What Is a 30-60-90 Day Sales Plan?
A 30-60-90 day sales plan outlines what you intend to accomplish during your first three months in a new sales position. It shows an employer how you think, how you organize your priorities, and how you plan to move from learning the business to producing results.
Global Edge Recruiting® has long recommended this tool for medical sales interviews because it gives an employer an opportunity to evaluate organizational and sales ability.
Why Employers Ask for One
A good plan demonstrates that you understand sales is a process. You won’t know everything on Day 1, but you should have a method for learning the products, territory, customers, competition, systems, and expectations.
It also demonstrates initiative. Instead of simply saying you are motivated, you are showing an employer how you intend to turn that motivation into action.
Your First 30 Days: Learn and Build the Foundation
The first 30 days should generally focus on training, product knowledge, company processes, territory information, customer understanding, and relationship building.
Your goal is not to promise unrealistic sales results before you understand the business. Your goal is to demonstrate that you know how to prepare for success.
Day 1-30: Training Objectives
Identify the product training you need to complete. Learn approved product information, indications, clinical or technical concepts relevant to the role, pricing or contracting processes where appropriate, CRM expectations, reporting requirements, and company policies.
Identify the people you need to learn from, including your manager, experienced sales representatives, clinical specialists, marketing partners, and other internal resources.
Day 1-30: Territory Objectives
Begin developing a picture of the territory. Learn the major accounts, customer segments, geography, existing business, growth opportunities, competitive activity, and any known challenges.
Do not assume you understand the territory before you have studied it. Your first month should be about gathering information and validating assumptions.
Day 1-30: Relationship Objectives
Identify key internal and external relationships that will be important to your success.
With your manager’s guidance, determine which customers and accounts should receive early attention. Learn how customers currently use the company’s products and what their priorities are.
Your Days 31-60: Apply What You Have Learned
By the second month, your plan should begin shifting from learning toward execution.
Start translating product and territory knowledge into account plans, customer activity, prospecting, presentations, follow-up, and measurable business-development objectives.
Day 31-60: Account and Customer Strategy
Prioritize accounts rather than treating every customer exactly the same. Identify high-potential accounts, existing customers with growth opportunities, prospects, and accounts that require longer-term development.
Define the actions you will take to move each priority account forward.
Day 31-60: Prospecting and Activity
Establish a reasonable activity plan based on the company’s sales process. This might include customer meetings, calls, presentations, demonstrations, prospecting, follow-up, and other appropriate activities.
Use activity goals as leading indicators, not as a substitute for results. The quality of the activity matters.
Day 31-60: Competitive Analysis
Identify the major competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, customer perceptions, and situations in which your company’s products may have an advantage.
Your plan should show that you intend to learn the competitive landscape rather than assume that knowing a competitor’s name is enough.
Your Days 61-90: Move Toward Production
By the third month, the employer should see a transition from training and observation to productive sales activity.
Your goals should become increasingly measurable and connected to the company’s expectations for the role.
Day 61-90: Business Objectives
Identify specific business-development objectives that are realistic for the territory and the sales cycle. Depending on the role, these might include qualified opportunities, new-account activity, customer presentations, product conversions, pipeline development, or other measurable milestones.
Do not invent a revenue number simply because it sounds impressive. Your objectives should be based on what you can reasonably know about the territory, sales cycle, and company expectations.
Day 61-90: Demonstrate Independence
By this stage, demonstrate that you can manage your time, organize your territory, prepare for customer interactions, use the CRM appropriately, follow the sales process, and communicate progress to your manager.
The goal is to show that you are becoming productive while continuing to learn.
Build Your Plan Around Four Categories
30-60-90 templates can be organized around Business Objectives/Goals, Training Objectives, Processes/Methods, Competitor Analysis, Territory Analysis, and a Summary.
That framework remains useful because it prevents the plan from becoming a simple list of sales quotas.
Business Objectives and Goals
State what you want to accomplish in each 30-day period. Make the goals measurable where possible and appropriate.
Examples include completing training milestones, identifying priority accounts, developing an initial pipeline, conducting a defined number of qualified customer activities, or establishing account plans.
Training Objectives
List the knowledge and skills you need to develop. Include product knowledge, clinical or technical information, systems, CRM, company processes, sales methodology, competitive knowledge, and any role-specific training.
Show that you have a plan for becoming competent before you promise major results.
Processes and Methods
Explain how you will execute. What will your weekly planning process look like? How will you prioritize accounts? How will you track follow-up? How will you communicate with your manager?
Strong plans show not only what you want to accomplish but how you intend to accomplish it.
Territory Analysis
Describe how you will learn the territory: account segmentation, geography, existing business, customer priorities, potential opportunities, competitive presence, and market dynamics.
Your plan should demonstrate curiosity and disciplined territory management.
Competitor Analysis
Explain how you will learn the competitive environment and how you will use that information in customer conversations.
Avoid making unsupported claims about competitors. Your interview plan should demonstrate that you will gather facts, learn from experienced colleagues, and validate what you hear in the field.
Make Your Goals Measurable
Whenever possible, use numbers or clearly defined milestones. For example: complete all required training, identify the top priority accounts, create account plans, establish a qualified pipeline, or complete agreed customer activities.
Measurable does not mean unrealistic. The employer should be able to tell whether you accomplished what you set out to do.
Do Not Promise Too Much
One of the easiest mistakes is creating a plan designed to impress rather than a plan designed to succeed.
You may not know enough about the company’s sales cycle, territory, products, pricing, customer relationships, or internal processes to promise a specific revenue number in your first 90 days.
Show ambition, but pair it with sound judgment.
Research Before You Write
Your plan will be stronger if you research the company, products, customers, competitors, territory, and position before the interview.
Use public company information, the job description, industry information, and questions you can ask during the interview. Do not pretend to know internal information that has not been provided to you.
Customize the Plan
Do not submit the same 30-60-90 plan to every employer.
A pharmaceutical territory, surgical medical-device territory, capital-equipment position, and healthcare technology sales role can have very different sales cycles and customer needs.
Customize your objectives to the specific opportunity.
Bring the Plan to the Interview
If the employer asks you to prepare a plan, bring a professional printed copy. Consider also having an electronic version available.
Know the plan well enough to discuss it without reading it word-for-word.
Present It Like a Sales Professional
Use the plan as a conversation tool. Explain the logic behind your priorities, ask questions, and be willing to adjust the plan based on information the interviewer gives you.
A strong candidate does not defend every assumption. A strong candidate listens and adapts.
Ask Smart Questions
Your plan should generate useful questions. Ask about the territory’s priorities, sales cycle, current business, customer segments, training process, expectations, competitive environment, and how success is measured.
The answers will help you refine your plan and demonstrate that you are already thinking about the business.
Your Plan May Become Your Performance Standard
Choose objectives thoughtfully. Your plan should be ambitious enough to demonstrate drive but realistic enough that you would be comfortable being held accountable for it.
Sample 30-60-90 Day Framework
Days 1-30 — Learn: Complete training; learn products and systems; understand the territory; study customers and competitors; meet key internal partners; begin customer observation and relationship development.
Days 31-60 — Apply: Build account plans; prioritize opportunities; begin independent customer activity; develop the pipeline; conduct presentations or other appropriate sales activities; review progress with the manager.
Days 61-90 — Produce: Execute the territory strategy; deepen customer relationships; advance qualified opportunities; demonstrate consistent sales activity; measure progress against agreed objectives; refine the plan based on results.
A Simple Template
Name: ______________________________
Company: ___________________________
Position/Territory: __________________
Manager: ____________________________
Date: _______________________________
Day 1-30 — Business Objectives / Training / Processes & Methods
Day 31-60 — Business Objectives / Training / Processes & Methods
Day 61-90 — Business Objectives / Training / Processes & Methods
Competitor Analysis: ______________________________
Territory Analysis: _______________________________
Key Accounts / Opportunities: ______________________
Measures of Success: ______________________________
Summary: _________________________________________
The Bottom Line
A 30-60-90 day plan can give you a competitive advantage because it shows an employer that you are thinking beyond getting the job. You are already thinking about how to become successful in the job.
Prepare it carefully. Research the opportunity. Make the goals measurable. Keep them realistic. Be ready to explain your reasoning and adjust your plan when you learn more.
Most importantly, use the plan to demonstrate the qualities every sales organization wants: preparation, organization, initiative, curiosity, accountability, and a focus on results.
Continue Your Medical Sales Interview Preparation
Your 30-60-90 day plan should work with the rest of your interview strategy. Continue preparing your résumé, cover letter, brag book, professional image, networking strategy, and interview skills.
Global Edge Recruiting’s book, Interview with Desire and Get Hired!, specifically includes the 30-60-90 day plan among the career documents candidates can develop as part of their interview preparation.
Example of a 30-60-90 DAY PLAN
Name: Date:
Manager:
Company:
Territory Plan Development
| Day 1-30 | Day 31-60 day | Day 61-90 | |
| Business Objectives /Goals | |||
| Training Objectives | |||
| Processes/Methods |
Competitor Analysis:
Territory Analysis:
Summary:
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