Setting the Right Sales Goals for Your Team
How to Set, Measure, and Achieve Sales Goals That Drive Growth
Tuesday Post: Setting the Right Sales Goals for Your Team
Subtitle: “How to Set, Measure, and Achieve Sales Goals That Drive Growth”
Sales goals are more than just numbers—they’re the roadmap to your team’s success. But are you setting the right goals, at the right time, and in the right way? Today, let’s explore how to craft sales goals that not only drive revenue but also build lasting customer relationships.
When Should You Set Sales Goals?
Timing is everything when it comes to setting sales goals. Should they be annual, quarterly, monthly, or even weekly? The right answer depends on your business’s structure and sales cycle.
If you have long sales cycles, focus on annual and quarterly goals to ensure you stay aligned with broader business objectives. Check in with your team weekly or bi-weekly to ensure that they are engaging with the customer. More on that here. For shorter cycles, monthly or even weekly goals can help you stay agile and motivated. Regular goal-setting creates a rhythm that keeps your team focused and accountable. You are simply setting the expectation and then ensuring that they meet it.
Thought: Align your sales goal-setting with your company’s planning cycle. If your fiscal year starts in January, set annual goals in December and review them quarterly to adjust for market changes.
How Will You Measure Them?
Measuring sales goals goes beyond tracking revenue. To truly understand your team’s performance, consider activity-based metrics alongside revenue outcomes. Ask yourself:
Engagement Metrics: How often is your team connecting with clients? Are they sending follow-up emails, scheduling regular check-ins, or sharing valuable insights with customers? Engagement isn’t just about quantity—it’s about quality.
Pipeline Metrics: What percentage of deals are moving through each sales funnel stage? Are there bottlenecks or opportunities to improve conversions? Consider a a good CRM to help you track this.
Note: If you use a CRM and part of the problem is just engagement with the platform, consider training on the CRM.
Outcome Metrics: Are you tracking revenue or units sold? Do you have a baseline to measure growth? While revenue is an easy metric it can bread an unhealthy level of competition at times. Consider units of activity for your clients. How do you set up the sales team to ensure that everyone success, not just the most aggressive members of the team.
Regular tracking keeps your team accountable and allows you to adjust strategies quickly. Companies that review goals weekly or biweekly are 25% more likely to exceed revenue targets (source: Sales Management Association). Meet with your sales team members one on one bi-weekly to understand their challenges and help them work through them. That way you ensure they meet their sales goals and no one is surprised come review time (assuming you have annual reviews).
What Kind of Goals Should You Set?
Not all sales goals are created equal. You need a mix of short-term and long-term goals that address more than just revenue. This also ensures engagement and progress from your sales team. They want to know they are winning.
Activity Goals: Focus on engagement metrics like the number of calls, meetings, or proposals sent. These are essential for early-stage pipelines. This is a leading indicator to show your team that they are filling the funnel. It will also help you as a business owner to know the revenue is in the pipeline.
Outcome Goals: Revenue or closed deals are the ultimate indicators of success, but they shouldn’t overshadow the importance of customer engagement. Some other come goals could be units of activity completed, number of completes received, returned orders, follow-up visits to fix issues. These goals will be harder to build a metric out of, but they are still really important to measure and review.
Strategic Goals: These can include entering new markets, developing key accounts, or expanding product offerings. These goals may not be best measured financially. It is likely that the margins and maybe even the revenue will be small as you branch out to new customers or industries. If the important part is just winning the work set the company goal up to reflect that. Also keep in mind that the reward does not have to be financial as well. It could be the opportunity to lead this new venture, or build a new sales team. Just be open with your team when the time comes.
For example, setting a goal to “close $100K in new sales this quarter” is fine, but adding a goal like “schedule 10 meetings with high-value prospects” ensures your team builds long-term opportunities.
Is It All About Sales or Something More?
While revenue is essential, focusing solely on sales numbers can lead to burnout or overlooked opportunities. It also can hinder your customer service experience. If your sales team is only incentivized to get the sell, then that is what they will do. Consider incorporating goals around:
Customer Engagement: How well does your team understand client needs? Are they providing meaningful updates and support? Does the customer provide you feedback on using the product? What about other problems they need help solving?
For instance, if your goal is to improve customer retention, your sales team could aim to schedule a quarterly feedback session with every top client. This helps identify unmet needs and builds trust.
Customer Retention: Are your customers coming back? Retention goals foster long-term relationships. What does the repeat order look like for each customers? How can your sales team improve that?
Service Excellence: Are you solving customer problems effectively? Service-related goals enhance your reputation and drive referrals. This is also an indicator of your ability to continue to solve problems in this industry.
Building a sales culture focused on engagement, service, and value helps sustain growth and motivates your team beyond just hitting numbers.
Action Step
Take 30 minutes this week to evaluate your sales goals. Are they focused solely on revenue, or do they also include customer engagement and service excellence? Identify one activity-based goal and one customer retention goal to implement next quarter.
Additional Reading
1. “How to Set Effective Sales Goals” – HubSpot
2. “The Science of Sales Goal-Setting” – Harvard Business Review
3. “Activity vs. Outcome Goals in Sales” – Sales Hacker
Are you looking to improve your sales process or hire your first sales professional?
Are you a technical expert ready to transition into sales and need guidance?
If so, we’re here to help! Reach out to us with your specific challenges, and we’ll schedule a time to discuss how we can develop a customized plan to meet your goals.