Do you have clearly defined sales and revenue goals for first quarter of 2008? Does each of your sales and marketing representatives know how many orders and new clients they need to bring in on a monthly basis? What about the escrow side? Establishing sales (and escrow) goals is one of the most important things for you to do in order to start the year off right.
By now, you have the 2008 budgets for your operation. Surely this will include the amount of business, broken down into exact open and closed orders, you need to be profitable.
Next step is communication. COMMUNICATING your expectations NOW will substantially increase your chances of hitting budget during the crucial first quarter. Communicate this often. We can't emphasize this enough. By helping each team member establish goals that are in direct alignment with your organizational goals, you will also help increase feelings of belonging and importance of each team player.
Why do client demands and expectations eclipse sales activity?
Most employees will tell you that they perform better when they know exactly what is expected of them. Although this may be the case, it is so easy in our industry to approach each day reactively, regardless of known expectations. Some may even feel they might not be able to meet a client's 'always untimely' demands if our days were in fact planned, right? Wrong. Planning sales activity ahead of time, instead of “fitting it in” when they can, is one of the highest predictors for success a salesperson can have.
In fact, you CAN help employees plan for, and execute on, specific sales activities on a daily basis. By creating and setting minimum daily expectations, you give the sales team a tangible goal that can help them determine if they “won or not" that day.
Set expectations for:
- a number of prospect contacts
- a number of interviews with prospects
- a number of referrals obtained
- a number of contacts who were asked for orders, etc.
If you don’t already have minimum activity expectations, use the New Year as motivation to do things differently. Many folks resist anything that can be interpreted as micro-managing. But do keep this in mind - the person who doesn’t want you to know about his/her daily sales activity, may just have the most to hide.
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3 comments:
One of the things I do when setting annual goals, is to START with my commission goal, and back into the results I need in order to make the money I want. Then, ratchet up my activity from there. I find that helps me stay focused all year.
I love this Blog. I have been in sales for 10 years and I love the ideas and inspiration I get here. I have made a goal for myself to read something on this Blog every Monday to get me motivated to finish the week strong. Keep the information coming!
I think this is a very timely topic! I am currently working on my goals for next year and typically, I just set results based goals. Now, I will look at my activities and set goals around those as well! I am so motivated by the information in these blogs! THANK YOU!!!
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