It doesn’t matter what industry or sector you work in, sales are the key to business success. But, you can’t simply start making sales and hoping for the best, not knowing whether you’re doing enough or bringing in enough revenue. This is why sales goals are so important. They set the bar for success, they motivate your team and they provide a blueprint for growth. When you have sales goals, it’s a lot easier to know if you are on target, or if you need to do more. But, even if you have sales goals, there’s no guarantee that you’ll reach them. So, what happens when you miss your sales goals, and what are your next steps?
Why Sales Goals Are Important for Your Business
Regardless of your industry or niche, sector or size, sales goals are important for a business. They provide a roadmap for success, something for you to aim towards, something for your team to focus on. When you miss your sales goals, it’s a sign that something has gone wrong.
- They Measure Performance – Without sales goals, it’s hard to measure performance in the workplace. Sales goals establish benchmarks to track progress, giving you an insight into whether sales are being made effectively, and by who. By monitoring performance, you can identify areas for improvement, adjust your sales strategies and celebrate sales success.
- They Provide Direction and Focus – When you have sales goals, you have something to aim for. This helps your team to prioritise activities that drive revenue, rather than spending their time on other, less important opportunities.
- They Encourage Teamwork – Working towards sales goals encourages teamwork and collaboration. When everyone is working towards the same objective, it’s a lot easier to create a cohesive and efficient sales operation.
- They Motivate and Hold You Accountable – It can be hard to stay motivated in business, but sales goals give you a sense of purpose, and a feeling of achievement when you eventually reach them. Reaching sales goals can be highly motivating and rewarding, and knowing what’s expected fosters a sense of accountability in the workplace. This encourages salespeople to stay on task and focused.
- They Can Help With Decision Making – There’s a lot that goes into running a business, and sometimes you’ll need to make strategic decisions. When you have sales goals, it’s a lot easier to make these decisions, especially when it comes to resource allocation, budgeting and planning for future business growth.
Missed Your Sales Goals? Your Next Steps
Instead of dwelling on missed sales goals, focus your attention on how to improve your efforts going forward.
- Take a Good Look at the Data – The first thing you should do when you miss your sales goals is to look at the data. Look at sales figures, customer feedback and key performance indicators (KPIs), all of which can give you a valuable insight into what went wrong. Analyse the data closely to pinpoint where the sales performance dipped, and highlight if there were specific products that underperformed, and why. For example, did a competitor launch a new and improved product around the same time, taking your potential sales elsewhere?
- Reflect and Learn from Your Mistakes – Unless you take the time to reflect and learn from your mistakes, it’ll be hard to meet your sales goals going forward. Once you have analysed the data, organise a team meeting to discuss what went wrong with the sales team. Review your current sales strategies and processes, consider the effectiveness of your sales tools. Encourage your team to speak honestly, and determine if your sales goals were realistic and achievable in the first place.
- Boost Your Marketing Efforts – It’s hard to reach your sales goals if your target audience isn’t aware of what you are offering in terms of services or products. If this is the case, consider increasing your marketing efforts to generate more leads, giving your team more sales opportunities. You could run targeted promotions to encourage sales and boost short term performance.
- Re-evaluate Your Pricing Strategy – You will struggle to meet sales goals if your pricing isn’t in line with the rest of the market. If you are charging too much, customers will take their business elsewhere. If you are pricing your offerings too low, customers could be dubious about the quality. Conduct a competitive analysis and consider adjusting your pricing to attract new customers, or to encourage existing ones.
- Revisit Your Sales Goals – Everyone wants the best for their business, but this can lead to overly ambitious sales goals. If your sales goals are impossible to reach, you will continue to miss them, despite your best efforts. Analyse market trends and competitor activity, and adjust your goals to ensure they are realistic.
- Identify Areas for Improvement – Once you have identified what went wrong, it’s time to find solutions. You might need to refine your sales strategy to ensure that you are targeting the right audience, in the right way. You might need to upskill your sales team by investing in training opportunities, to bridge any skills gaps. You might even need to change your sales processes to streamline your sales funnel and improve efficiency.
- Break Your Goals Down – Setting large, overly ambitious goals can be overwhelming to a sales team, even one made up of experienced salespeople. Breaking them down into smaller, more achievable milestones for individual salespeople or teams can be beneficial. This creates a sense of progress and achievement throughout the sales process, giving your team a motivational boost every time a smaller goal is reached.
- Try Upselling and Cross-Selling – It’s not easy to encourage someone to make a sale, but you can encourage existing customers to buy more. Look for ways to upsell or cross-sell to existing customers, which will result in them spending more on complementary products or services.
What Makes a Good Sales Goal?
It’s a lot easier to meet your sales goals if you are setting the right goals to begin with.
- Find the Balance Between Challenging and Unrealistic – A good sales goal should be challenging enough to push your team to perform at their best, but still within reach. An unrealistic sales goal can become discouraging, which will have the opposite effect.
- Focus on the Bigger Picture – Instead of measuring the small things, such as the number of calls made or the amount of email marketing you’ve done, focus on the outcomes. Look at how much revenue has been generated, how many customers have been gained or how many deals you’ve closed.
- Get Your Team Involved – Involving your sales team in the goal setting process can foster a sense of ownership, encouraging them to be invested in the goals that are being set. Once your sales goals are set, share them with your team and encourage them to share their feedback. It’s important that the goals you’ve set are in line with what the team feels capable of.
Sales Goals Should Be SMART
You might have heard of the SMART way of making goals, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Instead of simply saying that you want to increase sales, be clear about what you want to achieve. You might want to bring in a certain amount of revenue, or you might want to boost your customer base by a certain number. Your sales goals should also be measurable, so you know when you have reached your target.
It’s important to set goals that challenge you, but they also need to be achievable. Think about what your team is capable of, current market conditions and what is realistically possible. With this in mind, set goals with your overall business strategy in mind. Sales goals should be relevant to your business objectives. For example, launching a new product or entering a new market. Set a specific deadline for achieving your sales goals, either it’s quarterly, monthly or weekly. This will help you to keep track of how well your sales efforts are performing.
At Profici, we know how disappointing it can be to miss your sales goals. But, help is always at hand. We are dedicated to helping businesses grow and develop, and reaching your sales goals is a big part of this. Get in touch today to find out more about scaling your business.
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