30-60-90 day sales plan for managers, reps, and sales territories

Writing a 30-60-90 day plan for success

A new sales rep isn’t going to magically outsell the top performers the first day on the job. Before a new rep can begin to hit and exceed quotas, they need time and a well-defined plan. One of the most popular plans for success in a new environment is the 30-60-90 day plan.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to create a useful three-month plan for managers, sales reps, and new territories. We’ll also provide several 30-60-90 day sales plan examples that you can use to inspire your own.

But first, we need to lay out exactly what a 30-60-90 day sales plan is and why it’s important.

30-60-90 day sales plan outline

There’s no single way to format a 30-60-90 day plan. You can create a version that works best for you. The basic idea is that each 30-day chunk represents a new area of focus: learning, implementing, and improving.

Such an outline might look something like this:

1. Days 1–30: Learning
   In this stage, a new hire learns everything they possibly can about the company, its products or services, and its customers. With a new sales territory, the sales team and managers spend this time learning about the geographic area, its demographics, the market, and the ideal customers.
2. Days 31–60: Implementing
   In this phase, a new sales rep or manager starts implementing what they’ve learned and diving into the sales and performance tracking process. Likewise with new territories, the sales team and managers begin to test the waters, finding new leads and building relationships.
3. Days 61–90: Improving
   In the third month, you examine the actions and outcomes of the preceding month to identify failures and triumphs. You’ll refine your process wherever improvement is needed and then turn your attention towards the future.

The key is to not get ahead of yourself. A 30-60-90 day sales plan that’s rushed or muddled won’t help you reap any rewards.

What are the benefits of creating a 30-60-90 day plan?

Whether you’re looking to set yourself apart during the interview process or seeking to make an impact during your first few weeks on the job, writing a three-month plan has various benefits.

• 
  Make a lasting impression: Showing up prepared proves that you’re serious about success. This is especially true when businesses are hiring a sales rep. Hiring managers are usually very impressed (and grateful) when a sales rep shows up to the interview with a 30-60-90 day sales plan already laid out.
• 
  Avoid burnout: When leaping into a new role, you may put pressure on yourself to take on a lot of work at once, but you run the risk of burning out. A three-month plan helps you create a sustainable pace that allows you to work hard without stretching yourself too thin.
• 
  Gain better control of time management: When you’re starting something new, you’re always going to be slower at it than someone who’s been doing it longer. But coming in with a plan empowers you to manage your time with precision, giving you more flexibility to spend time on tasks that really need your focused attention.
• 
  Build trust with managers and colleagues: Setting goals that require conversations with your peers and higher-ups is a great way to learn more about the company. As a bonus, it helps establish trust between you and your coworkers. Starting in a new role or territory can be difficult, but you’re more likely to find success if you make the effort to connect with people who can provide guidance.
• 
  Obtain the tools to keep improving: When the first 90 days are over, the planning isn’t done. But once you’ve successfully carried out a 30-60-90 day plan, you’ll have a solid framework for setting objectives and following through on them in the future. You’ll also have tools for tracking your goals, measuring your success, and refining your skills.

Now that you know the basic layout of a 30-60-90 day sales plan and the advantages of using one, let’s take a look at some specific examples.

30-60-90 day plan examples

Here are generic examples of what different 30-60-90 day sales plans might look like. Keep in mind that each goal can (and should) be split into many smaller goals so they can fit neatly into a daily schedule.

30-60-90 day sales plan: New sales reps example

Hiring managers love it when sales rep candidates come into the interview with a 30-60-90 day sales plan already prepared. This is a great tactic for showing companies that you know how to set goals and plan ahead. Otherwise, new sales reps might create a plan with the help of their manager during the first few days on the job.

Below is an example of what a 30-60-90 day plan might look like for a new sales representative:

30-60-90 day plan: Manager example

Motivational sales quotes are great, but you need more to manage a new sales team successfully. When acclimating a new manager to a sales team, a solid three-month plan is an effective tool for setting expectations and learning how people respond to incremental changes.

Below is a 30-60-90 day plan for district sales managers:

Keep in mind that some of these goals will be hard to meet if you have to manually create reports and analyze data. Use a solid CRM platform and sales funnel software to speed up time-consuming tasks—like generating reports and calculating performance metrics—so you can meet your goals faster and with better accuracy.

30-60-90 day plan: New sales territory example

Selling in a new territory can come with a lot of unknowns. Taking the time to write a robust 30-60-90 day plan for new sales territory helps ensure you’re setting yourself up for longevity and profit in an unfamiliar area.

Here’s an example of a new territory 30-60-90 day plan:

Make sure you build a plan specific enough to follow but flexible enough to adjust if needed. We’ll show you how to do just that in the next section.

How to write a 30-60-90 day sales plan

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for what a 30-60-90 day plan should look like. The key is to make it simple to follow, which means keeping it concise and organized. Most plans range from three to eight pages. Anything longer is too much. But anything less, and you might seem like an underachiever.

What to include in a 30-60-90 plan

Every plan should include clear and realistic goals, a timeline for reaching those goals, and a method for measuring your success.

Let’s look at one of the examples from the previous section: the 30-60-90 day plan for a new sales rep. One of the Phase 1 goals is to learn about the company’s products. Obviously, you need to understand how a product works and why it’s valuable if you’re going to sell it. Though there isn’t exactly a quantifiable metric for measuring how well you know a product, you can still assess your knowledge using other methods.

In your full 30-60-90 day sales plan, you might write out this goal, metric, and timeline as follows:

Goal: Learn about the company’s products

• Review product catalogue for at least 30 minutes every day.

• Talk to at least three colleagues about the product every week.

• Read at least 20 product reviews from customers every day.

Metric: Be able to speak with someone about the product for 15 minutes straight and answer all questions—without having to look at the catalogue—by the end of the month.

Keep in mind that everyone learns in different ways. Your plan may look similar to someone else’s, but the finer details should be personalized to fit how you learn and operate best.

Use software to execute a successful 30-60-90 day plan

Creating a plan is the easy part. Carrying it out is where the hard work comes in—but using software can help.

Zendesk Sell is a cloud-based all-in-one CRM that makes setting goals and measuring success simple and hassle-free. With powerful reporting and analytics features, as well as performance metrics and task management tools, our software shows you how close you are to meeting your objectives and where you should be making improvements.

Register for a demo today, and see how Zendesk’s user-friendly platform can help your sales team set—and achieve—actionable sales goals.