What you'll get
- 1 copy-ready blocks
- 2 tables
- 8 min read
- One page sales strategy
How to use it
- Step 1: Set aside 30 minutes with the person who knows your best customers best. A founder, head of sales or lead seller is right.
- Step 2: Copy the template in Part 2 into a document.
- Step 3: Fill in one part at a time, in order. Use Part 1 to test each answer before you move on.
- Step 4: Cut every answer that runs over its line limit. A long answer means you are not sure yet.
- Step 5: Read the finished page aloud to one other person. Fix the part they stumble on.
A sales strategy does not need forty slides. It needs to answer seven questions in plain words, on one page, so that everyone in the team gives the same answer when asked. This template holds the seven questions, a test for each answer and a layout you can copy into a document today.
Part 1: The seven parts and how to test each one
| Part | The question | A good answer | A weak answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Buyer | Who do we sell to? | A kind of company you can list, with a size and a place | "Any business that needs software" |
| 2. Reason | Why do they buy? | One event or pain that you can see from outside | "They want to grow" |
| 3. Offer | What do we sell first? | One thing, with a clear outcome for one role | A list of everything you do |
| 4. Route | How do we reach them? | A named channel for each tier, and who owns it | "Email, LinkedIn and events" |
| 5. Capacity | How many accounts can we work well? | A number worked out from hours | A number worked out from ambition |
| 6. Measure | How will we know it works? | Three or four counts you can read weekly | Revenue only, checked each quarter |
| 7. Review | When do we change it? | A date and a rule | "When it stops working" |
Test every answer with the same question: could a new seller act on this on their first day? If the answer needs a conversation to explain, it is not finished.
Part 2: The template
Copy this into a document. Keep each answer to the lines shown.
One page sales strategy
SALES STRATEGY: [Company name] Owner: [Name] Date: [Day Month Year]
1. BUYER
Companies we sell to: [Kind of company, size range, region]
Roles who decide: [Two or three roles]
Who we do not sell to: [One line]
2. REASON
Why they buy: [The event or pain, in one sentence]
How we can see it early: [A signal visible from outside]
3. OFFER
What we lead with: [One offer, one outcome]
Proof we can show: [One case, one number we can source, or "None yet"]
4. ROUTE
Tier 1 (top accounts): [Channels] | Owner: [Name]
Tier 2: [Channels] | Owner: [Name]
Tier 3: [Channels] | Owner: [Name]
5. CAPACITY
Hours a week for selling: [Number]
Hours per account a month: Tier 1 [Number] Tier 2 [Number] Tier 3 [Number]
Accounts we can work: [Number]
6. MEASURE
Every week we count: [Accounts in outreach] | [Accounts with an active conversation] | [Roles reached per account] | [Value in pipeline]
Where we write it down: [Sheet or CRM view]
7. REVIEW
We look at this on: [Date, then the same day each month]
We change the plan if: [One rule, for example "no conversation in half the Tier 1 accounts after 60 days"]Part 3: How to fill in each part
Buyer. Write the list you could hand to a stranger. "Mid-sized logistics firms in the UK" is a list. "Companies that care about efficiency" is not. Add one line on who you do not sell to. It saves more time than anything else on the page.
Reason. Buyers do not wake up wanting your product. Something happens: a new head of IT arrives, a contract ends, a site opens, a rule changes. Name that event, then say how you could spot it from outside. If you cannot spot it, you will be guessing when to call.
Offer. Lead with one thing. A second offer can wait until the first conversation has happened. If you have no proof yet, write "None yet". An honest blank is better than a vague claim, and it tells you what to build.
Route. Give each tier its own approach. Tier 1 accounts deserve a personal approach to several people, by more than one channel. Tier 3 can be lighter. Put a name against each tier so that nothing is owned by "the team".
Capacity. Work this out from hours, not hope. If a Tier 1 account needs three hours a month and you have 30 hours a week, the sums tell you how many you can work. The pipeline coverage calculator and the account scoring tool in the Academy can help you check the number.
Measure. Count things you can read in five minutes. Count accounts, not only messages. A week with 200 emails sent and no active conversation in any Tier 1 account is not a good week.
Review. A strategy that is never reviewed becomes a document nobody reads. Put the date in the diary now, and write the one rule that would make you change course.
Worked example (illustrative, not a real company)
Quaywise sells warehouse software to mid-sized logistics firms. Sam Carter, the head of sales, fills in the page in 35 minutes. All names and figures are invented.
| Part | What Sam wrote |
|---|---|
| Buyer | Logistics firms with 200 to 1,000 staff and two or more sites, in the UK and Ireland. Roles: head of operations, head of IT. Not: single site firms |
| Reason | A new site opens, or a warehouse system contract ends. Visible from planning notices and job adverts |
| Offer | A pilot at one site. Proof: None yet |
| Route | Tier 1: LinkedIn, email and phone to three roles, owner Sam. Tier 2: email and LinkedIn, owner Asha. Tier 3: LinkedIn only, owner Asha |
| Capacity | 30 hours a week. Tier 1 gets 3 hours a month, Tier 2 gets 1. Accounts worked: 6 in Tier 1 and 24 in Tier 2 |
| Measure | Accounts in outreach, accounts in conversation, roles reached, pipeline value. Read on Monday |
| Review | First Monday of the month. Change the plan if fewer than 3 of the 6 Tier 1 accounts are in conversation after 60 days |
The "Proof: None yet" line led to a plan to ask the first pilot customer for a short case study. The capacity line showed that the ambition of 50 accounts would have left each one with too little attention, so Sam cut it to 30.
Five mistakes to avoid
- Writing about the market instead of the buyer. A market has no phone number. A list of companies does.
- Giving every answer three options. If everything is possible, nothing is decided.
- Setting capacity by ambition. The hours decide the number of accounts. The number does not decide the hours.
- Measuring only revenue. Revenue arrives late. Weekly counts tell you in time to act.
- Filing it. A plan on a shared drive that nobody opens is not a plan. Read it at the start of each monthly review.
Why this works on named accounts
Common questions
How long should a B2B sales strategy be?
One page. If it needs more, you are mixing the strategy with the playbook. The strategy says who, why, what, how, how many, how measured and when reviewed. The playbook, with scripts and cadences, sits underneath it.
Do I need a different strategy for each product?
Not at the start. Choose the one offer you lead with and write the plan for that. A second offer can come later, once the first has opened conversations.
How is this different from a sales plan with targets?
A target says how much. This page says to whom, why, how and how you will know. Put your revenue target above it if your board needs one. The page is what turns the target into work for next week.
Read next
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