A time-phased statement of expected customer orders anticipated to be received (incoming sales, not outgoing shipment) for each major product family or item. It represents sales and marketing management's commitment to take all reasonable steps necessary to achieve this level of actual customer orders. The sales plan is a necessary input to the production planning process (or sales and operations planning process) . It is expressed in units identical to those used for the production plan (as well as in sales dollars) . Also see: Sales and Operations Planning.