How To Set A Sales Target

 
Every successful salesperson that we’ve met on our Sales Training has always worked towards a sales target. Either this has been given to them by their sales manager or they have created it themselves. As salespeople it’s in our DNA to achieve and putting a tempting target in front of our noses with the lure of commissions and bonuses makes us sit up and take note.

Sales Target Setting is key for a successful sales career so let’s investigate this topic and uncover what it’s all about.

Any sales leader should have covered this topic on any sales management training that they have gone through but just in case you’ve got a sales manager who isn’t aware of this then the following will be really useful for you.

In most professions, time, seniority, and good behaviour will propel a person to the top of their field. In many career fields, if a person simply does their job, maintaining an acceptable level of performance, and does so for many years, this person could reach the highest levels in their chosen occupation.

In the world of sales however, this is far from the norm. Any weak sales manager or weak salesperson is soon found out.

To reach high levels in professional sales requires uncommon personal performance and individual effort. To reach above average performance, you need to set above average goals and reach them. The following information will help you establish sales goals and a blueprint to obtaining them on a consistent basis.

Sales Targets or Sales Needs?

What’s the difference between the two?

The first step in sales target setting is to differentiate between what are targets and what are needs.

“To pay your rent or mortgage you must have X amount of money and to get that money you must make X number of sales and therefore your goal is X number of sales.”

This is not a goal; it is a need.

When you use your needs as goals, you are working to reach your basic levels of living.

When you set this bar, you will usually just reach it or fall just short. That’s why I am always sceptical towards salespeople who want a high base salary. They don’t want to push themselves to have to exceed target to make a living. They want it all comfortable and they make any commission it really is a bonus!

If you work only for a living, you will never really live. Your goals must surpass your basic needs so that by reaching your goals, all your needs fall into place. Also, if you fall short of reaching your goals, you will have still surpassed your needs.

The purpose of sales goals is to help you to continuously improve and reach higher levels of success. Sales goals are to help you get better, not to help you barely survive.

Also, sales targets will help you measure and quantify your success. So first, be sure that you are not setting goals that are what you need to survive. We go into detail on how to set sales targets in The Sales Manager’s Guidebook.

Now let us examine some traditional goal setting philosophy.

Setting A Sales Target – The Basics

Traditional goal setting teaching tells us that all good goals should have several elements in common.

Parameters for good goals:

1. The goal should stretch your boundaries, exceed your immediate reach
2. You must believe in the goal, believe that it is possible
3. The goal must be very specific, exact
4. The goal should have an exact deadline
5. The goal should be written down

We’ve all head of SMART goals and in terms of sales it’s no exception. Your targets need to be SMART.

 

Basics for Sales Targets

1. The goal should exceed your grasp and ultimately exceed the norm of the company
2. You should be able to clearly visualise the reality of the goal
3. The goal must be detailed and reverse-engineered
4. Your goals should have many milestones, incremental steps
5. Your goal should be written and diagrammed on paper
6. Read and commit to the goals everyday

The goal should exceed your grasp and ultimately exceed the norm of the company While setting good goals can launch your sales career to new heights, setting poorly chosen goals can put you out of business.

In setting good sales targets, each goal should stretch you.

Each goal should exceed what is easily obtainable for you. Your goals should motivate you to rise above your previous levels. While this may sound simple, it is more complex, and it is where most salespeople fail. While you need to set lofty goals, if those goals are too high, they can have the reverse effect and become detrimental to your psyche and your success. Goals that are set too low are of no effect. Goals that are set too high can destroy you.

How do you find the correct balance of goals that stretch you but not too far?

One method to accomplish this is to set your goals at the places where you fail.

In fact, you cannot truly succeed or establish realistic goals until you first fail. Find the things that you came close to doing but fell short and start right there. Take a high jumper for instance. The bar is set at a height of seven feet. The athlete makes the attempt and successfully clears the bar. The bar is then set at seven feet, two inches and the jumper again clears the bar.

The bar rises to seven feet three inches and once again, cleared with no problem.

Has this high jumper really succeeded? They do not know if they have yet been tested. It is only when the bar is set to a height that they cannot jump, that they have reached a point to set a goal.

Now the athlete must stretch themself and reach a new level of performance.

Also, if the jumper failed to get over the bar at seven feet four inches, do they set a goal to jump eight feet? Maybe a long-term goal might be to someday reach eight feet, but the jumper’s next immediate goal must be to successfully jump the very next height; the height in which they failed to clear. Then they must work harder and practice longer until finally they clear the next height.

Now they have succeeded.

If you take this approach in setting next step goals, you will always set high goals, yet realistic goals. Figure out what are some next step goals for yourself.

Perhaps you want to move to the very next income bracket. Not jump six brackets, just move up one. Or maybe you want to sell just two more contracts this month or this quarter more than the last period. You want to earn just one pound more than you did last week or win the next sales contest.

If you came in last in the previous contest, then perhaps you set a goal to come in third place.

Use this method to help you establish short-term, next-step goals. It will keep you motivated and will also enable you to know what type of selling skills training you will need to take your game to the next level.