It's that time again. Time for another quarterly review.
And you're looking at the numbers, and you aren't happy.
The sales figures are low. Way below where they should be. Way below where your sales goals are.
Do you wonder what went wrong? How can your sales team meet its goals for the next quarter? How can it exceed them?
Don't worry! You can stop pinching the bridge of your nose, and rubbing your brow like you're trying to scrub it off your face.
Below are 6 pro tips to help you exceed your sales goals.
So, what are sales goals?
Well, they're exactly what they sound like. They are your (and your sales teams') goals for selling.
But what does that actually mean? What does it look like?
Sales goals are the sales targets set to be met after a certain amount of time (monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc). You can set short-term sales goals or long-term sales goals, but either way, they should be realistic. When setting these goals, you'll want to consider what's achievable, and balanced with what you need to be profitable.
Sales goals differ from sales quotas, as they can be about different aspects of performance, rather than just revenue. However, that's not to say that sales quotas can't be an important aspect of sales goals.
There's not just one reason why sales goals are important. They provide a few key functions.
When looking at sales numbers, you will probably have more than one goal in mind you'd like your team to hit, and they're probably not all about the same thing, or should be gone about in the same way.
It follows, then, that there are different types of sales goals.
There are sales goals for different periods of time, like:
But there are other types as well, that get into different aspects of selling than simply a length of time.
Some of these different types of sales goals are:
Sales performance goals are (typically short term) sales goals for individual sales reps used to set expectations of their roles and to measure their successes and capabilities. These sales goals will be based on the sales performance of the sales team, because its role within the company is to sell, even if not directly related to revenue.
SMART sales objectives are sales goals written with the SMART criteria, meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound (see what they did there?). Sales goals created using the SMART criteria are sure to be practical goals with a set of parameters in place that makes them easier for your sales team to follow through on.
Waterfall sales goals use a series of smaller goals that increase with each goal to reach a larger goal (which was the original goal all along – how sneaky). The idea is to incrementally increase the workload for your sales reps, preventing them from being overwhelmed suddenly with a large number of expected extra calls, emails, sales, etc.
High-priority sales goals are fairly self-explanatory. These are sales goals that you've identified as being the highest priority, or most important, for your sales reps to achieve. Having goals organized in the importance of priority helps your sales reps organize their time most effectively because they'll know which sales goals they should be putting the most effort into.
Incentivized sales goals are sales goals with an incentive for your sales team to achieve them. Often in the way of commissions, bonuses, or other rewards, incentivization can be a great way to motivate your sales reps into wanting to achieve their sales goals. Of course, it does! Who doesn't want extra cash or rewards for good work?
Stretch sales goals are sales goals that are not just lofty, but practically unachievable given your current sales process/strategy. In the vein of meeting and exceeding your sales goals, stretch sales goals are not going to be your most practical choice. To meet a stretch sales goal may mean completely remodeling your current sales process and strategy.
Inside sales goals are your goals for sales strategies that can be done from in-office. These aren't your goals for the sales reps running around to prospective clients with PowerPoint presentations. A lot of these goals can be achieved by using a CRM so you can automate, or just complete more, inside sales strategies like emailing and calling.
Measurable sales goals are, very simply, sales goals that can be measured. Typically, these sales goals can be tracked in their progression, and measured in their success. So that this is possible, measurable sales goals will typically have hard numbers and data attached to them. How else are you supposed to make them measurable?
Briefly, it was mentioned in the definition of sales goals that goals in sales should be achievable and profitable.
Easier said than done, right?
Because if you and your sales team are constantly struggling to meet your sales goals, it could be your sales strategy and process, but it could also be that you aren't being realistic in your goal setting. Probably, it's both.
But first, let's start with setting sales goals.
So, here's how you set good sales goals that you can meet and will help the ole revenue margins:
From there, you should be able to establish realistic sales goals
Obviously, when you're picking your sales goals, you're not plucking random numbers from thin air and tossing them on a spreadsheet. You need a basis – a place to start. To find that, you'll want to look at the statistics and sales goals from previous years. Which ones were achieved? Which weren't? When did you make the biggest numbers? Etc
Your sales goals shouldn't just be about what your sales team completed last year. It should also be about what your company has now and needs in the future.
When you're creating good sales goals, you'll want to have a clear picture in your mind of the amount of revenue your company needs to be generating. This is especially true if sales is your main or only stream of revenue.
Depending on the setup of the company, you may be looking specifically at the sales revenues, or the business as a whole.
You'll need to take into consideration:
This step is much easier if you already have your budgets done for the current and following year, so you can just analyze those. Everything in this step should've already been considered in developing those budgets.
Looking at your budgets is important to good sales goals as a whole, but particularly your sales quotas.
Your company doesn't exist in isolation. You'll need to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry in general. Has demand for yours been increasing? Decreasing? Remaining steady? This is something you'll need to know when aiming to set realistic goals.
Evaluating your sales team and sales process is twofold.
Using all the information you've gathered from the four previous steps, you should be able to cobble together different revenue-based and sales performance goals. These goals may involve a combination of several different types of sales goals discussed in the previous section.
When it comes to setting good sales goals, both long-term sales goals and short-term sales goals have their uses and their limits.
A comparison of the two types and when to use them has been outlined in the table below:
|
Uses |
Long Term Sales Goals |
Short Term Sales Goals |
|
What they're used for |
Big/Overall goals – these are your sales goals for the end of the next quarter, year, next five years, etc |
Smaller goals (especially on the way to bigger, long term goals) |
|
When employed |
When planning for the future |
More immediate changes to be implemented now |
Short term goals can be an effective tool to use for long term goals. Short-term goals can act as steps or benchmarks along the way to achieving the bigger picture long-term goals.
Short-term sales goals and long-term sales goals examples will be included in the table below.
|
Type of Sales Goal |
Example |
|
Long Term Sales Goals |
Increase annual revenue by 10% by end of the year |
|
Short Term Sales Goals |
Find 5 new prospects in one week |
|
Sales Performance Goals |
One sales rep may be responsible for increasing their closing rate by 15% by the end of the year |
|
SMART Sales Objectives |
We're going to shorten the length of our sales cycle by 20% by the end of the year, so we can be closing more clients throughout the year. To do this, we'll be adopting a new sales CRM so we can monitor and adapt our sales process, which we'll do through A/B testing and waterfall sales goals for sales reps. |
|
Waterfall Sales Goals |
To get to 50 calls being made to new prospects monthly when you're currently only at 25, start at 30 for next month, 35 the next, then 40, etc |
|
High Priority Sales Goals |
The highest priority sales goal for this month is to close those 5 clients who've been dragging their feet |
|
Incentivized Sales Goals |
If you sell 20% more this year than last, we'll give you a 20% commission |
|
Stretch Sales Goals |
Increase annual revenue by 150% by the end of the year |
|
Inside Sales Goals |
Increase the number of phone calls made each week by 3 |
|
Measurable Sales Goals |
Increase our revenue from $1.3 million last year to $1.8 million this year. |
Good sales goals shouldn't exist in isolation as a solitary report. To make sales goals more achievable, you'll want to create them as part of a killer sales plan.
A sales plan will ensure you already have a blueprint for your sales team to follow, as it'll include an action plan for your sales reps, and KPIs. You'll already have done the work in defining your sales goals for sales reps and outlining what needs to be done to achieve them, and it'll be laid out in a document for your sales team to review and act upon.
Really, this step is part of the goal creation stage. But, it'll be a lot easier for your sales reps to hit your long-term sales goals if you break them down into short-term goals as well. It will also be easier to monitor if your sales team is on track to hit your long-term goals.
This may be covered in your sales plan, or even encompassed in part of your sales goals themselves, but improving your sales process is a must for exceeding sales goals.
You'll need to know exactly where in the sales cycle you're losing prospects, or it's taking too long a time for them to move to the next step, or you often have gaps with no prospects, etc.
Any issues in your sales process, you're going to need to identify them and fix them so it's a smooth process with a quick turnaround.
Obviously, it's not as simple as just magically fixing those areas, but there are a few ways these issues can be addressed, like with:
It may seem counterintuitive to try and adjust your sales process so you can achieve your sales goals by adding more goals … but without a working sales process, it'll be much harder to hit any of your sales goals, anyway.
Another way to adjust your sales process, if you haven't done it already, is to adopt a sales CRM.
Nothing makes meeting sales goals easier than adopting a sales CRM. As well as being great for monitoring sales goals progression, CRMs are also incredible tools for making sales more efficient to accomplish. You can use CRMS to automate different processes, like emails, generate new leads, collect client data, etc.
Ringy, for instance, offers features such as SMS and email drip campaigns, lead management, click-to-call dialing, and more. These are all features that will help your sales process move smoothly, so you can make more sales and exceed more sales goals.
You can request a free demo to learn more about what Ringy offers.
This may seem obvious, but it's important to track the progression of your sales goals. If you're tracking sales goals, you'll know if adjustments need to be made to complete them. Without that consistent monitoring, you could be caught unawares if at the end of the year, your sales team has come up short in accomplishing any of your sales goals.
One easy way to track the progression of your sales goals is to use a sales CRM, as mentioned in the tip above. This way you (or your sales reps) can be monitoring the goals daily, weekly, monthly, etc, so you're always aware of where your team is in relation to your sales goals.
To exceed your sales goals, you'll want to make sure everyone on your sales team is on the same page.
This means you'll want to ensure everyone knows what the long and short-term sales goals for sales reps and goals for the company are (well, the relevant ones) and that everyone is working as a team to accomplish those goals. All your sales reps will be working off of the same sales plan, even if their roles, actions, and sales goals under the plan are different. So you need your sales team to be working as a team. (Although a little healthy competition isn't a bad thing, either.)
However, it also means you'll want to make sure your sales team is all capable. If you feel some of your sales reps are underperforming, it may be time to invest in (more) training for them. You want to make sure all your sales reps have all the tools and skills necessary to perform at their best.
There you have it. Those are 6 pro tips to help you meet and exceed your sales goals this quarter, year, career … whatever you need them for!
I don't know how to improve sales goals
There are many different ways to improve sales goals. Start with ensuring you're creating realistic sales goals, as outlined above, and then use our 6 pro tips to ensure you meet and exceed those sales goals.
I don't know how to achieve sales goals in retail
Retail sales goals can be a different ballgame, in that you'll probably be doing much more face-to-face with individual customers to make your sales. However, that doesn't mean you can't still use (at least some of) our pro tips.
If you aren't comfortable in retail selling, or feel like you lack the skill to do it well, focus particularly on tip 6 and see if there is any training available to you to help you out.
So, to sum up, if you want to smash your sales goals this year, make sure you're making realistic, good sales goals by:
And then, exceeding those sales goals by:
Sales goals are an important part of creating a comprehensive plan of attack in sales so the members of your sales team can perform to the best of their abilities.
And with these 6 tips, you know that they will be.
So get out there and start selling! Put these tips to the test and exceed your sales goals. You can make this quarter your best yet.
And psst! If you need a place to start, how about with a sales CRM that offers a free demo, and agent coaching upon subscription.