If setting SMART goals isn't working for you, then discover an approach to setting Sales Goals that motivates your sales people to consistently sell more.

1. www.iainswanstononline.com
boost sales, boost your bank balance
How to Set Sales Goals
January 21, 2014 by Iain Swanston – www.iainswanstononline.com
If you’ve tried setting Sales Goals using the SMART or more recent
SMARTER goal setting process only to fail, then read on. In theory
Goal Setting is easy, Goal Attainment on the other hand, can be
difficult. If Goal Attainment was easy though, I think we might be
accused of not setting challenging enough Sales Goals in the first
place. The reality for most Sales People is that when we only achieve
50, 60 or 70% towards a Sales Goal this can hardly be described as a
failure. Perhaps the goal was right but the timescale slightly
optimistic. Setting Sales Goals is not an exact science so we might
never attain perfection 100% of the time, but there are obviously certain
things we can do, to help dramatically increase our odds of success. If
you want to be successful at setting Sales Goals you must first set your
Sales Goals, then create a Sales Plan which is like a road map to take you to your Sales Goals and then
work on Goal Attainment.
Sales Goals
Every Sales Professional has four main areas of their life. When we tie the four together, we make success
much more likely. Most Goal setting fails to consider and include a Sales Professionals Personal Goals,
their Financial Goals and their need to Develop and Grow (See Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs).
Sales People are human like all of us, and can often suffer from relationship breakdowns and personal
financial problems. It would be naive to believe that these do not impact negatively on their work
performance. Whilst setting Sales Goals we should acknowledge this and include it in the
process. Furthermore most successful sales professionals are ambitious by nature, so if our Goal Setting
doesn’t take into account their own needs and desire to grow, why would they stay, let alone hit the
company’s sales goals.
Some examples below:

2. www.iainswanstononline.com
boost sales, boost your bank balance
Personal Goals – Partner, Children, Holidays, Cars, Hobbies, Sports, etc.
Financial Goals – Mortgage Payments, Savings, Pensions, University Tuition Fees, Stocks & Shares, etc.
Development Goals – Product Knowledge, Industry Knowledge, Sales Training, Management Training,
Business Training, etc.
I am not suggesting that we become surrogate Financial Advisers or a Marriage Counselor, but we can
help the Sales Professionals help themselves. Much as we might like to, we cannot separate our private
lives from our work lives, and Sales Professionals are much more likely to achieve their Sales Goals if the
rest of their life is as they want it to be. The best way therefore to reach our Sales Goals is to tie these into
a Sales Professional’s Personal, Financial and Development Goals. For young Graduate’s you could link
an element of their Sales Goals to an offer on paid or part paid Driving Lessons. For more experienced
Sales Professionals you could link one of their Sales Goals to a short weekend break for two. Yes, this
takes more management time, and Yes this is more complicated, but this is a small price to pay if you want
to hit your sales targets and more importantly, have a happy and effective sales team who stay with the
company for a long time. Unhappy sales people do not just leave – they under perform and then
leave. Both of which cost the business time and money.
Of course once you’ve set your Sales Goals you will need to go on and create a Sales Plan and then finally
you can get to work on Goal Attainment.
Don’t forget to Follow Us on Twitter, Google + or Linkedin.
Copyright © 2014 · www.IainSwanstonOnline.com