Optimum Sales – The Generation of a Commercial Contingency Plan
In the second survey conducted by KPMG it gathers the responses of Spanish executives and entrepreneurs from a poll carried out between March 24 and 26. It is interesting to see the evolution of the interviewees’ opinions as the confinement period progresses and how their perception worsens.
Question 8 of the survey asks managers about the measures they have implemented to prevent the impact of the adverse effects of the COVID-19 lockdown. Of all the responses, the one that surprised me the most was that only 39% of the interviewees, stated that they had started preparing the Business Contingency Plan.
It is true that uncertainty paralyzes, and that moments of such sudden crises can block us, but the Commercial Contingency Plan presents the company’s future income and it must be addressed as soon as possible.
To develop the Commercial Contingency Plan, I propose that you do it as follows:
- Build a multidisciplinary work team where people from sales, customer service, after-sales, production, logistics, and administration can contribute their vision. With one person from each department, it’s enough, and their contributions should be modulated based on their input and the stage of Plan preparation.
- The team must generate different work scenarios considering both data and information from the sector itself as well as external sources that have nothing to do with the sector.
- The timeframes for each scenario must be proposed and a decision-making framework established for possible eventualities, which will surely arise.
- For each scenario, sales expectations must be generated, in economic terms and by customer profile. Each scenario must implicitly include an initial activity plan to be carried out, which will be reviewed during control moments.
- If there are functional changes and/or changes in business processes and/or other departments, these must be defined in detail, assessing the impact, implications, and effort required to adopt them.
- We need to create a work environment like a tech StartUp, any contribution is valid, but the only requirement is that it must be able to be implemented immediately.
- The moments of evaluation and correction of the Contingency Plan must be maintained. They should be brief in duration. Weekly mainly
- We need to establish the processes and channels of communication. Good communication, in quantity and quality, reduces uncertainty, generates trust, and motivation.
- It is necessary to train quickly and effectively those professionals in the organization who are to take on new challenges and responsibilities.
- We must not forget to motivate and recognize the effort and involvement of the people.
The generation of a Commercial Contingency Plan is a priority in all organizations; perhaps the scenarios are evolving, and with them our plan, but let us not forget a maxim. The worst contingency plan is the one that is NOT made.
#Weallgotoutofthisokay.
| David Galve | General Director www.linkedin.com/in/davidgalve |  |
