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Track and lead execution of your operational sales plan

With your sales goal charts and operational sales plans you are well prepared to track and lead execution:

1. On your goal charts you track progress to your operational sales goals,
   
2. To track and review progress in operational sales plans you just follow the plan’s necessary conditions 
   

1. Track progress to your operational sales goal

On you goal chart you track:

• Progress to your operational goal,
  
• Forecast for the next few months and
  
• Comments on both achievements and forecasts.
  

Performance of lower level units (explaining details of your performance at the top level) the chart shows best in a table below the chart.

Your Nr1 leadership tool

Your goal chart is the best way to share progress in your measure of success with your operational teams, your C-level colleagues and the company board.

2. Track progress in your operational sales plan

Progress to necessary conditions is the prime measure of how well your operational team executes its operational plan.

To track progress, you expand your operational plan by monthly progress indicators:

• Green: The owner reports progress on track and expects to deliver on time,
  
• Red: The owner reports progress off track and/or expects to not deliver on time.
  

(There is no "amber" state of a necessary condition: either you are on track - or not).

Three recommendations for right execution of operational sales plans

1. Only track progress to your goal and in necessary conditions, nothing else

By tracking long lists or scorecards of performance indicators you waste your own and everybody else's time.

• Progress to your operational sales goal, visible in your sales goal chart(s) and
  
• Progress to your plan's necessary conditions, visible in tracking charts for necessary conditions.

2. Ask owners of sales goals and necessary conditions to keep the operational team updated

If owners of sales goals or necessary conditions do not keep the entire operational team continuously updated neither the team nor you will know about progress, constraints and eventually the requirement to adjust operational plans.

Agree with owners of sales goals and necessary conditions on regular communication about their assignments.

3. Institutionalize quick reviews with a key events schedule

Not reviewing progress in operational sprints is equal to abandoning your personal measure of success. Both you and your operational team will defocus from the operational sales goal and quickly give higher priority to other things.

If every participant has kept the operational team update such quick reviews should take not more than one hour.

More information

More about execution of operational plans in book SURF THE WAVES OF OPPORTUNITY, Chapter 13 "Right execution". (Website, Look inside)