A sales strategy that explains exactly how you'll make money.
The sales strategy section of your business plan is where you answer the question every reviewer is asking: "How will this business actually acquire and convert customers?" Vague answers here undermine everything else in the plan.
The section most founders write in five minutes - and regret
"We'll use social media, SEO, and word of mouth." Lenders see this sentence hundreds of times a year. It signals that the founder hasn't thought through the mechanics of customer acquisition - which means the revenue projections aren't grounded in anything real.
The sales strategy section is your chance to show that you know precisely how a stranger becomes a paying customer. What's the first touchpoint? What does the sales conversation look like? What's the average time from first contact to closed deal? What happens at each step?
Specificity in this section makes your revenue forecast credible.What a strong sales strategy section includes
Sales Channels
A sales channel is how your product reaches the customer - direct sales, inbound marketing, partnerships, marketplaces, resellers, or inside sales. The right channel depends on your price point, deal complexity, and customer type.
A $15 SaaS product needs a high-volume, low-touch channel (SEO, self-serve). A $50,000 enterprise contract needs an outbound sales process with demos and proposals. Your business plan needs to reflect this reality - not just list channels that sound good.
Pricing Strategy
Pricing is a strategy decision, not just a number. Your business plan needs to explain the logic behind your pricing: why this price point, how it compares to alternatives your customers are already using, and whether you're pricing on value, cost-plus, or competitive parity.
For businesses with multiple pricing tiers, the plan should explain what each tier is designed to accomplish - which customer segment it targets and what conversion behavior it's optimized for.
Sales Process
The sales process describes the steps between a prospect becoming aware of your business and completing a purchase. For simple consumer businesses, this might be three steps. For B2B sales, it might be seven.
Mapping the sales process in your business plan forces you to think through the conversion mechanics and identify where prospects are likely to drop off - which directly informs your revenue assumptions.
Customer Acquisition Cost & Lifetime Value
CAC and LTV are the metrics that tell investors whether your business model scales. If it costs you $200 to acquire a customer who generates $150 in lifetime revenue, the model doesn't work - no matter how good everything else looks.
Stating these numbers - even as estimates - shows analytical rigor. StartNew calculates estimated CAC and LTV from your inputs and presents them in the sales strategy section.
See how this connects to financial projections →Sales strategy and marketing plan: how they differ
In a business plan, the sales strategy and marketing plan are related but distinct sections. The marketing plan covers how you create awareness and generate demand - content, advertising, social, PR. The sales strategy covers how you convert that demand into revenue.
Marketing asks: "How do people find out we exist?" Sales asks: "How do interested people become paying customers?"
StartNew generates both sections and ensures they're consistent - your marketing channels feed into your sales process, and both align with your target customer segments.
FAQ (common questions)
I'm a one-person business with no formal sales process - what do I write?
Describe what actually happens: you get a referral, you have a call, you send a proposal, you follow up. Even informal sales processes have steps - documenting them shows you understand the mechanics of your own revenue. StartNew helps you structure this clearly even when it feels informal.
Do I need to include specific sales targets in this section?
Yes - the sales strategy should connect to your revenue forecast. Your sales targets (number of deals closed per month, average deal value) are the bridge between the strategy and the financial projections. Without that link, reviewers can't validate your numbers.
What if my product isn't built yet - can I still write a sales strategy?
Absolutely. Pre-revenue businesses write forward-looking sales strategies based on planned channels, pricing decisions, and intended sales process. Investors expect this - they're evaluating your thinking, not your track record.
A plan investors can follow to your first dollar.
StartNew generates a sales strategy section that's specific to your business model - then connects it to your financial projections and marketing plan automatically.
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