The next chart (on the following page) shows a comparison of three years of annual sales. Here
again you can sense the relative size of the numbers in the chart. If you knew the company involved,
you’d be able to evaluate and discuss this sales forecast just by looking at the chart. Of course you’d
probably want to know more detail about the assumptions behind the forecast, but you’d have a very
good initial sense of the numbers.
ANNUAL SALES CHART
This chart shows planned sales for each of the years included in the plan.
Explain the Forecast
Although the charts and tables are great, you still need to explain them. A complete business plan
should normally include some detailed text discussion of your sales forecast, sales strategy, sales
programmes, and related information. Ideally, you use the text, tables, and charts in your plan to
provide some visual variety and ease of use. Put the tables and charts near the text covering the
related topics.
In my standard business plan text outline, the discussion of sales goes into Chapter 5.0, Strategy
and Implementation. You can change that to fit whichever logic and structure you use. In practical
terms, you’ll probably prepare these text topics as separate items, to be gathered into the plan as it is
finished.
Sales Strategy
Somewhere near the sales forecast you should describe your sales strategy. Sales strategies deal with
how and when to close sales prospects, how to compensate sales people, how to optimise order
processing and database management, and how to manoeuvre price, delivery, and conditions.
• How do you sell?
• Do you sell through retail, wholesale, discount, mail order, order over the phone?
• Do you maintain a sales for ...