To meet your organization’s sales goals, you need more than a high-quality product. You also need a detailed sales strategy, which will help you easily get that product into your target customers’ hands. 

A sales plan is a roadmap that aligns your team around clear objectives, actionable tactics, and measurable outcomes. It helps your eps stay focused and proactive, equipping them to close deals more effectively and consistently.

The benefits of implementing a strong sales action plan are undeniable. Research shows that sales professionals who use structured planning strategies are four times more likely to achieve sales objectives and 1.7 times more likely to hit their quotas. In short, a great plan can be the difference between falling short and exceeding expectations.

To simplify sales planning, we’ve created four versatile sales plan templates tailored to different needs. Whether you’re launching a startup, onboarding new sales reps, aligning sales and marketing, or forecasting revenue, these templates will set your team up for success. 

1. Basic Sales Plan Template

Make a copy of this sales plan template here.

Our foundational sales plan template strips away unnecessary complexity while capturing the essential elements you need for success. It's particularly valuable for startups and small businesses where team members often wear multiple hats.

The template begins with basic project information: the owner's name and date. While simple, this creates clear accountability and helps you track the evolution of your strategy over time. From there, you'll outline your objectives and goals, and transform vague aspirations like "increase revenue" into concrete targets such as "generate $500K in new business revenue by Q4" or "acquire 50 new enterprise clients in the manufacturing sector."

When defining your target customers, move beyond basic demographics to create a complete picture. Rather than just noting "marketing managers," specify "VP of Operations at mid-sized manufacturing companies with $100K-$500K annual technology budgets who are struggling with equipment downtime." This level of detail helps your team identify and pursue the right opportunities.

Your strategies and tactics section should outline specific actions, such as implementing an account-based marketing approach for top targets, developing industry-specific case studies, or creating multi-touch outreach sequences. 

The roles and responsibilities section clarifies who owns what. For example, an SDR might own sourcing 100 qualified leads monthly and conducting 50 discovery calls, while an Account Executive focuses on closing 5 new accounts monthly with a 60-day average sales cycle.

When documenting potential roadblocks, pair each challenge with a solution. If you're facing long enterprise sales cycles, implement micro-conversions and success milestones. Limited brand recognition? Partner with established industry consultants. Price sensitivity? Develop a compelling ROI calculator and flexible payment plans.

Market conditions should reflect specific factors affecting your strategy, such as projected growth in your target market, new regulations, or competitor movements. These insights help your reps adapt their tactics as the market evolves.

Your deadlines section creates accountability through clear timelines: from initial team training to launching updated sales collateral and engaging your first wave of target accounts. Finally, track KPIs that truly matter—sales velocity, customer acquisition cost, lead response time, and pipeline coverage provide a clear picture of sales performance.

2. 30/60/90 Day Sales Plan Template

Make a copy of this sales plan template here. 

The journey from new hire to high-performing rep is often challenging. A well-structured 30/60/90 day plan makes this transition achievable, as it breaks down the complex process of ramping up sales capabilities into manageable milestones. It also provides a framework for rolling out new team-wide sales strategies, whether you're implementing a new methodology or transitioning to a different market segment.

The objectives section is the heart of this template. For individual reps, think about more than sales quotas. Strong objectives might include "Schedule and conduct 20 discovery calls independently by day 60" or "Generate $50,000 in pipeline opportunities by day 90." 

For team rollouts, consider goals like "Achieve 80% adoption of new sales methodology by day 45" or "Reduce average sales cycle by 20% by day 90."

The template's task structure follows a proven progression:

• Days 1-30: Focus on foundation building. New reps master their product knowledge, understand ideal customer profiles, and learn to navigate internal systems. They shadow experienced team members on calls and begin practicing pitch delivery in safe environments. For team rollouts, this might involve defining new processes and testing them with pilot groups.
• Days 30-60: Transition to guided execution. Reps start conducting their own discovery calls with supervision, build their initial pipeline, and receive regular coaching on areas for improvement. They begin owning smaller accounts while developing deeper industry expertise. Teams might start using new sales plays while you track adoption and effectiveness.
• Days 60-90: Move toward independence. New reps take full ownership of their accounts and sales cycles, while teams fully integrate new methodologies into their daily work. Success metrics are now tracked consistently, whether that's a new rep's first closed deals or the team's improved win rates using new approaches. 

The status tracking system (Not Started, In Progress, Blocked, Completed) gives everyone visibility into progress. When a task becomes "Blocked," it serves as an early warning system—perhaps indicating a need for additional training or resource allocation. The duration calculations help prevent tasks from dragging on too long, maintaining momentum throughout the ramp-up period.

For team implementations, the Owner column creates clear accountability while preventing duplicate efforts. The Additional Notes & Comments section helps you capture crucial context (everything from specific roadblocks you or your reps encountered to successful approaches worth replicating).

Our template maintains a structured approach to onboarding and implementation and adapts to your specific needs. It breaks down the intimidating ramp-up period into clear, achievable chunks, and keeps your team focused on high-impact activities while building confidence through steady progress. The result is a smoother transition for new hires and more successful rollouts of new sales initiatives.

3. Sales & Marketing SLA Template

Make a copy of this sales plan template here. 

Does this scenario sound familiar? Marketing celebrates generating 1,000 new leads, while your team grumbles about their quality. Meanwhile, your reps complain about needing better case studies, while Marketing wonders why your team never shares customer success stories. That’s the kind of “blame game” our Sales & Marketing Service Level Agreement template helps you avoid.

Start by designating Points of Contact from each team who will oversee this agreement and meet regularly to ensure alignment. Set your Project Time Frame to match your business cycles — typically quarterly or annually, with monthly check-ins.

Company/Business Goals unite both teams under shared objectives. For example: "Increase market share in the manufacturing sector by 25% this year through coordinated campaigns and sales outreach." Team-specific Goals then support this broader vision:

• Marketing goals might include “generating 500 MQLs from the manufacturing sector,” “producing 12 customer success stories featuring ROI above 200%,” and “launching an intent-based advertising program targeting plant managers.”
• Sales goals could be “converting 30% of MQLs to SQLs”, “reducing average sales cycle from 90 to 60 days,” and “increasing deal size by 40% through solution selling.”

Get specific with each team’s tasks so they support the goals you’re all working towards. For example, Marketing might promise to create gated industry benchmark reports, run quarterly ABM campaigns for the top 50 accounts, and host bi-weekly industrial automation webinars. Your team might commit to providing a weekly win/loss analysis, recording customer objection stories, and updating ICP data.

The key to making these commitments measurable is the KPIs each team tracks. Marketing's metrics should directly tie to Sales success, while Sales metrics should reflect Marketing's impact. For instance, Marketing might track the MQL-to-SQL conversion rate and lead quality score, while Sales might pay close attention to opportunity-to-close rate by lead source and deal size influence from Marketing content.

The real magic happens in the Handoff Criteria section. Here's where you define when and how leads move between teams. For example:

• Marketing → Sales when prospects show high buying intent (e.g. downloading an ROI calculator and visiting the pricing page within a week)
• Sales → Marketing for nurturing when there's no response after X outreach attempts

Finally, Communication Channels should reflect both teams’ reality. Maybe your East Coast Marketing team and West Coast sales team need clear "overlap hours" for sync-ups. Or perhaps your global team uses a "follow-the-sun" approach with designated handoff times.

Pro tip: Include response time expectations for different channels. For example:

• Slack: Within 2 hours for @mentions
• Email: Same business day for lead escalations
• Weekly Sync: No-skip attendance policy
• Shared Dashboard: Daily updates by 5 PM local time

4. Sales Forecast Template

Make a copy of this sales plan template here. 

One of the biggest challenges for many sales teams is forecasting future revenue generation. Our template can help you estimate those numbers for the upcoming year, depending on your business model.

Let's walk through a real example of how different businesses would use each section:

Retainer Revenue

Say you're a marketing agency planning next year's growth. You start Month 1 forecasting 30 small business clients at $100 each, but you know you'll be:

• Expanding to larger clients (increasing retainer value from $100 to $120,000)
• Growing your client base (from 30 to 500 clients)
• Monthly Forecast = Predicted Clients × Projected Retainer Value

Your growth forecast shows potential revenue scaling from $3,000 to $60,000,000 as you land enterprise clients.

Product Revenue

Let's say you're a B2B training company selling online courses. You track:

• Units Sold: Project selling 300 courses in Month 1, fluctuating based on launch schedule
• Price per Unit: Plan to maintain $5 price point
• Monthly Forecast = Predicted Units × Planned Price

You can forecast months with new course launches (higher units) versus steady-state periods.

Hourly Billing

A consulting firm might forecast:

• Billable Hours: Starting with 8 hours of new business in Month 1, growing to 12 hours by year-end
• Hourly Rate: Beginning at $5, with potential rate increases
• Monthly Forecast = Expected Hours × Planned Rate

This helps predict revenue as you scale capacity.

The growth rate calculations automatically show your projected month-over-month changes, helping validate if your forecasts are realistic. Choose the section matching your business model, input your projected numbers, and use the growth rates to check if your assumptions make sense.

Note: The sample numbers are intentionally simplified for demonstration. Replace them with your actual figures, whether that's $150/hour for consulting or $5,000 monthly retainers for agency services.

Say Goodbye to Excel, Meet CaptivateIQ

These sales plan templates provide a foundation for setting goals and getting organized, but why settle for static documents when you can have a dynamic, all-in-one solution? 

CaptivateIQ takes the complexity out of sales planning. Instead of juggling multiple Excel sheets or struggling with manual updates, you can use our platform to streamline every aspect of your sales strategy. From assigning territories and setting quotas to managing compensation plans, CaptivateIQ centralizes your sales operations in one intuitive platform.

Our real-time data tracking feature gives you insight into performance, helping you create detailed forecasts, adapt your strategy, and achieve your goals faster. With built-in collaboration tools and seamless integrations, CaptivateIQ ensures your entire team stays aligned, and no data is left behind.

Ready to get started with your sales plan? Schedule a demo today to get started. 

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