Does Sales Goals Setting Work?

By Mark McClure

Did you know that Sales Professionals are among the biggest customers of Personal Development and Sales goal setting programs? Even with these systems, sales results are not always spectacular or on an upward trend. Here are 3 warning signs that your team's sales goal setting approach may not be working. And what to do about it.

1- All for One and One For All - Not!Team Goals can have a bonding and galvanizing effect on sales performance. However, if your group are acting primarily on individual goals and quotas, when problems occur with the team's targets, there will be a tendency to think "Not my problem".

Suggestion: Find agreed ways of pooling team resources in advance to achieve sales targets. Compensation should reflect the mutual benefits to various stakeholders in achieving these goals - the Company, Team and Individual.

2- Whose Goal Is It Anyway?For Sales goal setting to really work there must be a strong sense of personal ownership and commitment by both Sales Professionals and their Team Leaders. Obviously a supportive and challenging upper management structure is also a key factor in ensuring things go to plan as far as possible. The bottom line here is that if the Sales team and management don't (mutually) own the goal setting, they will be less willing to own the results. That can bleed red ink all over place.

Suggestion: Ensure that sales goal setting is done as a group activity with Sales and their management.

3- It's Never Crowded On The Extra Mile...Pareto's 80/20 rule is well known in business circles. Perhaps you also see it at work among your sales team?

Suggestion: For the 20% of your Sales Team who will likely go that extra mile for their customers, you want to have 'stretch' goals negotiated which will absolutely reward them for such outstanding effort and results. (This does not negate the advice given in section 1 above. Team and individual goals still apply. However, be alert for the Pareto effect on who really brings home the Sales bacon and how!)

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Mark McClure is a Certified Career & Life coach and Internet Business Owner.