Sales Target Planning 

Purpose

Sales target planning is a component of the Sales Planning planning application. Besides the operational planning of sales targets from individual sales employees, sales target planning includes reconciliation with business planning and global targets. For this, the different planners plan at different levels of aggregation. A sales manager, for example, plans at the product group and sales organization level, while a sales employee plans at the product and sales office level. Quantities and revenues, sales and marketing costs, and contribution margins (after deducting direct sales costs and sales overheads) are planned at all levels. Since planning uses both top-down and bottom-up planning procedures, the data at the different levels of aggregation remain consistent. To ensure that the plan data can be compared on the different levels, it is stored in different versions.

Prerequisites

Sales Target Planning is loosely integrated with SAP CRM. You therefore need to read the notes in the section Special Features with Loose Integration with SAP CRM.

Process Flow

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       1.      Sales Target Planningsets out from the assumption that the actual values from the current year are to be taken as the template for planning subsequent years. Sales planning itself is performed in different levels by the different planners. The proposal values obtained by copying the actual data can be adapted to meet expectations at all levels. Likewise, planners have access to the Forecast planning function at all levels.

       2.      Global sales targets are planned by top management, typically in charge of setting planning figures across the company for the entire year. The figures are then distributed top-down to the next level of aggregation directly below.

       3.      Middle management - the individual sales managers - adjust the figures distributed top-down for their sales organization. These figures are then distributed top-down again to the lowest level of aggregation.

For more information about planning global sales figures and about planning at the middle management level, see Planning Global Sales Targets.

       4.      The individual sales employees perform operational planning. They take the management figures as the basis for their planning. They plan individual customer groups and product groups for the year and for each month. In this process, the annual figures are distributed to the months and adjusted (see also Planning Performed by Sales Employees).

       5.      The sales managers combine the figures from the individual sales employees at the sales organization level and then adjust these figures. They compare the planning figures at the different hierarchy levels and decide whether further iteration of the planning process is necessary.

Example

In the example scenario, the following elements for the planning area Sales Planning (4CRMSP01) are delivered for sales target planning:

·        A large number of planning levels with which the functions listed below are achieved. The technical names of the relevant planning levels begin with 4SP.

¡        Rolling planning for the current fiscal year

¡        Planning for the following fiscal year

¡        Valuation of sales volumes with prices

¡        Setting the planning status

¡        Adjusting actual/plan data

·        Planning functions defined for these planning levels

¡        Planning function Copy for version management

¡        Planning function Distribute for top-down planning

¡        Planning function Forecast for calculating forecasts on the basis of reference data

¡        Planning function Formula for making calculations and achieving contribution margins

¡        Various (enhanced) planning layouts for manual planning

·        A planning folder for each planner:

¡        Global Sales Targets (4CRMSPSP)

¡        Sales Manager (4CRMSPSM)

¡        Sales Employee (4CRMSPSR)

·        Additional planning areas for actual/plan data transfer. It is of particular significance which planning area (4CRMSP02) access the actual data for the sales orders in the InfoCube 0CSAL_C03. Both basic planning areas are integrated by a multi-planning area (4CRMSP03) to make it possible for the relevant actual data to be copied to the InfoCube for sales planning.