In any aspect of life, setting goals to improve your sales performance is an important thing to do. Goals help you stay focused, think of your future, and the right steps to take to arrive at your objectives. In the business world, it is no different. Business goals are put in place to ensure that you always aim high.
Having goals helps you remain centered despite the challenges that you may face and will help to improve your sales performance.
Let's take a look at how you can make smart goals that will help your business grow and increase sales performance. We will also take a look at different examples of business goals.
How to create the right goals to improve your sales performance
Within the sales department, goals for improving performance are part of life. They have to be in line with the business objectives to avoid losing focus.
The sales department can be described as the backbone of the business because without them, nothing will be sold, and that means no profits for the company.
You need to find goals that ensure the sales team is focused at all times. This will involve implementing measures to encourage them to work. Below are examples of smart tips that can help you make goals that are intended to improve your sales performance.
Reduce cycle time
Cycle time is used to represent the total time taken to close a deal. Under all circumstances, you should always be aiming at having the shortest cycle time; it doesn’t matter whether it is a negotiation of a transaction. For a successful sales team, a short cycle time should be their number one goal, as it will make them work to become the top-notch salespeople.
Improve customer retention
The target audience will change with business growth. Another goal that should be set at such a time is increasing customer retention. You need to be able to convince your customers that their loyalty will not go in vain despite changes that may occur as the business grows. Doing this will earn their trust, thus making them stay.
Increases sales by achievable amounts
Increasing sales is very crucial for the company. This should be what everyone in the sales team is aiming for. You need to ensure that you make realistic and achievable goals.
Avoid making exaggerated goals as it may not get the team focused. For example, setting a goal for increasing performance by around 8% by the end of the first quarter (Q1) can be achieved while an increase by say 80% doesn’t seem achievable and is unrealistic.
Having understood how to set achievable goals, let us now take a look at how the goals can be met and how to work on them.
For you to attain your goals smoothly, you may opt to use the SMART method. In this method, the initials are broken down to represent the following, S- specific, M- measurable, A- attainable, R-relevant, T- timely.
For a goal to be specific, it means it is clear and states what is to be done directly. Measurable represent the steps and criteria to be used to achieve the said goals.
Attainable means no matter how difficult or challenging the goal may be, it should be within the reasonable limits for it to be achieved. This helps the team remain focused as they can accomplish what they are aiming for.
Relevant means that the goal should be in line with the sales team and an individual.
Timely means that the team should be working hard enough to ensure they are within the time limit or the deadline.
Examples of sales objectives
Sales objectives will be different depending on the category they fall into. They may include the following:
Reduce the cycle time by automating email prospecting
This example of an objective or goal will fall under the cycle time category. We had discussed earlier on the impacts of short cycle time.
Increase win rates by 6% in Q1
This falls under the win rate category. Wining rates are the real indicators for success in a sales team. The more you win deals, the more the revenue generated.
Make 10% more revenue every month
This is under the revenue category. More revenue will be arrived at by increasing the size of transactions made by every customer.
Limit number of discounts given to customers
This will fall under profit margins. If your main goal is increasing profits, then you need to set this objective. Minimizing the number of discounts given to prospects can help the profits shoot up.
Use more time daily prospecting to get right and fit leads
This objective will fall under leads. The aim is to improve the number of high quality leads made by the sales team. There is a high chance of closing many deals and making more revenue when the number of leads is high.
Work on customer retention by 20% by the end of the year
This type of objective is aimed at retaining the customer after they have purchased different products from your business. It helps the sales team improve on customer relations by either being quick in offering a service or keeping in touch with the customer.
The aforementioned tips will help you set goals that are good for your business. Remember always to set achievable goals for your sales to remain focused, and don’t forget to get one step closer to meeting all of your goals with Blitz.