As a viewer, you don’t watch a Leafs game just to see them play - you watch to see them win. Well, maybe a Leafs fan isn’t the best example, but you get the gist. (Maybe Auston Matthews will help with that). Professional sports wouldn’t be the monster industry it is if we were just watching them play around; we watch to see them score. The same is true for small businesses, you’re not just there because of your product or service - you’re there to sell it. It’s important to always keep the end sales goal in mind if you want to achieve it.

By implementing Goal Setting into your sales process, you are that much more likely to reach your sales goal. Remember the old adage from Benjamin Franklin: “failing to plan is planning to fail.” Small businesses don’t have the luxury that big corporations have when it comes to resources. As a result, you have to be nimble and strategic. Setting clear, concise sales goals is absolutely necessary for proper benchmarking of your success measurements.

Sales is a numbers game at the end of the day, and sales success comes from breaking down your end goal into incremental sales targets.

Step 1 - What are the numbers you want

What is your goal for the year? What number are you targeting for your sales business? It’s very critical that you pick an ambitious yet achievable sales goal for your company.

Step 2 - What are the numbers you have

What are your current deal sizes for your product or service? Even if there is a range it’s important that you have an average deal size to use for your goal setting. Look at your past year and come up with a number.

Step 3 – Filling the Gap

The next step is to hone in on the gap between the points above – what is the difference between the numbers you have and the numbers you want? This is where setting clear sales goals becomes so critically important. Just wanting a 20% increase this year won’t make it happen, but having a plan will. In order to make that plan possible, you need to know what the goal is – what is the percentage increase between Steps 1 and 2?

Step 4 - The Calculation

At Change Connect we have an Activity Calculator to take the numbers from the above three points and distil it down to exactly how many leads need to be approached per month. Whether it’s 3 leads a week or 10, by having a concrete number of leads to target you are in a much better position to achieve your sales goals.

Step 5 - Achieving your Sales Goal

Now that you know how many leads to target for each week - get networking, get meeting, and get selling.

If your only goal is to “make money” you won’t have the framework in place to do just that. Instead, use the points above to create targeted sales goals for your small business, and then even if the Leafs don’t score - at least you will! Have you noticed a marked difference in sales profits from using goal setting? Has having a target greatly increased the productivity of your sales reps? Tell us in the comments.