A well-prepared sales plan is the basis for the effectiveness of any business strategy. It allows you to plan your steps and change paths if something goes wrong. Here are some tips that will help you develop your WhatsApp marketing strategy and get great results.
What is a sales plan?
A sales plan governs the operation of a company’s sales department, from the identification of objectives, the target audience and the ways to achieve the goals to the challenges that the sales team may encounter. It shapes and guides all facets of a company’s overall sales strategy.
An effective sales plan gets the sales department working toward a goal and communicates to the company the team’s progress and its relationship to the company plan. It helps individual reps understand the priorities of the business, as well as the measures by which they will be evaluated, and of course highlights the importance of sales.
A sales plan serves to establish the objectives, the high-level tactics, determine the target audience and the possible obstacles to reaching that audience. Although it is like a traditional business plan, a sales plan focuses specifically on the sales strategy that will meet the objectives of the company. It provides a consistent measure of performance, allowing independent assessment of individual performance in a quantitative way.
While the business plan reflects where a company wants to go, a sales plan is part of how that goal can be achieved, it is a roadmap and execution.
At the same time, a sales plan is a month-by-month forecast of the level of sales you hope to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. It covers past sales, market concerns, your specific niches, who your customers are and how you are going to find, engage with and sell to them.
The sales plan should identify the roles and responsibilities of each member of the sales team and anticipate how, and how quickly, those goals are to be achieved.
Steps for a WhatsApp sales plan
Whatsapp Business is a tool that is transforming the operations and functionalities of companies. With WhatsApp marketing powered by a sales plan, businesses can reach customers wherever they are present. Whether you are a B2B or B2C company, it is very likely that your customers use WhatsApp.
If done correctly, the sales plan through WhatsApp will allow you to spend more time on the growth and development of your company, instead of responding to the daily evolution of sales.
Although there are multiple social media platforms, none are as popular or useful as WhatsApp. A WhatsApp sales plan can yield very profitable results by boosting sales and reducing expenses. But to launch a successful sales plan, there are some key steps to take into consideration.
1. Define your goals and KPIs
To implement the sales plan for WhatsApp, it is necessary to determine the sales goals, so you can focus your attention on meaningful activities and eliminate unnecessary tasks.
Start by reviewing your sales funnel and finding the pain points. Try to think about the business objectives that you can pursue with your WhatsApp sales strategy. Point out the KPIs that will help you understand if you have met these objectives and indicate the specific period and other parameters that the plan covers.
For example, if your business is having trouble attracting customers, you can address them by sending promotional messages through WhatsApp. In this case, your KPIs could be clicks, engagement, and sales rates through a specific promotion or product.
Clearly state revenue goals and include associated business goals. Sorting your revenue figures into different categories helps clarify the goals of your sales plan.
2. Determine your target audience
Knowing your target audience is the foundation of all your marketing and sales efforts that define the success of the company. You can try various approaches to determine your target audience. One of the classics is the creation of customer profiles.
Another way is to use the JTBD framework. If you decide on this one, ask yourself these questions:
👉 Why do people use your product?
👉 What value do you want to get from it?
👉 What results do you want to achieve?
Whichever approach you choose, avoid guesswork and speculation; instead, explore your audience. You can carry out surveys on social networks and add data from Google Analytics, your CRM, Facebook and Google Ads, and of course the WhatsApp statistics of messages sent, delivered, read and received.
These tools will help you spot the demographics and geographic characteristics of your typical customers, as well as gauge market trends that have a high probability of influencing sales performance.
3. Create your brand profile on WhatsApp Business.
WhatsApp Business has a series of unique features, in addition to those already known from our personal WhatsApp that will help meet the needs of small and large companies.
Remember that your WhatsApp Business profile must be a reflection of your company, it is the entrance hall of your online business, therefore, you must include information such as:
- A business profile with essential information: your address, business description, email address, website, and hours of operation.
- Catalog: a virtual showcase of your products.
- Labels to organize your chats with customers. For example, you can label conversations based on the stage of the sales funnel.
- Quick and automated responses to stay in touch with customers and provide answers immediately. The latter can be achieved with a chatbot.
4. Create a brand voice or character
People prefer to communicate with other people, not with an impersonal company. Therefore, to carry out a successful WhatsApp sales plan, it is necessary to form the character of the brand. A brand persona is a set of traits, attitudes, and values that your brand shares.
Do you remember the market leaders? They all have people. For example, Apple seems to be creative and intellectual; Fanta, cheerful and carefree; Nike, passionate and vigorous. Your brand probably has some personality too; try to explore and detect the most significant features. This character will be the basis of your tone of voice and your communications with potential customers on WhatsApp.
Create the feeling that your customers are dealing with a person. Try to use a person’s name as a signature; works better than a company name.
5. Build a contact list
If you are going to use WhatsApp as more than just a customer service channel, you need a contact list. The best way to get one and attract new contacts is to use subscription forms. Place them on different pages of your website and offer a lead magnet, like an e-book or a discount.
Consider opting for multichannel forms, these allow your subscribers to choose where they want to receive updates: by email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc. This move allows you to communicate with customers through the channels they prefer. In turn, this approach creates higher engagement and increases conversions.
Remember to segment your audience to send the most relevant campaigns and offer personalized experiences. If you integrate WhatsApp into a CRM strategy , the latter is much easier to manage.
6. Design your communication
WhatsApp messages have impressive open rates compared to other channels. However, if you offer irrelevant or poorly produced content, your sales strategy in this channel will have been for nothing.
Start by defining your main themes and the messages you want to convey. Try not to limit yourself only to promotional messages; remember that you must entertain and educate your audience. Keep your communications short and simple: People often check WhatsApp on the go and don’t have time to read long messages.
Enhance your messages with multimedia files, such as videos, animations or images. Emojis are also appropriate on WhatsApp. If you want to play with them, choose smiley faces or people instead of business-themed objects.
Another point to consider is the frequency of the messages. If you bombard your readers with messages every hour, they are most likely annoyed by your brand. It’s best to stick to the commonly used practice of sending 5-10 messages per week.
7. Offer great customer service
Most customers use messaging apps to get brand support. 59% of people believe that they get faster responses through messaging, 50% find better advice and attention in this communication channel. This is the point where the WhatsApp sales plan is very useful.
WhatsApp allows your brand to receive inquiries immediately and offer customers real-time support. This feature becomes crucial, as 28% of customers expect help within an hour, and 18% anticipate an immediate response.
Maintaining that pace seems hard, but WhatsApp allows you to offer customer service 24 hours a day. All you need is to employ a chatbot and feed it typical questions and answers to them. This approach can help you reduce customer service costs by 30%.
So, are you ready to sell on WhatsApp?
In short, creating a WhatsApp sales plan encompasses setting goals, exploring your target audience, delivering great content, maintaining good relationships with your customers. But also, the potential revenue generation and omnichannel opportunities available to the brand, as well as monitoring performance metrics that allow systems and processes to be adjusted if necessary.
With WhatsApp you will be able to reach your users wherever they are and establish a personal relationship with your client, who will feel valued and will be likely to buy in the future.
