Six Tips for Setting Great Sales Goals
1. Make your goal incredibly specific. If you are setting a goal for cold calls, make the number specific. Decide whether it means calls or contacts or conversations. For example, “I will make 100 cold calls where I talk to a new potential client by phone or email.”
2. Set a “complete by” date. A goal without a deadline is like a fishing line without a hook. It looks great on the surface but you won’t catch anything! We all need targets and timelines so that we can pace our progress and establish when we’ve met our goal. Again, make your goal specific, like “I will make 100 cold calls where I talk to a new potential client by phone or email in the month of October.”
3. Imagine the impact of your goal. What is the expected impact of the new activity? How will completing the goal improve your sales in the long term? Short term? This will help motivate you to achieve your goal, and also give you a good sense of whether your goal is worth pursuing.
4. Set a realistic goal that you can hit if you push. People sometimes get in the habit of letting themselves off the hook for goals they set. They make the goal too easy to achieve or shrug it off if they don’t achieve it. Make your goal sacred–it is! Goals are the way to become the top producer you want to be. Set a realistic goal–then work like crazy to meet it.
5. Give yourself a prize. As a sales coach, I have noticed that for most people money is not the best motivator toward meeting a goal. Money allows a certain lifestyle but we hardly see it. It gets deposited into the bank account and pays bills. If you give yourself a prize, you have a tangible motivator that can drive you toward your goal. This doesn’t need to be a prize set by the organization or the boss. Figure out your own prize for being the best you can be. “If I make 100 cold calls where I talk to a new potential client by phone or email in the month of October, I will buy myself those fabulous red patent leather pumps!”
6. Set a different goal next time. Salespeople often think a goal was so successful they will just “do it again.” As a coach, I have found that people need variety. Very rarely do I see the same energy the second time. If you did cold calls the first time, do appointments or set a goal to speak to three business groups the next time. Change it up to keep your energy high.
