When building your sales plan start with the challenges. In your next business plan lead with the hurdles that you need to overcome . Start with what needs to be addressed in your next planning session. Most people spend the valuable up front time sharing the things that have the least impact on success. Most start with an assessment of the market or the account. They lead with last years numbers or industry trends. They break down the organizational structure with a fancy who’s, who chart.

All this is good information. The assessment is critical. It’s the challenges, however where the work is done. Lead with what is wrong. Start by telling what is getting in the way. Break down the roadblocks first. Tell me what is wrong and what is broken first. Then tell me how they got that way (the assessment), what the opportunities are and how you’re going to address them.

Starting with the challenges, the problems and the issues gets the attention of your audience. It get’s them engaged early and sets context for the rest of the presentation. Put the challenges first. It’ll get attention and that is exactly what you want.