Sales reps need time to adjust to a new role, company or industry. A 30-60-90-day sales plan provides the structure teams need to make that transition seamless.
In this article, you’ll learn what a 30-60-90 sales plan is and why it’s important. You’ll leave with some actionable steps to create a sales plan for your own company.
Key takeaways
SMBs use 30-60-90 sales plans to structure their onboarding processes when hiring new reps or sales managers.
A typical sales plan is divided into three stages: learning, implementing and improving. It should also include clear goals that align with your company’s mission.
CRM software makes it easier for new sales hires to learn your sales process, read up on current sales communication and track their personal KPIs.
Pipedrive’s CRM is easy for sales teams to learn and comes with powerful built-in reporting. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and see how much smoother onboarding new salespeople becomes.
What is a 30-60-90 day sales plan and why is it important?
A 30-60-90 day sales plan is a strategy designed to onboard new sales team members or sales managers in the first 90 days. You can also use it to help guide reps in expanding to new territories or implementing new tools and processes.
Time frame | Description |
Days 1-30 | Learn about your company’s products and services, sales process and target customer |
Days 31-60 | Integrate your learning as you start tracking sales and performance |
Days 61-90 | Analyze the outcomes of the previous 30 days. Identify strengths and weaknesses and set goals for improvement |
The distinguishing feature of the 30-60-90 day plan for sales lies in the name. Each 30-day chunk represents a different new focus area, as shown above.
Why should SMBs create a 30-60-90 day sales plan?
There are many reasons an SMB might want to create a sales plan for a new employee.
A three-month plan sets clear expectations for new hires, helping them to hit the ground running. It also lets them know where to focus their time and energy, reducing the risk of spreading themselves thinly and burning out.
A sales plan offers employees a roadmap for ongoing growth. There are well-defined goals to work toward and a clearly delineated 30-day period for reflection on them.
When you set goals with measurable outcomes, you also help sales leadership track progress. The goals provide a benchmark for measuring success and help managers ensure that reps’ work aligns with the overall company goals from day one.
Since both employees and managers know what goals they’re working toward, a sales plan helps create a transparent, collaborative environment where team members trust each other.
When should you use a 30-60-90 day sales plan?
A 30-60-90 day plan is most effective during career transition periods.
The “learning, implementing and analyzing” structure is perfect for onboarding, but it’s also helpful for creating a culture of continuous improvement.
Some of the most popular times to use 30-60-90 sales plans include:
In the first week of a new job. If a sales plan isn’t part of the standard company onboarding process, new employees may find it beneficial to draft their own.
As a new sales manager. A sales plan can help newly promoted leaders get up to speed so they can help their team accomplish company objectives. It can make them into great sales managers who make changes and implement feedback without disrupting processes that already work.
When improving your team’s sales skills. If you’re looking to boost company sales, a 30-60-90 day plan provides actionable steps to improve sales skills. It also lets you track the results of your efforts.
During times of change. Whether it’s starting in a new territory or switching to new processes or technology, a sales plan helps sales reps get up to speed quickly.
A 30-60-90 day sales plan should be simple, concise and easy to follow.
It can be much easier to visualize a personal plan by using a template for reference. If you have a connection with a mentor or trusted peer, ask if they’re willing to share their 30-60-90 day plan for sales.
What to include in a 30-60-90 day sales plan
While no two sales plans are exactly the same, there are some basic elements common to all plans.
By definition, 30-60-90 sales plans are split into three 30-day chunks, each with a different focus as described above.
The plan should disclose the company's mission and overall sales objectives. This will help the new hire align their efforts from their first day on the job.
Each phase of the plan should include learning goals, performance goals and personal goals. Each goal should be a SMART goal – specific, attainable, with a timeline and a way to measure success.
Your plan should break goals into activities with set metrics.
For example, the goal “Learn about the company’s services” is clearly important, but hard to measure. You could make it easier to measure by breaking it down into chunks, each with a clear metric:
Study company services for 30 minutes daily
Read a minimum of 30 customer reviews on social media each week
Chat with a minimum of one colleague about company services daily
Be able to discuss services on a customer call for 10 minutes without referring to notes
All these elements will help ensure your plan is useful and covers the basics. You can see a sample of specifics you might include in the example plans below.
How long should a 30-60-90 day sales plan be?
The length of a sales plan depends on what you want to use it for.
For example, an internal employee who’s been promoted to sales manager might not need as much detail as an external hire.
A longer, in-depth plan that sets daily or weekly goals may be beneficial for a new hire.
The sales plan should be only as long as necessary to cover all the elements listed above. If the plan meets the user’s needs, it’s successful.
Download our sales plan template here.
Use Pipedrive to implement your 30-60-90 day plan
Pipedrive’s customer relationship management (CRM) software provides a range of features to help SMBs implement sales plans.
In the first 30 days, Pipedrive’s intuitive Kanban layout makes it simple for new reps to get to know your sales process and see how leads progress from one stage to the other.
The software shows them how long each deal stays in each deal stage, as well as what the most common reasons are for losing deals.
Since Pipedrive centralizes all communication for each deal on its deal card, it’s easy for reps to get up to speed on their colleagues’ sales conversations.
Having a record of past communication also shows new hires how their colleagues handle objections.
Pipedrive in action: By centralizing all its sales communications in Pipedrive’s CRM, marketing agency CreativeRace made them available to the whole team without requiring excessive onboarding time. As a result, client acquisition increased by 600% year-on-year.
In Phase 2, reps can use Pipedrive to send outreach emails and book sales calls.
The software has a built-in scheduling tool that reps can use to propose meeting times to prospects or send a booking link to leads so they can choose their preferred time.
Sales managers can set reps' weekly KPI targets (emails, calls, etc.) and track their results in Pipedrive in real time.
In Phase 3, sales reps and their managers can analyze the results of the previous 30 days using Pipedrive’s reporting suite.
For example:
The activities performance report tracks a rep’s number of calls and emails and compares their effort against their sales output.
The conversion report measures how many leads turned into deals. You can filter it by lead source or deal creator to more accurately gauge the rep’s conversion rate.
The deal duration report shows how long deals take to convert, allowing you to identify bottlenecks in the rep’s process.
All of this sales data will make the rep better at their job in months four and five, and beyond.
How to follow up after a 30-60-90 day plan
The rigid structure of a 30-60-90 day plan can also support ongoing growth as you continue the sales training process beyond day 90.
For example, you can repeat the two later phases of the plan (days 31 to 90) to set new goals, then evaluate as necessary.
Managers or new hires can modify the model to keep implementing and improving in 30-day cycles.
Final thoughts
A 30-60-90 sales plan provides a structured approach to follow when you onboard new members to your sales team.
Implementing a sales plan often requires CRM software, especially if you’re onboarding multiple new hires at once or have a complex sales process.
Pipedrive’s CRM is easy to learn and offers a convenient way to store all your sales communication in one place. It comes with in-built reporting that lets you see how your new employees are getting on.
Sign up for a 14-day free trial today to start streamlining your training process for new sales hires.
