business plan for sales job interview

• June 27, 2024

How to Write an Effective 30 60 90 Day Sales Plan (With Template)

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If you’re interviewing for a field sales position you may be asked to provide a 30 60 90 day sales plan. Or, your new sales manager might create one for you. This plan helps a new or potential employer evaluate a candidate or new hire’s ability to prioritize, understand how they define success, and discern whether they fully understand the scope of the job.

So what is a 30 60 90 sales plan, and what should it include? Read on to learn how to create a three-month sales plan for any outside sales career.

What is a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan?

A 30 60 90 day sales plan explains the measurable goals for a new hire’s first three months on the job and demonstrates their commitment to personal accountability. More importantly, a 30 60 90 day plan shows management that new hires will be focused on results, even during the onboarding process.

Ultimately, the plan helps sales reps and managers agree on what success will look like in the first 30, 60, and 90 days. It leaves very little ambiguity for measuring a successful transition.

Why Do You Need A 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan?

Sales managers and new sales reps both benefit from a 30 60 90 day sales plan, because it documents progress, challenges, and wins.

Sales leadership can use this plan to ensure sales team members are growing in their role, and to identify any need for additional training or guidance. For both managers and employees, documenting goals and accomplishments is helpful for the sales performance review process — both parties can see details that they might’ve otherwise forgotten over time.

What to Include in a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

Whether you’re creating one for yourself or for a new employee, each phase of your 30-60-90 day plan should detail a specific focus, priorities, sales goals, and a plan for measuring success.

Consider the following when creating your plan:

Align with sales team goals

To set your own priorities, you must first understand your company mission and team’s goals. These are typically defined by management.

During the interview process, ask questions about sales team goals, the strategy for achieving them, and what success looks like for the new sales team members.

Measure progress and success

A plan is not a plan without a clear way to measure success. Include a way to measure each objective in your 30-60-90 day sales plan. Depending on the activity , your goals should tie to one of the following:

• What you’ve learned
• How well you’ve adjusted and integrated into your new sales team
• How ready you are to perform your role without extra support

If, like most successful sales professionals, you have at least one mentor you can count on for advice, ask them to share their own 30 60 90 day sales plan example with you for inspiration.

Five Scenarios That Call for a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

A 30 60 90 day sales plan takes some time to put together, but you won’t have to do it often. Following are four scenarios in which you may need to create such a plan:

During the interview process

Most sales job interviews today involve multiple steps and stakeholders — from the initial screening and job interview with an HR generalist, to the final meeting with high-ranking decision-makers. If you clear the first hurdle in the hiring process, you should start working on your sales plan.

A hiring manager may informally ask you how you would approach your first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job. That’s your opportunity to make a great impression — instead of simply answering the question, you can present a copy of your formal plan that shows the hiring managers that you’re thinking ahead and serious about the job.

First week on the job

In some cases — especially a new sales position or if you’ve earned an internal promotion — you may not need to present a 30 60 90 day sales plan until your first week on the job. Even if you’re not asked to provide a plan right away, doing so can help you demonstrate your commitment to your new role.

New territory assignments

If your role is expanding to include management of new territories , create a 30-60-90 day plan for new sales territory areas . Your plan should define geographic boundaries for territories, which sales reps are responsible for those territories, and the metrics you’ll use to evaluate territory performance.

Onboarding new sales managers

A 30 60 90 day sales plan is also useful if you’re onboarding a new sales manager. You can show new sales managers what sales processes or systems they’ll be learning about in the first 30 days, define expectations for the first three months, and explain how you assess performance and communicate feedback.

Building Sales Skills

Companies may expect their new sales reps to be continuously improving upon their skills — and to identify opportunities for doing so. Once you’ve settled into your new role, you might need a new 30 60 90 day sales plan that defines:

• How you’ll research new technology that improves your efficiency
• Your timeline for implementing new technology
• How you’ll share new knowledge with your team

You might also use a three-month sales plan to outline your goals for improving your sales strategy, and the sales quota you’re aiming for.

Key Steps for Writing an Effective 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

Ready to get started on your plan? Follow these action steps:

1. Create an outline. Begin by sorting your ideas based on each 30-day increment:

• Onboarding/learning (first 30 days)
• Executing your plan (days 31-60)
• Improving upon your plan (days 61-90)

2. Define your goals. Be ambitious — but realistic — about what you want to achieve personally, and on behalf of your employer, in your first 90 days on the job.

3. Define your metrics. How will you measure your goals? In the first 30 days, your “metrics” may be as simple as “Review employee onboarding videos,” or “Complete CRM platform training.” Metrics will tend to become more granular as you settle into your new role.

The details of your plan will depend upon your role. For example, a 30 60 90 day business plan for sales managers is likely to be more external-facing, with a focus on how to learn about the daily routines of your direct reports. If you’re joining a company as a new territory sales rep, your 30 60 90 day plan should focus more on how you will develop your skills.

Milestones for a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

Now that you understand the value of a 30-60-90 day sales plan, let’s talk about the appropriate milestones for each phase.

30-Day Plan

You’re starting from scratch, and should begin by answering, “What does success look like in the first 30 days?”

In many cases, the first 30 days should include completing your company/role training plan, understanding the target market, mastering the company’s products or services, and getting to know your colleagues.

Here’s a sample checklist of points s to consider for the first 30 days:

• Have you completed all required company training?
• Do you understand the high-level priorities for your company and team?
• What are the goals your company plans to achieve in the next year?
• Do you have a complete understanding of the target market?
• Do you understand your company’s key products and/or services?
• Do you understand what makes your company unique?
• Do you understand the competition?
• Have you developed connections within the organization?
• Do you have a clear sales plan?

This part of the plan should be heavy on information gathering.

For each of the items in the plan, and any others you add, schedule weekly checkpoints to track progress. This may be a 1:1 with your manager or mentor. At the end of the first 30 days, be prepared to report back on your completion of the plan.

If you didn’t complete a key commitment, that’s OK. As you become more familiar with the job, items on your list may be deprioritized and rolled into the next phase.

60-Day Plan

During the second month, new sales reps are able to spend more time in the field. During this phase of the plan, the focus should be getting to know the market, nurturing relationships with prospects and clients, and understanding the customer experience, including what’s working well and where the team can better support customers.

During the 31-60 day period, you should ask for feedback from your manager, sales team members, and customers about what you’re doing well and what you can improve.

During this time, you should also be looking for opportunities to learn from your peers and identifying ways to work more efficiently. This shows your sales manager that you are eager to keep up with the team and that you want to help move the company forward.

Here’s a sample checklist of points to consider for your 60-day plan:

• Have you introduced yourself to key clients and prospects?
• Have you completed a customer experience and satisfaction review?
• Have you participated in adequate job shadowing with peers and management?
• Have you completed all formal training requirements?
• Have you started developing new leads ?
• Do you have a tool to help you map out sales routes ?

By the 60-day checkpoint, you should be able to show that you can handle the workload and that you’re ready to succeed on the team. Between days 31 and 60, you should have enough of an understanding of the business to speak up, ask questions, share ideas, and engage in discussion.

90-Day Plan

Days 61-90 are all about building on what you learned during the first 60 days and making an impact. This may mean you start optimizing your prospect list with larger, more strategic clients. It may also mean revisiting cold leads to see whether you can initiate new conversations.

Your plan for days 61-90 should cover how you’ll establish and build relationships with clients and prospects, as well as how you’ll implement feedback to become better at your job and help support your team.

Here’s a sample checklist of points to consider for your 90-day plan:

• Have you met all key accounts and started developing relationships?
• Have you started prospecting for new leads?
• Have you actively asked for feedback from your peers and management?
• Have you used feedback to adjust your strategy and approach?
• Have you established a schedule that works for you, your clients, and your team?
• Have you established credibility within the team?
• Do you feel successfully “on board”?

At 90 days, you should feel confident in your new role and sales position. While nobody will expect you to be a seasoned expert, you should know enough to perform critical sales tasks without a lot of guidance.

4 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Building A 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

You should be off to a great start in developing your 30 60 90 day sales plan. But, as with anything, things can easily get derailed.

In this section, we’ll cover common mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Failing To Include Details

As you’ll recall, the most important function of your plan is to clearly outline your objectives . Make sure that your plan has no room for misinterpretation. Include specifics in your plan such as dates, percentages, and other figures.

2. No plan to measure success

It’s not really a plan if there is no way to measure success. Within each phase of your plan, be specific about what constitutes successful completion of a task.

3. A fixed mindset

When you start a new role, you have a lot to learn. By the time you start executing a plan, you’ll likely find some of your assumptions incorrect, and you’ll need to adjust the plan accordingly.

Don’t let this bog you down, or worse, stop you from following through. Make sure your plan is flexible enough to make adjustments as needed.

4. Not Following Up With Your Manager

A 30-60-90 day sales plan requires ongoing two-way communication between employee and manager. Without ongoing feedback, there’s no way to know if you’re truly meeting expectations.

Ready. Set. Plan.

Your 30-60-90 day sales plan should serve as a tool to establish yourself in a new role and organization, and to promote your growth and development.

Coming to the table with a plan is the best way to hit the ground running, build credibility, and show team members you are eager and prepared.

Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at [email protected] or comment below.

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Free 30-60-90 Day Plan Template for Interviews

By Biron Clark

Published: November 8, 2023

Interview Preparation

Biron Clark

Writer & Career Coach

One of the best ways to stand out in your interview is to create a 90-day business plan (also called a 30-60-90-day plan) to show employers how you’ll help them in the first three months on the job.

Having a plan to learn the job and succeed quickly is going to set you apart from other candidates and make you more attractive to employers.

Let’s look at how to create a plan that will land you the job…

How to Create a 90-Day Business Plan for Job Interviews

I recommend splitting your 90-day business plan into three sections: 0-30 days, 30-60 days, and 60-90 days.

So we’ll actually be creating a 30-60-90 day plan.

We’ll divide it into three periods, and you’ll outline different goals and milestones for each of the first three months.

I’ll help you do this below.

If you prefer to lump everything together into a single 90-day period, that’s fine too.

What to Write About in Your 30-60-90 Day Business Plan

In your business plan, you want to show the interviewer the following:

• You understand what the job involves
• You’re capable of quickly learning and performing the job duties
• You’re motivated to learn and do the work
• How you plan on learning and succeeding. Which specific steps will you take to reach your goals?

So let’s look at each 30-day period now, and what should go into each…

The First 30 Days

In the first part of your business plan, you’ll want to focus on training/learning.

The company likely has a training program (if you’re not sure, this is a good question to ask in the interview ).

So what is your plan to make the most of their training, and get up to speed quickly?

This could include reviewing and studying at home each night for the first week, staying 30 minutes late to review what you learned each day, finding a teammate to have lunches with, or finding a fellow new hire to review with (if you’re in a training class with multiple people).

Other things to talk about in the first part of your plan:

• How will you learn about the company’s products/services ?
• If you’re new to this industry, how will you learn the industry/market overall?
• How will you learn this company’s systems and procedures? (They might have an employee booklet you can review, so include some time to review this in the first 30-day period of your business plan.

Your goal in this section is to show them you have a detailed plan and a lot of motivation to learn the basics of the job and understand how they operate quickly.

The Next 30 Days

The next 30 days should focus on how you’ll learn and improve by “doing”.

By now, you should be able to start using what you’ve learned to perform some of the job duties on your own.

You might be interacting with team members, customers, etc. (this will depend on your specific position)

And while learning is still a focus here, you want to show them that you plan on being ready to work hands-on and learn in a real-world environment.

Also, a big part of this section should be getting feedback from your manager to see how you’re progressing.

What is your plan for checking in, receiving and organizing feedback, and using it to improve?

Most new employees wait for their manager to set up a meeting to review their performance…

Show the interviewer that you’re different – that you’ll take initiative and be responsible for this yourself.

Employers love when a job candidate seems proactive and self-starting.

The Final 30 Days

In the final 30 days of your 90-day plan, you want to show the interviewer that you’ll be ready to use everything you’ve learned to work independently.

You’ll be up-to-speed, contributing to the team’s efforts, and not requiring any more supervision/help than anyone else on the team.

You may also want to talk about ways you’ll go above and beyond the basic job duties now.

This could include looking for processes that can be improved, finding new ways to help the company get more customers, etc.

Also, you can still include steps for getting feedback and continuing to improve.

But it should be less of a focus here. The main focus now should be on contributions, independent work, and “taking off” with what you’ve learned.

What will you be able to do for them? What will you be contributing after 90 days?

Using S.M.A.R.T. Goals

When talking about a specific goal or objective in your 90-day job interview plan, try to use SMART goals whenever possible.

SMART goals are:

Saying, “I plan on being very good at serving customers after 90 days,” doesn’t say much.

However, it sounds a lot more impressive if you say something like, “At the 90-day mark, I plan on achieving 120% of the monthly goal for customer service calls taken, and I will achieve a customer satisfaction rating of 98% or greater.”

Using “Learning Goals” and “Performance Goals”

One strategy I’ve seen used very effectively is to divide your main goals for each 30-day period into two different categories: Learning Goals and Performance Goals.

You’ll have more Learning Goals than Performance Goals in the first 30-day period.

Then, as you move through the plan, you’ll gradually shift to having more Performance Goals, and fewer Learning Goals (but still some!)

You can also add one or two personal goals, such as having lunch with one new team member per week, or visiting the gym after work two nights per week to stay healthy.

Don’t worry if this sounds complicated. Coming up soon I’m going to show you a full example of a 90-day plan for your interview, that you can copy. 

And in that sample business plan, you’ll see the three different categories laid out (Learning Goals, Performance Goals, and Personal Goals).

Creating and Formatting Your 90-Day Plan

If you’re comfortable making a good-looking document in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or some other word-processing software, feel free to use that to create your 30-60-90 day business plan.

Otherwise, I’d recommend using Canva.com .

The website has great templates for creating a PDF, and it’s free to use. I use it myself for creating images and PDF guides for this blog .

Make it EASY to Skim and Read

I’d keep the whole document to 1-2 pages maximum.

It’s an outline/presentation, not an essay. 

Try to avoid long paragraphs and giant blocks of text with no spacing.

Make it skimmable and easy to read.

Use headers, bullets, etc.

Here’s a full example of how you might lay out your 90-day plan…

30-60-90 Day Plan Template/Example:

0-30 Days: (Write your main focus and objective here. The priority should be learning and getting up to speed on the basics as quickly as possible. What will you need to learn to perform well in the job, and how will you learn it?) Learning Goals: Learn the company’s entire product offering Study the top 3 competitors’ product offerings to understand strengths/weaknesses Review training manual, and bring any questions to direct supervisor before the end of month 1 Listen to at least 4 sales calls per week with senior team members Learn all industry terminology so I’ll be ready to communicate effectively with prospects and customers Meet with supervisor at the end of each week to discuss progress, questions, and results achieved Performance Goals: Score 100% on the training manual examination on week 3 Personal Goals: Get coffee with each team member before the end of the first month 30-60 Days: (Write your main focus for the next 30 day period here. You should still be learning, but the focus now shifts to taking what you’ve learned and using it in the real world. You want to start doing the work and learning through experience). Learning Goals: Continue listening to 4 sales calls per week with senior team members Find team members to listen to at least 10 of my sales calls per week and provide feedback Meet with supervisor twice per week to ensure I continue learning and progressing as quickly as possible. This will include reviewing my sales call results and the tactics I’m using and working on as I listen to team members Take one free LinkedIn Learning course to improve my sales skills outside of work hours Performance Goals: Conduct a minimum of 12 sales calls per day Convert one sales call per week into a customer Qualify leads and do thorough research of potential clients before calling, so that at least 80% of prospects I speak with are fully-qualified for our products Follow up with each potential prospect/lead within four business days of initial conversation Personal Goals: Have at least two lunches with Supervisors or Team Leaders from other departments to grow my network and better understand how other areas of the organization work. 60-90 Days: (Now you’ll want to show that you’re ready to produce at a high level and be a valuable member of the team. Your learning is never fully done, but this section should talk far less about learning, and really focus on demonstrating what you’ll DO for the employer after 90 days on the job.) Learning Goals: Meet with supervisor once per week to track progress and continue learning sales tactics Performance Goals: Conduct a minimum of 25 outbound sales calls per day Convert 4 sales calls per week into customers Qualify leads and do thorough research of potential clients before calling, so that at least 90% of prospects I speak with are fully-qualified for our products Ask for referrals after each completed sale, and/or after determining a sale is not going to occur. Goal: Obtain five qualified referrals per week and contact each referral within 24 hours. Personal Goals: Join the gym and go every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for one hour minimum.

You can alter this example however you want. This is just one way to set up your 30-60-90 day plan for a job interview.

If you invest the time into creating a plan like this, it will make you stand out and will boost your chances of receiving a job offer.

And once you’ve created a template for yourself, you can re-use it for multiple interviews by changing the basic details to match each job.

How and When to Show Interviewers Your 90-Day Plan

The best time to mention your 90-day plan is at the beginning of the interview.

As you sit down, mention that you brought it by saying something like this:

“By the way – I put together a 90-day plan demonstrating some of the ideas I had for what I could accomplish in the first 3 months in the role. Whenever you think it fits well into the conversation, I’d love to show you some of what I was thinking.”

Now they’re immediately impressed with your preparation and effort, and they can decide whether they want to look at it immediately or discuss your 90-day plan later in the interview.

Either way, you won’t have to constantly think about finding the right to mention it, and you’ll make a fantastic first impression to begin your interview. 

The “Hidden” Benefit of Creating a 30-60-90 Day Plan for Interviews

The steps and free template above involve some work, so you may be thinking, “Is it really worth creating my 30-60-90-day plan for my interview?”

In case you’re on the fence, here’s one of the biggest benefits that you may not have realized.

Creating your plan doesn’t just show hiring managers you’re motivated and ready to hit the ground running.

It also better prepares you for the interview, and for responding to all of the questions that they’re planning on asking you.

You can’t create a 90-day plan without researching the team and company, reviewing the job description, etc.

So you’re going to have a big advantage throughout the interview in terms of showing your new manager that you grasp the role and know what’s needed in the first 30 days, 60 days, and beyond.

You’ll be able to ask better and more unique questions in the interview , too. While other candidates are asking simple questions like, “What is the company’s mission?” or, “What are the typical working hours?” you can ask advanced questions like:

“As mentioned in my 90-day plan, I’d like to be able to contribute <key goal> within the first 60 days. To do that, I’ll need to absorb as much information as possible in my first month. Can you share a bit about what type of training is provided to new hires, and what type of feedback I’d get from my new manager and team as I learn the fundamentals in those first 30 days?”

The bottom line is:

By creating a 90-day plan for your job interview, you’ll not only impress the hiring manager with your effort, but you’ll also be much better prepared for the interview as a whole so that you can land a new job faster.

Employers will see that you’re focused on being a high performer when starting a new job and that you’re already well-informed about the role and their needs and ready to contribute at a high level as soon as you’re hired. This will impress any hiring manager.

About the Author

Read more articles by Biron Clark

4 thoughts on “Free 30-60-90 Day Plan Template for Interviews”

Thanks for the generous guidance. I have a job interview coming and they said they will send me the topic for creating a 30-60-90 plan the day before the interview, but never created one before, so this was very, very useful!

Is there a template please that you have

This is very timely information. I was asked to bring a 90 day plan to my face to face interview later this week. Thank you!!

Hello have you got an example of your presentation x

Comments are closed.

The Complete 30-60-90 Day Plan for a New Sales Territory (Plus Templates for Interviews and Managers)

Oct 11, 2020

A new sales position can be daunting. After all, you’ve just been entrusted with a big bucket of potential, and it’s your job to turn it into gold (. . . or revenue, but you get it). It’s your name on the spreadsheet, your prospects to win or lose, and your commissions for the taking.

Working with new leadership can be daunting too, since they want to make sure that you are on the same page with the company. It’s hard to prove that you are doing your job while you are still trying to learn the ropes and your metrics need time to line up with your colleagues.

No pressure, right?

During these critical early days, a game plan is essential. An organized schedule can help you prioritize all the vital tasks and adapt to your new environment. That’s where 30-60-90 day sales plans come into the picture.

A sales plan can help you figure out exactly how you will best execute your new position. For sales reps, it also helps take the pressure off of sales management with clear timelines and goals that they can monitor. For leadership, coming up with the right sales plan will make sure that sales reps are completing what they need to be successful and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

We’re going to show you how to build out a strategy that will help you go from getting the territory to absolutely crushing it in just three months . And the best part is, you even will know when to implement what .

Here’s what you need to know about 90 days sales plan and 30-60-90 day sales templates to get you started.

Table of Contents

1. What Is a 30-60-90 Day Plan?

2. When to Use a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

3. How Long Should a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Be?

4. 30-60-90 Day Plan Templates for Better Sales

Template #1: 30-60-90 Day Plan for an Interview

Template #2: 30-60-90 day plan for a new sales territory, template #3: 30-60-90 day plan for managing a new team.

5. Day 91: What Now?

What Is a 30-60-90 Territory Plan?

Simply put, a 30-60-90 plan is when you strategize action steps and goals to accomplish in the first 30, 60, and 90 days of a new sales territory or position.

The plan is helpful not only for keeping yourself focused on specific targets but also for keeping your manager in the loop. The truth is, managers love 30-60-90 plans. Often, hiring managers will even ask potential sales reps to lay one out in their interview process. It’s good stuff.

There’s not a single “right way” to do these plans. But generally, they’re broken down like this:

• Days 1 through 30: Learn all you can
• Days 31 through 60: Put a plan into action
• Days 61 through 90: Make the plan better

Getting down to the details and being on the same page with your manager is a fantastic way to avoid stresses down the road for all parties. For example, if your manager knows you have a big push planned for days 31 to 60, then they’ll be able to take a breath and give you a bit more space to get acquainted with your territory from 1 to 30.

Alright, now that you know what we’re talking about, let’s get into it.

When to Use a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan

A 30-60-90 day plan is useful for mapping out the transitions in your career. Whether starting, taking on new responsibilities, or ready for growth, you can tailor your plan to meet whatever your environment. How you want to structure your sales plan depends heavily on what you want to use it to achieve. Some of the most common times that a sales plan is used include:

Interviewing for a New Sales Position

You nailed the initial interviews, have the experience and references to land a great sales job. As you enter the final round of interviews, though, you’ll be up against other candidates that are just as likable and qualified as you. A sales plan is a great way to highlight exactly what you can bring to their company.

It’s common for hiring managers to ask about a sales plan, and it’s a critical way for you to distinguish yourself from the other candidates. Often, the manager may casually ask what your plan is for the first 30, 60,  and 90 days on the job. In most cases, you would benefit from having a formal plan drawn up to show that you have carefully thought through how you will tackle the job.  Done well, a sales plan will enable your hiring manager to view you in your position and what would make you excel in the company.

On a New Job

Another situation that you may find yourself crafting a sales plan is early into a new job, typically during the first week. Outlining your 30-60-90 day plan will allow you to communicate with leadership so they understand how you operate and how they can best support you during the onboarding and ramp-up process. It is also a chance for you to discuss how your goals align with the company goals and discuss any questions or concerns you have about your new role.

Once you start a new job, you’ll have a clearer picture of the company’s goals to align your sales plan. Even if you came up with a sales plan during the interview process, it is time to review your plan in light of your better understanding of your new company.

Starting a new job can be overwhelming. Even if you are not required to create a sales plan when you start at a company, creating one for yourself might provide you with the clarity and vision you need to excel as quickly as possible.

Assignment to a New Territory

Sales is fluid, and even the most senior reps may find change necessary during their careers. Whether a change in a territory or learning new technology, you will likely find yourself starting over again while working for the same company.

A 30-60-90 sales plan during this time can be critical to ensure your success during the transition. It can offer organization and clarity necessary so you can concentrate on what is important and make things as smooth as possible.

If you’ve been assigned to a new territory or part of your region has shifted, you’ll want to develop a 30-60-90 day plan to get ahead of it. It’s no easy task to become acquainted with a new market. Sometimes managers will require this, but if not, you should come up with a focused plan to get organized.

Create a Leadership Strategy

Entering a company as a leader can be a challenging prospect. Each company has its own unique goals, objectives, and values that leaders need to learn. Plus, every team has a different dynamic with unique strengths and weaknesses. Even experienced managers and leaders need time to understand these before making changes. However, they may feel pressure to make immediate improvements to establish their worth.

A 30-60-90 plan is a valuable tool for new managers to establish themselves. It allows them to stay on the same page with the rest of leadership and create a strategy for making improvements. The right strategy will allow them time to understand the dynamics of the company and team they will lead so that they can manage effectively.

Leveling Up Sales Skills

Success in sales does not happen by accident. It takes intentionality and drive to make sure you are hitting not only your quotas but your own professional goals as well.

It’s not a bad idea to implement these kinds of plans on a semi-regular basis. You can use a 30-60-90 plan to audit the way you’re approaching your customers and improve upon your messaging. It’s especially helpful during times of change — for instance, during an economic downturn or when your organization is adjusting their product/market fit is an excellent time to use a 30-60-90 plan.

Whether you want to move up in your company or just want a larger commission check, a sales plan can help you start making your dreams a reality.

How Long Should a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Be?

The length of a sales plan can vary widely. The average length typically spans anywhere from 3-8 pages.

How in-depth should your plan be? It depends on what you are using your plan for. If you have a new position with multiple responsibilities, you might benefit from a longer document that can tackle your goals and plans for each part of the job. For an interview, a shorter plan would be better to keep your answer from being long and rambling (a classic interview mistake).

Your sales plan should be as long as you need it to be. Don’t feel pressured to make it longer if there is not as much to tackle, but make sure that it is adequate to address all of your needs.

30-60-90 Day Plan Templates for Better Sales

Now that we’ve discussed the general outline of a sales plan, it’s time to dive into what that means specifically. We have broken down what your plan should look like based on what you are using it to accomplish.

Some of the most common templates for 30-60-90 day sales plans include:

A 30-60-90 day sales plan is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for your big interview. Even if the hiring manager doesn’t ask about your plan, it is a critical opportunity for you to research and strategize to be prepared.

Days 1-30: Gain an Understanding of the Company Values and Analyze Your Market

Coming up with the right sales plan from scratch is all about defining what success looks like in the beginning.

When it comes to a sales plan for an interview, it takes some more creative thinking to define and segment your goals. It is especially challenging because you most likely have not received clear company goals to outline.

However, you can still get a general outline to differentiate yourself from the other candidates. Take a careful look at the job description to find the necessary responsibility and qualifications for the position. What is emphasized in the description and qualifications? Is there any overlap in the two that seem significant? You can use these to distinguish goals to create an effective plan.

At its most basic, your first 30 days should include:

• Completing company training to learn valuable skills and their objectives . This goes beyond simply completing a training course and getting insights into your company and team’s high-level priorities. Understand their objectives for the future and the core goals to get you there.
• Gain an in-depth understanding of the company products or services. Your goal should be to gain mastery as soon as possible to help you advise customers and provide valuable information.
• Understand. who your target market is. Research to find out more about them. This is the time, for example, to research buyer personas and how your product or service uniquely serves them.
• Create connections in your organization . Not only should you be connecting with your sales team, but also key players for your customers. For example, you should get to know customer service and IT to create one comprehensive team for your clients.

Incorporating all of these elements should give you the chance to schedule weekly checkpoints to spend 1:1 time with a mentor or leadership to report on your progress. It is also a critical time to get support and advice for anything that comes up during this time.

Days 31-60: Get On-The-Ground Training

The first 30 days are critical to getting a solid foundation and understanding of your company. While you may still be speaking with customers depending on the company, most of your energy will be spent getting a general understanding of the company, your team, and customers. The next phase of your training plan, then, is making this theoretical knowledge practical.

The 60-day portion of your plan will likely concentrate on getting practical, on-the-ground training to put the knowledge you gained in the first 30 days to use:

• Set and revise your sales goals . You can decide what works well and resonates with customers, and what does not.
• Get to know your prospects and how you can improve the customer experience. Your hands-on experience should also give you a better understanding of your market and where you can support your customers.
• Find a mentor or more experienced team member during this time. You can shadow them to see how they best manage their territories and make sales. You can also role-play with them to sharpen your skills.

Days 61-90: Refining Your Goals and Plans

Now that you have received critical training and an in-depth understanding of your company, team, and customers, the last part of your sales plan should put that all together. It is a chance to put everything you learned together to make the most impact.

The last part of your plan should include these elements:

• Adjust your goals in light of everything you have learned.
• Optimize your list of prospects and customers to ensure you are reaching the maximum number of people possible.
• Think through your schedule . Are there certain days or times that are better for prospecting? Can you batch your schedule or schedule routes to make the most use of your time? Make the most of your time to set yourself up for success.
• Get feedback from team members and leadership. Their experience can help guide you to be as effective as possible and line up your goals with your organization. Actively seek feedback and use it to shape your strategy and goals.

The final step in a general, interview-ready sales plan is refining and perfecting your sales strategy. Now is the time to learn, adjust, and optimize your sales approach.

Although a territory change does not require as much adjustment as starting at a new company from scratch, it does come with unique challenges. A solid sales plan will help ensure that you continue to meet and exceed your sales goals no matter where you are.

Here is a sample template for a territory change:

Days 1-30: Understand and Analyze Your Market with a Strategic Sales Plan

When you are just handed a brand-new territory, it pays off to do your research and understand the direction you need to go in before diving into a set plan. Rather than sprinting off blindly into the distance, let’s take these next thirty days to get fully acquainted with the market and create a strategic sales territory plan .

Sales territory plans help you orient yourself and lay out a clear, intentional approach to your sales. This is essential because when you are intentional, you’re better able to measure your results and optimize down the road.

This may seem a bit simple, but it’s imperative— don’t skip it! Before you can do anything, you need to define your market and environment quantitatively . Get started by asking specific questions with objective answers:

• What are the literal geographical bounds of this territory?
• How big is the Serviceable Addressable Market (or SAM ) in this territory? Or what is the value of this specific territory? You can look at profitability, potential deal values, total number of prospects, or leads—whatever is the most relevant KPI for your goals.
• How big is your Share of the Market (SOM)? Or, how much of the SAM can your company reasonably serve? Think about your available resources.

• What are the demographics of this territory? Are the companies large or small? What industry are they in? How educated are they about your solution?
• What spending power do these prospects have?
• What competitors are already here?

The more interview questions you ask, the better prepared you will be down the road—so don’t be afraid to dig in.

Once you’ve collected your data, it’s time to make sense of it. Analyze your leads and evaluate them based on overall quality .

Your business goals define “quality.” If your current goal is to maximize revenue, you should look at potential revenue as your main KPI . If your goal is to minimize churn, you should look at the likelihood that the prospects would stick around.

Finally, you can divide your market into segments that help you target them more efficiently and effectively . It’s important to remember that segments aren’t made arbitrarily. Instead, they are defined by four things:

• Substantiality : Are there enough leads to make this segment worthwhile?
• Measurability : Can you easily identify who belongs in this segment?
• Accessibility : Does this segment represent actual prospects in your territory?
• Responsiveness : Does this segment require different sales or marketing tactics than other segments?

Typically, segments that meet these four criteria will be related to a relevant to your target KPI (noticing a theme here?). Some salespeople choose to create three segments based on the amount of “touch” (or work) involved in converting them: low touch, medium touch, and high touch. The choice is yours!

Complete a SWOT Analysis

Now that you know the basics about your territory, it’s time to evaluate your team’s relationship to it with a SWOT analysis.

“SWOT” is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Like most great tools, it seems simple at first, but you’ll find it to be invaluable as we build up our strategic sales plan.

“Strengths” and “Weaknesses” both look at the internal advantages and disadvantages your team has in this particular territory. They are directly related to your team—for example, the number of resources at your disposal.

“Opportunities” and “Threats” are external advantages and disadvantages. This has to do with the territory itself and the environment. For example, you may include competitors with a strong foothold as a threat or an underserved market as an opportunity.

Complete your own SWOT analysis by dividing a piece of paper into four columns and giving yourself some time to brainstorm. Take this exercise seriously—it’s going to come in handy soon when we start planning action steps.

Define Success

By now, the answer may be obvious, but it’s still essential to write it out explicitly and concisely: what exactly would success look like in this territory? What is your most important KPI ? Based on your research, what is a reasonable but challenging expectation for you to achieve?

This is when you want to set tangible goals for yourself—a process called sales accountability , which has been shown to drive productivity, increase sales, and improve customer satisfaction. Sales accountability is all about setting specific sales quotas and goals and holding yourself accountable for hitting them.

When deciding what your goals should be, choose something that’s SMART—you know, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely . (We’re really all about the acronyms here at MMC.)

Create Action Items

Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for: action items. This is the final step of creating your strategic sales territory plan. Now, you’re going to write out the blueprint that will be your guide for the following thirty days.

To find specific actions you should take to reach your SMART goals , return to your SWOT analysis, ask yourself how to take advantage of your Strengths and Opportunities, and neutralize your Weaknesses and Threats. For example:

• Is there an untapped market you can reach? How will you reach it?
• Who is your biggest competitor here? Why is your company the better choice? How will you convey this to your prospects?
• How can you let each of the team members at your disposal shine? How can you utilize their skills?

Write it out. This is going to be your guide for the next 30 days when you execute and evaluate.

Days 31-60: Execute Your Plan and Get Qualitative Feedback

For days 31 through 60, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal, for the rubber to hit the road, to make like Nike and “just do it.” It’s time to put your strategic sales territory plan into action.

For these thirty days, you’re going to have a fuller calendar than you could imagine. Your goal is to keep your head up and keep moving forward. Think of it like a writer’s first draft—you need to get something on the page to improve upon it later.

In addition to hitting your action items, here are some critical tasks for you to complete during this time.

Find New Leads

There are always more leads out there, and the more acquainted you get with your territory, the better you’ll know how (and where) to look for new customers.

The best way to find new leads is to excel at serving the customers you currently have . When you leave a path of satisfied customers in your wake, you increase your referral rate and generate free positive “press” (people talk!). Even better, these leads are warm, which means less work for a higher close rate.

Optimize Your Route

Now that you know where you need to go, you can start optimizing your route . Use a digital tool like Map My Customers to discover how to get from Customer A to Customer B and then to Customer C more efficiently —and, better yet, what order to visit them in.

See a hands-on product tour of Map My Customers

Depending on your priorities, you can choose to optimize for time spent driving, distance covered, or a specific order in which you need to meet with clients. You can save up to 30% on gas just by making this simple change!

Get Qualitative Feedback

At this point in the game, it’s too early to have a significant amount of meaningful numerical data. Instead, it’s the perfect time to lean into qualitative feedback from your own team, your customers, and your prospects.

Be sure to regularly check in with your team to see how they think things are going and if they have any ideas. A good way to do this is to schedule a time in advance for a quick touch-base with each person. Try to come to that meeting ready to listen.

You can also meet with a mentor figure at your company . This person may be in another team or higher up. The point is that they have the experience, and you value their opinion. Ask to grab coffee with them and show them what you’re up to. See if they have any useful pointers.

And, of course, you can always get feedback from your customers—and even the deals that don’t go through (which, as sad as it is, is typically the most helpful of all).

Lastly, use surveys, questionnaires, and interviews to gather as much information as possible from your customers about why they did or didn’t buy, what other solutions they considered, what they think of your business so far, etc. As they say, the customer is always right—so figure out what they think!

90: Optimize and Implement New Strategies by Using Sales Analytics

You’re nearly there—it’s the home stretch! These final thirty days are all about taking what you did up to now and doing it better . Fortunately, you should finally have some of your very own data to work with, which will give you an enormous advantage.

Run the Numbers

Now that you’ve had time for data to accumulate, we can finally get to analyzing. This is the back end of that “sales accountability” we talked about before—it’s time to see if you hit your goals.

By referencing your CRM , lay out your data in a way that helps you to make sense of it all (we love graphs). Be sure to look not just as your main KPI but at all relevant data points. Review the results with your entire team to see where you did well, where you can improve, and what was successful .

Look at the numbers and the qualitative feedback you collected side-by-side. What’s the story here? It can be useful at this point to also evaluate how specific action steps you took played out. Did they help you to address the Weakness or Threats that you identified? Or do you need a new plan?

Then, take the numbers even further. Go beyond what’s currently happening with your customers and discern what is likely to happen down the road with predictive analytics and sales forecasting .

For example, if you notice a customer has been calling into customer support more than usual—a red flag that they may churn soon—you can reach out to them with a special or thoughtful offer to keep them on board.

Individual Account Reviews

Often, figuring out the best way to serve a current customer is as simple as just asking. Maintaining a positive relationship with your customers is all about staying one step ahead and showing them that you’re thinking of them. Accomplish this by scheduling individual account reviews for each of your clients .

In these meetings, you can ask critical questions to help you better serve your client. For example:

• How has our service been?
• Have we been able to help you improve your KPI?
• How could we serve you better?
• What else are you working towards or struggling with?

This is an opportunity to gather invaluable qualitative feedback and upsell or cross-sell existing customers. Whatever you do, be sure to be empathetic —only sell what you genuinely think will be good for them

Automate Your Sales Processes

It’s hard to automate systems before you’ve worked out the kinks, but by now, you should be prepared to switch some tasks over to some handy-dandy robots (or software, but same thing).

To find the best ways to automate your processes, first, take a day or two to organize your CRM .

When you adjust to a new territory, it’s normal to be overwhelmed and make silly mistakes with your CRM. Go back through and make sure that you’ve logged all the relevant information completely and correctly.

Then, you can take a look at some of the easiest ways to automate (and the best tools out there ). That way, you can focus less on menial tasks and more on selling.

A 30-60-90 day plan is not just for sales reps. It’s a critical tool for leadership to make concrete plans to meet their goals as well. With different roles and goals, though, the 30-60-90 day plan will look far different than a general sales plan:

Day 1-30: Get to Know Your Team

The first month of any job requires getting to know the company. You should be taking this time to learn about policies, goals, and how the company works. For leadership, in particular, this includes getting to know your team and how it currently operates.

The first month should dive deep into learning about your company in general. You should be learning about your product or service, the target market, metrics, and trends. Your team will rely on your expertise, so an in-depth understanding will be vital to your position.

Beyond the technical expertise, use this time to have conversations with your direct reports and get to know them. They can provide valuable insights to help direct your goals and understand each team member’s strengths and weaknesses.

No two teams are exactly alike. Each person brings something different to the team, and each team has different strengths and weaknesses. It’s impossible to be an effective leader and keep your team happy and motivated if you don’t take the time to understand their unique dynamics. A deep team understanding is critical to good leadership.

Days 31-60: Bringing Your Skills to the Team

While the first 30 days are about getting a more in-depth understanding of your company and team, the next 30 days are your chance to start making tangible and useful changes. You are hired for your unique skill set, so now is the time to impart that onto your team.

Take this time to identify any skills gap on your team. For example, does your team lack a tech expert to help other members navigate their sales technology? See where you can offer your expertise and where training might be necessary.

Based on what you have observed in your team and your understanding of your company, now is also a time to create goals for your team. Being able to impart a vision to your team is valuable for maintaining morale and guiding their decisions. With measurable goals, you can help shape how the team operates to meet the overall company goals.

Days 61-90: Develop and Draft a Training Strategy

Having identified your team’s gaps and goals, your final 30 days might be developing a training strategy to overcome any skills gaps and guide your direct reports into their roles in the future. It is where you take practical steps to address what you have learned and identified in the first 60 days.

While you may not be promoting people quite yet, your time so far should give you a sense of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Your final process should be coming up with the best plan to coach them to where they can be and want to be in the future.

Day 91: What Now?

Congratulations! You’ve officially gone from getting a new sales job or territory to crushing it in just 90 days. How does it feel?

Remember that “crushing it” is all about constant improvement. If you’re trying new things, looking for new opportunities, seeking out new leads, and generally playing an active role in your position, you’ll always be crushing it—even if one specific campaign isn’t a resounding success.

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How To Create a Winning 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan (+ Sales Plan Template)

You’ve got a job interview for your dream sales job.

You have the experience and a track record of success. The only thing between you and your offer letter is your (hopefully) future sales manager.

Impress them with your exceptional selling skills and expertise, and you’ve got the job.

But the question is: how?

This Salesman.org sales plan template guide will show you how to put together a winning 30-60-90 day sales plan to impress your sales manager with your sales knowledge and expertise and nab your dream sales position.

What Is a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan?

A 30-60-90 day sales plan outlines the measurable goals for your first three months on the job. Think of it as your personal value proposition that shows your superiors you’re a self-starter and helps you be laser-focused on achieving results.

It expands on what success looks like in the first 30, 60, and 90 days, respectively. The idea here is to lay out your clear-cut plans for measuring a successful transition and keeping everyone focused in the right direction.

Why Do You Need a 30, 60, 90 Day Plan?

Your dream sales job is also somebody else’s dream job. This means you have to stand out in your interview and make sure the hiring manager can see what a great addition you can be to the organization.

The only way to do this effectively is to create a sales plan that shows your vision of the future of the sales territory or customers you’ll be taking over. It should outline your interaction with your sales team, sales strategies, sales cycle, target audience and revenue goals.

Each aspect of your 30-60-90 day sales plan should detail a specific focus, your priorities and goals, and a plan for measuring success. Getting this right will help you maximize your progression into a new role by identifying potential partners to sell two and establishing a general framework for success.

Here’s are the biggest benefits of developing a 30-60-90 day plan:

• Creates a clear focus for your first 90 days on the job, boosting your productivity and maximizing results
• Ensures your goals are set properly in your 30-60-60 day plan, letting you integrate quickly and smoothly into the organization
• Proves you’re capable of self-management and achieving goals and are an employee worthy of development.

If you bring in a well-thought-out plan into a job interview , you’ll have an advantage over other under-prepared candidates, significantly improving your chances of getting hired.

Other Scenarios Where Having a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Makes Sense

Putting together a 30-60-90 days sales plan takes time and effort, but the good news is you don’t have to do it often. When you write a sales plan it becomes a sales tool that can be used over and over.

Besides the interview process, you can also use your sales plan for the following circumstances:

Scenario 1: First Week on the Job

You got a brand-new job—or maybe you’ve earned an internal promotion.

Regardless of the circumstance, you should create a 30-60-90 days sales plan within the first week on the job. Doing this will demonstrate your commitment to your new role and give you a well-defined plan to ensure you’re off to a good start.

Scenario 2: New Territory Management Assignments

If your company follows the territory management approach, creating a 30 60 90 day plan for new sales territory is a no-brainer.

Your plan should clearly define geographic boundaries for territories you’re responsible for and the metrics you’ll use to evaluate territory performance. It should include any new business goals, changes in the company mission or types of sales that you'll be making.

Steps To Create a Winning 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan Template

Next, let’s understand how you can draft an effective 30 60 90 day sales strategy plan.

Step 1: Know Who You’re Creating the Plan For

You should know who you’re making the plan for. This involves thinking from the perspectives of two stakeholders: your team and you.

A) Align Your Plan With Your Organization’s Goals

Understand your sales team’s priorities and goals and align your sales plan with them.

For a job interview, try to connect with a salesperson already working with the company on LinkedIn. Strike a polite conversation and ask them what goals they’re being pushed towards corporately.

If you’re new on the job or handling a new territory, speak to your sales manager and ask them about goals that matter most to the organization.

Find out current revenue targets, sales and marketing initiatives and any strategies and tactics that are working for the sales team.

B) Identify Your Own Priorities

What are your current priorities and personal goals? 

Do you want to earn more money? Or do you want to focus on building now to set up your territory for even bigger successes? Maybe you want to position yourself as a legendary adviser for all things sales.

You must identify your own priorities before you start building your 30 60 90 day plan. This will give you a clearer perspective on how to approach things and set yourself up for success.

Do you want to install new sales tools, motivate your team or start pushing a new product or service? Creating your sales plan can reduce the time to implement a more effective sales action plan.

Don’t worry; we’ll also share a super-easy template you can follow and ensure better outcomes.

Step 2: Figure Out How to Measure Your Success

Now that you know your sales goals, your next step is to measure progress against those goals.

In the words of Peter Drucker, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” When you know how to measure success, you can improve your plan further by identifying and eliminating weak aspects.

Here are a few tips to help you get started on the right track:

• Gain in-depth knowledge of product features
• Have the ability to demo the product at a high level
• Have built key relationships built-in potential growth accounts
• Developing a more targeted customer profile
• Become known, liked, and trusted with all current partners
• Improved sales performance or increased sales activities
• Have a list of 100 potential partners to prospect over the next 12 months

Step 3: Draft Your 30-60-90 Day Plan Breakdown

At this point, you’ve already done most of the hard work.

You can now focus on documenting the information you currently have to create a more formal 30-60-90 day sales plan that you can then share with your sales manager. For each section of your plan, ask yourself “what does success look like?“.

Note: We’ve also added critical questions below to help you create a more impressive sales plan.

Stage 1: 30 Days

As mentioned, the first step is to ask yourself what success looks like after 30 days are complete.

When applying for a job, success in the first 30 days is likely completing your onboarding and training process successfully. In addition, you can also add the following criteria if you want to be more specific:

• Understanding corporate priorities, new roles and responsibilities
• Intermediate knowledge of key products and services
• Knowing the product's position in the market vs. the competition
• Developing key connections within the organization with customer support, sales leadership, team members etc
• Going through previous rep's sales CRM data and outlining a few key accounts to target

The 30-day section of your sales plan should define your success goals and briefly explain how you plan on achieving them. It should also share how you‘ll know you’ve been successful in meeting these goals. 

Let’s explain this using an example.

• Success goal: Having intermediate knowledge of key products and services offered by the organization.
• To complete I will: Spend an hour every week with the product specialist for each product and have them quiz me on my knowledge.
• I will have success if: In the 30-day review meeting with my sales manager, they can quiz me about our product range like a potential partner would and I can answer their questions confidently.

This will allow you to show off your self-starting nature and help you understand your responsibilities better.

Be sure to schedule a meeting with your sales manager to discuss successes and any issues you had during the 30 days before moving on to the 60-day and 90-day time periods. It’ll make the transition smoother.

Stage 2: 60 Days

With the first 30 days up, you have to amp up your sales efforts in the second month.

You’ll be spending more time in the field or talking to potential partners at this stage. Keeping this in mind, you should understand your marketplace and products at a high level. Regardless of what you’re selling, after 60 days of being immersed in it, you should know everything related to the offering—big or small.

Another good tactic is to role play with co-workers and shadow your senior sales professionals to understand their sales processes and approaches.

Here are some pointers to include in the 60-day section of your sales plan. Notice how some of them are mandatory, while others are more flexible depending on your role, experience, and onboarding process.

• Started developing at least five new leads — Mandatory 
• Have shadowed the top two performing sales reps in the company — Mandatory 
• High-level understanding of key products — Mandatory 
• Completed role-playing sessions with other sales professionals in the team
• Have contributed to a sales meeting by adding value to the conversation
• Completed all formal sales onboarding or training that needs to be done

Of course, these objectives will vary depending on why you’re drafting the 30-60-90 day sales plan. For instance, if you’re an experienced sales professional who has been recently assigned a new sales territory, your success criteria will look something like this:

• Knowing your target territory — Mandatory 
• Setting measurable and realistic setting goals — Mandatory
• Developing a territory management plan — Mandatory
• Recording daily development in CRM
• Attending meetings with other sales professionals

Information overload, we know. But getting this step right will help you achieve greater success. Plus, once you get the hang of things, everything will become easier. 

Stage 3: 90 days

This is where you hit the ground running.

Your 31-90 day plan sets out what you’re planning on doing for the rest of the time in the specific sales role. Here, you should have an optimized prospecting list and have your foot in the door with at least a couple of potential new key accounts. 

Only a few things can go wrong at this point, which might stop your 30-60-90 day sales plan from being fabulous. Don’t worry, though. We’ll cover 30-60-90 day sales plan mistakes later to make sure all your hard work pays off.

At this point in your new sales role you should have a lead generation strategy, be on top of all the new sales enablement tools and content, understand your customer pain points and have a few new customers on the go.

At the 90-day meeting with your sales manager, discuss any 3-4 points from the following success criteria:

• Clear and optimized prospecting list in use — Mandatory
• Daily schedule established for prospecting, following up and staying on top of everything else — Mandatory
• Become a solid member of the team — Mandatory
• Had at least one round of feedback on performance from the sales manager
• Closed at least a couple of deals without too much babysitting from others
• Foot in the door with a couple of exciting key accounts

And that’s it! That’s how you create a solid 30-60-90 day sales plan.

Mistakes To Avoid When Creating a 30-60-90 day sales plan

The whole point of creating a 30-60-90 day sales plan is to give you a clear direction in your new sales role. But there are a few errors that may make it less effective…

Mistake 1: Not Including Success Measurement

We get it: you don’t want to make promises you can’t keep. But not including specific ways of measuring your success on your sales business plan is a huge red flag that may cause your sales manager to question your capabilities. 

You must be willing to put your money where your mouth is. So make sure you include measurable success criteria for each section of your 30-60-90 day sales plan.

Mistake 2: Making an Ambiguous Plan 

Planning is about being specific and granular. 

If you’re going to be ambiguous, your plan isn’t going to inspire confidence in your new sales leadership role and may fall flat.

Sales managers want to see numbers and progress towards a target rather than vague business strategy and generic sales plans.

Mistake 3: Lack of Sales Manager Follow-ups

Similar to how following up is necessary to win deals, holding meetings with your sales manager is important for improving your 30-60-90 day sales plan and self-improvement. Don’t forget to schedule meetings with your sales manager at the 30, 60, and 90-day points to review your progress and ask for advice on your sales process.

30 60 90 Day Sales Plan Template

As promised, right click and save as to download your 30 60 90 day sales plan template . This free template will take you through the process of creating a sales plan.

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30 Common Sales Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them

Published: April 29, 2024

Sales job interview questions tend to cover several angles — and for good reason. Sales roles are multifaceted, and a successful career in the field requires a wide range of skills, a certain disposition, ambition, a growth mindset, and a host of other key attributes and tendencies.

You can‘t address all of those elements with a short, cookie-cutter list of four or five universally telling questions, so there’s not really a definitive guide for how to interview for a sales job. That being said, there are certain themes you can draw from to prepare.

To help you get there, we've compiled a list of common sales job interview questions that can help set you on the right course along with insight on how to answer them with or without experience, go over a few questions you can ask to impress your interviewer, and some interview preparation tips. Let's dive in.

Sales Interview Questions and Answers

• 'What do you know about our company?'
• 'Tell me a bit more about yourself.'
• 'Give me an overview of your career to date.'
• 'What are your short- to mid-term career goals?'
• 'How do you generate, develop, and close sales opportunities?'
• 'What do you consider your most significant sales achievement to date?'
• 'Tell me about a time that you failed to achieve goals you set. What went wrong and how could the outcome have been different?'
• 'Why are you interested in this company? Why are you interested in this role?'
• 'Consider a time when you haven't gotten along with someone on your team. What would that person say about you?'
• 'How do you keep up with the latest industry trends in sales?'
• 'Tell me about the toughest sale you've ever made.'
• 'Have you ever had to break up with a client or prospect? How did you approach that?'
• 'Why are you interested in sales?'
• 'Do you consider yourself a team player?'
• 'In what ways do you build rapport with customers?'
• 'What do you do when sales are down?'
• 'How do you handle rejection?'
• 'How do you ensure customer satisfaction after you've made a sale?'
• 'Do you believe in aggressive follow-up in sales — potentially running the risk of alienating a prospect?'
• 'How do you feel about the use of artificial intelligence in sales, particularly as it relates to potential job displacement?'
• Can you tell me about a time when you turned a no into a yes?'
• 'How do you stay motivated during slow periods or in the face of repeated rejection?'
• 'How do you ensure you meet or exceed your sales targets?'
• 'Describe a time when you had to sell a product or service that was new to you. How did you approach the challenge, and what was the outcome?'
• 'What digital tools and technologies do you believe are changing the sales landscape, and how have you leveraged them in your process?'
• 'What is the most common objection you anticipate hearing from customers in this industry/sector, and how would you overcome it?'
• 'Are you comfortable making cold calls? What is your strategy or approach to get the most value out of cold calls?'
• 'How do you view the relationship between sales, marketing, and advertising? Do you think it's important to align marketing and sales efforts, and if so, what are some successful approaches to do so?'
• 'How do you adapt your sales techniques in a rapidly evolving digital landscape?'
• 'Describe a scenario where you had to build a relationship online with a potential lead?'

1. “What do you know about our company?”

Why they're asking.

This question helps interviewers gauge your levels of preparation and interest. They want to know that you're enthusiastic about working for their company not specifically — not just the idea of working in general.

Employees who care about the businesses they work for are more likely to remain engaged and actively contribute to a company‘s culture and their team’s dynamic. By asking this, they‘re trying to get a read on whether you’ll be a team player who believes in their organization's mission or someone who might potentially “phone it in” and ultimately fall off shortly after taking the job.

How to Answer

Start by reading the organization's website and the Wikipedia entry if applicable, then search the company name on Google to read what others are saying about it.

Concisely summarize what you learned about the organization’s solutions, who it serves, who it competes with, and what industry analysts, employees, and other interested parties say about it. Finally, repeat these steps with the company’s top three competitors.

Sample Answer

“I’ve been very familiar with your company’s innovative solutions like X. I see the value it provides your target market of Y, and how it has done so against competitors Z.”

2. “Tell me a bit more about yourself.”

This question helps your prospective employer get a read on your ability to communicate and appropriately balance personal and professional information. It doubles as a chance to get a feel for both who you are as a person and an opportunity to see how well you can comfortably build rapport without being overly casual.

As I said, this question is supposed to incorporate elements of both your personal and professional lives — so make sure you touch on each without getting too hung up on one in particular. Start with an interesting personal tidbit. Then, talk about why you are pursuing a sales career in general, and finish by discussing why you're interested in this particular company.

“Well off the clock I am deeply in love with my X hobby, I’ve done it for years and enjoy it with my friends and family! And professionally, I’ve been a salesperson for Y years as I have a passion for Z, which led me to find your company that aligns with my interests.”

3. “Give me an overview of your career to date.”

A career retrospective highlights your ability to communicate while speaking to the logic and rationale of your career choices. It also allows you to tout some of your more impressive accomplishments.

Start with your first professional job — not your first job ever. Nobody wants to hear about how you worked as a camp counselor as a teenager. From there, briefly about what you learned from each successive role.

Don’t forget to touch on what attracted you to each new opportunity, culminating in the one you are currently interviewing for. Frame each job change in terms of striving for something greater, not in terms of running away from a crummy manager or company.

“I got my foot in the door in sales at X company, which gave me the foundation I needed to develop Y skills. I then found the opportunity to progress with Z company, where I was able to build on what I had already learned and excel in…”

4. “What are your short- to mid-term career goals?”

Effective goal-setting is the mark of a clear-thinking, motivated worker. It's essential in the context of both fulfilling day-to-day responsibilities and staying the course throughout your development within an organization.

An interviewer wants to know that you'll remain organized, engaged, and ambitious throughout your tenure at their company — this question gives them the chance to see that.

Before your interview, talk to a few people who are where you would like to be and ask if your stated goals strike a healthy balance between high-minded and achievable.

Then, when you talk to the hiring manager, briefly describe your goals and hone in on why you want to achieve them — your driving motivations and where you think achieving these goals could take you in the next few years.

“My short-term goal is to X, as I want to outdo myself in Y motivations, This will help me build up the skills I need to achieve my long-term goal of Z and reach new heights.”

5. “How do you generate, develop, and close sales opportunities?”

Shockingly enough, if you're interviewing for a sales position, you need to demonstrate that you have legitimate sales acumen. Interviewers want to know that you have the requisite skills to deliver on your responsibilities — cultural fit can only get you so far if you lack the technical ability to actually make sales.

Talk specifically about how you execute a sale from start to finish. Address planning, preparation, targeting, engaging, discovering needs, providing solutions, resolving objections, and gaining agreement. Layout how you tackle each of these tasks step by step.

“I begin to generate sales opportunities by X through calculated preparation and client targeting. I develop opportunities by listening to the needs of the customer and working on providing the most appropriate resolution. I close sales opportunities by gaining the customer’s trust in both the product and me until we reach a positive agreement.”

6. “What do you consider your most significant sales achievement to date?”

This question is where interviewers allow you to make a meaningful impression. They want to know that you‘ve been able to apply your skills effectively to legitimately impressive ends. They’re also looking to see how well you can identify the challenges you've faced and articulate the strategies you leveraged to overcome them.

Specificity is key here. People remember richly detailed stories of success. When fleshing out your crowning achievement, talk about the time, the specific obstacles you overcame, the people involved with the process, the steps you took to achieve the end result, and what happened afterward. Everyone loves a good sales story, so the more you can amp up the drama, the better.

“I had been trying to find new avenues to explore, and after putting myself out there and traveling to more events, making more calls, and building relationships with people around the world, I landed a six-figure sale to a corporation on a lead that I sourced myself!”

7. “Tell me about a time that you failed to achieve goals you set. What went wrong and how could the outcome have been different?”

Successful salespeople learn from their mistakes. They're able to deal with failure by critically analyzing their shortcomings, taking them in stride, and not making the same errors twice.

Knowing how to handle failure is every bit as important as understanding how to succeed. Hitting hitches and hiccups is a natural part of sales life, interviewers want to know that you'll be able to effectively overcome obstacles without getting overwhelmed, demoralized, or confused.

Be honest here, and clearly spell out one of your failures. Start with the goal you were pursuing, and then elaborate on why it was important to you, how you tried to achieve it, why you failed, who was involved, what you learned, and what you would have done differently.

“When I was first beginning my career, I wasn’t able to meet quota for deals in the X industry. I took a step back to get to the root of the problem and found out I was targeting the wrong demographic in terms of age and occupation. I learned that I needed to conduct deeper research with data and have kept that way of thinking at the forefront of my strategy today.”

8. “Why are you interested in this company? Why are you interested in this role?”

In a similar vein to the first point on this list, this question is meant to gauge how enthusiastic you are about the interviewer's company specifically — an enthusiastic employee is an engaged one.

And they‘re much more likely to go the extra mile when push comes to shove. They want to know that you’re a good fit. If you can‘t specifically articulate why that’s the case, then they'll probably pass on you.

While you're researching the company and role, make a list of what excites you about both. Do you believe in the work the company does? Explain why. Are you interested in expanding your skillset to include the enterprise-level business they conduct? Tell them that. Does the role play to your strengths? Explain which strengths and how.

Even if your interviewer doesn‘t ask you this question, it’s a strong way to begin or end your meeting.

“I’ve always been fascinated by this industry and how your company has made such an innovative solution for its customers. It would be a pleasure to learn more about the different types of solutions you offer and to contribute to the success of your company through my skill set. I would revel in the opportunity to learn more about it all and grow within this position.”

9. “Consider a time when you haven't gotten along with someone on your team. What would that person say about you?”

Salespeople are passionate. It‘s a high-stress field and employers want to know you have self-awareness and the ability to work as part of a team. If you can’t effectively contribute to a team dynamic, collaborate with others, and thoughtfully resolve conflicts with coworkers, you‘re more or less doomed to detract from your sales org’s success.

Be honest with this answer, and give specific examples that have a clear resolution in the end. Hiring managers don’t want candidates who can't take responsibility or are too prideful to resolve conflict.

“In my last role, I worked closely with a BDR with a very different communication style than my own. We clashed early on because I'm an external thought processor and he was an internal processor. Ultimately, we took some time together to work out ways he could be more explicit in articulating his ideas and how I could be more grounded in hearing him and offering feedback.”

10. “How do you keep up with the latest industry trends in sales?”

This question is a way to help interviewers get a feel for how passionate you are about sales as a whole — an opportunity to see that you‘re in the field because you want to be, not just because you’re trying to make money. Keeping up with industry trends demonstrates motivation, sincere interest, and a commitment to growth and professional development.

If you‘re not reading the latest industry books, listening to sales podcasts, or following the hottest blogs, how are you keeping your skills sharp? Always come armed with a few ways you’re learning about and bettering your craft.

“I stay in the loop on sales trends in many ways. I’m always reading the trending topics circulating my favorite business publications, and engaging in the conversation over LinkedIn. I even have a growing collection of sales success literature.”

11. “Tell me about the toughest sale you've ever made.”

Interviewers ask this question to give you the chance to tout a major accomplishment, articulate your problem-solving skills, demonstrate critical thinking, and show how you've leveraged the skills you learned throughout your professional development.

They also want to see passion here. You‘re talking about something you’re extremely proud of, they'd like to see some enthusiasm that will carry over when you take on your new role.

Every salesperson has that one sale that took a year to close, went through 37 levels of bureaucracy, or required them to win over a whole team that wanted a different product. Tell that story — and get specific. Talk about how much time you devoted to the sale and how you justified that time.

You want to demonstrate how you thought strategically about your time and your company's resources — not how much time you wasted closing a small deal. So make sure that the deal in question had a big payout.

“There was a time when I pitched my business to a gentleman at a networking event, I wasn’t there originally to do so, but couldn’t help but overhear that he was having troubles with X in his business … After hours of deliberation, exchanging business cards, holding multiple meetings over the span of months, I landed the largest deal of my career with a major company in my Y years of work!”

12. “Have you ever had to break up with a client or prospect? How did you approach that?”

This question sheds light on your capacity for empathy, assertiveness, strategic thinking, and communication skills. It lets interviewers know that you have a good feel for when it's time to cut your losses with prospects, the confidence to act on that sensibility, and the necessary touch to end relationships amicably and thoughtfully.

Breaking up with prospects is not for the faint of heart — but it‘s a necessary part of sales. It shows you’re confident in your ability to work on other deals, cognizant of what‘s best for your customer, and fierce about protecting your company’s resources.

Identify an instance where a relationship with a prospect or client didn‘t pan out. Establish exactly why they weren’t a good fit, and highlight the moment you realized that was the case. Then, speak to how you communicated with them calmly but assertively, ended the relationship gracefully without burning the bridge, and benefitted from moving on.

“There have been times when the product offering had no longer aligned with a client. While I want to meet the quota, I know when a product isn’t the right fit for a customer. I would weigh all options before coming to the conclusion, and would respectfully communicate that they would need to explore other avenues.”

13. “Why are you interested in sales?”

Like a few other questions listed here, this one helps interviewers gauge how much skin you have in the game. They want to know you have an extremely personal stake in what you do — that you approach your career with passion and sincere interest.

With this question, they‘re allowing you to show that you’ll bring solid energy to the position. If you can‘t articulate why you like sales, they might think you’re pursuing the position for the wrong reasons.

Be sincere. You obviously have a reason why you got into sales — and that should extend beyond, “I wanted to make money.” Start with how you got into the field. Then, explain why you've enjoyed it enough to stick with your career trajectory.

Talk about how your personality and skill set align with sales as a practice — but also discuss the specific aspects you love about both your day-to-day and overarching goals.

“I was inspired to work in sales because it’s a profession where hard work and problem-solving pay off. I enjoy the challenge of making a deal and feel accomplished when I provide a customer with the solution they’re looking for.”

14. “Do you consider yourself a team player?”

Team players can achieve their own goals while supporting and uplifting those around them to do the same. After all, hiring managers want to bring on candidates who boost the morale of the team — not damage it.

This question is to gauge how well you’ll work with and around others in the business place, and if you’re against that notion then they know someone else will be more willing.

Assure the interviewer that you can successfully work both in a team and alone. You want them to know that you’re open and inviting to work with a team, but not overly dependent or needing their help constantly.

You can even bring up positive past experiences of team projects that you found to be enriching to your work experience.

“Yes, I enjoy working in a team environment that encourages one another to reach new heights. I can flourish in a role working both alone or in a team, as in my latest experience, I have performed well in either.”

15. “In what ways do you build rapport with customers?”

This question is very straightforward and very important to the sales hiring manager. They’re asking to see if you already have a reliable sales approach that helps you build rapport, or a connection, with prospects.

If you already have some sales experience listed on your resume, the interviewer will definitely be expecting an answer that you shouldn’t have to take too much time to reach.

Answer their question by explaining that you build rapport with customers through personalized, unique, and appropriate conversation. You want the interviewer to know that you see the value in offering customers good experiences and that you can do so in a professional manner that they’ll respect.

No customer is the same, and knowing how to build rapport with diverse customers is music to a sales hiring manager’s ears.

“Every customer is different, so to ensure that I can build relationships with them, I would personalize my approach to their unique needs, and hold conversations that are inviting and appropriate as we conduct business.”

16. “What do you do when sales are down?”

Being in sales means that not every month is going to be the most profitable, the hiring manager wants to know how you identify and approach this problem when it occurs.

They’re looking to make sure that you have a plan in place and an attitude that reflects that you won’t give up or dwell on the setback.

Tell the interviewer that you would make a strategic plan to come back from the slump. Provide the ways you would track your own progress, and how you would weigh your benchmark against it.

“When sales go down, I don’t panic. Instead, I take a step back and make a strategic plan to reach more customers, with a different approach. I would calculate how far I am from my benchmark and re-evaluate my plan as needed.”

You’re familiar with the most common questions an interviewer will ask you, but how do you answer them when you’re new to the industry?

17. “How do you handle rejection?”

Rejection is a fact of sales life. It‘s something you’re bound to deal with on (at least) a near-daily basis. Interviewers want to know that you have the composure and wherewithal to handle these kinds of experiences and gauge your willingness to learn from them.

I recommend that any salesperson who's asked this question be as frank as possible about it. Demonstrate that you understand how rejection plays a key role in both putting the customer first and developing as a sales professional. Also, shed light on some experiences you might have had with it — no salesperson bats 1.000, and social proof goes a long way in this context.

Just saying something to the effect of, “I just keep moving,” and leaving it at that will read as arrogant and shortsighted.

"On some level, I take rejection personally — as anyone does — but I try to frame it as a growth opportunity more than some sort of spite-powered motivation tactic. It means there‘s something I could’ve done better, so I try to sit with any rejection a bit to diagnose what it was.

"For instance, in my last role, I was selling construction project management software to a midsize outfit. I ultimately couldn't close due to budget constraints that came up last minute. That experience really taught me the value of active listening and highlighting cost-effectiveness and flexible pricing options throughout the sales process.

“If I had listened more intently, I might have caught those concerns earlier and either conveyed how we could accommodate them or known not to sink more time into the deal earlier in the sales process.”

18. “How do you ensure customer satisfaction after you've made a sale?”

Happy customers are some of the most valuable assets any business can have on hand. Referrals drive some of the highest quality leads, and testimonials from satisfied customers provide some of the most effective social proof for supporting sales efforts. Interviewers want to know that you know how to play your part when it comes to keeping customers on board and enthusiastic.

Establish that you understand how important key metrics like CLV and customer referrals are. Then, stress how you act on that understanding through activities like following up after closing and facilitating smooth transitions to your customer success department.

"Generally speaking, I ensure customer satisfaction after a sale with some key strategies — namely setting reasonable expectations throughout the sales process, remaining diligent with follow-up both during and after a deal, reasonably assisting customer success and support when I'm able to, and actively seeking and incorporating feedback from customers.

“Taken together, those elements allow me to start and sustain productive relationships with the prospects I convert.”

19. “Do you believe in aggressive follow-up in sales — potentially running the risk of alienating a prospect?”

This kind of question is meant to get a pulse on two key elements: your ethical standards and your willingness to be persistent.

Personally, I would recommend not dancing around this question and giving some kind of waffling, reluctant “non-answer.” You likely have a take on this — be measured, but don‘t be dishonest. It’s a pulse check on whether you‘ll fit into this sales org’s culture. Going in halfway doesn't help anyone involved in the interview.

"It‘s likely a case-by-case basis, but if a deal calls for it, I’m willing to err on the side of persistence. Obviously, the first priority is solving for the customer — but if a deal is stalled and it‘s going to take extra oomph to either move it forward or learn it’s not viable, I'll be more aggressive.

“I do think there's a distinction between persistence and badgering — but I'm not someone who will sit on their hands, waiting by the phone for a prospect. I'm willing to follow up tactfully but assertively.”

20. “How do you feel about the use of artificial intelligence in sales, particularly as it relates to potential job displacement?”

This is another question designed to help understand your ethical compass. It's also an opportunity for you to show you understand timely trends and have a willingness to adapt to them as they emerge.

A question like this is a pulse check on your adaptability — so I would answer it by demonstrating how you're willing and able to incorporate emerging tech into your sales repertoire.

" Artificial intelligence is one of the more valuable resources salespeople have at their disposal — especially when it comes to automation, data analysis, and personalization. There are obviously reasonable concerns about job displacement, but I try to see AI as a complement rather than a replacement to human sales professionals.

“By leveraging AI, salespeople can focus more on strategic relationship-building, creativity, and problem-solving — and embracing AI responsibly with ongoing training and upskilling ensures that sales teams can adapt and thrive in an evolving technological landscape.”

21. “Can you tell me about a time when you turned a 'no' into a 'yes?'”

Vit Koval , Co-founder of Globy , says, “This question reveals not just the candidate's persistence but also their strategy and creativity in handling objections.”

According to Koval, “A strong answer would detail a specific situation, the approach taken, and the outcome, highlighting the candidate's persuasive skills and resilience.”

"During my stint at a construction project management software company, I once encountered a scenario where a small construction firm was reluctant to embrace our solution due to budget constraints and concerns about complexity. Understanding their needs, I tailored a personalized demo focusing on cost-saving features and our user-friendly interface, addressing their specific pain points.

"Additionally, I offered a flexible payment plan that aligned with their budgetary constraints. Through persistent follow-ups, showcasing success stories of similar firms, and providing exceptional customer support, I eventually turned their ‘no’ into a ‘yes.’

“This experience taught me the importance of empathy, customization, and perseverance in sales, especially when overcoming objections and converting leads into satisfied customers.”

22. “How do you stay motivated during slow periods or in the face of repeated rejection?”

Koval also likes this question. According to him, “Sales roles can be challenging, and this question helps understand a candidate's self-motivation and resilience.”

Koval continues, “An effective response would describe specific strategies or mindsets the candidate employs to remain focused and productive, even when times are tough. It's an opportunity for candidates to showcase their emotional intelligence and tenacity.”

"During slow periods or in the face of repeated rejection, I try to set realistic goals and focus on self-improvement. Rejection is natural in sales — it's built into the job, so I do my best to simultaneously take those periods in stride and learn what I can from them.

"I take these stretches as opportunities for personal analysis and growth. For instance, if I notice I'm being tripped up by a lack of product knowledge, I lock in and research my offering more extensively. I also take strides like revisiting my sales calls with conversation intelligence to zero in on where I might be slipping up.

“Ultimately, I just try to be proactive in identifying and remedying the 'why' behind these stretches without getting too demoralized. I think some periods where I dealt with consistent rejection wound up being some of the most productive times of my career — as they prompted me to be more self-aware and active in improving my sales acumen.”

23. “How do you ensure you meet or exceed your sales targets?”

Koval also referenced this question when we asked for his take on this subject. He says, “This question gets to the heart of a candidate's goal-setting and achievement strategies.”

Koval says, “Successful candidates typically share their process for setting goals, tracking progress, and adjusting tactics as needed. They might also discuss the importance of understanding customer needs deeply, demonstrating product knowledge, and building strong relationships, both internally and externally.”

"I start by setting SMART goals aligned with the company's objectives and market trends when trying to meet or exceed sales targets. Then, I track my progress using the KPIs the org is most interested in — allowing me to identify areas for improvement and make strategic adjustments as needed.

"From there, I take a customer-centric approach — listening actively, coming to understand where prospects are coming from individually, and focusing on relationship-building. Ultimately, I look to act as a helpful, consultative resource through the sales process.

“This approach — combined with continuous learning and collaboration across teams — enables me to develop connections with customers, focus on relevant product knowledge, and ultimately frame specific, helpful value propositions. All of that amounts to me generally exceeding sales targets.”

24. “Describe a time when you had to sell a product or service that was new to you. How did you approach the challenge, and what was the outcome?”

Marc Bishop , Director of Wytlabs , says that this question can speak to a candidate's adaptability and quick learning.

He says, “Successful candidates will talk about their process for getting up to speed with the new offering, including how they identified key value propositions and tailored their pitch to meet their audience's needs. The most compelling answers will also reflect on what they learned from the experience and how it influenced their future sales tactics.”

"In a previous role at a company selling construction project management software, I shifted verticals to larger construction firms and was tasked with selling an offering I wasn't familiar with.

"I started to adapt by getting a pulse on the new persona I was working with — that gave me a frame of reference for the pain points I would need to speak to, along with the features best equipped to accommodate them.

"I also developed more extensive technical product knowledge and unique selling points. Additionally, I conducted extensive market research to get a sense of the competitive landscape.

"Ultimately, I worked to get as much context as possible that would help me identify the ‘why’ behind the typical prospect‘s purchase decision. The outcome was positive as I secured several new clients and received positive feedback on the software’s effectiveness in meeting their needs.

“This experience taught me the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and customer-centric selling — shaping my future sales tactics to focus on personalized solutions and value-driven propositions.”

25. “What digital tools and technologies do you believe are changing the sales landscape, and how have you leveraged them in your process?”

Bishop says that this question can reveal a candidate's tech-savviness and innovative mindset.

He says, “The ideal response would not just list tools but also describe how they've been utilized effectively to enhance productivity, improve customer engagement, or increase sales. Whether it's CRM software, social media platforms, or data analytics tools, we want to hear about real-world applications that demonstrate a candidate's ability to harness technology for sales success.”

"When it comes to new tech, I try to adopt early and adapt thoroughly. If my org is embracing a new resource, or I happen upon a tool that I can apply personally, I'm always willing to learn and embrace it.

“For instance, at my last company, my org made a significant investment in a conversation intelligence platform. I immediately learned how to leverage it — getting a sense of how I could share the kinds of insights that could improve our org's messaging with leadership and identifying where I had room for improvement.”

26. “What is the most common objection you anticipate hearing from customers in this industry/sector, and how would you overcome it?”

Matt Erhard , Managing Partner of Summit Search Group , asks this question when he‘s "looking for candidates to demonstrate an understanding of the product or service that they’ll be selling in the role, what customers' pain points will be regarding it, and what will motivate them to make a purchase."

According to Erhard, “It's best when candidates have experience in the industry, or selling a similar product or service, and can craft their answer based on this first-hand experience.”

27. “Are you comfortable making cold calls? What is your strategy or approach to get the most value out of cold calls?”

Erhard is also a fan of this question, saying, “Cold calling is the part of sales that people tend to like the least, but it's a necessary part of the role.” He feels that sales candidates should be able to speak to how they approach the less glamorous aspects of sales.

Erhard continues, “The first thing I'm looking for in an answer is that the candidate understands the importance of cold calls and, ideally, has some experience making them. I also want to hear them mention ways they build relationships during these calls and set themselves up to make follow-up calls, which is often when these sales are closed.”

28. “How do you view the relationship between sales, marketing, and advertising? Do you think it's important to align marketing and sales efforts, and if so, what are some successful approaches to do so?”

According to Erhard , “In my experience, sales teams function best when they see themselves as integral, connected parts of the broader team. It's also been my experience that sales teams are more prone to 'silo'-ing than other departments in an organization, and this can disrupt the cohesiveness of your brand messaging and overall operational efficiency.”

“I'm looking for candidate answers to this question to focus on areas like collaboration, communication, and cohesion of both the team and the company's messaging.”

"Aligning sales‘, marketing’s, and advertising's respective goals and interests is mission critical when it comes to optimizing results across the board — namely when it comes to factors like qualification, consistency in company messaging, and establishing reasonable expectations from customers.

“I think getting there starts with creating open lines of communication between departments, collaborating regularly, and consistently sharing feedback. In doing all of that, you can better align on the fronts I mentioned, create a seamless experience throughout the buyer's journey, and ultimately appeal to the prospects your solution fits best.”

29. “How do you adapt your sales techniques in a rapidly evolving digital landscape?”

According to Dylan Cleppe , Co-Founder & CEO of OneStop Northwest LLC , “This question tests a candidate's flexibility and willingness to embrace change — an essential factor in the digital services industry.”

Cleppe says, “Ideal responses reveal a strategic mindset towards continuous learning and experimentation with new digital tools and platforms to stay ahead.”

"At my previous company, I kept pace with digital transformation by staying up-to-date with emerging technologies, market trends, and customer preferences.

“For instance, as the industry shifted towards cloud-based solutions, I shifted my focus to highlight the scalability, accessibility, and cost-efficiency of our software. Additionally, I ”incorporated digital marketing strategies such as targeted email campaigns, social media outreach, and webinars to reach a broader audience and engage prospects at various stages of the sales funnel.

“By continuously evaluating and adjusting my approach based on industry shifts and customer feedback, I ensured that my sales techniques remained effective and aligned with the evolving digital landscape.”

30. “Describe a scenario where you had to build a relationship online with a potential lead?”

Cleppe also says candidates might run into questions like this one. According to him, “In the digital space, the ability to connect and build trust without face-to-face interaction is paramount.”

Cleppe continues, “I look for detailed examples of nurturing online relationships that led to long-term partnerships or sales. This sheds light on their communication skills, patience, and creativity in using virtual platforms to mirror the personal touch traditionally found in direct sales interactions. This balance of technical aptitude and relational prowess has been pivotal in my roles, ensuring we not only reach but genuinely connect with our audience to drive success.”

"At my last company — selling construction project management software to small construction firms — I connected with a prospect via a LinkedIn group dedicated to construction industry trends.

"They were interested in adopting digital solutions but a bit hesitant due to less-than-ideal experiences with previous providers. With those factors in mind, I commented on one of their posts — primarily sharing my expertise but also interspersing some insight about our software.

"That comment sparked a dialogue, and over the following weeks, I nurtured the relationship by sharing collateral like relevant articles and free demos — I also quickly and comprehensively addressed the concerns they raised.

“That degree of personalized attention and focused insight helped me develop the trust and rapport I needed to ultimately facilitate a smooth sales process, close, and foster a productive relationship in the long run.”

How to Answer Sales Interview Questions with No Experience

1. phrase your lack of experience as eagerness to learn and grow..

Everyone has to get their foot in the door somewhere, so make it abundantly clear that you are motivated to learn and grow with their company.

Don’t talk down or apologize for your lack of experience in your interview, instead, phrase it as enthusiasm to become a great salesperson.

• “I’m excited to take on the challenge of being a hard-working salesperson.”
• “I’m eager to learn more sales skills if given the opportunity.”
• I’m ready to take what I’ve learned from my classes and apply it to the real world.”

2. Highlight extracurricular activities you’ve done from your educational background.

Having an educational background in business is definitely a move in the right direction, but if you don’t, talk about activities you’ve participated in that are useful in sales. Some value-adding extracurricular activities include:

• Knowing or studying more than one language : This is a hard skill that sales jobs are constantly looking for, and is especially important for global businesses.
• Holding a leadership position in an organization : This shows that you understand teamwork, have a self-starter attitude, and that you aren’t afraid to take on responsibility.
• Fundraising for a cause : This extracurricular activity shows that you’re proficient in project management, business savvy, and motivated to help others.

3. Talk about transferable skills from your background — no matter the title.

Whether it was paid or unpaid — any experience is preferred. And oftentimes, common jobs, like retail or restaurant positions, teach skills that salespeople need.

Discuss what you’ve learned that has transferable skills for the sales industry. Some skills to pull from your background include:

• Organizational Skills : Time management and the ability to multitask show hiring managers that you have the ability to succeed in sales.
• Communication Skills : Verbal or written, you need to let your interviewer know you can effectively communicate with customers — and even better — if you can talk about how you’ve negotiated or persuaded someone in the workplace.
• Relationship Building Skills : If you’ve worked well in teams, or had a managerial background, then you have valuable relationship-building skills. Demonstrating that you care about people and their needs makes you a more reliable salesperson.

4. Talk about how you have problem-solved in the past.

Problem-solving is something effective salespeople do every day, and if you think about it, you too can bring up a time when you’ve had to problem-solve in your day-to-day life.

Whether it was diffusing a disagreement, fixing a gadget on your own, or coming up with a solution or “life hack”, these are all situations that hiring managers can see that you have critical thinking skills useful for the workplace.

Now that you have a feel for how you should carry yourself in a sales job interview, let's see some questions you can ask to wow your interviewer.

Questions to Ask in a Sales Job Interview

1. “what are the characteristics of your top salespeople”.

This question shows that you‘re interested in seeing if you fit the mold for your interviewer’s company. It demonstrates that you want to know what it takes to thrive in this role on a fundamental level — and the value of that is twofold.

For one, it shows your interviewer that you have a legitimate, personal stake in landing this role. And secondly, it gives you some insight into how you'd fare at the company.

2. “What types of objections do your reps consistently face?”

This question shows you're thinking proactively — that you are already interested in figuring out the challenges that come with the job. It tells the interviewer that you want to understand the day-to-day obstacles your potential colleagues deal with. Like so many other points detailed here, it also helps your interviewer place you in the role mentally.

3. “What are the biggest challenges new hires face in their first three months?”

This question demonstrates specific interest in the company and indicates that you have a growth-oriented mindset. You‘re showing that you’re already interested in assuming and overcoming the challenges salespeople in this role face.

Asking about the obstacles new hires traditionally deal with is an excellent way to tell interviewers, “I'm already thinking about what I'll need to do to thrive at your company.”

4. “Can I get a high-level overview of your sales process?”

Asking about the company‘s sales process shows that you’re a practical thinker. This question shows that you want to understand how you'll be selling and whether your skills and sales acumen align with how the broader org operates. Interviewers will appreciate that kind of brass tacks thoughtfulness.

5. “Can you give me some more information about your tech stack?”

Like the fourth question listed here, this one shows that you‘re interested in the more nuts-and-bolts, practical aspects of the job. By indicating that you want to know which tools you’ll be using, you‘re demonstrating two key pluses for anyone interested in a sales role. First, you’re showing that you already know how to use some sales tools. Second, you‘re revealing that you’re willing to learn how to use tools you might not be familiar with.

In addition to asking interesting questions yourself, you should be preparing for your sales interview in other ways. Below, you'll find our top tips.

How to Prepare for a Sales Interview

• Research the company and the products it sells.
• From there, identify who its target buyer likely is.
• Take stock of your sales achievements.
• Consider how to convey them in a concrete, measurable way.
• Be able to talk about yourself like you would a product or buyer.
• Practice the star interviewing method.
• Compile a list of open-ended questions for the prospective employer.

1. Research the company and the products it sells.

The key to being prepared for a sales interview is understanding the specifics of the job and demonstrating fit. This begins with learning all you can about the opportunity.

Just as you would research a prospect to build rapport, research the company to help you get more easily acquainted with the interviewer. Doing so solidifies how competent and knowledgeable you appear.

2. From there, identify who its target buyer likely is.

Once you‘ve taken a thorough look at the company you’re interviewing with, start to piece together who its target buyer is. Based on its product or service's functionality, the copy on its website, its competition, and other clues, figure out who the business is trying to market to.

Being able to talk about the buyer and their pains demonstrates your empathy and skill as a salesperson — as well as your value to your prospective employer.

3. Take stock of your sales achievements.

Reflecting on your successes can help you build confidence in yourself and get you in the mindset of communicating in detail why you're the right person for the job.

If you‘re just breaking into sales and don’t have sales experience, draw on related skills and achievements. For example, being in customer service may have sharpened your communication and problem-solving skills. Coming from an academic background may have prepared you for the research aspect of prospecting.

Always play to your strengths.

4. Consider how to convey them in a concrete, measurable way.

One way to communicate your achievements is by attaching numbers to them. By using concrete details, you can up-level the quality of your communication, back up your assertions with “proof,” appeal to the logic of the interviewer, and challenge them to imagine themselves in the numbers.

Here's how:

Instead of saying, " I have experience in cold calling ,“ you'd say, ” At my last company, I'd make X cold calls per hour and successfully convert around X% of them into warm leads. "

Instead of saying, " I'm skilled at fundraising ,“ you'd say, ” I fundraised X dollars last year for the [Program Name]. "

5. Be able to talk about yourself the way you would a product or buyer.

An interview is just like a sales meeting. However, instead of persuading a buyer as you sell a product or service, you‘ll be assessed on how well you sell yourself. Consider the company’s pains and what value you can bring to the organization. Doing this will help your interviewer imagine how well you‘ll sell the company’s products or services.

Be able to articulate your goals, motivators, and working style. How well you know yourself and can advocate for yourself will help them imagine you doing the same for their buyers.

6. Practice the STAR interviewing method.

STAR is an effective way to answer interview questions, and it stands for:

This helps you structure your answer in a way that has a narrative or storytelling component while including only the necessary details and outcomes, the result being more comprehensive and understandable communication.

In short, it allows you to get to the point quicker.

7. Compile a list of open-ended questions for your prospective employer.

You definitely want to get a sense of the organization in the interview, but that's not the only reason you should do this as you prepare.

Think of your interview as a sales meeting. Open-ended questions are an important aspect of the “discovery” or "information gathering‘’ aspect of the meeting. You can exercise your active listening skills to pick up on information that can help you in the interview.

At the very least, it gives the interviewer a chance to evaluate your skill at asking questions and imagine you with their prospects.

Now that you know what to do to prepare for the interview, here are some last-minute tips to maximize your chances of landing the job.

Sales Interview Tips

• Concisely summarize what you've learned about the organization’s solutions, who they serve, who they compete with, and what industry experts say about them.
• Explain why you're interested in this company and role.
• Talk very specifically about how you execute your sales role from start to finish.
• Always mention data to back up claims about your past performance.
• Everyone loves a good sales story, so the more you can amp up the drama, the better.
• Be honest about failures, and clearly spell out an example of when you've been challenged and how you moved forward.
• Above all, be prepared and be yourself.

1. Concisely summarize what you‘ve learned about the organization’s solutions, who they serve, who they compete with, and what industry experts say about them.

Demonstrating a healthy understanding of their business and industry shows you've done your homework.

Your interviewers don't expect you to have followed every move their company has made over the past five years, but learning about its largest competitors, what sets it apart in the market, and the accolades it has received will impress them and will distinguish you from other candidates.

2. Explain why you're interested in this company and role.

We touched on this above, but it bears repeating. Take time to really think through this question, and deliver an answer that goes beyond, " You have such a great culture, “ or, ” I think it will be a really great fit. "

Discuss why their product/service resonates with you, what it is about their business model that speaks to a specific skill you've honed, or how you think their sales team can help you grow in a certain area.

3. Talk very specifically about how you execute your sales role from start to finish.

When it comes to discussing your sales performance, go hard on the numbers. Have them ready and explain how you achieved them. Did you exceed your quota three quarters in a row last year? By how much? And how did you do it?

If you can‘t explain how or why you succeeded in your role, it doesn’t really matter what you achieved.

4. Always mention data to back up claims about your past performance.

Similarly, don't just tell interviewers you closed the biggest deal in company history. Tell them how much bigger that deal was, how much time it took to close, and why it was worth it for your company and your quota.

5. Everyone loves a good sales story, so the more you can amp up the drama, the better.

Did you close a deal in the middle of a lake while on vacation in between water ski turns? Tell that story like you‘ve told it a million times. You’re a salesperson, and part of the job is being an outstanding storyteller. Demonstrate these skills to your interviewers by telling your all-time greatest sales stories.

6. Be honest about failures, and clearly spell out an example of when you've been challenged and how you moved forward.

Now's not the time to drag out the old, “I'm a perfectionist, and it frustrated a prospect once,” narrative. Dig deep and show your interviewers you have healthy self-awareness and the ability to learn and proactively move on from your mistakes.

Talk about a time you lost a client because you were so focused on closing a bigger fish — and mention how you've taken those lessons and avoided making the same mistake again.

7. Above all, be prepared and be yourself.

Be unapologetically you in an interview. If you‘re not the loudest voice on the sales floor, don’t pretend to be. If you have a weakness, be honest about it. And if you're especially kick-ass at closing or demos, be honest about that too.

Imposter syndrome is one of the worst traits to carry into an interview. So, just like you‘d be comfortable letting a bad-fit prospect go, enter every interview with the confidence to let this job go if it’s not the right fit for you.

Nail your Next Sales Job Interview

While it’s impossible to anticipate every sales job interview question that could be asked, these examples should prepare you for the most important ones and any derivatives that come from them.

Above all, be prepared and be yourself. Your best interviews and outcomes are ahead of you.

Don't forget to share this post!

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How to create a 30-60-90 day sales plan? [ With template ]

Key takeaways.

• A 30-60-90 day sales plan is a structured roadmap designed to outline specific goals and strategies for achieving sales success within the first three months of a new role or project.
• The first month on the job is crucial, and you should learn about the company, its products, processes, and CRM.
• You start selling in the second month, and you should focus on strategies to achieve your sales quota.
• You should be vocal about ideas to improve team processes starting in the second month.

A 30-60-90 day sales plan is like finding the best route to success in your sales job, especially when you consider that 80% of all sales are made by just 20% of salespeople. 

This statistic highlights the importance of solid strategy and being part of a top-performing group. 

With the right plan, you can organize your first three months with clear steps and aim to hit your sales targets. This plan is great for anyone starting a new sales job, looking to improve, or preparing for a job interview. 

We’re here to guide you on how to make a 30-60-90 day sales plan that works for you. 

We’ll also cover the benefits, explain when it’s best to implement this plan, and guide you through building your own 30-60-90 day sales plan with the help of free templates and examples. 

• What is a 30-60-90 day sales plan? 

Benefits of a 30-60-90 day sales plan 

Things to know before creating a 30-60-90 days sales plan, how to create a 30-60-90-day sales plan.

• Checklist for 30-60-90 day sales plan 
• 30-60-90 day sales plan template free 
• 30-60-90 day sales plan examples 

Mistakes to avoid while creating a 30-60-90 day sales plan 

• Best practices: Use software to create and track a 30-60-90 day plan 

What is a 30-60-90 day sales plan?  

A 30-60-90 day sales plan is a clear course of action for the first three months of your new sales job. By strategizing and setting goals, you can transition smoothly or stress-free into the new organization as a sales rep. 

With this plan in action, you’ll be on the right track from the very first day. A well-thought 30-60-90 day sales plan helps you get off the ground and make a good first impression. 

Besides, your sales manager will be able to see how you are planning to move ahead in the organization and adapt to the new role. It gives your manager an idea of your first 30-60-90 days in the company. 

It is your golden chance to get in the good books of your sales managers. Your enthusiasm toward your new role and self-learning attitude can help you earn your manager’s confidence and trust. 

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. – Robert Collier 

Incorporating a 30-60-90 day sales plan offers numerous advantages for sales professionals and managers. 

Below are the 6 reasons why a 30-60-90 day sales plan is important- 

1. Efficient new rep onboarding  

A 30-60-90 day sales plan is a foundational blueprint for onboarding and training processes.  

This ensures new sales reps are systematically introduced to the company’s sales strategies, techniques, and critical accounts. 

This structured approach accelerates the new hire’s ability to understand the target market and the company’s mission, enabling them to contribute effectively to the sales goals from an early stage. 

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2. Defined goals & metrics  

By breaking the plan down into 30-day segments, sales professionals and managers can set clear, achievable goals. 

This clarity helps measure success or progress, allowing for timely adjustments in sales strategies and efforts to ensure the sales targets are met or exceeded, thus enhancing sales performance across the board. 

3. Enhanced sales strategy development  

The 30-60-90 day plan for sales executives and managers facilitates a deeper understanding of the sales territory, including competition and critical clients. 

This period of analysis and adjustment helps to develop refined sales strategies that align with the market needs and company goals, ensuring a more robust sales process or better sales results. 

4. Fast track to new territory success  

For sales managers entering new sales territories, the 30-60-90 day sales plan offers a systematic approach to understanding and conquering the market. 

By setting specific objectives for learning, applying, or optimizing sales strategies, sales managers can achieve quicker success in new territories, establish key connections, and secure exciting key accounts more efficiently. 

5. Better team cohesion  

Implementing a 30-60-90 plan for managers ensures that all team members, including direct reports and other sales professionals, are aligned with the team’s goals and sales efforts. 

Regular sales meetings to review progress against the plan foster open communication, ensuring everyone is on the same page and working cohesively towards common objectives. 

6. Preparation for sales manager interviews  

For individuals interviewing for sales manager positions, preparing a 30-60-90 day sales plan for interview showcases strategic thinking, initiative, and a commitment to contributing to the company’s success from day one.  

It signals to the hiring manager that the candidate is proactive about their sales role and possesses a solid strategy to make an immediate impact, distinguishing them from other candidates.  

Integrating these benefits into a sales strategy makes the onboarding process more efficient and establishes a clear roadmap for sales professionals and managers to follow. This leads to enhanced sales performance, better team unity, and the successful achievement of sales goals. 

Entering a new sales territory is like migrating to a foreign country. A 30-60-90 day sales plan can be your GPS to move in the right direction and understand your target market. 

It’s important to immerse yourself in the company’s culture, understand its products, and get to grips with the sales CRM .  

Building strong relationships early on and understanding what the team and management expect from you will give you a competitive edge. All this effort lays the groundwork for success. 

Before developing your 30-60-90 sales plan, here is what you must do. 

1. Do your research  

Before you start your 30-60-90-day sales plan, it’s crucial to understand your job. 

This means knowing the sales targets you need to hit, how the company likes to sell its stuff ( sales process ), and what everyone expects you to achieve. 

Think of this step as setting up your GPS in the vast world of sales. 

By knowing your destination and the path, you can chart out a plan that gets you there smoothly, making sure every goal you set is something that moves you and the company forward. 

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose. – Zora Neale Hurston   

2. Be realistic  

Be realistic and honest while creating the 30-60-90 day sales plan. No one knows your limits or capabilities better than you. So only include things that you will be able to do. Do not write things only to impress the sales manager. You must do something you’ve written to satisfy your manager. 

So, ponder over your strengths and weaknesses. Find out what you can do, align it with the management’s expectations as well as the goals of your sales team, and then create the sales plan. 

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3. Stay focused

The journey will seem difficult initially, but if you stay focused, you can succeed. It would help if you did all it takes to prove that the company didn’t make any wrong decisions by hiring you. 

Starve your distractions. Feed your focus – Anonymous

Your journey won’t end when you only create the sales plan. You’ll have even to execute it successfully. For that, you need to be focused throughout the 90-day plan. Your management should be able to see that you are capable of self-management and achieving goals. 

Creating a 30-60-90 day sales plan is a strategic step toward ensuring success in your sales role. 

It’s about setting clear intentions and aligning your efforts with broader team objectives. The first 90-day plan is crucial. 

And here is how you can do that. 

1. Define goals during the first week of the job  

Start by setting specific, achievable goals within your first week.  

This could involve understanding the sales process, getting to know your sales team and manager, and beginning to familiarize yourself with your sales territory.

This one step- Choosing a goal and sticking to it – changes everything – Scott Reed

Your initial goals in the 30-60-90 day sales plan should include learning about the company’s products or services, the target market, and key accounts. 

Establishing these foundational goals early sets the stage for a successful ramp-up period, ensuring you’re ready to hit the ground running. 

2. Make sure your goals align with the team’s goals

It’s crucial that your objectives within the 30-60-90 day sales plan not only serve your personal growth but also contribute to the team’s broader sales targets. 

Engage with your sales leadership and peers to understand the team’s goals and how your role fits into the broader sales strategy.  

Unity is strength… When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. – Mattie Stepanek

This alignment ensures that as you work towards your milestones, you actively support the team’s efforts towards achieving shared objectives, enhancing overall sales performance. 

3. Be clear about your priorities

With numerous tasks and goals, clarity on your priorities is essential. 

In the 30 60 90 day business plan, define which objectives are most critical in each phase—starting with onboarding or training processes, advancing to deeper engagement, and eventually focusing on closing deals or expanding your sales territory. 

Prioritizing tasks will help you manage your time effectively, ensuring you’re focusing on activities that drive the most value for your role and the sales team. 

Checklist for 30-60-90 day sales plan  

Starting a new sales job means adapting to a new environment where what worked before might not work now. 

Each company is unique, with its goals and ways of doing things. It’s essential to go slow at first, learn about the company and build a strong foundation. 

This approach is essential for creating a successful 30-60-90 day sales plan that guides you through learning, fitting in, and finally, excelling in your new role. 

Below is the checklist for the 30-60-90 days sales plan that you can create- 

1. Checklist for 30 day sales plan  

The first month of any new job is crucial, as this is where you’ll get acquainted with the company and its process. So, here’s how you can get a headstart on your job – 

• Once you’ve completed onboarding and training, study the company’s vision and mission. Then, visit its website and social media pages. 
• Invest time in understanding the company’s history, work culture, strategic business plan, and success. 
• Study the market and ongoing sales trends.
• Analyze the competitors and their strengths as well as weaknesses. 
• Review all the written material like brochures, blogs, industry publications, and other content. 
• Meet the product team and understand every point (why the product was developed, sole motive, features, functionality, value, propositions, etc.). 
• Meet with the manager to understand the sales priorities, goals, and current issues. 
• Familiarize yourself with the sales methodologies and sales process followed by the team.  
• Study the ideal customer persona(Find out what the best fit company looks like and who should be targeted in the prospect’s company, i.e., decision maker) 
• Study the case studies of satisfied customers and find out how the product helped the customer. 
• Get familiarized with the past customers and the few key accounts the sales teams are working on. 
• Schedule a meeting with the top performers to understand how they approach sales. 
• Shadow your teammates and listen to how they conduct sales calls.  
• Listen to the sales call recorded by the top performers and note the phrases, rapport-building techniques, and closing strategies they use. 
• Learn how long it takes to convert a deal into sales and which steps are involved. 
• Take training on using CRM and other tools used by the sales team.  
• Analyze the new role and responsibilities and your current skills, and identify what new things you’ll need to learn. 
• Spend time with the marketing and customer support team to understand how they function. 

2. Checklist for 60 days sales plan  

In any company, the first month goes into learning and adapting to the surrounding environments. In the second month, you face the real challenges when you get on the field and start selling. 

So the second month should be planned carefully. The real battle starts when you get the quota and need to strategize to achieve the sales quota . You must begin contributing to your sales team’s growth from the second month. Voice your thoughts and give ideas to improve the team’s processes. 

During 31- 60 days, you must connect and develop relationships with prospective buyers and other sales professionals. In the second month, explore your sales CRM and enter details.  

Developing weekly personal goals during this period can help you stay on track. Even teaming up with coworkers for mock calls can help boost your confidence and prepare you for future sales challenges. 

Below is the checklist for the second-month sales plan that you can create. 

• Have a mock call session with the team. 
• Create milestones that must be achieved to create value for the company. 
• Create a clear sales workflow map. 
• Strategize outbound activities. 
• Enter data into CRM and explore its various features.  
• Explore multiple sales channels for connecting with prospects. 
• Create sales email templates and save them in the CRM simultaneously.  
• Collect sales leads and plan them for the week.  
• Evaluate leads against the buyer persona.  
• Prepare for prospecting calls. 
• Research and collect information about potential prospects.  
• Make at least 40 calls per day. (spend 10 minutes on each call) 
• Create a cold calling script . 
• Create a list of questions for lead qualification.  
• Set time for qualifying the leads.  
• Prepare for discovery calls. 
• Block time for setting appointments.  
• Create a strategy for sales follow-up. 
• Prioritize activities for each day. 

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3. Checklist for 90 days sales plan   

By the third month, you’ll be able to blend in with the new sales environment. The third month will be about putting what you learned in the first sixty days into action.  

During the 61-90 days, you’ll have to speed up the process and start closing deals to achieve your sales quota. From tweaking strategies to nurturing relationships, a lot must be done in the third month. 

You’ll have to track and analyze your sales approach to see what’s not working and make real-time amendments. 

During the 61-90 day period, you’ll have to make your sales manager and the team realize you are valuable. It is your last chance to prove everything you claimed during the interview process. So, make a strong game plan for the third month. 

Below is the checklist for the third-month sales plan that you can create. 

•  Block time for nurturing activities. 
•  Create impactful presentations for the sales meetings. 
•  Prepare for the presentations. Make points to discuss for each slide of the display.  
•  Create strategies to handle objections. 
•  Set the time for following up after the presentation and address concerns.  
•  Create a strategy for closing the deals. 
•  Block time for coordinating with prospects who are in the closing stage. 
•  Create sales reports and analyze sales performance.  
•  Tweak the process for improving the conversion rate. 

30-60-90 day sales plan template free  

You know what to follow when creating a 30-60-90 day sales plan, but how do you assemble these tasks and execute them? Well, we’ve created an extensive 30 60 90 day sales plan template so that you can easily manage all your tasks from one place. 

Click on the link below to get a 30 60 90 day sales plan template free and crush your sales goals! 

30-60-90 day sales plan examples  

Making a 30-60-90 day sales plan is key for new and experienced salespeople to do well. It helps set clear goals for the first three months.  

Here are some examples of 30-60-90 day sales plans- 

30-60-90 day plan: New sales rep   

This plan serves as a roadmap for new sales reps or job candidates, offering a structured approach to mastering their new role and demonstrating their preparedness during the interview process. 

Phase 1 (Days 1–30): Understand   

• Complete all onboarding and training processes to understand the sales strategies and processes.  
• Learn about the company’s mission, sales goals, and the key players within the organization.  
• Get acquainted with the company’s products/services and target market and what industry certificates they have. 
• Conduct research on key accounts and the competitive landscape.  

Phase 2 (Days 31–60): Implement   

• Shadow experienced sales team members to learn from real interactions.  
• Practice sales pitches and calls with sales managers and peers.  
• Start engaging with potential clients to build your sales rep experience.  
• Begin tracking all sales activities and setting initial sales targets.  
• Compile a list of prospective customers and start outreach efforts.  

Phase 3 (Days 61–90): Optimize  

• Evaluate your sales performance, identifying strengths and areas for improvement.  
• Set sales goals for the following month, focusing on enhancing sales strategies.  
• Refine your approach based on successful outcomes and explore new methods for areas lacking results.  
• Establish a daily routine to boost productivity and plan regular reviews with sales leadership to discuss progress.  

30-60-90 Day Plan: Sales manager example   

A sales manager’s plan emphasizes team building, process optimization, and leadership skills to elevate the entire sales team’s performance. 

• Complete necessary company onboarding and familiarize yourself with sales leadership tools and processes.  
• Meet with each of your direct reports to understand their strengths, challenges, and goals.  
• Assess the current sales process or identify inefficiencies and areas for potential improvement.  
• Research competitors and gather feedback from team members on the existing sales strategy or management practices.  
• Implement changes based on initial assessments and feedback.  
• Identify skill gaps within the team and consider training process enhancements or tool integrations.  
• Develop data-driven strategies for improving sales performance and set achievable sales goals for the team.  
• Introduce at least one change based on team feedback to foster a culture of continuous improvement.  
• Solicit feedback on recent changes and assess the impact on team dynamics or sales results.
• Establish a structured daily routine to maximize team productivity and efficiency.  
• Organize regular meetings with team members to discuss progress, challenges, and future sales strategies.  
• Make adjustments based on feedback, focusing on long-term sales goals and team development.  

These examples showcase a comprehensive approach for new sales reps and managers to navigate their roles effectively, setting a strong foundation for success in the competitive sales game.

A 30-60-90 day sales plan gives you a clear direction in the new job. It shows you what you’ll be doing in the first three months.

You will be able to reach your destination when you have a clear map. The 30-60-90 day sales plan should be tactfully developed. Here are the mistakes you must avoid while making the 30-60-90 day sales plan. 

Mistake 1 – Having a vague plan  

An ambiguous plan is like a foggy morning that can mislead you. Your sales plan should tell you what exactly needs to be done in the first three months. Be specific while writing the program. Include the date, number, or anything that’s required. 

In fact, only 60% of sales reps meet their quota . This shows how important it is to have a clear and measurable plan. 

For instance, “I will make 40 calls in a day”. With just one glance, you should know what needs to be done. This way, you will save time and do what’s essential for meeting the sales quota. 

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Mistake 2 – Not getting feedback   

Feedback is crucial for refining your 30-60-90-day sales plan. Feedback lets you determine whether you are on the right path or need to change your approach. 

So, once you create your entire sales plan, please share it with your manager and experienced team members. 

They might advise you to add more points or edit the existing ones. So, make sure you approach your manager or team’s top performers for some valuable feedback. 

Mistake 3 –  Not being flexible  

When you enter a new place, you don’t know much. You observe, research, and try to create a plan. 

When you start executing your project, you might discover that some things aren’t how you assumed them. 

You might have to adjust the schedule. Don’t get discouraged; instead, be flexible and make the change immediately to reach your goals. 

Best practices: Use software to create and track a 30-60-90 day plan  

Using CRM software significantly streamlines the creation and tracking of 30-60-90 day sales plans .

This technology integrates sales reporting and analytics into one platform, enhancing goal setting and success measurement. 

Essential CRM features

• Dashboards : Visualize performance metrics to pinpoint successes and areas needing improvement. Sharing dashboards keeps sales teams and leadership aligned. 
• Custom Goals : CRMs enable personalized goal setting linked to specific deals or tasks, ensuring sales reps have clear objectives. 
• Performance Tracking : Monitor team achievements and identify when additional support, such as training or coaching, is necessary. 
• Forecasting : Helps in setting realistic milestones with projections of revenue, guiding focus towards achieving sales targets. 
• Insightful Reports : Tailored reports on KPIs and account performances provide clarity on team and individual progress, facilitating strategy adjustments. 

Adopting CRM for your 30-60-90 day plan not only simplifies its development but also enhances the ability to monitor and adapt sales strategies, aiming for continuous improvement in meeting sales goals. 

Wrapping up  

A 30-60-90 day sales plan is your roadmap for success in a new sales role. 

By setting clear goals, seeking feedback, and staying adaptable, you lay down a solid foundation for your journey. 

Remember, the key to a great plan is not just in the planning but in the doing and tweaking as you go. 

Stick to this approach, and you’ll confidently navigate your first three months, setting yourself up for a winning streak in the competitive sales world. 

Keep it specific, open to input, and flexible – and watch as your sales plan turns into sales success. 

Frequently Asked Question  

A 30-60-90 plan breaks down your goals for the first 30, 60, and 90 days in a new role or project. It begins with setting learning goals, continues with applying that knowledge, and finishes with actions to achieve your objectives. 

A sales manager 30 60 90 plan is a clear guide for new sales managers to hit the ground running.  

In the first 30 days, it’s all about understanding the team and how things work, which is key for a good 30 60 90 day plan for sales managers.  

The next 60 days are for putting what you’ve learned into action, improving sales strategies, and helping your team get better, fitting into a sales manager 90 day plan.  

The last 30 days are about making sure you and your team are on track to meet your sales goals.  

Following a 30-60-90 day plan sales manager example helps you lead your team effectively right from the start, making the 30 60 90 day sales manager plan really important for success. 

Sure, for a sales manager role, presenting a well-structured 30-60-90 day sales plan during an interview is crucial.  

This plan should outline a clear strategy that demonstrates your approach to achieving success within the first three months on the job. Typically, the plan is broken down into three phases: 

• 30 day sales plan (Assessment and Learning)  

Under the sales manager 30 60 90 plan, the initial month is about orientation and assimilation. 

This involves understanding the company’s sales processes, products, and team dynamics. 

The goal is to assess the current sales strategies, team strengths, and areas for improvement. You’ll also establish relationships with your team and other key departments. 

• 60 day sales plan (Strategic Planning and Integration)  

The sales manager 60 day plan focuses on using insights gained in the first 60 days to develop and integrate strategic sales initiatives. 

This may include implementing new sales methodologies, training sessions to address identified skill gaps, or restructuring the sales territory for better coverage. 

Additionally, you’ll start setting measurable goals for the team and individual sales representatives. 

• 90 day sales plan (Implementation and Execution)  

By now, your 90 day plan for sales manager should shift towards full-scale execution. 

This means actively managing your sales team towards the new objectives, monitoring performance, and making necessary adjustments. 

It’s time to solidify your leadership position, drive sales efforts forward, and demonstrate tangible results from the strategies you’ve implemented. 

For a 30-60-90 day plan for sales manager interview, it’s essential to articulate how each phase will contribute to the overall sales targets and team development. 

Highlighting your proactive steps for learning, strategic planning, and execution shows your potential employer that you have a concrete, actionable plan for making a significant impact in your role as a sales manager. 

Riyanshi Chaplot

Riyanshi is an enthusiastic content creator and SEO strategist at Salesmate who curates information on marketing, sales, and customer experience. She loves to explore new places and meet new people when she is not working.

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How to create a sales plan in 7 Steps

A sales plan is the first step toward defining your sales strategy , sales goals and how you’ll reach them.

A refined sales plan is a go-to resource for your reps. It helps them better understand their role, responsibilities, targets, tactics and methods. When done right, it gives your reps all the information they need to perform at their highest level.

In this article, we outline what a sales plan is and why it’s important to create one. We also offer a step-by-step guide on how to make a sales plan with examples of each step.

What is a sales plan and why create one?

Your sales plan is a roadmap that outlines how you’ll hit your revenue targets, who your target market is, the activities needed to achieve your goals and any roadblocks you may need to overcome.

Many business leaders see their sales plan as an extension of the traditional business plan. The business plan contains strategic and revenue goals across the organization, while the sales plan lays out how to achieve them.

The benefits of a sales plan

A successful sales plan will keep all your reps focused on the right activities and ensure they’re working toward the same outcome. It will also address your company's specific needs. For example, you might choose to write a 30- , 60- or 90-day sales plan depending on your current goals and the nature of your business.

Say your ultimate goal for the next quarter is $250,000 in new business. A sales plan will outline the objective, the strategies that will help you get there and how you’ll execute and measure those strategies. It will allow your whole team to collaborate and ensure you achieve it together.

Many salespeople are driven by action and sometimes long-term sales planning gets neglected in favor of short-term results.

While this may help them hit their quota, the downside is the lack of systems in place. Instead, treat sales processes as a system with steps you can improve. If reps are doing wildly different things, it’s hard to uncover what’s working and what’s not. A strategic sales plan can optimize your team’s performance and keep them on track using repeatable systems.

With this in mind, let’s explore the seven components of an effective sales plan

1. Company mission and positioning

To work toward the same company goals, everyone in your organization must understand what your organization is trying to achieve and where in the market you position yourself.

To help define your mission and positioning, involve your sales leaders in all areas of the business strategy. Collaborating and working toward the same goals is impossible if those goals are determined by only a select group of stakeholders.

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To get a handle on the company’s mission and positioning, take the following steps:

Collaborate with marketing: Your marketing teams live and breathe the positioning of your company. Take the time to talk to each function within the department, from demand generation to performance marketing to learn what they know.

Interview customer success teams: Customer support reps speak with your existing customers every day. Interview them to find common questions and pain points.

Talk to your customers: Customer insights are a foundational part of any positioning strategy. Speak directly with existing and new customers to find out what they love about your product or service.

Read your company blog: Those in charge of content production have a strong understanding of customer needs. Check out blog articles and ebooks to familiarize yourself with customer language and common themes.

Look for mentions around the web: How are other people talking about your organization? Look for press mentions, social media posts, articles and features that mention your products and services.

These insights can provide context around how your company is currently positioned in the market.

Finally, speak with the team in charge of defining the company’s positioning. Have a list of questions and use the time to find out why they made certain decisions. Here are some examples:

What important insights from the original target audience research made you create our positioning statement?

What competitor research led us to position ourselves in this way? Does this significantly differentiate us from the crowd? How?

What core ideals and values drove us to make these promises in our positioning statement? Have they shifted in any way since we launched? If so, what motivates these promises now?

How to communicate mission and positioning

In this section of the sales plan, include the following information:

Company mission : Why your company exists and the value you’re determined to bring to the market.

Competition: Who your direct competitors (those who offer similar products and services) and indirect competitors (brands who solve the same problem in different ways) are.

Value propositions: The features, benefits and solutions your product delivers.

What is brand positioning: The ultimate guide with 4 examples

2. Goals and targets

Define your revenue goals and the other targets sales are responsible for.

As mentioned earlier, sales goals are usually aligned with business goals. Your boardroom members typically establish the company’s revenue goals and it’s your job to achieve them.

Revenue goals will shape your sales strategy. Use them to reverse engineer quotas, sales activity and the staff you need to execute them.

Break your big-picture revenue goal down further into sales targets and activity targets for your team. Activities are the specific actions you and your reps can control, while sales targets are the results provided by those activities.

9 steps to creating the perfect sales strategy (with free template)

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10 predictable revenue hacks to grow your sales

Use data on sales activity and performance from previous years to calculate sales targets. You should break this down by pipeline stage and activity conducted by reps across all functions.

For example, how many cold emails does it take to generate a deal? What is the average lifetime value (LTV) of your customer?

Breaking down these numbers allows you to accurately forecast what it will take to achieve your new revenue goal.

This part of your sales plan might include setting goals like the following:

200 total cold emails sent per day

200 total cold calls made per day

25 demos conducted per day

5 new sales appointments made a day

100 follow-up emails sent per day

Breaking down your goals into specific activities will also reveal the expertise needed for each activity and any required changes to your organizational structure, which will come into play in the next step.

How to communicate goals and targets

Within this section of the sales plan, include the following information:

Revenue goals : Reverse engineer the boardroom revenue goals to identify achievable sales goals and the number of staff needed to reach them. Sales targets : Use data on sales activity and past performance to define quotas and metrics for each stage of the sales pipeline.

Expertise needed for each activity: What qualities and attributes do your staff need to achieve these predefined activities? How much experience do they need vs. what can be learned on the job?

3. Sales organization and team structure

Identify the talent and expertise you need to achieve your goals.

For example, a marketing agency that depends on strong relationships will benefit more from a business development executive than a sales development representative (SDR) .

Use the targets established in the previous section to identify who you need to hire for your team. For example, if the average sales development rep can send 20 cold emails a day and you need to send 200 to achieve your goals, you’ll need around ten reps to hit your targets.

Include the information for each team member in a table in your sales plan. Here is an example.

Visualizing each role helps all stakeholders understand who they’re hiring and the people they’re responsible for. It allows them to collaborate on the plan and identify the critical responsibilities and qualities of their ideal candidates.

You want to avoid micromanaging , but now is a good time to ask your existing teams to report on the time spent on certain activities. Keeping a timesheet will give you an accurate forecast of how long certain activities take and the capacity of each rep.

How to communicate your sales organization and team structure

Team structure: These are the functions that make up your overall sales organization. The roles of SDR, business development and account teams must be well-defined.

Roles and responsibilities: These are the roles you need to hire, along with the tasks they’re responsible for. This will help you produce job descriptions that attract great talent.

Salary and compensation: How will the company remunerate your teams? Having competitive salaries, compensation schemes and sales incentives will attract top performers and keep them motivated.

Timeline: Attempting to hire dozens of people at once is tough. Prioritize hiring based on how critical each role is for executing your plan. Take a phased hiring approach to onboard new reps with the attention they deserve.

Building a sales team: How to set your group up for success

4. Target audience and customer segments

A sales plan is useless without knowing who to sell to. Having clearly defined customer personas and ideal customer profiles will help you tailor your selling techniques to companies and buyers.

Whether you’re looking to break into a new market or expand your reach in your current one, start by clearly defining which companies you’re looking to attract. Include the following criteria:

Industries: Which markets and niches do you serve? Are there certain sub-segments of those industries that you specialize in?

Headcount: How many employees do your best accounts have within their organization?

Funding: Have they secured one or several rounds of funding?

Find out as much as you can about their organizational challenges. This may include growth hurdles, hiring bottlenecks and even barriers created by legislation.

Learn about your buyers within those target accounts, learn about your buyers. Understanding your buyers and personalizing your sales tactics for them will help you strengthen your customer relationships.

These insights will change as your business grows. Enterprise companies may wish to revisit their personas as they move upmarket. For small businesses and startups, your target audience will evolve as you find product-market fit.

It’s important to constantly revisit this part of your sales plan. Even if your goals and methodologies are the same, always have your finger on the pulse of your customer’s priorities.

How to communicate target audience and customer segments

Profile: Include basic information about their role, what their career journey looks like and the common priorities within their personal lives.

Demographics : Add more information about their age, income and living situation. Demographic information can help tailor your message to align with the language used across different generations.

Attributes: Assess their personality. Are they calm or assertive? Do they handle direct communication themselves or have an assistant? Use these identifying attributes to communicate effectively.

Challenges: Think about the hurdles this persona is trying to overcome. How does it affect their work and what’s the impact on them personally?

Goals: Analyze how these challenges are preventing them from achieving their goals. Why are these goals important to them?

Support: Use this insight to define how your product or service will help these people overcome challenges and achieve their goals.

Behavioral segmentation: What is it and how can it drive engagement and loyalty

5. Sales strategies and methodologies

Define your sales approach. This includes the strategies, techniques and methodologies you’ll use to get your offering out to market.

This part of your sales plan may end up being the largest. It will outline every practical area of your sales strategy: your sales stages, methodologies and playbooks.

Start by mapping out each stage of your sales process. What are the steps needed to guide a prospect through your deal flow?

9 essential sales stages

Traditionally, a sales process has nine sales stages :

Prospecting and lead generation : Your marketing strategy should deliver leads, but sales reps should boost this volume with their own prospecting efforts.

Qualification: Measure those leads against your target account criteria and customer personas. Ensure they’re a good fit, prioritizing your time on high-value relationships.

Reaching out to new leads : Initiate emails to your target customers to guide new leads into the sales funnel. This outreach activity includes cold calling and direct mail.

Appointment setting: Schedule a demo, discovery call or consultation.

Defining needs: After the initial meeting, you’ll understand your prospect’s problems and how your product or service can solve them.

Presentation: Reveal the solution. This can be in the form of a proposal, custom service packages or a face-to-face sales pitch .

Negotiation: Dedicate this stage to overcoming any objections your prospect may have.

Winning the deal: Turn your prospects into customers by closing deals and signing contracts.

Referrals : Fostering loyalty is an organization-wide activity. Delight your customers and encourage them to refer their friends.

Not all of these stages will be relevant to your organization. For example, a SaaS company that relies on inbound leads may do much of the heavy lifting during the initial meeting and sales demo . On the other hand, an exclusive club whose members must meet certain criteria (say, a minimum net worth) would focus much of their sales activity on referrals.

Map out your sales process to identify the stages you use. Your sales process should look something like this:

To determine your sales methodologies, break each sales stage down into separate activities, along with the stakeholder responsible for them.

With your sales activities laid out, you can do in-depth research into the techniques and methodologies you need to execute them. For example, if you sell a complex product with lengthy sales cycles , you could adopt a SPIN selling methodology to identify pain points and craft the best solution for leads.

Finally, use these stages and methodologies to form your sales playbooks . This will help you structure your sales training plan and create playbooks your reps can go back to for guidance.

How to communicate sales strategies and methodologies

Within this section of the sales plan, include the following:

Sales stages: The different steps required to convert prospects into paying customers.

Sales methodologies: The different practices and approaches you’ll adopt to shape your sales strategy.

Sales playbooks: The tactics, techniques and sales strategy templates needed to guide contacts throughout each stage of the sales process.

6. Sales action plan

You have the “who” and the “what”. Now you must figure out “when” to execute your sales plan.

A well-structured sales action plan communicates when the team will achieve key milestones. It outlines timeframes for when they’ll complete certain projects and activities, as well as the recruitment timelines for each quarter.

The order in which you implement your sales action plan depends on your priorities. Many sales organizations prefer to front-load the activity that will make a bigger impact on the bottom line.

For example, when analyzing your current sales process and strategy, you may find your existing customers are a rich source of qualified leads . Therefore, it would make sense to nurture more of these relationships using a structured referral program.

You must also consider how recruitment will affect the workload in your team. Hire too quickly and you may end up spending more time training new reps and neglecting your existing team. However, taking too long to recruit could overload your existing team. Either can make a big impact on culture and deal flow.

To complete your sales action plan, get all stakeholders involved in deciding timelines. When applying this to your sales plan, use GANTT charts and tables to visualize projects and key milestones.

A GANTT chart shows you the main activities, their completion dates and if there are any overlaps. Here is an example:

By prioritizing each activity and goal, you can create a plan that balances short-term results with long-term investment.

How to communicate your sales action plan

Key milestones : When do you aim to complete your projects, activities and recruitment efforts? You can map them out by week, month, quarter or all of the above. Let your revenue goals and priorities lead your schedule.

Short- and long-term goal schedules: With a high-level schedule mapped out, you can see when you will achieve your goals. From here, you can shape your schedule so that it balances both short- and long-term goals.

7. Performance and results measurement

Finally, your plan must detail how you measure performance. Outline your most important sales metrics and activities, how you’ll track them and what technology you’ll need to track them.

Structure this part of your plan by breaking down each sales stage. Within these sections, list out the metrics you’ll need to ensure you’re running a healthy sales pipeline.

Performance metrics can indicate the effectiveness of your entire sales process. Your chosen metrics typically fall into two categories:

Primary metrics act as your “true north” guide. This is commonly new business revenue generated.

Secondary metrics are those that indicate how well specific areas of your sales process are performing. These include lead response time and average purchase value.

The metrics you select must closely align with your goals and sales activities. For example, at the appointment setting stage, you might measure the number of demos conducted.

Each team also needs its own sales dashboard to ensure reps are hitting their targets. Sales development reps will have different priorities from account executives, so it’s critical they have the sales tools to focus on what’s important to them.

Finally, research and evaluate the technology you’ll need to accurately measure these metrics. Good CRM software is the best system to use for bringing your data together.

How to communicate sales performance metrics

Sales stage metrics : Identify the metrics for each specific sales stage and make sure they align with your KPIs.

Chosen sales dashboard: Explain why you chose your sales dashboard technology and exactly how it works.

Performance measurement: Outline exactly how and what tech you will use to measure your team’s activities and metrics.

How to track, measure and improve your team’s sales performance

Developing a sales plan involves conducting market research, assessing current sales performance , identifying sales opportunities and challenges, setting measurable goals, creating a sales strategy, allocating resources and establishing a monitoring and evaluation framework.

To write a sales business plan, include:

An executive summary

A company overview

A market analysis

A target market description

Sales strategies and tactics

Financial projections

A budget and timeline

Make sure that you clearly articulate your value proposition, competitive advantage and growth strategies.

Final thoughts

An effective sales plan is an invaluable asset for your sales team . Although you now know how to create a sales plan, you should remember to make one that works for your team. Writing one helps with your sales strategy planning and aids you in defining targets, metrics and processes. Distributing the sales plan helps your reps understand what you expect of them and how they can reach their goals.

Providing supportive, comprehensive resources is the best way to motivate your team and inspire hard work. When you do the work to build a solid foundation, you equip your reps with everything they need to succeed.

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How to create a business plan for a sales interview.

Sales jobs are entrepreneurial because you generate your own leads, solicit business and close sales all on your own. Your compensation is in the form of commission. When you interview for a sales job, be prepared to explain how you will produce sales and earn commissions.

State your mission and style. Will your performance be impressive because you can attract and service a large number of customers? Will you do more business because you educate your customers? Or is your charming personality and ability to sell your greatest asset?

Estimate how many sales you need to close in order to make an average month's commission income, and infer how many customer contacts that requires if you only sell to one out of every 10 customers.

Create a table projecting monthly sales goals, the number of transactions required to meet those goals, and explain how you plan to achieve those transactions.

Outline the details of your target customers and describe what makes them want to buy. What are the features and benefits of the product that will appeal to these target customers, and how will you attract them to do business with you?

Support your plan with examples from your previous sales experience. If you have no previous experience, explain why you feel you have a talent for sales.

• Make sure you present an assertive and proactive image. The sales manager is looking for someone who analyzes what actions must be taken in order to produce a certain level of sales, and how those sales can be steadily increased over time. Demonstrate that you know how to plan a strategic sales campaign and what you will change if your production does not live up to your plan's expectations.
• Remember that sales is a social science and not a wrestling match. Do not be obnoxious instead of determined. There is a difference. Sales managers are looking for professional sales reps who will improve the image of the company and make sales without generating complaint calls from the customers.

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Victoria Duff specializes in entrepreneurial subjects, drawing on her experience as an acclaimed start-up facilitator, venture catalyst and investor relations manager. Since 1995 she has written many articles for e-zines and was a regular columnist for "Digital Coast Reporter" and "Developments Magazine." She holds a Bachelor of Arts in public administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

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The 30-60-90 Day Plan: Your Secret Weapon for New Job Success

When you’re starting a new job, sometimes deciding whether to pack a lunch the first day is a struggle—forget about planning out the next few months. So if you’ve been asked to make a 30-60-90 day plan for your new job—or even earlier during the interview process—you might have a few questions like What? And How? And Do I really need a job or can I live off the grid in a cozy little cave?

But we promise, making a 30-60-90 day plan is possible and it can help you set yourself up for success at your new gig. We’ve got detailed instructions on when and how to make a 30-60-90 day plan, plus a template to guide you and an example to inspire you.

What is a 30-60-90 day plan?

A 30-60-90 day plan is what it sounds like: a document that articulates your intentions for the first 30, 60, and 90 days of a new job. It lists your high-level priorities and actionable goals, as well as the metrics you’ll use to measure success in those first three months. Done well, it will help you make a positive first impression on your new employer—or the hiring manager you hope will be your future boss.

Download The Muse’s 30-60-90 day plan template here .

When to make a 30-60-90 day plan

Many 30-60-90 day plans follow a similar structure, but the level of detail may vary depending on your situation. There are two main times when you might make one: preparing for an interview or starting a new job.

Note: If you’re a manager who wants to make an onboarding plan to help your new hires hit the ground running (without constantly having to ask you what they should do next), you should consider using our self-onboarding tool , a template for outlining your month-one goals for a new hire, as well as creating a week-by-week plan with a thorough list of meetings, readings, and tasks they should tackle in their first month on the job.

For an interview

If you’ve made it to a late-stage job interview, you may be asked something along the lines of, “What would your first 30, 60, or 90 days look like in this role?” It’s a good idea to prepare to answer this regardless of what level role you’re interviewing for, but it’s more common for higher-level positions.

With interview questions  like this, the hiring manager is likely trying to understand your thought process going into the job more than anything. They want to know: Do you understand the role and what it would require of you? Can you get up to speed quickly and start contributing early on? Do your ideas show that you’re the right candidate to fill this particular position?

Even if you’re not explicitly asked this interview question, coming prepared with a plan can help you wow the hiring manager and stand out among other applicants. “Employers are looking for people who are agile and proactive,” says leadership consultant Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter . “By talking about how you would approach your first 90 days, you demonstrate agility and proactiveness.”

In other cases—more commonly for higher-level management or executive roles—you may be asked to do an interview presentation . Creating a 30-60-90 day plan to present is a great way to show the hiring manager that you understand the challenges a company or department is facing and you have a clear plan for tackling them.

Be sure to include a few specific ideas in your interview presentation—depending on the role you’re interviewing for, that could be suggestions for ways to cut costs, increase sales, or improve customer satisfaction. You want to convey: “I’ve got five good ideas, and when you hire me, I’ve got 50 more,” says career coach Eliot Kaplan , who spent 18 years as Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Hearst Magazines.

For a new job

If you’re starting a new job, your new manager may explicitly ask for a 30-60-90 day plan in writing, or you may want to create one for yourself to help ease the transition to your new role. In either case, the goal is to set yourself up to hit the ground running—and to be sure you’re running in the right direction.

“If you come in without a game plan and try to tackle everything, you’re going to get nothing done,” Kaplan says. “Come up with a couple things you can accomplish successfully.”

If you’ve already started the position, you’ll have access to internal resources and your new coworkers, which will make it easier to create a detailed, realistic plan. If there are things you’re unsure about—like goals, expectations, or typical benchmarks—ask! You’ll likely impress your new colleagues with how proactive you are, but more importantly, you’ll gather the information you need to be successful.

Elements of a 30-60-90 day plan

Before you’re ready to get down to the details of your 30-60-90 plan, you’ll want to think about the high-level elements it needs to include. As the name suggests, you want to think of your plan in three 30 day phases that translate to your first 30, 60, and 90 days on the job. For each phase, you’ll need to:

• Determine a specific focus
• Set your top priorities
• Make concrete goals that support those priorities
• Determine how you’ll measure success

Here’s how to fill in the major parts of your plan for each of the first three months: 

Your specific monthly focus might change based on your role and the company, but typically, the broad focus of each 30-day period will look similar:

• The first month (days 1-30) of a new job is about learning.
• The second month (days 31-60) is about planning and beginning to contribute
• The third month (days 61-90) is about execution and—when applicable—initiating changes to the status quo.

Within those broad monthly buckets, outline your high-level priorities for each phase. For instance, your priorities for different phases could include learning internal processes, performing your role independently, or proposing solutions to a problem facing the company. Your priorities should be more specific than your focuses, but broader than individual goals.

Setting goals is all about making a plan for how you’ll achieve your overarching priorities. For each phase, set goals that ladder up to your stated focus and priorities. (See our example 30-60-90 day plan below for inspiration.) If it’s helpful, break your goals into categories like learning, performance, and personal goals.

• Learning goals: To set these, ask, “What knowledge and skills do I need to be successful? How can I best absorb and acquire that information and those abilities?”
• Performance goals: These are concrete things you want to accomplish or complete as part of your new role. To set these, ask yourself, “What progress do I hope to make within the first 30/60/90 days?”
• Personal goals: These goals are more about getting to know the people you’ll be working with and finding your place within your new company or team. To set these, ask, “Who are the key people I need and want to build relationships with? How can I establish and foster those relationships, so that I’m seen as trustworthy and credible?”

For each goal, determine at least one metric you’ll use to track your progress. Ask yourself, “What does success look like and how will I measure it?” Not sure how to do that? Keep reading!

6 tips for writing a 30-60-90 day plan

So how do you figure out your focus, priorities, goals, and metrics for a brand new role? You’ll need to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that the company or department is trying to solve and reflect on how you can make a positive impact within the first 90 days. Here are six tips to make that easier:

1. Think big picture .

Before you start writing out specific goals and metrics, reflect on your overall priorities. “Start with what’s important to you and work out from there,” says Muse career coach Yolanda Owens . “What are the things you’re going to need to know in order to be successful? Use [those] as your compass.” Identify why they hired (or are looking to hire) you, and set priorities that deliver on that purpose. For mid- and high-level roles, you’re likely being brought in to solve a specific problem or lead a particular project. For more junior roles, your priority can be getting up to speed on the basics of your role and how the company works.

2. Ask questions .

Whether you’re new to a company or still in the interview stage, asking questions is crucial. In order to set realistic goals and metrics that ladder up to your high-level priorities, you’ll need a baseline understanding of the status quo. Ask things that start with, “What’s the average…” or “What’s typical for…”

You can ask your new coworkers these questions or use early stage interviews to ask questions that could help you make a 30-60-90 day plan later on. Muse career coach Tamara Williams  suggests asking up front, “What can I tackle in the first 90 days that will allow me to hit the ground running as well as make a significant impact in the organization?”

3. Meet with key stakeholders.

Establishing healthy working relationships is key to success in any role. If you’ve already started the job, set up meetings with the following people within the first 30 days:

• Your manager
• Other coworkers on your team with whom you’ll work closely
• Other colleagues who are in your role or a similar one
• Any cross-functional partners (on other teams) you’ll work with regularly
• Any external partners (outside of the company) you’ll work with regularly
• Your new direct reports (if you’re a manager)

In each meeting, learn about your coworkers’ roles within the company—and also get to know them as people. Ask lots of questions about the company culture, internal processes, reporting structures, team and company challenges, and other questions that come up as you’re learning the ropes. It’s important to have these conversations before you make plans to change the way things are currently run.

“Too many times, [people] come into the role and say, ‘At my last company, we did it this way,’” Williams says. “That turns people off. You need to be a student before you become a teacher.”

4. Set SMART goals .

Once you’re clear on your high-level priorities, set specific goals that ladder up to your priorities for the 30-, 60-, and 90-day phases. These goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

For example, instead of “Understand our SEO,” a SMART goal would be, “Within the first 30 days, identify our top 10 target keywords and assess how we’re currently ranking for them.”

5. Determine how you’ll measure success.

This will likely be different for each of your goals. Metrics are often quantifiable (revenue, pageviews, etc.), but some goals might have more qualitative metrics, like positive customer feedback. However, try to make even qualitative metrics measurable—for instance, the number of five-star reviews you receive.

6. Be flexible.

Don’t worry if you don’t end up following the plan precisely. Every job is different, so tailor your plan based on what you know about the role and organization, but accept that it will likely change. Ask for feedback throughout your first 90 days (and throughout your tenure at the company). If you have to course-correct as you go, that’s totally fine.

If you’re a team lead or executive, consider adding, “Conduct a SWOT analysis of my project, team, the department or the company as a whole,” to your plan during month two or three. SWOT simply stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Once you complete this exercise it might help you adjust the rest of your plan as well as set longer-term goals and strategies.

Also, don’t stress about the length of your written plan—it’s the quality that counts, Kaplan says. “I've gotten [90-day plans] that were two pages long and were perfect, and ones that were 40 pages long and were useless.”

30-60-90 day plan template

If all that feels a bit overwhelming, or you’d just like some more guidance, check out our (free) downloadable 30-60-90 day plan template .

Not a fan of our formatting? (Or just need the words and nothing else?) Copy and paste the text below for each month of your plan.

My 30-60-90 Day Plan

Prepared by: [Your name] Prepared for (optional): [Hiring manager or manager’s name, Company Name] Date: [MM/DD/YYYY]

Days [1–30/31–60/61–90]

Focus: [Your focus for your first month]

Priorities: [Your priorities for your first month]

Learning Goals

• [Your first goal.] ( Metric:  [How you’ll measure your first goal])
• [Your second goal.] ( Metric: [How you’ll measure your second goal]
• [Your third goal.] ( Metric: [How you’ll measure your third goal])

Performance Goals

• [Your first goal.] ( Metric: [How you’ll measure your first goal])

Personal Goals

30-60-90 day plan example

Use our 30-60-90 day plan template to start creating your own plan. If you’re stuck on how to fill it in, this example can provide some inspiration.

Focus: Learning

Priorities: Get up to speed on my role, team, and the company as a whole. Understand the expectations my manager has for me, learn how the internal processes and procedures currently work, and start to explore some of the challenges facing the company and my role.

Learning goals:

• Read all of the relevant internal materials available to me on the company wiki or drive and ask my manager for recommendations of articles, reports, and studies I should review. ( Metric: Reading completed)
• Get access to the accounts (email, task management software, customer relationship management platform, etc.) I’ll need to do my job. Spend time familiarizing myself with each of them. ( Metric: Task completed)
• Listen to five recorded sales calls by seasoned teammates. ( Metric: Five sales calls listened to)
• Meet with someone on the account management team to learn about what new clients can expect from the onboarding process. ( Metric: Task completed).

Performance goals:

• Make my first sales calls to key clients and prospects. ( Metric: Three sales calls completed)
• Ask my manager for feedback on my output and performance. Document the feedback so I can incorporate it in my future performance. ( Metric: Task completed)

Personal goals:

• Meet with my manager and as many other new coworkers as possible. Introduce myself and learn about their roles within the organization. ( Metric: Five meetings held)
• Set up recurring meetings with everyone I’ll need to work with on a regular basis—including cross-functional and external partners. ( Metric: Regular meetings set and attended)

Focus: Contributing.

Priorities: Perform my role at full capacity, with a decreased need for guidance. Start to explore how I can make a unique impact within my role and the company.

• Complete an online training course to learn how to better use our customer relationship management platform. ( Metric: One course completed)
• Shadow a seasoned member of the team, listen in on at least three of their sales calls, and document what I learn from observing their approach. ( Metric: Task completed)
• Make five sales calls a week to key clients and prospects. ( Metric: 20 calls completed)
• Ask a seasoned member of the team to observe at least one of my sales calls and give me feedback about how I can improve. ( Metric: Task completed)
• Listen to at least four of my own recorded calls and note self-feedback ( Metric: Four calls listened to)
• Ask for feedback from my manager and coworkers, and document the feedback so I can incorporate it in the future. ( Metric: TBD)
• Schedule coffee or lunch with someone from the company I haven’t gotten to know yet. ( Metric: Task completed)

Focus: Taking initiative.

Priorities: Start assuming more autonomy and finding small ways to practice leadership skills. Start to explore goals for the rest of the year.

• Identify and sign up for a conference, webinar, or online course that will aid in my professional development. ( Metric: One conference, course, or webinar signed up for)
• Analyze my performance so far and establish key metrics I care about (sales, leads, revenue, etc.). Implement a test to try to improve that metric. ( Metric: Task completed)
• Perform my core responsibilities at a higher level based on the metrics I outlined. (Close more sales, increase revenue, etc.) ( Metric: TBD)
• Develop an idea for a new project or initiative I can spearhead, and pitch it to my manager. ( Metric: Task completed)
• Complete the project or initiative I outlined and get feedback from key stakeholders. ( Metric: Project/initiative completed and feedback received from three key stakeholders)
• Get involved extracurricularly within the company by signing up for the corporate volunteer day or a company-sponsored club or sports team. ( Metric: Task completed.)

With our 30-60-90 day template, examples, and guidelines, you’re well-equipped to land the job you’re after or tackle your first 90 days in your new role. Happy planning!

Regina Borsellino also contributed writing, reporting, and/or advice to this article.

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90-Day Business Plan for Your Job Interview

30-60-90-Day Plan , 30/60/90-Day Action Plans for Non-Sales , 30/60/90-Day Sales Plans , Business Plans For Interviews , Finding a Job , Getting Hired , Interviewing Skills and Tips , Job Interview Advice , Job Interview Preparation , Job Interview Skills , Job Search , Job Search Success , Job Search Tips , Jobseekers

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A 90-Day Business Plan for your job interview is an outstanding tool to show the interviewer why you’re the one they should hire–whether you’re very experienced or just starting out in your field. If you really want the job and you’re facing some stiff competition, a 90-day business plan is what you need to get the offer .

Your next step is to find out what this is, what it does for you, and how to create one for your next job interview.

What is a 90-Day Business Plan?

A 90-Day Business Plan for interviews is simply a written document outlining what you will do as a new employee within the first 3 months on the job.  Conceptually,  this business plan is a lot like the business plans that small business owners and corporate CEOs use to attract investors. It identifies goals and the methods that will be used to reach them.  No business owner could get an investor to take a risk on their business without this kind of plan.  In job interviews, this plan performs the same function.  It shows the hiring manager what your plans and goals are.  It helps them see where you’re going and how you’ll get there, and makes it much easier for them to take a risk on you by hiring you.  You are much more likely to get the job with a plan than without one.

What does a 90-Day Business Plan do for you?

It dramatically sets you apart from the other candidates in a very strong, positive way.  It shows the hiring manager that you have:

• Initiative .  You are already doing something that’s not required, but is tremendously helpful.  They clearly see what they can look forward to if they hire you—an outstanding, take-charge, thoughtful, focused employee.
• Great planning skills.  You are thinking and planning ahead, and know how to work.  If you’ll do that for the interview, it’s a good bet that you’ll do that in the job.
• Great verbal and written communication skills .  You can put together a clear, concise document and talk about it with the hiring manager.
• Done your homework .  You took the time to get to know the company.  When you can name specific things relating to the company in your document (types of clients, types or even names of competitors, top products, customer-relationship management systems, what their initiatives are or what their credo is) it presents you as a very desirable candidate who is interested in THIS job, not A job.
• A high chance for success.  You’re already planning what you will do in the first 3 months (writing down goals means you’re more likely to hit them).  You know what’s going on, and what you’re getting into.  You are taking the risk factor out of hiring you.

What should be included in your 90-Day Business Plan?

Your plan should be broken up into sections:

• The first 30 days should include getting to know the job and the company…whatever training you need, introducing yourself to co-workers, employees, customers, other departments, etc.
• The next 30 days (the 60-day section) are more focused on getting out on your own and into the swing of things and getting feedback on how you’re doing so far.
• The last 30-days (the 90-day section) should be more focused on branching out into independent projects, contributing to team goals, or bringing in new business.

 How can you create the best plan that will get you the job?

You can create a plan on your own ….analyze the position, research the company, and decide what you must do to be successful.  Be as specific as possible (for that company and that position) and write it down.

Or, if you would rather have a proven plan that’s practically done for you?  My plans have  templates, samples, and coaching to guarantee you have a plan that will impress your potential new boss.  This is the plan that’s worked for thousands of people in a huge variety of jobs.  (I even give you my top secrets for presenting your plan in the interview.)

Get proven 30-60-90-day plan templates here:

• 30-60-90-Day Action Plan
• 30-60-90-Day Sales Plan
• 30-60-90-Day Plan for Managers
• 30-60-90-Day Plan for Executives

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Can a 90 Day Business Plan Ruin a Sales Interview Process?

Chris Carlson

Updated August 11, 2021

Published May 4, 2017

Recently,  a client of ours was struggling to decide between two finalists for a critical sales role. To break this tie, they asked each candidate to put together a 90-day business plan as their last step in the interview process. Only time will tell if this process produced a favorable result.  Personally, I’ve never been a fan of using business plans as criteria in sales hiring. Today, I’ll give you 2 reasons why a 90-day business plan may help you make the wrong sales hire.

Biased Results.

There’s an unwanted bias when using business plans as criteria in your sales interview process. The sales professional that has low engagement with their current sales job or is currently unemployed has almost unlimited time to craft and perfect their business plan. In addition, they have a very powerful but temporary external motivator. They need a new job (perhaps even desperately). Now consider the currently employed and top performing sales professional’s situation.

Most top sales performers work above and beyond normal business hours in their quest to exceed sales expectations. This leaves them with very little time to interview, let alone time to put together a strong business plan. If they’re not totally sold on your opportunity, there’s a good chance that they will decide to opt out of your interview process. If they do continue with the process, their motivation and available time to pour hours into a 90-day business plan is certainly less than their unemployed competition.

Who do you think stands the better odds of producing the best plan?

What Does a Business Plan Measure?

This brings me to problem #2 with business plans. What, exactly, are you hoping to learn or assess by analyzing a sales professional’s 90-day business plan? Their strategic skills? Their written communication? The amount of effort they’re willing to put into the plan?

To be fair, a business plan is not totally without merit. Does a poorly written business plan suggest the potential for a bad hire? Absolutely. Does an amazingly well-written business plan suggest that the author will be an amazing sales hire? I think not.

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Sir Winston Churchill

Many 50th percentile sales performers understand how to sell (the mechanics) as well or better than their counterparts that consistently finish in the top 10%. The biggest difference between the two? Execution.

Getting it Right.

Selecting the right sales professionals for your company consistently is a bigger challenge than a business plan can hope to solve. It’s also a much bigger topic than I can cover in a solitary blog post. A hint I can provide is to focus on assessing a sales professional’s ability to execute. You can learn more about building an effective sales interview process in our eBook on Sales Hiring .

What to Read Next

4 overrated sales hiring traits, 3 undervalued sales hiring traits.

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My name is Chris Carlson and I’m the founder and President of Sales Talent. This blog grew out of my desire to document and share what I’ve learned in my two plus decades of  sales recruiting  and leading Sales Talent. Our posts are aimed at sales professionals and leaders that speaks to talent selection, team building, or career advancement. If you have a topic that you’d like my take on, please reach out to me. You can find Chris Carlson on LinkedIn or contact him directly at: [email protected] .

Sales Talent Inc is a 2024 G2 Market Leader &  5x Best of Staffing  award-winning marketing & sales recruiting firm. Our marketing & sales recruiters  headhunt sales reps, sales engineers, customer success managers, marketing professionals and sales leaders for technology, SaaS , software, industrial , B2B insurance, and general B2B companies. Period.

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In this section

90 Day Business Plan Presentation

‘Given a ‘blank sheet of paper’, what would you do in the first three months/90 days?’

So, you’ve succeeded at the first interview and have now been tasked with a second interview presentation. 

The most common second interview task that we encounter is along the lines of:

‘Given a ‘blank sheet of paper’, what would you do in the first three months/90 days?’ 

Why Do Sales Employers ask for Presentations?

For me, the reasons are two-fold.

First, it is a test of your commitment.  Do you choose to go down to the pub on a Sunday afternoon rather than spend four hours on a presentation, and;

Two, it offers the prospective employer the chance to understand better your professional approach and the process you will employ to ensure maximum return on their investment.

What is The Second Interview Task Actually Asking?

It is, in essence, ‘what’s your business plan’.  It demonstrates that you have the competency and experience necessary to succeed and that you are personally invested in their opportunity.  Executed well, it will differentiate you from the competition as an elite candidate.

How to Break The 90-Day Task Down

A logical and practical format is to break the presentation down into your planned activity in the first weeks and months in the role.

As with all presentations, less is more in terms of written text.  You don’t want your audience to read your presentation and ignore you; instead, they should take cues of your thinking from the slides.  This will enable you to utilise your presentation skills to elaborate on bullet points and your personality and charisma to ensure you engage your audience.

How to Present at a Second or Final Interview

An effective presentation is a dialogue, a gateway to enquiry and further discourse, rather than a lecture or a monologue.  Invite questions, seek agreement and gauge comprehension, offering clarification whenever necessary.

Ensure you remain concise and relevant in your answers whilst being generous with information.  Relate this to your professional experience and give examples of similar situations you have encountered, how you dealt with them, and what positive outcomes you achieved.

Be alert to body language and non-verbal cues that may indicate allies in the room or individuals that require further reassurance regarding your suitability for the role.  To aid you in this, ensure that you address yourself to everyone in the room, regularly shifting your attention and eye contact to ensure no one feels excluded.  This will assist you in building rapport with your audience.

Additional information on how to succeed in a panel interview can be found here - How to Wow at a Panel Interview

Do’s and Don’ts of Second Interview Presentations

• Do your research – Know the company, the job responsibilities, and the team you’ll be joining. Every business plan must be researched and personalised to the company and the opportunity in question.
• Do tailor your presentation to every opportunity - It is immediately obvious when a generic format is recycled. It can therfore be damaging, demonstrating indifference or contempt for your audience and the opportunity.
• Do import and insert their company logo and format with their brand colours. It may be wise to ask permission beforehand out of politeness and not to infringe trademarks/copyright.
• Do reference their specific products or services, their customers and competition.
• Do include verified numbers and data wherever available. Make realistic growth projections based on your understanding of their expectations and marketplace.  It doesn’t matter if this does not entirely align with the company, as long as you can elaborate on your thought process and conclusions.
• Do practice – Practice your presentation out loud in a location similar to where you’ll be presenting.
• Do make it visual presentation to engage the audience and explain your points. No one likes ‘Death by PowerPoint’!
• Do be prepared to be challenged on your presentation. Most sales leaders will want to see how you respond to objections.
• Do prepare questions for the interviewers.
• Do arrive early to give yourself enough time to get set up and relaxed
• Do ensure it is saved to an older version of your presentation software. If prepared in the latest version, it can sometimes skew the formatting on older editions.
• Do start with an agenda and invite them to ask questions throughout.
• Do use the final slide as an opportunity to close. You are a sales professional in a sales meeting. The final slide should be either i) Where do we go from here? Or, if you're very confident ii) When do I start!  See Closing a Sales Interview

The Don'ts!

• Don’t be overly casual. I like the odd joke, but on the whole, keep your presentation professional and don’t use slang or jargon.
• Don’t be too long-winded – Stick to the essential points and keep your presentation concise.
• Don't forget to bring all the necessary materials and have a ‘Plan B’. I always recommend taking your presentation on a USB Stick as well as having it on your laptop. Also, copy it to your ‘phone just in case and then you can email it to the hiring manager.

Example 90 Day Business Plan Second Interview Presentation

Below is an example of a basic business plan you can utilise.  This requires personalising to each opportunity.  You may wish to preface it with a slide detailing you and your credentials and a concluding slide summarising your suitability and inviting questions-  

• Understand internal functions and processes.
• Get to know internal and external colleagues.
• Gain clarity on all reporting and administrative responsibilities.
• Fully align with company strategy and goals
• Introduce myself to all levels of staff
• Understand and comply with all company rules
• Fully understand sales targets and company expectations
• Update with line manager – informal review of week one
• Gain a fundamental level of product/service knowledge and potential applications
• Understand markets and potential avenues for growth
• Gain an understanding of all existing/lapsed end user and distribution accounts.
• Contact and visit existing accounts by geographic area
• Understand product/service features and benefits to potential users
• Build a base pitch for key products/services
• Build knowledge of existing markets, end users and their needs
• Update with line manager – formal review of month one
• Research market sectors to begin Pipeline formulation.
• Identify target accounts and populate the Pipeline
• Define a map of accounts /prospects for efficient territory planning
• Create targeted Features & benefits approach by Products /Market sectors
• Gain knowledge of main competitors –strengths & limitations
• Understand how we are perceived in the market
• Build a twenty-day journey plan based on postcodes and geographic area
• Have a prospect list prepared for each postcode
• Research and visit all existing customers and update CRM
• Prospects with potential to be added into the journey plan so that regular contact is made
• All prospects to be added into sales pipeline and kept up to date
• Update with line manager – formal review of month two
• Have a solid pipeline of accounts being worked and closed
• Increased turnover and lines in existing accounts
• Monthly sales targets being achieved
• Reports presented to RSM on all activity
• Re-visit initial training
• Customer visits with Technical support colleagues
• Customer visits with Sales colleagues
• Progress opportunities to Buying Platform
• Continue to review and critique pipeline
• Update with line manager – formal review of month three
• Product knowledge is continually growing
• New account Targets being hit
• Sales pipeline is continually being added to and worked
• Monthly targets being exceeded
• Meeting KPI’s set by line manager
• Growth from existing accounts
• Lapsed accounts being reactivated
• Ongoing formal reviews

Date published: 28th February 2024

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About the author

Simon Bonner

With over 25 years in B2B sales and recruitment, Simon is an English Graduate from UEA and specialises in recruiting commercial and FMCG sales positions. Simon joined the sales recruitment industry in 1998 before progressing into field sales and returning to recruitment in 2015. As an Associate Director, Simon is well placed to understand the needs of clients and candidates' needs, having spent ten years selling electronic security and managing National Accounts within OEM manufacturers and distribution channels. An avid Luton Town football fan, Simon dotes on his two daughters and enjoys keeping fit, socialising, food and wine.

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Very professional service and will certainly be in contact for future recruitment.

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Generally good standard of candidates. Especially liked the personality profile. Overall good value for money and will certainly use you again.

Managing Director, Medicash

George is a rare find in the world of recruitment - communicative without being pushy or over-bearing. He listens and understands what the customer needs as gets to know the business to ensure he provides fully competent candidates who fit.

HR Manager, Big Dug

Giles Phillips is a rare find in the minefield of sales recruitment; an honest and thoughtful recruiter who considers the needs of both the client AND the candidate to create perfect role matches. I look forward to working with him again in the future.

Marketing Director, City of London Police

Sophie did a great job at understanding our business and our needs, she is extremely professional and we hugely benefitted from her experience and expertise.

HR Manager, The Data Privacy Group Ltd

Thank you for your dedicated help during the recruitment process - we came to you after unsuccessfully searching elsewhere, and hired, not one, but two! Quick response times, and a really personal approach, without being pushy.

Managing Director, Accora Ltd

Since joining DSGi, Rob has been a supplier of permanent staff and has performed to an extremely high standard, successfully filling 98% of roles he has worked on. If anyone is looking for a good sales and marketing based consultancy with an informal yet professional approach, I would recommend Rob.

Senior Recruitment Consultant, DSG International

I have always found Rob to be very knowledgeable about our industry sector, and it is refreshing to see after all of these years that Rob continues to quickly and accurately understand my requirements.

HR and General Manager, THK

We appointed Aaron Wallis in February and the successful candidate, out of the six which Aaron Wallis introduced, was able to join Alphametrics before the end of April. The whole process took less than three months. I would recommend Aaron Wallis' services to others without hesitation.

Chief Financial Officer, Alphametrics

Giles is highly professional and was a pleasure to work with. He achieves excellent results through his personable skills and tenacity. I have no hesitation in recommending Giles to anyone who considers employing his services.

Commercial Director, G4S Government & Outsourcing Solutions

I have used Aaron Wallis to fill a number of our Sales Development Manager roles and I have found them to provide a very professional service. I will use their services again in future recruitment campaigns.

HR Business Partner, Greene King

Rob’s knowledge of the recruitment industry and his thoughts and how to make it better for his clients have always been eye opening. I would recommend Rob to anybody who is looking for a professional, knowledgeable and flexible recruitment specialist.

CEO, Friday Ad Online Services

I found Aaron Wallis to be very professional and efficient, taking time to understand the role and the type of candidate we were looking for. The candidates they put forward met our criteria and were of a high standard. The service they provided was exemplary and I would have no hesitation in recommending them, and will certainly consider using them again in the future.

HR Assistant, Fischer Connectors Ltd

More info on our sales recruitment service

Our candidates say...

When talking with Simon you felt relaxed cared to help you find a position that suited your needs

D. Pinder, Candidate

Wanted to say a huge thank you to Simon Bonner who has just helped me secure my new role. He was one of the most professional recruiters I have ever worked with.

J. Marcinkiewicz, Candidate

A great recruitment company to work with. Excellent experience with Aaron Wallis through the entire recruitment process. The team was really professional and extremely helpful. Darren was a pleasure to work with. He was friendly, supportive and gave me great advice. Thank you very much!

A. Bauchet, Candidate

Aaron Wallis (and in particular Rob Scott) have been fantastic throughout the recruitment process, and even a few months down the line, still continues to care. Rob clearly cares about each individual and has a wealth of knowledge and expertise, which shows in the work he does. Each candidate is not just a number, and the support received from Aaron Wallis has helped me get a career which I truly enjoy.

M. White, Candidate 

The Recruitment agent I used, Simon, was extremely helpful and really went the extra mile to ensure all of my questions were answered, and that I felt as comfortable and prepared as possible. Very professional company and would definitely recommend to others. Thank you Aaron Wallis!

A. Callaby, Candidate

Professional and responsive from start to finish. I would highly recommend. Special thanks to Sophie J for her help and support throughout.

N. Leney, Candidate

Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment are a very friendly and professional recruitment organisation who listen to your needs, work with you and act on your behalf which sets them apart from many of their competitors who in my experience are willing to throw anything at you. We discussed my history, my preferences and my wishes - one opportunity was introduced. It was perfect. I start at the end of June.

R. Buckley, Candidate

George above and beyond to make sure I had everything I need to secure my new role. Outstanding Professional.

A. Kirkland, Candidate

Excellent service, very professional and friendly, would and have, recommended Aaron Wallis.

E. Heley, Candidate

Less than two weeks after joining Aaron Wallis I was offered my new job. I got a £10,000 rise in my basic salary, car allowance, a laptop and many other perks, which will help to further my career. I definitely would not have found my dream job without the help of Aaron Wallis.

C. Hoy, Candidate

Good swift process with Aaron Wallis, informative regarding the role and the process was moved at a good pace with healthy interaction. Would recommend them to anyone pursuing a change.

S. Bartlett, Candidate

Sophie helped me secure a new role I have been searching for. She took her time to explain clear and concisely all I needed to succeed at the interview stage. Thanks again Sophie!

O. Oladejo, Candidate

I had a very good experience with Aaron Wallis. The company itself is offering great content for all things related to the hiring process. I definitely recommend.

J. Ostermeier, Candidate

Friendly, proactive, communicative. Overall a really positive experience.

R. Houston, Candidate

For anyone looking for work, I can't recommend Aaron Wallis highly enough.

C. Rockliffe, Candidate

Rob was really helpful when I was putting together a presentation for the second stage interview. Overall their communication was great and kept me updated of any progress

J. McGrattan, Candidate

Fantastic customer service, communication was brilliant, happy polite people to talk to, made everything a lot easier and smoother. Thank you for all your help getting me back in the work force, Keep up the good work :-)

K. Everitt, Candidate

Sophie has been fantastic and always so attentive, highly recommend.

T. Ashbourne, Candidate

Managed to get me placed within a week! Really friendly and easy to deal with. Always available for a call and my biggest challenge was I was in work at the time I was looking for my next opportunity (which is stressful) but Sam made that easy.

P. Fitzsimons, Candidate

George is a fantastic recruitment agent and provides a great service. It was a pleasure I thoroughly recommend George to anyone.

C. Beaugie, Candidate

Excellent experience. Knowledgeable staff and really went the extra mile. Found my ideal position and I couldn't be happier. Special shout out to Sam and George: who made the process smooth and easy for me. Highly recommend.

K. Pearce, Candidate

I would highly recommend Aaron Wallis Recruitment, Darren was extremely helpful and provided me with plenty of advice and support throughout the whole process.

D. Bretherton, Candidate

I have to say coming across and having dealings with Aaron Wallis proved to be very successful. Being highly experienced did not seem to count for much during my job search bit a conversation with Robert Scott gave me a real confidence boost and enabled to get a position at the age of 63. Great service!!!

D. Burgess, Candidate

Sophie contacted me about a role explained the details clearly and made sure I was ready for the interview. She kept in touch every step of the way till I started the job. Thank you Sophie for a great experience.

S. Powell, Candidate

Very polite and friendly and was very helpful finding me my next new role.

K. Craggs, Candidate

The staff at Aaron Wallis were fantastic. Throughout the process, they maintained excellent communication and I always knew where I stood.

M. Owusu, Candidate

George Humphries was a complete professional at every point, from our first phone conversation to his “good luck tomorrow” text on Sunday before I started in my new role.

E. Fry, Candidate

Simon was knowledgeable on his clients history, background and what their requirements were and he worked around time zones, holidays and a pandemic to get the right result.

J. Tooze, Candidate

Wanted to say a huge thank you to Simon Bonner who has just helped me secure my new role. He was one of the most professional recruiters I have ever worked with he was supportive really quick at replying and really put me at ease.

Aaron Wallis is an outstanding recruitment agency specialising in high calibre sales positions. I was working directly with Darren Dewrance who went above and beyond my expectations in sourcing me my perfect role. I was kept in regular communication with Darren and he worked extremely hard to secure my dream job. Highly recommended and Thanks Darren for all your expertise and hard work.

R. Sealy, Candidate

The most professional recruitment agency I've ever worked with. Robert Scott was extremely proactive and send me a detailed briefing before each interview, ensuring I was well prepared.

D. Bermant, Candidate

I had a great experience. Helped me every step of the way to get my new job. Sophie was very polite, kind and helpful!

J. Parnham, Candidate

I can honestly say that the time and expertise you gave me was way beyond any other recruitment consultant I dealt with. You are a rarity in your industry.

S. Akers, Candidate

I had the absolute pleasure of working with George Humphries on finding a placement best suitable for me.

A. Van Der Mescht, Candidate

The detail put into the preparation for interviews and the detail of the job description was first class. Rob and Simon in particular are amongst the best I've ever dealt with.

K. Peacock, Candidate

Fantastic service, helped me find my ideal job quickly and smoothly. Would highly recommend them.

C. Caine, Candidate

Very good advice and support was given during the course of the interviewing process. Potential job seekers would be well advised to use this company whilst looking for their new career.

R. Speakman, Candidate

I would highly recommend thank you to Darren for helping me secure my new job role! Excellent service all round!

G. Thompson, Candidate

Sam was by far the most professional and helpful of any individual I've ever dealt with through a recruitment agency. He was supportive and thorough throughout the process. He definitely goes the extra mile for you. A pleasure to deal with. I would highly recommend him. An asset to Aaron Wallis

M. Wyer, Candidate

The service provided by Aaron Wallis has been just great. I was constantly informed about what was going on with the process interview and the agent has always been supportive and kind to me.

L. Colagrossi, Candidate

Perfect from start to finish. Simon deserves a shout out. Best recruiter there is. If you need a job, this guy will get you one. He's like the super man of recruiters. Top man, can't recommend him enough.

M. Crisp, Candidate

Darren at Aaron Wallis was really encouraging and helpful. He was very responsive and regularly made phone calls to explain the job opportunities available, and guided me through the application process.

A. Brown, Candidate

I have to say using Aaron Wallis Recruitment has been nothing but an absolute pleasure. I've used many agencies over the years as the client and the candidate and its not always been a pleasurable experience!

L. Knowles, Candidate

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Interviewing – how to write a business plan for a future employer

Simon Roderick February 18, 2020 Jobseeking and interview process , Resources for candidates

At some point in your career you will probably be asked to complete a business plan, as part of a recruitment process. Candidates are often surprised, or worried that their good ideas will be implemented without them being hired (this doesn’t happen in my experience). However, they can cause alarm, as some people are good at their job, which doesn’t involve writing plans, and if the task is expected to be delivered in person it can cause some people to get very stressed. So below we’ve tried to outline so practical steps you can take, as there’s no need to miss out on a dream job just because you don’t know where to start with a business plan.

• Ask the hirer what they expect Firms are happy to give guidelines and so ask them what format they prefer and the how long they expect the business plan to be. Will you be presenting the plan, will you be expected to leave it behind, or most likely is it just a discussion document? Feel free to ask what IT support will be provided if you’re expected to give a powerpoint presentation.
• Make the presentation visually attractive You need to engage the reader
• Spell check It’s so easy to forget to spell check your plan
• Ask someone you trust to review your business plan, or ask them if they would mind you running through your presentation
• Arrive early so you aren’t stressed Aim to arrive 30 minutes early and have a coffee nearby, but don’t go to the interviewer’s office until 10 minutes before. Arriving very early can sometimes be as irritating as someone who arrives late.

What should a business plan contain?

Everyone has their own thoughts on this, but some of the better business plans contain:

i. An executive summary – this summarises the applicant’s experience, career aims, and business aims if hired An example of this would be: “Simon has 20 years recruitment experience, much of it gained in management roles. His aim is to grow Fram over the next 3 years to xxx (you need to be realistic and specific with this aim)

ii. A description of the business you want to create, i.e. clients to be targeted and services offered with a target revenue

iii. A guide to how you plan to build this business, i.e. from your existing client base, from introductions from professional intermediaries, from the firm’s own sources of new business (this is often a client’s least favourite thing to see in the current climate).

iv. A guide to the activities required to achieve the above, i.e. not only what intermediaries you will target and how many relationships you have etc, but how many cold calls and appointments you will make. How often you will need to meet a client on average to get them to invest

v. Why the firm you are interviewing with could help you achieve this. What are the key selling points and differentiators.

vi. What support you will need. Will you need an assistant, additional training, or access to cold calling support?

vii. Financials – a breakdown of year 1, 2, and 3 revenues and the business mix, i.e. investments vs. lending if you are a private banker

viii. Referees – you list former colleagues etc, but only do this if you’re happy for them to be contacted. It demonstrates confidence and transparency

ix. Summary – reaffirming the skills of the candidate

We recommend sending a polite email after the meeting if the interviewer has given you their contacts details. It’s always nice to thank them for your time and it’s a chance to reaffirm your interest (if you are indeed interested in the role).

If you’re successful in the interview process, firms will expect you to implement the plan and so it needs to be realistic. It’s a nightmare for all parties concerned when someone over promises and under delivers. Whilst the firm will refine your plan once you have full knowledge of their aims and offering, it can often form the basis of your first 12 months.

Good luck and if we can assist, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01525 864 372.

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12 Sales Interview Questions You Need To Be Ready For

Here are the top 12 common and technical sales interview questions recruiters ask candidates. Learn frameworks for answering these questions, tips, and how to prepare.

Not everybody is cut out for sales. You need a particular affinity for taking constant rejection with grace. But it’s one of the most lucrative career paths out there. 

Every business needs sales. There’s always a demand. The issue is that sales get competitive. Companies are looking for the best of the best. You need to stand out. 

Acing your sales interview is the best way to do so. By the end of this guide, you’ll get a solid understanding of frameworks you can use to crush your next interview and land your dream job. 

Interview Questions Most Companies Ask 

Companies will always have their own set of unique questions. But, in most cases, recruiters will ask these sales interview questions to see if you’re a fit for the company: 

The Classic "Tell Me About Yourself"

This one's a staple in any interview, but let's put a sales spin on it. You're selling yourself. The first step in any sale is understanding your customer's needs. Instead of launching into a pre-prepared spiel, try to:

• Take control of the conversation: Ask, "Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?" or "Is there a specific area you'd like me to focus on? " This shows you can reframe the conversation and demonstrates your interest in tailoring your response. 
• Showcase your passion: If they give you the green light to start anywhere, talk about things you genuinely love. It could be a hobby, a cause you support, or even how you got into sales. The more passionate you are about a topic, the more you show authenticity. 
• Stating a fact: I’m John Doe, I worked at my uncle’s repair shop.
• Showing Evidence: I worked there after graduating to help my uncle over the summer and it became a full-time job for 2 years. 
• Relating it to the job description: I learned how to effectively communicate with clients, address their pain points, and even learned how to upsell. 

Tell Me About Your Past Sales Experience

No prior sales experience? No problem. Focus on transferable skills from other areas of your life. Have you ever been a leader in a club, organized an event, given a presentation, or even just navigated a tricky social situation?

These experiences show communication, initiative, and the ability to handle pressure—all essential sales skills . Highlight your eagerness to learn, adapt, and get the job done. They're not looking for a veteran; they want someone with potential who's willing to put in the work

• Why did you choose a career in sales?

Don’t make it about you—make it about them. Sales is arguably the most important part of any business. If there’s no sales, there’s no revenue. If there’s no revenue, why run a business? 

Here’s an example of how you want to answer this question:

“I am eager to pursue a career in sales because I recognize that sales skills are among the most valuable assets one can possess. These skills can be applied across various contexts, whether in social interactions, family discussions, or negotiating prices at a car dealership. I aspire to enhance my sales abilities by learning from your company, as I believe you offer the best products and have exceptional teams. Based on my research and what I've heard, your organization aligns perfectly with my goal as a representative.”

This type of question shows that you’re not just here for a paycheck (although this is important), but you’re passionate about learning sales from the best. It’s a career path. It’s long-term. 

What can you do for the company? Even without experience?

First, you need to understand what a sales team does. In most cases, sales teams do lead generation and manage CRMs, you could be doing inside sales or remote sales , sending cold emails, LinkedIn messages, territory management , or doing discovery calls. 

An underrated skill that many salespeople, even those with years of experience disregard is learning how to write a quality cold email that gets results. With how sales are going, many companies are investing in scalable cold email infrastructure. 

You want to be a person who knows how to work in that environment. Because a lot of the time, the bulk of the sales process is doing prospecting, outreach, and nurturing. So show them that you can learn how to use technologies like sales CRMs, or specifically, a CRM for email marketing like Instantly CRM. 

Why do you want to work at this company?

This is where you lift the company’s ego. Tell the company that they have the best products, which means they’re easy to sell. Say you believe in the products they’re selling. You have to convince them of how much you believe in them. 

The next thing you want to say is that they have the best people. Having good products is one thing but having a positive work environment with the right sales enablement is the key to successful sales campaigns. 

Tell them you’ve done your research and you know that this company is the best that you want to learn from the best, and that you have the potential to be one of the best. 

Pro Tip: Research the company's compensation structure beforehand, but don't bring it up too early in the interview. Focus on showing your passion and potential first, then talk about it later. 

Do you have any questions for us?

If you read some of the best sales books out there, they’ll all say that you need to ask prospects the right questions. You should too during your sales interview. 

Asking thoughtful questions shows you're prepared and interested in the company. It also gives you a chance to gather more information and solidify your decision.

Clarify things about the work environment, the people you’ll be working with, and what the culture is all about. Here are some questions you could ask:

• Can you tell me more about the work culture here?
• How does the sales team collaborate?
• What does the typical career progression look like in this company?

Now they’re pitching you on why you should join them. It increases your perceived value. Just remember to reframe your questions to be focused more on the long term.

Technical Sales Interview Questions You Need To Prepare For

Recruiters use the common sales interview questions to gauge if you’re fit for the company. That includes soft skills, how well you present yourself, and your potential. 

These questions are mostly asked during the first rounds of the interview process. During the later stages, some companies do technical sales interview questions. Here’s what to expect:

Have you used a CRM tool before? If so, which one and how? 

If the company you’re applying for still uses spreadsheets to track and manage leads and customers, walk away from the interview. The best companies all use some kind of CRM. 

Learn the basics of these tools. Or try to find out what CRM the company uses during the earlier rounds of the interview process (questions like: “Do you have any questions for us?”).

All CRMs serve the same purpose—managing leads down the sales pipelines. However, some CRMs have features for specific workflows. Take the Instantly Dealflow CRM as an example. 

Dealflow has everything a CRM needs and tools tailored specifically for cold sales emails. Everything from emails, calls, texts, and tasks is centralized in one Master Inbox. 

It also has an AI inbox manager that can help even beginner sales reps close more sales. Instantly AI looks through the lead data, discovers insights, and personalizes emails for you. 

You also get access to automated sales outreach with Instantly Salesflows. With Salesflows, reps can prioritize leads most likely to convert and even create campaigns with one click. 

What sales metric is most important to you?

This is one of the more flexible questions as there could be multiple right answers. There isn’t one universal metric that’s “most important.” All of them serve a purpose. 

Recruiters ask this question to see if you can explain why you chose a specific key performance indicator (KPI) and what you’d focus on when you’re doing tasks.

Here’s an example answer:

“Tracking customer acquisition costs isn't just about numbers; it's about finding opportunities. By analyzing CAC data, I can see which channels and campaigns are bringing in the most valuable customers, allowing us to double down on what works and ditch what doesn't. This data-driven approach ensures every dollar going towards our sales efforts is working as hard as possible.”

What do you know about our company and product?

A huge part of the sales process is research—finding out exact needs and figuring out how to angle your value proposition. If you’re applying as a sales rep, you best do research too. 

Look through the company’s website, social media, news articles, and all sources you can find. Get familiar with the core products and services, you don’t have to memorize all of them. 

More importantly, research the target audience and how you can align the company’s unique value proposition to fit their needs. This demonstrates your genuine interest and initiative.

Sell Me X Product

This is one of the most nerve-wracking questions out there. Not all companies ask this during the interview process. But you should still be prepared for some Wolf of Wall Street, “Sell me this pen” type of roleplay. 

That’s why you always research the company's product and the target audience first. Don’t jump in and start talking about the features. Think of it as a discovery call . You’re here to know the needs and pain points of your prospect. 

Try saying things like: 

“Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about, XYZ. I’m curious what made you take this initiative? Is there anything that stood out for you about XYZ that could help with your issues?” 

Now you’re reframing the conversion. Instead of you selling them the product, it’s like they’ll be selling the product themselves. 

• What does your sales process look like?

While every sale is different, salespeople must have a standardized process that serves as an anchor. You need to clearly explain your step-by-step process from prospecting to closing. Most sales processes include four fundamental parts: prospecting, outreach, nurturing, and closing. 

Prospecting involves creating your ideal customer profile and buyer personas. You can do it manually or use tools like Instantly B2B Lead Finder and use its advanced filters to zero in on the perfect prospect. 

Outreach, whether through cold sales or cold calling, should be personalized. If you already know how to use outreach tools for channels like email marketing, that’s always a bonus. 

Nurturing is all about providing tailored content that provides prospects value and keeps you top-of-mind until they’re ready to close.  

Show Me Your Sales Cadence

Sales cadence is a systematic approach to sales outreach. Remember, most sales close after multiple touchpoints. That could be through email, text, SMS, or outside sales. 

Don’t just lay out an entire 8-step sales cadence when answering the question. Make sure to include your reasoning. The number of touchpoints isn’t what’s important, it’s the quality of the customer’s journey at each touchpoint. Here’s an example of a 5-step sales cadence: 

• Day 1: Linked-In Message
• Day 3: Cold email in the morning, call in the afternoon.
• Day 5: Call in the morning, and leave a voicemail in the afternoon.
• Day 7: Morning email, afternoon call with a voicemail.
• Day 10: Morning email followed by a call in the morning.

Key Takeaways

Sales interview questions can be nerve-wracking, but they don’t have to be. All you need is to prepare, do your research, and answer each question with authenticity. To recap, here are the most common sales interview questions most recruiters will ask: 

• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell me about your past sales experience 
• What can you do for the company?
• Do you have any questions for me?

During the later stages of the interview process, recruiters might ask the following technical sales questions: 

• Have you used a CRM tool before?
• What sales metric is the most important to you?
• What do you know about our company and products?
• Sell me this product.
• Show me your sales cadence.

If you’re applying for a sales position in a company that focuses on cold email outreach, check out Instantly Dealflow CRM to get an immediate advantage.

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10x your leads, meetings and deals.

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Start selling with Shopify today

Start your free trial with Shopify today—then use these resources to guide you through every step of the process.

Sales Planning: How To Create a Sales Plan (+ Template)

Sales planning helps you set goals, forecast revenue, and chart a course to growth. With an easy-to-use sales planning template, you’ll be set up for success.

You can buy and hire all the resources to build a house. But without blueprints, you’ll end up with a stack of boards, piles of nails, and construction workers twiddling their thumbs.

Sales teams need a blueprint, too. It’s called sales planning. Like a construction blueprint, sales planning ensures your resources are put to their best use, and team members are focused on what’s most important.

“If you’re not looking at the sales data and making a plan, you might be giving equal weight to all of your products when there are a few that are really the workhorses,” says Shawn Khemsurov, cofounder of strategic design and development agency Electric Eye . “ Those are the products you should invest in and focus on.”

Learn how to create an effective sales plan that aligns with your business objectives, and keeps your sales team driving growth.

What is sales planning?

Sales planning is a set of processes to drive sales for a business—specifically, setting sales goals and outlining the actions needed to achieve them.

The sales planning process helps leaders understand market conditions, analyze customers and trends, allocate resources effectively, and set realistic sales targets.

Sales plan template

Sales planning templates can provide a good framework for you to get started with sales planning. Shopify’s free sales plan template makes it easy to visualize your goals for the year or quarter and keep your team on track.

Sales planning process

• Analyze market conditions and historical performance
• Identify and understand your target audience
• Determine sales goals
• Set strategy
• Allocate budget and resources
• Create action plans
• Monitor sales performance and adjust accordingly

Create a sales plan by following these steps:

1. Analyze market conditions and historical performance

To position your products well and set appropriate goals, you’ll first need to understand what’s going on both inside and outside of your company.

Pull data from your preferred ecommerce analytics tools to analyze your company’s past performance and your customers’ behavior, looking at key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rate , session length, and average order value (AOV). This will help you identify areas of strength and opportunities to improve within your sales process.

Also, perform external market research to understand trends, evolving customer needs, and the competitive landscape. Shawn recommends asking yourself a series of questions to help dig deeper into the market and your brand’s place within it.

“Who else is selling in this category? How much are they charging?” says Shawn. “Is the market saturated? If so, what’s our differentiator that we can play up? Or is there a niche that isn’t being served that we can develop something around?”

2. Identify and understand your target audience

Once you’ve identified some overall business and market trends, you can use the same analytics reports to learn more about your target customers. You can divide your target market into smaller customer segments based on details like geography, preferences, and pain points.

Deeply understanding these different audiences can help you market effectively and identify your best customers, both of which can fuel sales and, ultimately, business growth.

3. Determine sales goals

Armed with both internal and market data, you can set clear goals for your sales reps. Consider using the SMART goals framework to ensure your sales objectives are strategic, measurable, actionable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (i.e., SMART).

Most sales teams have revenue goals, but you might set sales goals that involve market share, the number of new customers acquired, a reduction in customer churn , or channel-specific sales.

4. Set strategy

Identify specific methods and sales techniques that your team will leverage to achieve sales goals. Depending on your business, you can leverage a variety of sales tools and marketing strategies including:

• Email marketing campaigns
• Influencer partnerships
• Search engine optimization
• Retargeting ads
• Content marketing
• Social media advertising
• Sales automation
• Website redesigns

Your data analysis and market research can help guide you to the best techniques for your needs. For example, you might find that your average order value is solid, but you need to market more widely to draw more people to visit the site. Or perhaps your site traffic is good, but people drop off rather than convert with a purchase—suggesting an update of your product page or checkout process may be in order.

Market your business with Shopify’s customer marketing tools

Shopify has everything you need to capture more leads, send email campaigns, automate key marketing moments, segment your customers, and analyze your results. Plus, it’s all free for your first 10,000 emails sent per month.

5. Allocate budget and resources

Focus is important not only to avoid being overwhelmed, but to allocate resources accordingly. Sales teams rarely have unlimited budgets, so you’ll need to decide how much to invest in each of your sales activities, including marketing campaigns , promotions, partnerships , and staffing.

6. Create action plans

Outline and assign the specific actions required to execute each sales strategy. A successful sales plan lays out clear timelines and expectations.

For example, a set of sales representatives may be called on to contact 25 leads and set 10 sales appointments by the end of the month. Or, sales managers could assign them to check in with all existing customers on their accounts to ensure retention and attempt to upsell with new complementary services.

Depending on your strategies, action plans may include delegating tasks to people outside the sales organization. For example, an email newsletter or content marketing strategy requires looping in the marketing team to create these assets. Marketing and sales alignment is crucial in this example to ensure sales messaging is maintained.

7. Monitor sales performance and adjust strategies accordingly

Effective sales planning involves keeping track of what works and what doesn’t to inform future plans.

Define the metrics you’ll use to measure the effectiveness of each sales strategy you choose, and identify data sources and tools to help you track sales success. You may find one strategic process isn’t as successful as others, or that you need to swap strategies over time.

Tips for sales planning

Set realistic goals, focus on what’s most impactful.

• Allocate resources to get the most bang for your buck

Align planning and goals to overall business objectives

Here are a few tips sales leaders can use to create effective sales plans:

Dream big, yet not too big. “Reach” goals can help your team strive to achieve more, but be careful to strike a balance.

There’s a fine line between aspirational and unrealistic, and if you’re on the wrong side of things, your sales team will end up frustrated.

Setting impossible revenue targets and other goals helps no one. Ensure your objectives are realistic based on past sales efforts, historical performance, and market research.

Dig enough, and you’ll find seemingly endless tools, strategies, and potential ways to boost future sales. But not every method is right for your business, right now.

“It’s easy to get overwhelmed,” Shawn says. “Simplify your focus to the few key areas that have the biggest impact on your sales, and figure out how you can attack those hard.”

Allocate resources to get the bang for your buck

Monitor your sales and strategies to see which efforts have the greatest impact, and put your resources into them.

For example, you may find promotions or abandoned-cart email campaigns tend to bring customers to the site. In other cases, factors like supply chain issues and low inventory might be denting your sales.

“Some shops are surprised to find it’s a small number of products that are really pulling the weight—so in that case, you want to make sure you’re always in stock,” Shawn says.

“If a customer on your site can’t make that purchase, it’s frustrating for them and a lost sale for you. Fixing that problem can have a massive effect on your sales, because even the best marketing messaging doesn’t help if you don’t have a product to ship.”

As you perform sales planning activities—whether it’s conducting an in-depth competitive analysis, reorganizing the sales team structure, or forecasting sales—never lose sight of the overall business plan .

Not every company is necessarily focused on how much revenue they can generate or increasing the sales quota. Instead, they may be looking to break into new geographic areas, reach new target markets, or overcome the sales team’s challenges in explaining the product’s differentiators. You define what sales success means, based on your company’s overall goals right now.

Sales planning FAQ

What is the first step in the sales planning process.

Analyze internal data and external market trends to better understand sales opportunities and your customers. This will help you develop informed, clear, realistic sales forecasts and goals.

Why is sales planning important?

Sales planning is important because it provides a structured approach to achieving sales goals. It helps companies set data-based goals, select appropriate sales techniques, allocate resources effectively, track progress toward sales goals, and adjust strategies over time.

What should be included in a sales plan?

A sales planning template often includes an executive summary, sales goals, market trends and historical sales data, audience data, sales strategies, budget and allocations, action plans, and monitoring.

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