A target with no maths behind it
If nobody can say how many meetings the target needs, the plan is a wish. Section 3 is the part to get right.
Free sales template
Sales plan template
A sales plan template sets out the revenue target, who you will sell to, how many meetings and opportunities that target needs, who will create them and what it will cost. Fill in the seven sections below, starting from the number and working back to weekly activity, and you have a plan your team can run and you can check every month.
What it is and when to use it
A sales plan is the working document that connects a revenue number to the activity that produces it. It answers five questions in order: how much are we going to sell, to whom, through which channels, with what team, and how will we know by week six whether it is working.
The useful part of a plan is the arithmetic in the middle. If your average first-year deal is $40,000 and you win one in four opportunities, a $1.2 million new business target needs 120 opportunities. If half of your held meetings become opportunities, that is 240 held meetings, or 20 a month. Now you can ask the real question: who books 20 qualified meetings a month, and is that realistic with the team and budget you have?
Use it for a financial year, a half or a quarter. For an Australian business the financial year runs 1 July to 30 June, so most annual plans are written in May and June.
Who uses it
Founders
Use it to decide whether founder-led sales can hit the number or whether you need SDR capacity, and to show investors or a board the maths behind the target.
Sales managers
Use it to turn a target handed down from above into territories, quotas and weekly activity for each rep, and to flag the gap early if the inputs do not add up.
The sales plan template
Every section and column, with what to write in each. Use the fill-in version below to type straight into it and copy, print or download the result.
1. Summary and target
Write this section last. It should fit on a phone screen.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Plan period | For example FY27 (1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027), or Q3 FY27. |
| New business revenue target | The number this plan must deliver. State whether it is first-year contract value, annual recurring revenue or booked revenue. |
| Other targets | New logos, expansion revenue, gross margin or a target segment share. Keep it to two or three. |
| The plan in one sentence | Who you will win, with what offer, through which channel. For example: win 30 mid-market logistics companies in NSW and VIC through phone-first outbound and partner referrals. |
2. Ideal customer profile and segments
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Ideal customer profile | Industry, employee range, revenue range, location, technology or operating model. Base it on your best 20 customers, not on who you would like to sell to. |
| Buyer roles | The economic buyer, the day-to-day owner and the usual blocker. Use job titles your SDRs will actually search for. |
| Buying triggers | Events that make a company more likely to buy now: a new leader, funding, an expansion, a contract renewal, a compliance deadline. |
3. Pipeline maths: from target to meetings
Work backwards from the revenue target. Use your own trailing six to twelve months of data where you have it and label anything else as an assumption.
| Line | Your number | Source or assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue target for the period | From section 1 | Board, budget or founder target |
| Average first-year deal value | Average of deals won in the last 12 months | CRM closed won report |
| Win rate (opportunity to closed won) | Closed won divided by closed won plus closed lost | CRM, same period |
| Deals needed | Target divided by average deal value | Calculated |
| Opportunities needed | Deals needed divided by win rate | Calculated |
| Held meeting to opportunity rate | Opportunities divided by held first meetings | CRM or SDR reporting |
| Held meetings needed | Opportunities needed divided by meeting to opportunity rate | Calculated |
| Held meetings needed per month | Held meetings divided by months in the plan | Calculated |
4. Channels and sources of pipeline
Split the meetings you need across the channels that will produce them.
| Channel | Share of meetings | Meetings per month | Owner | Leading indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outbound calling | Percentage of total | Number | SDR team or partner | Conversations with decision makers per week |
| Outbound email and LinkedIn | Percentage of total | Number | SDR team | Positive replies per week |
| Inbound and website | Percentage of total | Number | Marketing | Demo requests per week |
| Referrals and partners | Percentage of total | Number | Founder or partner manager | Introductions per month |
5. Team and capacity
Everyone who will carry a number, including planned hires.
| Role | Name or hire date | Target per month | Ramp assumption | Capacity check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account executive | Name, or planned start date | Revenue or opportunities | Months to full quota | Can they run this many first meetings a week? |
| SDR | Name, or outsourced partner | Qualified meetings held | Weeks to full activity | Dials and conversations needed per day |
6. Budget, KPIs and review rhythm
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| People cost | Base salaries, commission at target, super and on-costs for everyone in section 5. |
| Outsourcing, tools and data | Outsourced SDR or calling partner, CRM, dialler, data provider, email tools, events. |
| Target cost per qualified meeting | Total outbound cost divided by qualified meetings held. Use it to compare channels and options. |
| KPIs and review rhythm | Meetings held and pipeline created weekly, win rate and revenue monthly, the plan itself quarterly. The sales KPI dashboard template has the full list. |
7. First 90 days and risks
| Milestone or risk | By when | What good looks like | If it slips |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICP and account list signed off | Week 2 | List built, washed and loaded in the CRM | Delay launch, do not dial a bad list |
| First qualified meetings held | Week 6 | Meetings held with the right roles | Review list, opener and offer |
| Pipeline on track | Day 90 | Pipeline created matches section 3 | Change channel mix or budget |
Fill it in online
Type into the template, or load the worked example and edit it. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere: it stays in this browser tab until you copy, download or print it.
Empty fields copy as {{placeholders}} so you can see what is left to fill in.
Worked example
An Australian B2B company using outsourced SDRs. The company is described, not named, and the figures are illustrative.
Worked example: a Melbourne payroll software company
A 45-person Melbourne payroll and rostering software company sells to Australian employers with 100 to 500 staff. It has two account executives, a founder who still closes the biggest deals, and an outsourced SDR team calling into NSW, VIC and QLD.
The numbers are illustrative. The meeting to opportunity rate and show rate use Nousu's published figures as a starting point until the company has six months of its own data.
1. Summary and target
- Plan period
- FY27, 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027
- New business revenue target
- $1.44 million in new annual recurring revenue
- Other targets
- 36 new logos. Expansion revenue tracked separately by customer success.
- The plan in one sentence
- Win employers with 100 to 500 staff in hospitality, aged care and retail across NSW, VIC and QLD, using phone-first outbound to reach payroll and operations leaders before their current system renewal.
2. Ideal customer profile and segments
- Ideal customer profile
- Australian employers, 100 to 500 staff, shift-based workforce, more than one site, currently on a legacy payroll system or spreadsheets for rostering.
- Buyer roles
- Economic buyer: chief financial officer or finance manager. Day-to-day owner: payroll manager or head of people. Blocker: IT manager on integration.
- Buying triggers
- New finance leader in the last six months, award wage changes, a new site opening, a payroll error in the news, contract renewal with the current vendor.
3. Pipeline maths: from target to meetings
| Line | Your number | Source or assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue target for the period | $1,440,000 | Board-approved FY27 budget |
| Average first-year deal value | $40,000 | Average of FY26 closed won |
| Win rate (opportunity to closed won) | 25% | FY26 CRM data |
| Deals needed | 36 | 1,440,000 / 40,000 |
| Opportunities needed | 144 | 36 / 25% |
| Held meeting to opportunity rate | 50% | Nousu published figure, replace by October |
| Held meetings needed | 288 | 144 / 50% |
| Held meetings needed per month | 24 | 288 / 12 |
4. Channels and sources of pipeline
| Channel | Share of meetings | Meetings per month | Owner | Leading indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outbound calling | 50% | 12 | Outsourced SDR team | Decision-maker conversations per week |
| Outbound email and LinkedIn | 15% | 4 | Outsourced SDR team | Positive replies per week |
| Inbound and website | 20% | 5 | Marketing manager | Demo requests per week |
| Referrals and partners | 10% | 2 | Founder | Accountant and bureau introductions |
5. Team and capacity
| Role | Name or hire date | Target per month | Ramp assumption | Capacity check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account executive | AE one, in seat | $60,000 new ARR | Fully ramped | 12 first meetings a month is manageable |
| Account executive | AE two, starts August | $50,000 new ARR | Three months to full quota | Starts on inbound and referrals |
| SDR | Outsourced team | 16 qualified meetings held | First meetings from week three | Calling and email combined |
6. Budget, KPIs and review rhythm
- People cost
- Two AEs at full on-target earnings plus super, founder time not costed.
- Outsourcing, tools and data
- Outsourced SDR team, CRM, data provider and two industry events.
- Target cost per qualified meeting
- Track monthly. Compare outsourced calling with the cost of hiring two in-house SDRs.
- KPIs and review rhythm
- Qualified meetings held (24 a month) and pipeline created reviewed every Monday. Win rate and revenue at month end. Plan reviewed each quarter with the board.
7. First 90 days and risks
| Milestone or risk | By when | What good looks like | If it slips |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICP and account list signed off | 15 July | 4,800 accounts tiered, Tier 1 contacts verified | Hold launch a week |
| First qualified meetings held | Mid August | Six held meetings with finance or payroll leaders | Review list and opener |
| Pipeline on track | 30 September | $480,000 created in Q1 | Add a second calling campaign |
What to notice
- The plan exposed a gap straight away: inbound and referrals gave the company about 7 meetings a month, against 24 needed. Outbound had to carry the other 17.
- Because the target is held meetings, the SDR team books more than 16 a month. At an 80% show rate, 16 held needs 20 booked.
How to use it, step by step
- Start with the number and its definition. Write the target and say exactly what counts: annual recurring revenue, first-year contract value or booked revenue. Plans fall apart when sales and finance count different things.
- Pull last year's real rates. From the CRM, take average deal value, win rate and meeting to opportunity rate for the last 12 months. If you do not have them, use labelled assumptions and set a date to replace them.
- Work back to monthly held meetings. Fill in section 3. This single number, qualified meetings held per month, is what the rest of the plan has to produce.
- Allocate meetings to channels and owners. Be honest about inbound and referrals. Whatever they cannot produce becomes the outbound target, and outbound needs a named owner.
- Check capacity against the maths. Can your AEs run that many first meetings a week? Can your SDRs make that many calls? If not, change the target, the team or the budget now, not in March.
- Cost it. Add people, tools, data and outsourcing. Work out cost per qualified meeting so you can compare channels on the same basis.
Common mistakes
Counting booked meetings as held
Plan on held meetings and convert back to booked using your show rate. Otherwise the plan is short from day one.
Ignoring ramp time
New AEs and new SDR campaigns take weeks to produce. Give each a realistic ramp in section 5.
Never revisiting it
A plan written in June and next opened in May is not a plan. Book the quarterly reviews when you write it.
More sales templates
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- SDR onboarding plan templatePre-start checklist, a week-by-week first month, a certification checklist and ramp milestones to day 90.Sales managerSDRFounderPlanningProcessOpen the template
Want the meetings, not just the template?
Nousu Collective runs phone-first outbound for B2B companies selling into Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, with Australian callers in-house in Sydney. Our outsourced SDR service builds the list, runs the calling, email and LinkedIn cadence and books qualified meetings into your calendar. If you only need calls made, see cold calling or appointment setting.
In our data from 218,000+ dials into Australian businesses, Australian callers booked 1.3 meetings per 100 dials, against 0.3 for offshore teams. Pricing is starting at $7,000 a month.
FAQ
Sales plan template questions
Straight answers from the team that runs outbound for Australian B2B companies.
Still have questions?
Book a 30-minute callA target and its definition, the ideal customer profile and segments, the pipeline maths from target back to meetings, channels and owners, team capacity, budget, KPIs and a review rhythm, plus the first 90 days and the main risks. This template covers them in seven sections.
A sales strategy plan focuses on where to play and how to win: segments, offer, positioning and channel choice. A sales plan adds the execution: numbers, people, budget and timelines. In practice most companies need one document that does both, which is how this template is laid out.
Divide the revenue target by average deal value to get deals, divide deals by win rate to get opportunities, then divide by your meeting to opportunity rate to get held meetings. Section 3 of the template does this line by line, and the pipeline calculator does it for you across calls, email and LinkedIn.
Check meetings and pipeline weekly, win rate and revenue monthly, and the plan itself each quarter. Replace assumptions with your own rates as soon as you have three months of data.
Yes, a short one. Even a two-page plan forces the founder to check whether founder-led sales can reach the number and when to add SDR or AE capacity.
Yes. Share sections 2, 3 and 4 with the partner before launch so the ideal customer profile, meeting targets and qualification rules are agreed in writing, then use the KPIs in section 6 for weekly reporting.
Need a team to run the plan?
Book a 30-minute call. We will map your market and buyers and show you what a phone-first campaign would book.
Starting at $7,000 a month. Exact fee quoted after a 30-minute call.