So you’ve managed to set your SMART, challenging yet achievable goals for the team. What’s next? Now you need to make sure that everyone’s on board and working to meet these goals.
While there is no foolproof roadmap to success, we’re strong believers that decisive and steadfast actions are always the way to go. The same goes for achieving goals: you need to be resolute in your actions and be consistent in working towards your goals. Perseverance and focus always pay off.
Here are other steps you can take to help achieve the sales goals you have for yourself and for your team:
1. Prioritize goals
If you’re planning on working on several goals at a time, it would be smart to identify which goals are the most important and prioritize those. These could be goals that have the highest value, or have the most positive impact on your bottom line. Or they could be goals that address critical issues of the moment.
Whatever those goals are, make sure you tackle them first. You can't give your 100% on several things at the same time. It's already been said: multitasking is a myth.
2. Have a plan of action
While your team members may know what needs to be done, you still need a plan that will outline some or all—depending on the goal—of the following:
- Actions / steps needed. You need to be very specific.
- Timelines for the milestones. Include target daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual milestones. This will also ensure that you you put your actions into a schedule.
- Manpower needed. Who are the members or teams responsible for implementation?
- Metrics to be used. You need to set up the measures to track the progress of each action
- Other resources needed. This could include budget, facilities, and the like.
An action plan is essentially your strategy, so build it well. It sets the direction and makes it easier to track progress and check if you’re on course to hit the target, or going off course. You can also set certain parameters, like in the budget and deadlines for example, so you can manage time, energy, and resources properly.
Another thing you can include in the action plan is possible setbacks. If you’re lucky, your plans will proceed without a hitch. But there are so many moving pieces within sales and it would be wise to plan for possible roadblocks. The more prepared you are for problems, the easier it will be for you to solve them.
Your plan for setbacks doesn’t need to be as comprehensive. What’s important is to identify the problems that may possibly occur, and then establish the solutions or strategies for troubleshooting.
Is your team equipped with the tools they need to hit their goals? These tools are both tangible and intangible. It’s the training they receive—from product knowledge to key sales strategies—and the material tools, like gadgets and technology.
A high-performing, intelligent CRM, for example, is a piece of technology that can help in monitoring goals. Managers can have a custom dashboard that gives them pipeline visibility and quota transparency for easier tracking. It provides reports for actionable insights. Managers can use the dashboards to track many metrics at once, check the performance of the team, and see correlations between different reports. You can also create custom workflows so team members can work collaboratively.
Part of empowering your team is developing proper support. When sales reps are faced with challenging targets, some may feel overwhelmed or confused. You also have to consider that not all sales reps are on the same level, skills-wise. Managers should act as mentors and find time for group and one-on-one coaching. You can walk struggling sales reps through their challenges. This establishes rapport and trust—and these are crucial in motivating employees.
Make sure your team is empowered to make the decisive steps towards their goals.
4. Perform regular checkups and reviews
Review your goals regularly. Sales reps should be proactive and do regular reviews on their performance and progress. They should not have to wait for managers to do this.
It’s important to check and make certain that you are hitting milestones on their deadlines. We find it useful to review the progress that has been made every week on the last day of the work week (Friday or Saturday), then regroup or re-align on the first day of the following week.
Make sure you’re on target to meet your goals for the month. Then on the end of each month, check to make sure that you are on target to meet your goals for the quarter. Then by the end of the quarter, make sure you're on course to meet annual sales goals.
Regular reviews also allow you to adjust your action plans, if needed. You might see some steps are redundant or unnecessary. Sometimes, you might even realize that some goals are no longer relevant due to some company or market developments.
5. Reward to motivate
Rewards are proven to highly motivate. The rewards you give to high performers can be bonuses, gifts, paid vacation leaves, or public recognition. So even if a company is not in a position to give cash rewards, there are many other "equally rewarding” options to give.
Main photo by Razvan Chisu on Unsplash
