. You need this type of sales plan if your company has client bases in different areas of the country or world. Culturally, each location can have different approaches and sales tactics. Use the dynamic fields feature to reuse territory sales presentations and easily change the location information.

Across nine pages in a purple color scheme, this territory sales plan is ready for your team’s detailed strategic planning. Create a document per location, or use interactivity to create hotspots that change the data or information according to the reader’s choice.

5. Business Development Sales Plan

Strategic business development can mean increasing client reach, improving business partnerships and many other business activities that increase revenue. Using this business development sales plan, your team can strategize different approaches to achieve positive goals.

In the business development sales plan template below, you’ll find all the graphic organizers to help your team see the big picture across different factors. Create timelines , Gantt charts and roadmaps to organize tasks and measure goals.

6. Market Expansion Sales Plan

Expanding the market is a large part of many sales strategies. And it also needs a solid sales business plan for the team and higher-ups to know what they can expect. To expand your target market efficiently, you’ll need to do a lot of research. All the data you collect goes on the pages of the market expansion sales plan in attractive data visualizations and infographic layouts.

Get inspired to set bold market expansion goals with this colorful and clean-cut template design. Each page has a specific function and purpose, and charts and data visualizations grace the pages without visual obstacles. This template is great for fast and easy information sharing.

7. Revenue-based Sales Plan

The name of this sales plan says it all. The entirety of this plan stems from revenue-how much there is, how much the company wants, and how to get it. These are ideal for sales teams that separate the big picture into actionable parts.

With the template below, your team can create an actionable sales plan that moves the needle forward. The angled leading lines on each page take the reader on a visual journey across goals and timelines to success. Part of the plan is to inspire the team members and stakeholders to believe in the process and work together.

8. Real Estate Sales Plan

In real estate, you’ll have to plan strategies for your agents and teams to follow together. Real estate agents must work with the marketing team to be on the same page about messaging, strategies and goals. With a sales plan, you can put it all together into one.

In this template, all the marketing, prospecting, and target market calculations work together to improve your sales strategies. Strategic planning can improve revenue for the agency, the agents, and the homeowners.

9. Sales Training Plan

New sales reps perform better when their onboarding and training are inspiring and motivating. Use this template to plan your training and onboarding strategies and create a better company culture. Instruct new hires in the systems and explain timelines of expected performance during the probation and orientation phase.

The choice of color palette and design elements is important for telling the story of your sales training plan. Cover both high and low levels of the sales process by training efficiently. Plan how to train and get results.

After personalizing your preferred sales business plan template, the next step is to download and share it with your team and stakeholders.

With Visme, you have complete freedom over how you use your documents. You can download the design in various formats, such as PDF, JPG, PNG, and HTML5, or share it online via email or a shareable link.

You can even publish your content anywhere on the internet by generating a snippet of code from the Visme app.

One of our satisfied customers, Sean, a Web Designer & Digital Marketing Specialist, has shared their positive experience with Visme's templates and sharing options.

Web Designer & Digital Marketing Specialist

Q. What Are the Different Types of Strategic Sales Planning?

As a sales leader, it is crucial to avoid poor planning, as it can result in missing up to 10% of annual sales opportunities . Your responsibility is to ensure that your company does not experience this setback.

To help you avoid this pitfall, here are five distinct approaches, each with its own unique flair.

1. Goal-Oriented Planning: This approach begins with setting ambitious yet achievable revenue targets, followed by reverse-engineering your sales process to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) necessary to reach those targets. Sales activities are then meticulously aligned with the overarching goals to create a cohesive roadmap to success.

2. Account Planning: It focuses on developing a comprehensive strategy for managing individual accounts. This type of planning involves researching the account, identifying key stakeholders, and creating a plan to engage with them. Account planning benefits businesses that rely on a small number of large accounts for their revenue.

3. Product Planning: Product planning involves the development of a strategy for selling a particular product or product line. This type of planning focuses on understanding the market for the product, identifying key features and benefits, and developing a plan for promoting and selling the product.

4. Relationship Planning: Relationship selling is a long-term approach focusing on building strong customer relationships. It involves understanding the customer's needs, building trust and providing ongoing support and value. This approach requires excellent communication skills, a customer-centric mindset and a commitment to delivering exceptional service.

5. Sales Process Planning: This involves developing a comprehensive plan for managing the sales process, from lead generation to closing the sale. This type of planning involves identifying the critical steps in the sales process, developing a plan for each step, and establishing metrics to measure the effectiveness of the process.

Q. How Do I Write a Sales Business Plan?

After learning about the various types of sales planning and their advantages, as well as the components of a sales business plan, it's time to delve into the process of drafting one. Let's explore some tips for writing a successful sales business plan.

• Define Your Sales Objectives: Start by defining your sales objectives. What are your revenue goals? What products or services do you want to sell? Who is your sales ICP ? Defining these objectives will help you create a clear roadmap for achieving your sales goals.
• Conduct a Market Analysis: Conduct a market analysis to identify opportunities and threats in the marketplace. Analyze your industry, competitors, and target audience. This will help you understand how to position your product or service in the market.
• I dentify Your Unique Selling Proposition: Identify your unique selling proposition (USP)—what makes your product or service different from your competitors? What are the benefits of your product or service? Understanding your USP will help you market and sell your product or service better.
• Develop a Sales Strategy: Develop a sales strategy that aligns with your sales objectives. This should include a plan for lead generation, lead qualification and the sales process. You can revisit the types of strategic sales planning sections to choose the one that fits your sales goals. Consider the sales channels you'll use, the sales team structure and the sales tools you'll need.
• Define Sales Metrics: Define sales metrics that will help you measure your progress toward achieving your sales objectives. This could include revenue, sales growth rate, conversion rate and customer acquisition cost.
• Develop a Sales Budget: Develop a sales budget that aligns with your sales strategy and objectives. This should include expenses related to lead generation, sales team compensation, sales tools, and marketing.
• Review and Refine: Review and refine your sales business plan regularly. This will help you stay on track toward achieving your sales goals and make adjustments as needed.

Additionally, you can read this article on creating a strategic sales plan to get more help writing your own sales business plan.

Create Your Sales Business Plan With Visme

Jumping right into a project isn’t always the best idea; you won’t be prepared for the obstacles and hurdles. Every layer of your sales stack should be potentially planned and brainstormed for optimal results.

This is where sales business plans come into play. With well-designed and personalized plans, you create meaningful connections with prospects, turning them into loyal clients.

Create an interactive sales business plan to engage your team in a shared journey toward a common goal. Designate roles and link them together in the sales plan and your productivity platform so everyone is always on track.

Visme has plenty of features to help you and your team close deal after deal. Not only can you create a sales business plan collaboratively, but you can also brainstorm, create other content, share it online, track performance and keep all assets organized within your workspace. Make your team more efficient at creating visual content at every level of your organization using our third-party integrations .

Ready to up your company's sales game and close more deals? Book a demo or sign up today to see how we can help your sales team succeed.

Easily put together winning sales business plans in Visme

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

• January 15, 2024

10 Typical Sales Commission Structures to Motivate Reps (with Examples)

• Other , Sales Management , Sales Performance

WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR TEAM'S PERFORMANCE?

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Your sales commission structure is a critical piece of your company’s success. It sets the bar for the level of talent that you’ll attract to your sales team.

It seems simple, right? More money = better salespeople? But this isn’t always true.

Higher earning potential through a commission-only comp plan won’t necessarily outweigh the risk a salesperson inherits by not having a guaranteed income source. Elite sales professionals expect to be paid a salary as well.

The number one deciding factor when it comes to looking for a new job is for a higher salary: only 21 percent of employees feel that they are paid fairly and 56 percent of employees leave their current company due to what they deem to be inadequate compensation.

In short, sales reps view their base pay as a sign of how they’ll be valued and treated by the company that employs them.

What Is A Sales Commission Structure?

Sales commission is most commonly known as the variable component of a total sales compensation package. While an on-target earning (OTE) is almost always established, the total commission earned is dependent on each salesperson’s individual goals and their performance.

Your commission structure ties a sales rep’s performance to the amount of money he or she will take home each paycheck. It’s no secret that accountability produces results, and a well-structured commission plan is an excellent way to incentivize top performance.

So, while the salary component of a salesperson’s comp package is fixed and pretty easy to understand, the variable portion has a large amount of room for flexibility and configuration depending on the type of sale and sales process a company has in place.

Because there’s no one size fits all, sales compensation plans come in many different forms. Some of these forms include: salary/hourly + commission, commission-only, tiered commission, residual commission, and variable-rate commission. Of these, the easiest and most commonly used approach is to pay a certain percentage based on the revenue generated from a single sale.

Very simply, a sales rep who closes a deal for $500 with a commission rate of 5% earns $25 per sale.

Why it’s Important to Choose the Right Commission Structure

Your company’s sales commission plan is essential because it helps motivate reps, boost productivity , and decrease rep turnover.

Let’s talk about each of these benefits in greater detail.

Increase motivation

A well-designed sales commission plan will keep your team striving for more—more leads, more sales, and, ultimately, more money in their pockets.

Put yourself in your sellers’ shoes and ask yourself, “which plan would motivate me more? The one that pays me a set sales commission percentage, or one where the percentage increases once I close a certain amount of deals?”

Boost productivity and performance

Motivated employees are often more productive. It makes sense. When your reps are properly incentivized to sell more, they’ll discover the most efficient ways to work in order to maximize their time.

Decrease turnover

Lastly, the right commission structure will help you attract the best salespeople to your company and keep them for longer periods of time.

Studies show that, more often than not, employees leave organizations for one of two reasons: “personal choice” or “compensation”. You can’t do much if your top seller takes a job in Florida to be near their parents. That’s a personal choice.

But you can offer attractive sales commission plans to increase the chances of retaining top sales talent.

10 Typical Sales Commission Structures (With Examples)

In this section, we’ll cover 10 different sales commission structures and why you may, or may not , want to use them.

Commission Only Structure

How it works: Also known as a Straight Commission plan, the Commission Only structure refers to paying reps a set commission whenever they make a sale. Reps don’t earn a base salary or have the opportunity to increase their commission percentage.

Example: A sales rep earns a 25% commission on every product he sells. If, over the course of a year, he sells 30 products at $1,000 each, 20 products at $5,000 each, and 15 products at $10,000 each, he would earn $70,000 in sales commissions.

When to use it: Commission Only structures tend to work best for companies that employ temporary and/or contract salespeople, have short sales cycles, and are able to offer large commissions. Most sales people don’t like this structure, though, because it causes them stress. If they don’t close deals, they don’t earn anything.

Revenue Commission Structure

How it works: Sales reps receive a predetermined commission every time they sell a product or service. This kind of sales commission structure is simple, which is one of the reasons it’s become so popular amongst outside sales teams.

Example: If your company sells a service for $500 that has a commission rate of 10%, a sales rep would earn $50 each time they sell that service.

When to use it: This type of sales commission structure works best with products and services that have a set price point.

They’re also favorable for companies attempting to gain market share or enter a new market because they’re less likely to be focused on profit, and more concerned with achieving a larger business goal.

It should be noted that revenue commission plans typically fail to align with the larger, broader goals of a field sales organization or the unique DNA makeup of a sales team. Therefore, they must be used with caution.

Territory Volume Commission Structure

How it works: The Territory Volume Commission Structure is unique. Sales generated within a territory are tallied up and the commissions generated are split equally amongst all of the sales reps who work within that territory .

Examples: The sales quota for the three reps working within a 100 mile region is $75,000. The first rep sells $30,000 worth of product. The second rep sells $26,000 worth of product. And the third rep sells $22,000 worth of product. In total, the reps generated $78,000 of revenue, exceeding their quota. Because of this, they split the 20% commission equally, earning $5,200 each.

When to use it: For this sales commission plan to work, your sales department must develop a team-first environment and every team member has to be willing to contribute to the overall goal—no lone wolf tactics allowed.

Gross Margin Commission Structure

How it works: Gross margin commission structures are similar to standard revenue commission ones. The difference is that a rep’s commission is calculated using the gross revenue each sale generates rather than the total sale price.

In other words, this commission structure evaluates a product’s sale price and the costs associated with closing a deal to calculate actual profit. Sales reps then earn a commission based off of this number.

Example: If your company’s service costs $1,000 but accrues $500 in costs to complete that transaction, the sales rep would earn a percentage of the remaining $500 in profit.

When to use it: Those supporting a gross margin commission structure usually believe that all sales should benefit the company’s bottom line.

Draw Against Commission Structure

How it works: Think of draws as advanced payments. In this commission structure, sales reps are guaranteed to make a specific amount of money each month, regardless of the number of sales they generate for their company.

Example: A sales rep is eligible for a $2,000 draw in their first month and winds up taking home $1,000 in commission. The sales rep would then keep all of his or her commission in addition to $1,000 from the set draw allowance.

When to use it: The Draw Against Commission Structure is generally best for new hires, ramp periods, long periods of change and uncertainty, and training.

Note : There are a few variations to this structure, most notably, a “borrowed” draw that must be paid back according to the specified terms.

Tiered Commission Structure

How it works: A tiered model is a popular sales commission structure among sales reps—especially those who are top performers and/or highly motivated. In a nutshell, salespeople earn higher commission rates after closing a certain number of deals, or, surpassing a total amount of revenue generated.

Example: A sales rep earns 5% on all products sold up to $10,000 in total revenue generated. Under the tiered model, the same sales rep would begin to earn 8% on all revenue generated after surpassing the $10,000 mark.

When to use it: This sales commission structure is great if you’re looking to scale up your sales department because it incentivizes peak performance and encourages reps to explore new revenue channels such as upsells and cross sells.

Residual Commission Structure

How it works: The Residual Commission structure continues to pay sales reps a commission for as long as the accounts they acquire continue to drive revenue. Because of this, it behooves reps to retain their customers for as long as possible.

Example: A customer agrees to pay your company $2,000 a month in exchange for your services. The sales rep who closed the deal will receive a 5% commission, which translates to $100 a month, for as long as the account remains active.

When to use it: This sales commission structure works best for organizations with ongoing accounts, such as insurance providers, marketing agencies, etc.

Multiplier Commission Plan

How it works: Multiplier Commission Structures can be difficult to set up, but allow companies to create customized compensation plans that truly motivate their sales department to make more sales.

Multiplier plans start with a basic revenue commission percentage that gets multiplied by a predetermined figure depending on a rep’s quota achievement.

Example: A rep makes a basic 5% commission on every sale they generate. This 5% figure is then multiplied by .8 if the rep attains less than 75% of quota (resulting in a 4% commission), .9 if the repp attains 76-85% of quota (a 4.5% commission), and 1 if the rep attains 86% of quota or more (a 5% commission.)

When to use it: This structure works best for managers who’d like to measure a rep’s performance against several KPI’s, product offerings, upsells, etc.

Base Pay Rate Only

How it works: Sales reps are paid an annual salary (with or without benefits) and do not receive commissions on the sales they generate.

Example: Your company pays each sales rep an annual salary of $60,000. This translates to a weekly take home pay just over $1,150 regardless of performance.

When to use it: The Base Pay Rate Only commission structure is rarely used by modern sales departments. There are many reasons for this, one of them is the lack of incentives it provides to sellers. Failing to properly incentivize your team will likely result in a low level of team productivity .

Still, it can work for some organizations, especially those which operate almost exclusively on inbound leads. These businesses have sales staff that operate more as customer support professionals than actual salespeople.

Base Salary + Commission

How it works: With this structure, sales reps earn a commission on the sales they personally generate in addition to a base salary or hourly wage.

Offering an hourly rate in addition to commission places responsibility on both parties—the company and the sales team. Both sides are making a commitment.

In this setup you’ll pay less per hour / base salary than you would if you were just paying an hourly / base rate. The same is true for the commission your organization will offer, but in total, there is much more upside for the sales rep.

Remember, and this is important, commissions should always be uncapped to properly incentivize the reps on your sales team.

Example: Your company pays its sales reps a base salary of $40,000 a year, plus a 3% commission on the individual sales each rep generates.

When to use it: The Base + Commission structure is best for companies that want to attract the best sales talent and have the products, reputation, and infrastructure to back up their commitment to them.

Top sellers want to work for companies who will invest in their success. One of the best ways to show that you support them is with a Base + Commission plan.

Other Common Sales Commission Plans

Flat-rate sales commission plan: A rep will get paid a preset amount per product that they sell.

Relative sales commission plan: A rep will be paid based on the amount of quota they hit, instead of the revenue amount. They will typically also receive a base salary.

Split sales commission plan: Commissions are shared among departments or reps. This type of model is designed to encourage team work.

Download Our Free Commission Calculator 

How to Choose the Right Sales Commission Structure For Your Sales Team

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to sales commission structures. What works for Company A might lead to complete disaster for Company B.

So the question is, how to create a commission structure for your company that actually works ? Simple: follow this six-step process:

Step 1: Determine company goals and priorities

The first thing to do is determine your goals and priorities. What are you trying to achieve? And how can you encourage your reps to do these things?

For example, are you looking to expand your territories? Or would you rather focus on landing a few major accounts? Is it more important to minimize expenses at this time? Or do you need to build a more collaborative environment for your reps?

Once you know what your goals and priorities are, you can choose the sales commission structure that best supports and enables them.

Step 2: Benchmark against industry commission rates

Your sales commission structure isn’t the only thing you need to decide. You also need to pick the right commission rates. If you don’t, your reps won’t stick around for long because another organization will pay them more for the same workload.

How do you determine the right rates? You study your industry.

What do your competitors pay their sales reps? Can you do the same? Better question: can you offer more than other organizations in your industry? If so, you’ll have an easier time attracting and retaining the best talent.

To research pay rates and incentives in your industry, take a look at Xactly’s benchmark database , which contains 15+ years of relevant information.

Step 3: Consider roles and responsibilities

Next up, look at the people on your team and the roles they’re asked to complete. Sales managers and sales reps, for instance, have different jobs and responsibilities. Compensating them in the same exact way doesn’t just make sense.

Because of this, you need to choose different pay structures for each role. That way your people are fairly compensated for the work they accomplish.

Step 4: Factor in turnover rates

You should also ask yourself, what is my sales department’s current turnover rate? This will tell you a little bit about how your current commission plan is working.

For example, if you experience high turnover, there’s a good chance you aren’t paying your reps enough money or providing them with enough security—two problems reps experience when working inside commission only models.

Step 5: Look at productivity levels

Like most other organizations, your sales department probably has both high and low achievers. If so, consider some kind of tiered commission structure to reward your best sellers and encourage your weakest ones to step up their games.

As we mentioned earlier, money can be a great incentive. If you want your reps to close more deals, increase their commissions once they hit certain thresholds.

Step 6: Consider what worked in the past

When deciding on a sales commission structure, it’s important to look at historical performance. Specifically, look at any data around past commission structures that have been used, and ask your reps what they liked and didn’t like about the current or old models. Just as important as understanding what motivates reps, you also want to find out what causes stress, so that you can avoid the same issues in the future.

Step 7: Run OTE simulations

Finally, you need to simulate on-target earnings, better known as OTEs.

An OTE is the total amount of money you’ll pay your sales reps once they achieve a specific sales target. It includes base pay plus commissions and incentives.

Can you afford this number? And is this number comparable to what other companies in your industry are paying their salespeople? If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you need to re-evaluate your sales commission structure.

Which Sales Commission Structure is Right for Your Business?

The sales commission structure you choose for your organization is important. The right plan will motivate your reps, increase their productivity and performance, and even help you reduce your department’s turnover rate.

Just remember that the ball is in your court when it comes to compensation structures. You can choose 1 of the 10 outlined in this article. Or you can mix and match them to combine a unique plan that’s perfectly suited to your unique team.

Whatever you decide to do, keep this in mind: the more you pay your reps, the harder they’ll work for your organization, allowing it to achieve greater success. 

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How to Work With Independent Sales Reps

If your goal is to increase sales, cut costs or penetrate new markets, independent sales representatives can help. here's how to find, retain, and get the most out of your reps..

You want to bring your new product to market as quickly as possible, but you're on a tight budget. You don't want to spend the time or the money on putting together a sales team, so what are your options?

One consideration is working with independent sales representatives--sometimes called manufacturers' representatives or manufacturers' agents--who sell products or services to customers directly for the company or companies he or she works for. Unlike with hiring a salesperson, with a rep you are taking on no initial risk until the person begins producing revenue, because you're not responsible for health and retirement benefits. Sure, you may have to dole out a little more commission for each sale. But it's worth it if you want to test the market, or if your product will benefit from a demonstration, or your customers require constant explanation of new products. For this reason, independent sales reps work mostly for manufacturers, wholesalers, or technical companies.

Still, you can use reps in your business to cut costs and boost sales over the phone or penetrate new markets or territories. We've created a list of ways to find, retain, and get the most out of the reps in your budding sales effort.

Working With Independent Sales Reps: How to Find Them

Finding a rep to meet the exact needs of your company and to produce for you isn't a walk in the park. You have to learn to live with the fact that not all of your reps are going to produce in high numbers. This means you have to place a lot of reps in a lot of different locations in order to squeeze the most out of your sales initiative.

RepHunter.net, a Minnesota-based company that connects business and sales reps, helps to facilitate the process. The site aims to prevent the frustration of finding inadequate or mismatched reps so that you can get the most out of your team as quickly as possible. The fee to use their service is small, and likely won't amount to the price you will pay to place ads on job boards or in newspapers, hire an ad agency, or hire inside sales reps.

David Hoffmeister, professor at Chicago-based DePaul University's Center for Sales Leadership, suggests cheap alternatives like searching through trade publications in your industry or querying existing customers if your company has already taken off. "If they give you a recommendation, you can be pretty sure they are doing business with them already, and you can be pretty sure that they enjoy working with them and the way they do business," Hoffmeister says.

Communication and networking are also important. Visiting well-known trade shows to meet with different independent agents or agencies in your business can be a tremendous boon to your brand. Sally Thomas Cooper is founder and vice president of Lusive Decor , a Los Angeles-based custom lighting manufacturer for the hospitality industry. The company has an army of 17 independent sales reps that sell signature pieces for hospitality, gaming, commercial and residential projects. Cooper believes that her ability to network and hone in on industry trends has kept the company growing. "Custom lighting is a small, word-of-mouth, very much relationship based industry," Cooper says. Not only does she constantly spend time on the road making contacts, she also encourages her reps to enchance relationships with designers and key players in the field.

Always remember to network as much as possible with clients, customers, and just about anyone you meet at trade shows, who could provide you with hordes of potential contacts in the industry.

Dig Deeper: Where to Begin in Hiring Independent Sales Reps

Working With Independent Sales Reps: What to Negotiate

Once you've found some potential reps, your next step is to have them sign an Independent Sales Rep Agreement. Independent sales reps and contractors technically aren't employees of your organization (you can't even say you "hire" them). That being said, you have to first understand the terms of any contract before agreeing to sign.

Unsurprisingly, the rate of commission is the No. 1 term you want to negotiate. Depending on your industry, typical commission rates run anywhere from 5 to 25 percent of the sale, according to the Manufacturers' Agents National Association. It might be hard to negotiate a rate that's lower than the standard for your category, especially if you want to recruit top quality salespeople. So keep the percentage within reason by looking at product cost, time it takes to make the sale, and volume level. To get a feel for your industry standard, attend trade shows or visit sites like MANAonline.com or RepHunter.net to see what different reps suggest.

Exclusivity is also an important consideration when signing on independent sales reps. While you want to find reps with lots of expertise and experience in your business category, you don't want them to conflict with any of your competitors. "If you're selling turkeys, you don't want a seller who represents two turkey companies," Hoffmeister says. "But it's ok if they represent companies in the same general food category," he adds. Likewise, Hoffmesiter says that there needs to be set boundaries for where the rep can sell and to whom. You don't want the person to interfere with your operation or, even worse, other salespeople in the region.

You must also reach an agreement about contract termination if the person fails to complete his or her responsibilities. Hoffmeister suggests you create a clause offering 30 or 60 days for beginning companies. While some companies allows reps to stay on regardless of productivity. Uppercase Living, a Sandy, Utah-based home décor provider, signs on previous customers to show off their homes in demonstrations to friends, family, and potential clients. As demonstrators they sign an independent contractor agreement to display and sell products as well. Uppercase Living requires demonstrators to generate $300 in sales each quarter. Demonstrators who fail to meet the requirement are placed on a 3-month "pending period" to either make it up or decide to part ways.

Remember to consult with a lawyer to make sure you aren't violating any state or federal tax codes. Sometimes laws vary from state to state, so you need to pay special attention to areas like health insurance as well.

Dig Deeper: Employee or Contractor?

Working With Independent Sales Reps: Motivate, Support and Reward

With clients such as the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City and the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles, Lusive Decor's Cooper has no problem attracting talented reps. The trick is keeping them motivated.

She says that reps have to feel like having your company on their line card is a "feather in their cap," which comes naturally as your brand starts to grow. Cooper's support has been crucial to the company's success even as her industry overall floundered over the past few years, helping Lusive Decor to rank No. 310 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list.

"The attention that [the company] gets from representatives is directly proportional to how much they're earning from your product," adds Hoffmeister. You can also encourage reps to sell more by providing opportunity for growth. Hoffmeister says it's not uncommon for reps to actually join a company's full-time sales team once the company expands. When a rep delivers a significant amount of revenue for your company, it becomes worth it to hire him or her full-time, with the salary as the reward for all the hard work.

Another way to keep reps motivated about your product is to offer incentives to your most productive sellers. Direct selling companies, which employ independent sales reps called direct sellers or multi-level marketers, often take this tactic to the next level by offering everything from vacations, cars, free products and more to reps.

Brandi Rainey is in charge of training and preparing the demonstrators at Uppercase Living, a direct selling company, for their sales presentations. Since she trains a lot of stay-at-home moms with little or no sales experience, Rainey has to rely on the genuine interest the reps have in promoting the product. "My No. 1 goal as a trainer for the company is to help demonstrators remember that passion they have for the product itself," she says. Uppercase Living gives out marketing points that demonstrators can accumulate to go towards trips and recognition at conferences.

Dig Deeper: Turning Sales Into Science

Working With Independent Sales Reps: The Direct Selling Route

Companies like Uppercase Living use reps as direct sellers to demonstrate and ultimately sell products in high numbers. Not only is direct selling a cheap way to market and spread a product, but it can also help in the recruiting effort as well.

"It's a word of mouth strategy," says Amy Robinson, a spokesperson for the Direct Selling Association, which represents around 200 direct-selling companies. "What it means in the end for a company is that they spend a lot less money on advertising and overhead, and a lot more money compensating those people who are selling their products," Robinson says. These companies rely on a multi-level compensation plan, she says, where sellers recruit, train, and mentor other sellers for the firm.

This strategy gets to the heart of why companies like Uppercase Living have flourished in recent years. With a weak economy and poor job outlook, many are looking for ways to supplement their incomes or get good sales experience under their belts. "Women develop strengths and talents that they didn't know they had," Rainey of Uppercase Living says. "You see them blossom as people," she adds.

Clearly not all products, or all indsturies, require personal demonstration. If your product won't necessarily benefit from this type of service, you can still provide your reps with the tools and materials they need to succeed. Lusive Decor, for example, maintains catalogs, mailings, and e-blasts that reps can use to keep up with customers in their territories. "We make sure that our reps have beautiful road cases," says Cooper, which makes clients excited about new products and designs.

Whether you use them as direct sellers or otherwise, reps can be a great resource to take your product to the next level. If you know how to train, where to look, and how to negotiate, you'll be well on your way to imminent sales growth in the future.

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5 Steps to Managing Independent Sales Reps: Sales Coaching Tips You Can Use

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• Increase their product knowledge: The more they feel confident in their knowledge of your offerings, and feel supported in their efforts, the higher the likelihood your product or service will become a favorite to sell. Don’t leave them hanging, or in a position to have to improvise. Keep them supplied with sales literature and samples and provide selling tools such as sales scripts, selling videos, testimonials, ROI studies.
• Keep the lines of communication wide open: If your rep has questions, they need to know they can get prompt answers. Don’t make them work too hard, or wait to long for a response. You also don’t want the flow of information from you to get bogged down, or lost in the shuffle. Provide a single point of contact at your company to take care of them at all times.
• Publicize results: Publicizing performance not only taps into the ego drive of the sales person, but also gives them a sense of where they stand. Send results of any rep organization to them (such as the percent of quota achieved to date) and normalize it to their quotas for easy comparison. Doing this can encourage some reps to sell more, or weed out those that are poor performers.
• Give something extra: Provide sales training to the reps. It not only increases their abilities, but also can make them more indebted to you. Creating such loyalty in a rep can increase their success with your products. Also try using frequent contests to encourage competition between the reps and offer a nominal prize as a reward.
• Gather marketplace feedback: Keeping your reps apprised not only of sales results, but also opinions and suggestions from the field is educational and could prompt changes necessary for increasing sales. Implement a rep council to gather feedback from customers. Share what you learn with the rep organizations.

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5 Tips for Finding and Signing the Best Independent Sales Reps

Independent sales representatives are a proven pathway to success for manufacturers looking to grow their businesses through indirect sales . However, reaping the benefits of an independent sales team is not always as easy as it seems. Why? Because in order to maximize the benefits of your independent sales team, you must first be able to find, attract, hire, and retain the talent that will best represent and sell your brand.

Here’s a closer look at why finding good sales reps matters, along with five tips for gaining the hiring and retention inside edge.

Why You Need the Best Sales Reps

All employees aren’t created equal. Finding the right ones can ultimately mean the difference between positioning your organization for growth and struggling to survive. In fact, according to Gallup data , companies that pick the top 20% of talented candidates see significant advantages, including a 10% increase in productivity, a 20% increase in sales, a 30% increase in profitability, and a 10% decrease in turnover.

In today’s competitive marketplace, the imperative to hire the best independent sales representatives is especially strong. Empowered buyers aren’t looking for sales pitches, but for knowledgeable partners who can help them reach their goals . Only the best sales professionals will have the ability to drive these conversations toward universally beneficial outcomes.

5 Tips for Landing the Top Sales Talent

We’ve established that finding, attracting, hiring, and retaining the best talent is mission-critical. However, the reality is that you’re not the only business courting these sales superstars, which begs the question: How can you differentiate yourself from the rest? These five tips can help you win the talent race:

1. Leverage your existing talent.

We’ve all heard the expression, “Like attracts like.” Hopefully, you’ve already got independent sales reps who shine at what they do. Asking your best and brightest if they know of anyone who might be a good fit is likely to turn up exactly the kind of talent you’re looking for. Not only are your best salespeople uniquely aware of what it takes to succeed with your products and services in your market, but they’re also invested in the success of your business. They’re unlikely to recommend someone unless they believe they have the potential to more than deliver on your expectations.

This also flows both ways: According to HubSpot, based on data from Glassdoor , 86% of sales professionals are more likely to apply to companies recommended by friends.

2. Attend events, trade shows, and conferences.

Events and meetups are ready-made opportunities for networking and relationship building. They’re also ideal environments for identifying and assessing potential hires who are relevant to your business. While this can be tricky because many of those in attendance will be representing other companies, they may also be looking for new opportunities. In fact, more than 68% of salespeople plan on looking for a new job in the next year, while 45% planned to look in the next three months, according to HubSpot. Just 19%, meanwhile, had no imminent job hunt plans.

The takeaway? Even if they're not available now, they may be in the near future. Passive candidates may also be open to conversations about what your business has to offer.

3. Know what they’re looking for.

Whether you’re working with an active or passive job candidate, knowing what they’re looking for can help you tip the sales recruiting scales in your favor. According to HubSpot, the top five workplace factors influencing whether a sales professional would leave their jobs include:

• Salary and compensation
• Career growth opportunities
• Company culture
• Relationship with a manager
• Senior leadership

Using recruiters with traits valued by sales professionals is also important. Transparency about the pros and cons of different companies tops the list of recruiter attributes sales professionals most value, followed by working as hard for the candidates as they do for employers, knowledge about candidates and their experiences, a strong understanding of the sales profession, and solid communication skills.

4. Don’t underestimate online job sites and social media.

While 51% of sales professionals report that they most often hear about job openings from recruiters, a whopping 75% say they hear about job openings from online job sites. The takeaway? If you’re not using online job sites to pitch your openings, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to see and be seen by candidates.

Social media is also a successful recruitment tactic, with just under half of sales professionals deeming it the best way to reach them compared to hosted meetups (10%) and blog spots from sales professionals employed by the company (7%).

5. Make it about more than money.

There’s no denying that money matters, and that a great compensation plan can go a long way. But it’s not the only thing. In fact, 71% of sales professionals say they’re likely to accept lower pay to work at a company with great culture and/or one that is selling something they’re drawn to, according to HubSpot.

Gallup data also reinforces the mandate to engage employees. Businesses that do so are 21% more productive, 22% more profitable, and have 10% higher customer ratings.

How a PRM Software System Can Help

PRMs can be an especially compelling selling point for independent sales reps looking to hit the ground running with everything they need to succeed in their new roles. In addition to being a sales enablement tool , a PRM -- combined with PRM onboarding for sales team members -- is also a recruitment and retention tactic. According to a study conducted by the Aberdeen Group , 86% of senior and HR executives said that a new hire’s decision to make a long-term commitment to a company is made within the first six months on the job.

More specifically, according to a Wynhurst Group study, newly hired employees are 58% more likely to remain with a company for three or more years if they’ve participated in a structured onboarding process. Employee performance and discretionary effort also rose by 11% and 20%, respectively, with onboarding.

One last thing to keep in mind about hiring independent sales reps? While candidates who check all the boxes will sometimes make their way to your organization, others may fall short with certain skills. When a candidate presents with the right attitude, motivation, and behavior, investing in their training and onboarding can ultimately lead to huge returns.

ManoByte’s PRM software implementation expertise helps organizations attract the best candidates while laying the groundwork for successful and lasting partnerships. Contact one of our Business Growth Consultants today to learn more about how a PRM can help with independent sales rep recruiting, retention, and much more.

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Discussions and tips for the B2B Independent Sales Rep field

What Is an Independent Sales Rep?

Contract sales reps work for manufacturers, distributors, importers, sales rep agencies, or service providers.

This type of sales professional differs from “inside” showroom sales, or telephone sales. An Independent Sales Rep may use the phone, trade shows or showrooms to engage with customers. However, their primary focus is to travel in the field. A rep’s primary skill is the ability to work face-to-face with buyers, showing your products, conducting training, solving problems and converting leads to sales.

It is very common for Independent Sales Reps to carry several complementary product lines and cover a geographic region that allows adequate coverage for the account base. The size of the region usually rests on its ability to provide reps an income stream that is appropriate for travel and sales expenses.

Benefits to Using RepHunter to Contact & Hire Independent Sales Reps:

• Database of qualified reps is always up-to-date
• Our rep search function brings you quality leads
• You control your sales rep opportunity postings
• Unlimited toll-free telephone support
• Daytime chat support with top-notch customer service
• Contact Request Rollover – never lose a contact opportunity!
• Unlimited contact requests from sales reps
• Unlimited number of searches, territories and markets
• Anytime cancellation or subscription deactivation; opt in and out as you need our service
• Reactivate your subscription at any time for only $99
• You get an email reminder before automatic renewals
• Download your contact history

Create your company profile —post your sales rep opportunity; or search our up-to-date sales rep directory now—you could be contacting sales representatives today!

Gain peace of mind with the RepHunter Guarantee:

We guarantee that all of our reps are:

• Commission-only independent sales reps;
• Actively seeking new lines; and
• Will respond to you.

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Sales Reps: Employed Versus Independent

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• Nandan Bhanu Sharma
• June 15, 2020

Hi Thanks for the explanation My expertise is selling tour/attraction tickets in London How can I be a part of a sightseeing tour or an attraction company as an Independent sales representative? Thanks

• June 25, 2020

Thank you for posting a comment.

This blog is not intended as a networking platform. Instead we provide an excellent platform at our main site, RepHunter. Therefore we will not publish your comment.

Please check out RepHunter at https://www.rephunter.net . You can search for free for companies seeking independent reps and rep groups in your industry who are actively seeking representation.

I have already responded to your inquiry to RepHunter.

Be sure to search on your customers or who you would like to be your customers to find companies targeting those customers. You can also search on your product lines, but start with your customer base.

Please feel free to create a profile at no cost to you. You can then take advantage our our training tools as well as conduct unlimited free service.

I hope this helps!

• Effa tabi benoit
• August 26, 2019

Je voudrais fait partir du business

• August 27, 2019

Thanks for your comment. I can only respond in English. I will respond to your question, which I understand in English as “I would like to start in the business”.

I am interpreting that as that you have interest in becoming an independent sales rep. If so, you can find out information about the repping business on the RepHunter training page at https://www.rephunter.net/training.php?usertype=rep . Many of the articles are from the viewpoint of those who are hiring independent sales reps, so you have to adjust your viewpoint. But they should still be helpful.

• Arthur Green
• April 16, 2014

I am interested in understanding if ISR could benefit my company and help market our products. We are the manufacture of all of our Neuroscience Instruments and the primary market is education / Universities.

Thanks, Art

An article which focuses on your exact question may be found at the NFIB.com article “ Outside Sales Reps: Who is Selling You? “.

In short, if you need to increase sales, using an Independent Sales rep has many advantages.

For help with finding independent sales reps, check out our parent site RepHunter at https://www.rephunter.net .

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The Complete Sales Rep Onboarding Plan: Best Practices for Sales Onboarding

A comprehensive guide to sales rep onboarding, including best practices and tips for a successful onboarding process. Learn the best practices.

March 14, 2023

Sales Onboarding Plan: Ways to Increase New Sales Hire Productivity and Engagement

According to CareerBuilder, 36% of employers don't have a structured onboarding process for new hires. Other research has found that “newly hired employees are 58% more likely to still be at the company three years later if they had completed a structured onboarding process.”

Sales onboarding is critical to employee retention, but what’s the best way to do it? Let’s explore.

How Do You Create a Sales Onboarding Plan?

Sales onboarding assists new sales representatives in gaining the skills and knowledge they need to do well in your company. An effective onboarding plan covers various topics, from background information on your company to your selling process, company-wide policies, your target client, your selling systems, and more. This article will take you through sales onboarding best practices so you can create an effective plan for your organization.

How Long Does It Take to Onboard a New Sales Rep?

Training sales reps and effective onboarding can take up to 90 days, although it varies from company to company. Below are some factors to remember as you determine an appropriate ramp-up time for your new sales reps.

Your Sales Cycle

Imagine that it takes four months for your experienced sales reps to close deals based on data you've gathered from a variety of sales. It's unrealistic to expect new sales reps to perform at that level right away; new hires will need longer to close their first deal. So how much time should you allow?

Sales organizations typically give their reps 90 days for onboarding and training. However, 90 days might be too long if your sales cycle is only a week long (for example, if your leads go from seeing an online ad to watching a webinar to getting on a strategy session, all within 72 hours). By contrast, if you're selling a complex financial product that multiple stakeholders have to sign off on, your average cycle might be six months or more. In that case, you'd want to consider extending your onboarding period.

The Sales Rep’s Experience

In addition to your sales cycle length, your ramp-up time should consider a sales rep's previous experience. A seasoned sales rep should be able to ramp up quicker than someone new to sales. An onboarding plan isn't a rigid document that every rep should follow to a tee — make sure to leave wiggle room for tailoring it to each rep.

If your organization doesn’t have a standard sales cycle, you can instead use the average time it takes for new sales reps to reach 100% of their quota. This is your ramp-up time. Not all accounts are identical, so it's reasonable to give reps some leeway in their ramp-up time.

Which Metric Is Related to the Onboarding of New Sales Representatives?

For sales reps to perform well, they need to know what success looks like in your organization. To do this, sales team managers should establish clear expectations and communicate them regularly. Before new sales reps make a call or send an email, their sales manager should give them personalized quotas, sales goals, and performance expectations. In a one-on-one meeting or a team meeting, the manager can:

• Describe the minimum performance requirements for each sales rep in terms of metrics. This may include the number of appointments booked, calls placed, demos scheduled, free trials initiated, proposals sent, and total deals closed.
• Outline personal and team sales goals and the incentives for achieving them.
• Discuss the consequences and procedures of not meeting minimum sales performance goals.
• Ensure sales reps know about the resources available to help them succeed, like training, mentoring, and one-on-one coaching.

What Should Sales Onboarding Look Like?

As part of onboarding sales professionals, your organization should have every rep complete training on your company's sales process, including how to find and close leads. Reps should also receive regular updates and refreshers when changes are made to the sales process.

Standardizing your sales process will ensure every salesperson follows it and doesn't wing it, which can lead to problems. For example, a lack of standardization can lead to sales reps exaggerating the results your company can deliver — resulting in disappointed, upset clients down the line.

Make sure your training program for sales staff includes the following:

• Details on the stages of your sales funnel
• Thorough descriptions of your buyer profiles
• How to generate qualified leads
• Specific tasks sales reps should perform to keep leads moving through the funnel
• How to schedule meetings with prospects as quickly as possible
• How to discover prospects' pain points so your reps can relate your product or service to them
• A methodical system for tracking follow-ups so that no prospects fall through the cracks
• Exactly how to close a deal. (For example, does the rep need to hand off the close to someone else at your company?)
• How to craft and send a proposal
• Cross-selling and upselling opportunities
• How to set clients up for success in order to reduce refunds

Best Practices for Setting up a Sales Training Plan

Utilizing the overarching principles below will help you create the most effective onboarding plan. Let’s take a look.

Standardize the Onboarding

By standardizing the sales onboarding process, your new hires will have a consistent experience. Lay out the onboarding phases so they flow logically from one phase to the next. Each sales rep and their sales manager should know which phase the rep is in at any given time.

Standardization prevents critical pieces of information from falling through the cracks, ensures your managers aren't reinventing the wheel every time they train someone, and assures the company owners that their sales reps are learning all the essential information.

Formalizing the process requires documentation of everything a new sales rep needs. Include various aspects such as how to get software logins, where the knowledge base is housed, how to schedule time with their manager for coaching, and who to talk to when they have questions. This can look like online slide decks in your company's cloud drive, training videos that reps can access at any time, and a training manual. It should be easy for new reps to access these resources.

Job shadowing is an excellent way for sales reps to see their role in the action. Shadowing means pairing a new rep with a seasoned rep for a day, week, or longer so the new rep can observe. Not only does it reinforce the training, but it's an easy way for sales reps to meet their colleagues.

You can also develop job shadowing into a mentorship program in which experienced sales reps mentor new sales reps. Have the mentor and mentee schedule face-to-face, regular meetings to maintain momentum. Ensure that the mentor isn't the rep's direct manager so the rep isn't worried about discussing mistakes.

Continuous Feedback

Experienced sales reps and managers can shadow new sales reps after completing most of the onboarding tasks. This is called reverse shadowing. Sales organizations do this to determine if the new hire has the skills and training to be more independent — or if they need more training.

Reverse shadowing can be as simple as sitting down with a sales rep to help them complete sales tasks or listening in on cold calls. It also includes listening to recordings of sales conversations. You can include reverse shadowing in your sales team's periodic check-ins, which will help you identify potential opportunities for process improvements

3 Tips to Onboard New Sales Reps More Effectively 

Tip #1: Regular Assessments

Incorporate regular assessments into your sales onboarding program to ascertain what information a sales rep has mastered. This can be as simple as a Google form they fill out at the end of every week. The sales manager can then use this to ensure the rep reviews information where they need additional support. The idea isn’t to use assessments as tests to weed people out but rather to customize the training as needed.

Tip #2: Sales Onboarding Checklist

Create an onboarding checklist as an online, clickable document that the sales manager completes as their new sales rep moves through the onboarding and training process. Having this online allows other people in your organization to check in on new reps’ progress. Some of the things on the checklist can include the following:

Overall employee orientation

• Make introductions to coworkers
• Finalize any remaining new-hire paperwork
• Confirm sales compensation structure
• Review health plans, PTO, and how to request time off

Company background

• Summarize the company’s history
• Review the company’s mission and values
• Go over the company’s organizational chart and leadership
• Set up computer and workstation
• Create an email account and software logins
• Train on the software
• Assign a phone number
• Review policies for the use of company hardware and software

Product/Service Training

• Talk about the technical aspects of your product or service, including its features, benefits, functionality, and key selling points
• Demonstrate the product or service so new sales reps can see it in practical use
• Review your buyer personas. What qualifies and disqualifies a prospect from proceeding in the sales process?
• Review product documentation, user guides, and sales brochures to help the new hire fully understand the products and services they will sell

Introduction to the Sales Department

• Send an email with a welcome message and announcement of new employees to the department
• Go over the sales department's organizational chart
• Provide a tour of the department and introduce the new rep to their colleagues    
• Show the new rep where important spaces like the kitchen and office supply room are (or where various internal communications take place in a virtual setting)
• Review what a typical day looks like for a sales rep in your department
• Review the sales department's culture
• If necessary, explain how things change during busy periods, holidays, or times when reps need to work extra hours

Sales Training

• Review tactics for generating new leads
• Show how to enter new leads into your CRM
• Explain how to update the sales pipeline information
• Review how to qualify and score leads — and how to disqualify them
• Explain your process for closing deals
• Review how to onboard new customers and ensure they're smoothly passed to their internal account manager
• Review cold-call scripts
• Practice following up with cold leads
• Role-play objection handling
• Discuss and practice sales presentations

Lead Generation

• Show the new sales rep a typical lead list and what information should be in it
• Explain the allocation of inbound leads to team members
• Show how to match leads to buyer profiles
• Review different ways to generate leads, network, and generate referrals

Set Expectations, Quotas, and Goals

• Review personal and team sales goals and incentives for attaining them
• Cover the training, coaching, and mentoring resources available to help sales reps meet their quotas
• Explain what happens if reps fall short of sales performance expectations
• Lay out the rep's performance expectations, including the number of appointments scheduled, calls made, demos booked, free trials started, proposals sent, and deals closed

Regular check-ins

• Review the sales rep's metrics regularly to see if they're hitting their goals
• Have the sales manager schedule regular check-in meetings 
• Confirm that the sales rep's software and equipment are working correctly
• Ask for feedback on the sales process, onboarding, and training

Tip #3: Review the Competition

Give an overview of your company's main competitors and then provide a competitive analysis that discusses what sets you apart (your unique selling proposition). Be open about the areas where your product/service is lacking compared to your competitors and discuss objection handling in case prospects bring these up during sales calls. Review the areas where your product or service outperforms your competitors and why.

Have a Team-Focused Approach

A sales team's goal is to establish a lasting relationship between the client and the company. This begins at the start of the onboarding process when you build and reinforce your team-focused approach to selling and serving customers. Include all team members in the onboarding process and have established sales reps introduce new sales hires to clients, vendors, and contractors.

Especially in remote companies, it's critical to integrate new sales reps into all the online platforms your company uses to communicate. The situation you want to avoid is sales reps working in siloes, refusing to help each other, and guarding their contacts to the extent that it negatively affects customer service. With a team-based approach, you ensure frictionless training that onboards new reps seamlessly and fosters a healthy company culture.

The First 30 Days of Sales Onboarding

It can be helpful to structure a 90-day onboarding and training plan using a 30/60/90 framework. The first month is for learning, the second month is for practicing/role-playing, and the third month is focused on improvement and refinement.

After the first 30 days, new sales reps should be able to answer questions such as:

• Who are our competitors, and how does our offering compare to theirs?
• What is our unique selling proposition?
• How do you access the training and knowledge base when you have questions?
• What's the best communication channel to get a quick answer to a question from your manager?
• What customer success stories do you know off hand?
• What is our buying persona? What qualifies and disqualifies someone from working with us?

What Are the 5 Cs of Onboarding?

The five Cs of new-hire onboarding are compliance, clarification, culture, connection, and checkback. Let’s review them below.

Compliance refers to your team having a foundational understanding of your organization's policies and procedures. While people often see this as the boring HR part of onboarding, it's still important — don't skip a thorough review of safety regulations, company policies, harassment prevention, confidentiality requirements, and procedures for the sales department.

Clarification means laying out the new rep's role and performance expectations, so there's no ambiguity in what you expect of them. What does the rep's role look like in the context of organizational and team goals? What are their individual goals? What is the mission of your organization? Cover all of this upfront instead of letting the hires try to figure it out on their own.

Culture should be an integral part of onboarding from the start. Go over stories of how the organization started and its norms, goals, and mission. A good sales culture includes healthy competition, low team turnover, collaboration, accountability, and excellent sales compensation. 

Connection refers to encouraging every new sales rep to develop interpersonal relationships at work. Ensure that new hires are familiar with and can connect to subgroups within your company. In large organizations, this could mean having a community service group or a networking group for young professionals. In smaller organizations, this could mean more informal ways of promoting connection, like introducing reps who went to the same school, have the same interests, or have other things in common. Additionally, consider assigning a mentor to each new sales rep to help them with their first few months on the job.

Check-back is shorthand for regular check-ins between managers and new sales reps. Don't leave check-ins to chance; instead, formalize the process and have managers put recurring check-in meetings on their calendars.

Create an Onboarding Plan That Trains Your Reps in Record Time

At The Sales Connection, we've made over $157 million in sales and trained over 12,173 reps for organizations selling B2B and B2C in the education, financial, coaching, and consulting markets.

92% of hires from our recruitment process reach the top half of the sales force in their first year. Our highly refined and efficient onboarding process is a huge part of that.

Find out more here.

Kayvon has over two decades of experience working with high-level closers and perfecting his sales methodologies. He has earned the title of Canada’s #1 pharmaceutical sales representative and continues to share his expertise as a keynote speaker and through his multi-million-dollar coaching program.

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How to Land Your First Sales Job as a Business Development Representative (BDR)

Succeeding as a BDR requires a unique mix of creativity, resilience, and strong communication, research and prospecting skills.

Lindsey Boggs

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You’ve got the gift of persuasion and the ambition to match — and you’re ready to turn those strengths into a successful career in sales. But where should you start? One of the best entry-level positions for someone hoping to break into the sales industry is business development representative (BDR). Here’s everything you need to know about becoming a BDR, including how to succeed and what comes next.

What you’ll learn:

What is a business development representative (bdr), what does a bdr do, what skills and qualifications does a bdr need, how to prepare for a bdr interview, how to succeed as a bdr, what’s the next career move for a bdr, join the salesblazer movement.

We’re building the largest and most successful community of sales professionals, so you can learn, connect, and grow. 

A business development representative (BDR) is the sales position responsible for generating new business opportunities for their organization. BDRs primarily focus on the sales pipeline, generating the leads that account executives (AE) use to close deals. Their duties typically include prospecting, lead qualification, lead nurturing, and booking meetings for account executives.

BDRs vs SDRs

The terms sales development representative (SDR) and business development representative (BDR) are often used interchangeably in the sales world, but sometimes have distinct roles within specific organizations. For instance, some companies may designate inbound presales work to BDRs, while tasking SDRs with outbound tasks like cold calling. Sometimes the difference has to do with career progression. BDR is considered an entry-level role at some companies, with SDR being the next rung on the ladder.

BDRs typically have a few main responsibilities, including:

• Prospecting: This is the process of identifying potential customers (prospects) who are worth pursuing. Prospecting involves researching companies and people that match your ideal customer profile, finding their contact information, and reaching out via phone or email to learn more.
• Lead qualification : Once you’ve found leads that look like a good fit, you need to qualify them . This means researching leads in depth, using various channels like social media, cold calling, or emailing. When researching, pay close attention to their unique needs and goals, their budget, and whether they’re currently looking for a solution like yours or may be in the future, as these are good qualification indicators.
• Lead nurturing: When a lead looks like a good fit, but the timing is off, staying in touch is crucial. Just because they aren’t ready to buy right now, doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future. This is done through lead nurturing — the process of providing valuable offers and resources, typically via email or social media, that persuade prospects to advance through the sales funnel .
• Booking meetings : When you’ve determined a lead is a good fit and is ready to be pitched , the next step is booking the meeting and prepping the account executive. This involves getting the AE up to speed on the prospect and their situation and expectations. Beyond booking the meeting, it’s important to set the AE up for success so all your hard prework pays off.

( Back to top )

Why are BDRs important?

BDRs help AEs do their jobs better by helping them focus more of their time on successfully closing deals. For companies, this offers three main benefits:

• Increases sales pipeline velocity : By doing all the work to identify and qualify leads, BDRs help ensure the pipeline stays full while also shortening the sales cycle .
• Provides valuable customer insights : The research BDRs do in the qualification stage gives AEs the power to personalize their pitches to every prospect’s needs. More personalized pitches are typically more effective at closing deals.
• Improves sales efficiency : When BDRs do their job well, AEs waste less time on unqualified prospects. Instead, they can focus their efforts on deals more likely to close.

Succeeding as a BDR requires a unique set of skills:

• Creativity : Your average prospect has a full inbox and is no stranger to sales calls. To set themselves apart, BDRs should be good at thinking outside the box. Consider these subject line tips for sales emails that actually get opened and other ways to stand out from the crowd.
• Strong communication: When someone does pick up the phone or opens your email, you need to win them over. That requires the ability to communicate effectively across channels. It’s important to understand how you come across on the phone, via email, and on social media to make an impact with prospects.
• Research and prospecting skills : You also need to know how to identify prospects and track down their contact information and other details about them. That includes finding commonalities — a mutual connection, an alma mater in common, or a place you’ve both been. Look for ways to make the connection personal.
• Resilience: Some amount of rejection happens across sales roles regardless of experience. It’s important to learn how to compartmentalize the hard parts of the job so that you can keep picking up the phone to call the next lead on the list. Finding a like-minded community is a good resource for developing coping skills and learning new strategies.

I’ve hired hundreds of BDRs in my career, so I can speak from experience about how to set yourself apart. My top tips for getting an interview and impressing the hiring manager are:

Network : Proactively look for new people to connect with. When I was starting out, I networked with everyone I could — even the parents of some of my friends. Determine ten businesses where you’d most like to work, research their Directors of Sales Development, and add them on LinkedIn. Message them and ask if they’re willing to hop on a call with you to discuss any open positions (or potential positions that haven’t been posted). And start connecting and interacting with other sales contacts from the company on LinkedIn to get on their radar.

Do your research: I can’t tell you how many times people show up to an interview knowing nothing about me. Research is an important part of the job and you should demonstrate this skill in your interview. Find out everything you can about the hiring manager beforehand. Look for presentations they’ve posted on YouTube, appearances they’ve made on podcasts, or articles they’ve written online. Bring up specific things you learned about them — and the company — during your interview to demonstrate you did your homework.

Come with questions: Display your curiosity about the role and company. Think about the things you want to know that aren’t widely available online — things like how career advancement works or how performance is measured — and come prepared with those questions.

Ask for feedback: Before the interview wraps up, I recommend asking the hiring manager what you could have done to make the interview better on your end. It shows you’re willing to be coached and listen to feedback.

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Once you’ve landed the job, some of the most important tips for success I recommend are:

Clarify your goals

Make sure you understand how the company measures success for your role, including the specific KPIs (key performance indicators) to focus on. Sales goals are typically set by your manager and tracked quarterly, but you should be sure you know exactly what you’re responsible for so there’s no confusion.

In my experience, some of the main sales goals to aim for as a BDR are:

• Booked meetings: The number of meetings you set up between prospects and an AE
• Completed meetings: The number of booked meetings that prospects attend
• Qualified leads: The number of leads that are likely to purchase

Develop your research skills

To be successful as a BDR, identifying prospects is a crucial skill. And that means becoming a great researcher. Google and LinkedIn are good starting points. Once you have a list of prospects, dig into their online presence. Social feeds can tell you a lot about a prospect’s interests and priorities — good things to know when tailoring a sales pitch.

Search for them and their company on YouTube, read articles they’ve written, and listen to podcasts where they’ve been featured. By keeping an eye on what they post or who they interact with online, you can gain more insights about how likely they are to buy your product — whether they’re currently facing the kind of problem at work that your offering helps solve, for example.

Once you know enough about a prospect to reach out, Zoominfo is my go-to tool for quickly finding contact information.

Practice time management

BDRs have many responsibilities to balance. It’s crucial to stay on top of your to-do list, catch up on tasks you didn’t get to the previous day, and ensure every account on your list gets the attention it needs. It takes a lot of touches to book a meeting, so you can’t afford to waste time or let leads go cold.

I’ve found tools like dashboards and reports to be particularly effective. That visibility helps me keep track of deals and reminds me about overdue steps so that I can always keep up.

Stay in touch with prospects

Many companies use email drip campaigns for lead nurturing — a series of targeted emails that encourage action based on a prospect’s engagement with your product or website. But in my experience, those don’t always get traction. I’ve found LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to be a more effective tool.

For example, save your prospect as a lead, then look for opportunities to engage with them on the platform. When they post something, comment. When you share something that’s relevant to them, tag them. This strategy gives you more opportunities to interact and keep the relationship alive when nurturing.

Keep learning

There are many free and paid resources you can use to build up your sales knowledge so take advantage. Keep an eye out for relevant articles, webinars, and courses. I’ve personally found a lot of value with Salesforce’s Trailhead resources , which includes courses and certifications to keep your skills sharp. Joining the Trailblazer community is also a good way to connect with other sales professionals and share experiences.

Ask for feedback

Regularly check in with your manager and AE to ask how you’re doing and understand how you can improve. Their feedback can help you boost your performance. It also shows that you’re invested in development and growth. Reflecting on feedback is a good way to understand your strengths and areas for improvement and can help you determine where you see yourself going in your sales career.

For many, BDR will be your first role on the path to building a long-term sales career. The next level is typically to account executive . To move beyond an entry-level BDR role, you must prove your value and demonstrate your success by applying my advice above. You should also communicate with your managers about your career goals and intentions so that they can help you carve a path toward achieving them. Let them know you want that promotion and proactively check in about the steps you need to take to get there.

Work hard and success will follow

To find success as a BDR, focus on meeting the goals outlined for you, continually pursue new learning opportunities, and invest in building a network of contacts. Keep the lines of communication open with leadership about where you want to go and how to get there. When they see that you’re willing to work hard and can take direction, they’ll help you get there.

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From social selling pioneer to champion for mental health, Lindsey Boggs has redefined success. After conquering Fortune 500 sales and viral LinkedIn fame, she turned personal tragedy into impactful advocacy, co-founding UNCrushed.org and speaking on TEDx stages. Today, she leverages her expertise ... Read More as Glassbox's VP of Enablement & Sales Development, empowering teams and modernizing prospecting. Lindsey thrives on guiding others, leaving a trail of empowered people and innovative sales strategies wherever she goes.

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CenterPoint exudes chaos, but also appears to be restoring power faster than it previously has

According to state filings, the utility is restoring power at a relatively quicker pace than after prior storms. Texans are still fed up.

Sign up for The Brief , The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

HOUSTON — At dawn, the group of contractors in neon yellow vests and shirts readied for work. They grabbed the electrical equipment they would need from pallets at Sam Houston Race Park, which had become an abrupt staging area.

Before fanning out across the electricity-deprived Houston region Wednesday morning, the workers first ate fluffy eggs, round sausage patties and rectangular hash browns at long tables in a tent. They loaded up sacks of Reddy Ice, packages of Niagara water and lemon-lime Gatorade. They grabbed chicken, mozzarella and pesto sandwiches for later.

Their fleet of white utility trucks — which millions across southeast Texas wanted desperately to see in their neighborhoods — grumbled as the linemen prepared for the long day ahead.

The workers for CenterPoint Energy were chasing down the causes of 2.26 million power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl , a Category 1 storm that was far from the fiercest weather event the region has seen, but which packed a debilitating wallop.

Pressure was mounting on CenterPoint, the Houston-area electric utility, after it bungled its communications to the public amid yet another massive Texas power outage. The company appeared in chaos as it worked to turn on power for angry people who faced days in dangerous heat without air conditioning, including stressed customers struggling to manage health issues without electricity. More than 48 hours after the storm left the region, the company still had no clear timeline for when people could expect their electricity to be restored.

“They need to speak clearly and tell people the whole truth even when it’s not pleasant,” said Doug Lewin, energy consultant and author of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter . “People need to know when their power is going to get back."

Some of the damage Beryl wreaked on Texas’ above-ground power infrastructure as the storm’s hurricane-strength winds persisted inland, downing trees and electricity poles, lay beyond the company’s control. But the full picture of the utility’s response — and what went right or wrong with its preparation and equipment — remains muddled.

Yet even as elected officials piled onto everyday Texans’ scathing criticisms of how long the outages are lasting, CenterPoint appears to be restoring power to people faster than it has after recent storms.

And, a state requirement to plan for emergencies hadn’t prevented what many residents consider a dissatisfactory response. On Thursday, the company is expected to give a hastily requested update to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates electricity in the state.

CenterPoint clearly and immediately failed people in its bungled communications with customers about the damage and what to expect for the timeline of recovery, energy industry observers said. Notably, the utility’s map that is supposed to show the locations of power outages had not worked since a storm in May . Houstonians turned instead to a map of open and closed Whataburgers to find where power was on.

“That indicates a complete fail on their customer management and public service capabilities,” said Alison Silverstein, a former PUC adviser, referring to how the utility communicated.

CenterPoint said it was working to replace the map by the end of July.

State regulations require utilities “to provide efficient, safe, and reasonable service,” said Ellie Breed, a PUC spokesperson. That means the utility needs to restore power as fast as it can — but the state’s regulators don’t hold companies to specific timelines to do so because the severity of each disaster varies, Breed said.

The PUC previously reviewed CenterPoint’s emergency operations plan — which includes communication strategies — that state rules require utilities to submit and which the company said guided its response to Beryl.

As millions of Texans swelter in summer heat awaiting air-conditioning and their elected officials feel the pressure to find fault, experts say the power outages raise big-picture questions about how resilient the state, local authorities and residents want electricity infrastructure to be in the face of severe natural disasters that are becoming more common with climate change.

The more requirements the state puts on utilities — like pushing them to build stronger poles or bury power lines — the costlier Texans electricity bills are going to be. Experts say whether state regulators and legislators are striking the right balance deserves more discussion.

And as much as frustrated Texans still awaiting electricity don’t want to hear it, utility association groups say there are reasons to take a step back and give CenterPoint some credit.

Just days before Hurricane Beryl struck near Matagorda and moved into the Houston region, it was projected to hit South Texas. Crews hit the road before landfall, headed for cities like Austin that were never expected to see major impacts but that were close enough to the Gulf coast so workers could respond quickly, said Scott Aaronson, senior vice president of security and preparedness at Edison Electric Institute, a trade association.

Aaronson said the forecast’s shifting nature as the storm got into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t allow for much time to prepare with precision.

“Unfortunately, in this case, it was really with only about 24 hours to spare,” he said.

People drove in from states including California, Florida and West Virginia to work, according to CenterPoint. Because the storm’s winds and rains made it too dangerous to drive Monday, the utility had to wait it out before officials could hit the ground setting up staging sites and linemen could arrive, wait for instructions, then head out to survey the damage.

Beryl surprisingly remained a Category 1 storm as it blew into the Houston region, since storms’ wind speeds usually lessen much more quickly once they’re inland. At some point, the utility had to increase its call for linemen from 2,000 to 10,000, said Mark Bell, president and CEO of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, a trade association that represents CenterPoint and other utilities. By Wednesday, linemen were working from 18 staging sites across the region — more than CenterPoint had ever stood up after a storm.

“Did Centerpoint plan well?” Bell said. “Well, yes, of course they did. The result of that planning is that … they have been able to restore a million customers.”

CenterPoint officially hit the mark of restoring power to 1 million customers 55 hours after its response began. They expected to bring power back to 400,000 more by the end of Friday, and 350,000 more by the end of Sunday.

That pace was faster than in several recent storms, according to state filings . In 2019, CenterPoint took about three days to restore power to 180,000 Texans after Tropical Storm Imelda brought damaging wind and significant flooding to southeast Texas.

In 2021, CenterPoint took about five days to restore power to 700,000 people on the Texas coast when Category 1 Hurricane Nicholas brought powerful, gusty winds and rains.

And most recently in May, when back-to-back storms drenched much of southeast Texas and about 850,000 customers lost service, some remained without power eight days later, according to a CenterPoint report filed in June.

“We have made solid progress and exceeded the number of customer restorations following Hurricane Ike but we have a lot of important work ahead, especially in the hardest-hit areas where the work will be more complex and time-consuming," Senior Vice President for Electric Business at CenterPoint Energy Lynnae Wilson in a press release , referencing the infamous 2008 storm that brought a devastating storm surge and howling winds.

Still, the company’s jumbled description of events and restoration plans leave much in question: Was CenterPoint adequately prepared to respond to this? Did power lines fail because of bad equipment or simply the wrath of a severe storm?

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for a review of CenterPoint’s actions. U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia , D-Houston, called CenterPoint’s response “unacceptable” in a post on X. Her post included a photo of a letter addressed to CenterPoint President and CEO Jason Wells that accused the utility of not having enough workers in place fast enough.

Meanwhile, the linemen are still working.

While they waited to be dispatched Wednesday morning, one man sat in a truck with his door open and his feet propped up. Some had brought camping chairs. At least one lay down on the top of the truck, taking rest where he could get it. The sky was robin egg blue and the rising sun colored the clouds pink.

At 7:14 a.m., a truck pulled away from the Sam Houston Race Park. One by one, more followed. Some went to stage at a shopping center nearby before moving next to patrol the area, hazard lights flashing. Workers craned their necks up at the towering poles to identify problems, sometimes looking from the car, sometimes hopping out.

One passerby — seeing the trucks — gave a thumbs up.

Relief was coming.

Disclosure: Association of Electric Companies of Texas (AECT), CenterPoint Energy and Sam Houston Race Park have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here .

Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater ; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher ; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar , D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival , Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!

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Information about the authors

Emily Foxhall

Climate reporter.

[email protected]

Alejandra Martinez

Environmental reporter.

[email protected]

@alereports

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