Sales Planning: Improve Strategy via Better Decision Making

Rapid market changes reveal a gap in organizations’ ability to adapt their preestablished strategic sales plans.

Sales planning helps CSOs steer their businesses toward sustainable success

Chief sales officers (CSOs) and other sales leaders are tasked with developing and executing a sales strategy that drives and optimizes organizational revenue. In the face of internal and external challenges, however, 65% of sales leaders report struggling to adapt their strategic plans to sudden business changes.

In a chaotic environment, sales leaders must evolve to adopt a more structured approach to adaptive decision making, as there is a higher premium on a disciplined sales planning and decision process.

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    Optimize sales planning with the MIDAS decision-making model

    MIDAS is Gartner’s decision-making model for sales planning. It emphasizes agile, adaptive continuous or ongoing evaluation decision making in B2B sales.

    Core components of the MIDAS model for sales planning

    The five core components of the MIDAS model are:

    • Monitor. Collect relevant information from a wide range of sources, including buyers, sellers, partners and the general market.

    • Interpret. Turn raw data into valuable information that drives relevant, actionable insights.

    • Decide. Assess the pros and cons of multiple alternatives individually and holistically to choose the right course of action.

    • Act. Execute the decision and leverage fast experimentation with planned, adaptive measures of success.

    • Sustain. Support decisions and change through culture, strategy and enablement — and make incremental changes as needed.

    Benefits of the MIDAS model for sales planning

    The advantages of adopting the MIDAS model include:

    • Improved decision quality. Sales leaders thoroughly evaluate all relevant factors with objective criteria, leading to higher-quality decisions and outcomes. 

    • Increased efficiency. The MIDAS model provides a continuous yet streamlined, structured framework for the decision-making process, saving CSOs time and effort.

    • Risk management. Sales leaders can assess and manage risks associated with sales decisions, minimizing potential negative impacts before they occur. 

    • Greater accountability. Decisions can be evaluated based on the established framework, making it easier to identify and address issues.

    • Strategic alignment. CSOs can determine how each decision contributes to the achievement of the organization’s strategic objectives, enabling them to make choices that support long-term success.

    How to implement the MIDAS model for sales planning

    To put the MIDAS model into practice in a way that maximizes impact:

    • Foster a data-driven culture. Encourage transparency and accountability by prioritizing evidence-based decisions, guarding against biases and sharing the rationale behind important choices.

    • Design a signals-based system. Focus on contextualizing and interpreting evidence to quickly identify patterns, trends and customer preferences. Enable this by investing in data monitoring and capture technology, and enhancing organizational data literacy.

    • Create an environment that values experimentation. The MIDAS model depends on a spirit of risk taking and innovation. A supportive environment is the key enabler.

    Enhance your leadership as a CSO

    Sales planning FAQs

    What is meant by sales planning?

    Sales planning helps CSOs and other sales leaders develop and execute on a sales strategy that drives and optimizes revenue. It enables faster high-quality, informed decisions; strengthens decision-making ability across the organization; fosters transparency and clarity of insights, options and actions; and reduces bias in data collection and alternative selection.

    Why is sales planning important?

    Sales planning helps CSOs make better, more informed and consistent decisions aligned with sales strategy. Especially in times of flux, disciplined decision making provides a competitive advantage by enabling adaptive strategic plans. Gartner recommends leveraging the MIDAS decision-making model to navigate uncertainty, seize opportunities and steer the business toward sustainable success.

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