You just have to know what they are and be able to recognize their value. This is also a word of warning , since reaching for a template at the wrong time, as tempting as it might be, will eventually do more harm than good. So, let's go over some common scenarios in which you could benefit from using a customer journey map template. When you're starting out with customer journey maps, you're going to have a lot of questions around how to structure your map.
Seeing how other organizations have structured their journey maps will open up your eyes to what's possible and expand your "vocabulary. The more informed you are, the better you'll be able to judge which information is relevant in your journey map and what's totally fine to ignore.
Remember that you should strive to map as little as possible and not more. You wouldn't want to spend a lot of time mapping the journey just to realize that your map is full of information you don't need anyway. What is the first word you write? Where do you draw the first line? What should you say to start the conversation with a stranger?
The nice thing is that, when you've gone over the process a few times, you'll start to recognize patterns. The same applies to customer journey maps. At some point, you'll know what the generic structure is of your customer journey. From that moment on, it makes sense to create a template from this journey so you don't have to recreate that over and over again. A template allows you to focus on the content of your journey map rather than how to structure the information. Imagine this: You meticulously follow the perfect recipe to prepare the most amazing pasta Bolognese As unlikely as this might sound, this is the most common pitfall regarding customer journey map templates.
You find the perfect customer journey map template online and start filling it in with your full dedication. And of course, you manage to create an impressive journey map. When you finally share the map within the organization , you come to the realization that it doesn't give the answers to the challenges that need to be solved. Always be critical about the elements in your journey map template. Do you really need all of them? Is there something important missing? Could a little tweak to the template give you much better results?
Until now, journey maps have been produced using tools ranging from PowerPoint to InDesign. The effect is that:. So, when you're looking at templates and examples, the plethora of options can easily be overwhelming. The truth is that most of these templates contain at their core the same key elements described in our Practical Guide to Customer Journey Mapping. They are just visualized in a different way.
It's easy to get distracted and lose yourself in trying to make your journey map look good. Just try to keep the visuals consistent and clear. Once again, less is more! What's the fastest way to create a customer journey map?
Not making a map when you don't need one. Don't be the person who creates a customer journey map just because you can. We've got enough of them already. Be a true professional and make sure that you're mapping for the right reason.
Your efforts need to add real value to the organization. Using a journey map template without first understanding what questions it needs to answer is a guarantee that you'll waste your time.
Unless, of course, you aspire to become an artist who creates nice visuals in the form of a journey map. Down below, you'll find an overview of customer journey map and service blueprint templates. The overview is divided into templates offered by online journey mapping tools and templates you'll find in books, articles, etc.
I've included a pros and cons list for each template, which should help you decide if the template fits your needs. There is a difference between professional journey mapping tools like Custellence and Smaply and generic tools that also allow you to create journey maps like Miro, Mural and Google Slides. When you decide to pick one of these tools, it's good to understand the long-term implications. If you want to learn more about how these different journey mapping tools compare, check this playlist on the Service Design Show YouTube channel.
Templates in Online Tools. Miro is a very user-friendly and flexible online whiteboarding tool. I did a full review of how to create journey maps in Miro. In Miro, you'll find a lot of useful templates. And the good news is that there is a customer journey map and a service blueprint among them. This is probably the most bare-bones journey map template you'll find, which is good when you purely need to focus on the customer experience aspect of the journey.
I would use this Customer Journey Map template from Miro as an initial conversation starter in a workshop where you have limited time. We've discussed the difference between customer journey maps and service blueprints before. This template by Miro does a decent job in breaking up the service experience in the frontstage and backstage.
I'd maybe consider using this Miro template to explain the basic structure of a service blueprint. Mural is, just like Miro, another popular online whiteboarding tool. I do a walkthrough on how to create customer journey maps using Mural in this video.
You'll find many helpful templates in Mural. For our needs, they offer one service blueprint template. On one hand, I feel it's too detailed to be filled in during a workshop. On the other hand, the structure and color-coding method wouldn't be my preferred way of doing this with a team outside a workshop.
If you're into journey mapping, Smaply is probably a tool that has been on your radar. It's one of the few dedicated online journey mapping tools that I'd say is specifically designed for customer experience professionals.
I've published a Smaply walkthrough video on how to create a journey map using Smaply as well as a more in-depth review of the tool. Watch a free demo. The template has columns for detailed information about each sales lead, including contact dates and status — this allows you to keep track of communications with each customer, plan future contacts and follow-ups, and evaluate potential sales.
You can also indicate lead sources on the spreadsheet to monitor your marketing efforts and track how customers are referred to your business. This sales tracker template makes it easy to keep track of items sold, along with profit per item and total earned income. You can also track costs, including shipping charges and returns.
This template is especially useful for a new business, online retail sales, or any small business that wants to track sales and profits. This sales pipeline template is an alternative to CRM software and is designed with small businesses in mind, use it to keep track of contacts and estimated sales. It also provides a quarterly sales forecast, along with space to record deal status, projected closing date, and further actions.
This simple template is easy to edit and serves as a management tool for your sales pipeline. Creating an effective sales and marketing plan may involve market research and analysis, evaluating your competition, looking at your sales history, examining future sales projections, and more. Once you have adequate information to develop a sales plan, a template can help you organize the plan into steps that will drive sales.
This sales and marketing plan template provides space for identifying your sales goal, target customers, strategies for attracting those customers, marketing tactics and messages, scheduled action steps, and results.
This sales funnel template provides a visual representation of the sales process, along with whatever sales data you choose to include. The template can be used as a scorecard to evaluate sales progress, and the funnel makes it easy to visualize the steps in your sales process. This free template is a simple but effective tool for reaching sales and business goals. Track monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales activity with this free sales report template.
Customize the template or use the existing columns to keep track of sales and pertinent data. This sales report template also includes a monthly forecast showing sales history and projections.
Use this template to track progress, plan future goals, and create a sales report with pleasing visual design. Word PDF. Create a sales plan with actionable steps and a scheduled timeline. This template features sections for listing clearly defined goals, methods for measuring success, action steps, ownership for each step, and deadlines. These are all important components of a sales action plan for reducing risk and increasing the probability that you will reach your sales goals.
Finding the right sales template provides easy organization and efficiency, which frees up resources and time that can go toward reaching business goals.
A template can also be a powerful communication tool for sales and marketing teams to develop and track their progress against sales targets. Depending on the nature and scope of your company, some templates can be a component of an effective business plan. A sales plan outlines sale goals for a cycle, as well as the steps you will take to hit those targets.
The sales plan document also defines tools, high-level tactics, target customers, competitors, obstacles, among other details. A strong plan will communicate company goals to the sales team, keep everyone focused on strategy, and delineate priorities. While many people confuse the two terms, sales forecasting and sales planning are distinct concepts. A sales forecast is a future projection of sales based on business and environmental conditions, while a sales plan defines the concrete steps needed to achieve the sales forecast.
You can create a sales forecast for your entire business or for a particular initiative over any period of time examples include an economic forecast; an industry forecast; a company forecast; and a short-, medium-, or long-term forecast. Sales plans are helpful tools when budgeting for advertising or travel costs, identifying new sales markets, planning for staffing needs, and creating a timeline to reach milestones.
But a sales plan is just one piece of the business planning and management — and it relies on accurate sales forecasting. You can get free sales forecasting templates here. Large organizations, small businesses, and startups can all equally benefit from sales planning. Sales forecasts and plans are most often used by the sales team, although marketers, executives, and even customers may interact with the documents as well. A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospective buyers are in the sales process.
A salesperson provides the prospect with a quote including the product or service and price. The sales funnel is a visual representation of the average conversion rate of potential customers and qualified leads move through the sales process. Sales teams can use the sales funnel to help understand the volume of sales, as well as the percentage of each sale that has passed through each sales process stage.
The sales pipeline represents what the seller is doing during the sales process; the sales funnel shows the sales process conversion rates. The sales funnel feeds the sales pipeline; once a lead is converted into a prospect, they move into the sales pipeline. Specific KPIs should be used to measure performance for each role and should be included in a sales plan. Below are some examples of KPIs that can be used by sales role and its respective responsibility:.
Our six-step process on proper sales territory management is a great resource for segmenting, creating, and assigning sales territories. This section of the sales plan is also a prime spot for individually setting sales quotas for each rep or team that are needed to hit your organizational sales goals.
Sales quotas should be a specific KPI for that sales role and be set based on the experience, skill level, and resources for that individual or team, as well as organizational, department, and team goals and objectives. The last section of the sales plan will be the budget for your sales operation. It should account for salaries, commissions, travel expenses, and the cost of any software tools or service providers used to help with sales and marketing.
While these are meant to be estimates, research and due diligence should be done to avoid financial errors. One way to set your sales budget, particularly for software tools and services you may be interested in, is to create and issue a request for proposal RFP. Issuing an RFP allows you to post a summary of your needs to solicit proposals on potential solutions.
In addition to providing accurate budget estimates from a variety of qualified vendors and contractors, it may also help you discover cost-effective or high-performing options you were previously unaware of. Once the sales plan is in motion, monitor its progress for the purpose of making any required adjustments. For instance, while your sales operation is running, you may find certain sales tactics are working far better than expected, and vice versa.
Your sales plan should account for using that tactic more as well as any new sales tools associated with that tactic, budgetary changes, new roles added to the sales team, and possibly even a new sales goal. As in the earlier example, if you found that cold calling was significantly more effective than emailing, you would reduce or abandon the email method in favor of cold calling.
You could also invest in sales tools especially useful for cold calling such as power dialing using a VoIP phone system, or hire additional staff to place calls, all of which will be part of your updated sales plan. Pro tip : Being able to focus on the big picture by creating, executing, and adjusting a sales plan is one of the most critical traits of being an effective sales leader. For more insights on what it means to be a sales leader and how to become one, check out our ultimate guide to sales leadership.
Bottom Line While any business can set a bold sales goal, creating a sales plan outlines how your team will achieve them.
By following the best practices and step process laid out above, your sales plan defines what your sales process will look like, establishes baselines for accountability, and identifies optimal strategies and tactics as well as the tools needed to make your team as efficient as possible.
Find Jess On LinkedIn. She served on the founding team of a successful business-to-business B2B startup and has used a wide range of sales and marketing tools over the course of her year career. Jess uses her industry knowledge and conducts countless hours of research to deliver the best answers to your questions about sales-related topics. Sign up to receive more well-researched small business articles and topics in your inbox, personalized for you.
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