When you’re running a busy sales team, it can be challenging and time-consuming to create sales goals for everyone.

Some sales managers will, therefore, urge staff to set sales targets for themselves to save time. Can this be an effective system for sales managers? Is there a more effective way?

The advantages of asking staff to create sales goals for themselves

When staff are responsible, they can set themselves goals aligned to their motivations. For instance, they might want to earn enough commission to go towards a deposit for a home, holiday or something else. They know how much they need and they might incorporate that when they create sales goals.

Likewise, when staff have set their own goals, they can feel satisfied when they’ve achieved them. It also helps them to become more responsible for their work, an important skill for career progression.

They are also consciously aware of their abilities, their current sales pipeline and their calendar. Therefore, they can add/remove sales targets to ensure they aren’t over-pressuring themselves when they might have booked a two-week holiday during the month.

The disadvantages of asking staff to create sales goals for themselves

Despite the advantages of staff setting their own targets, there are also some significant disadvantages.

Initially, staff might find it hard to align their own personal sales goals to company goals.For successful business growth and employee satisfaction, personal and company goals need to be balanced.

In addition, some staff might not be responsible enough to set sales goals and will, therefore, set themselves goals that are easy to attain. Managers should be involved, so they challenge staff to improve sales results without making goals impossible to achieve.

Finally, employees might be too inexperienced to set their own targets. Inexperience may mean they set targets too high, too low or those that aren’t relevant. Managers should, therefore, guide their employees.

An alternative to managers and staff

There is also a third option for managers and staff creating sales goals. Using sales goals software can help staff or managers to formulate goals based on numerous factors like past sales performance, company goals and seasonal variance. This helps to create sales targets free from bias that can be included when goals are set by managers and staff.

When it comes to the time to create sales goals, you will want to make sure you’re giving your sales team something inspiring.

A challenge offers them something to strive for and can improve results, but when something is too hard or seems impossible to achieve, it can have the opposite impact and can lessen results compared to what they could have been should you have aimed slightly lower.

The question is, how can you tell if a goal is realistic? Here are some of the ways you can determine whether your sales goals are correctly set :

1. Every salesperson misses the sales goals

One of the first things you need to look at is the statistics across the sales team. If you have 10% or 20% of your sales team missing their monthly or annual target, then those particular employees need help. However, if the majority of your team are missing targets, then there is something wrong with the goals that are being set for them.

This is where sales goals software can help. It can track records of staff and display who is meeting targets and who is not. If you’re noticing that more than a third of your staff aren’t meeting targets, you might need to reconsider reestablishing your sales goals.

2. Time of the year

Good sales performance software can also help you determine past performance and trends, which can help you make more realistic sales goals. Therefore, targets can be set based not just on the performance of the employee, but also on the expected market for the time of the year.

For instance, you might make great sales in July, but in August, that may not be the case. August could be a historically low period for you, and only by checking with your sales performance management software can you see that this is a trend during that time of year. By incorporating trends into the creation of your targets, you can be more realistic in setting goals.

3. Consider lead times

At the same time as considering the time of year, you also need to consider lead times for sales. Processes can be quite long, and if a sales team are running low on leads, they need time to build them back up. If there is no-one in the sales pipeline, then you aren’t going to get any sales.

This can be a particular problem if there is poor management by salespeople in the whole process.

Perhaps they focus on the close rather than the rest of the sales process. Therefore, ask your sales team how many leads they have in the pipeline and at what stage they are at. Thenyou can create sales goals based on current information. You can always tell salespeople they need to improve on their lead development and set those as targets as well, to build up sales over the longer period.

Using these three tips, you can create more realistic sales goals. If you create better sales goals, you will motivate your sales team and see better sales performance.

There are times when a few minor adjustments to sales compensation management are all that’s needed to add insight and incentivise your team.

Occasionally, in-depth analysis and major change are needed to breathe new life into your sales performance goals. Whether the adjustments you need to make are large or small, decisions around business software are critical.

Get it right and you stand to revolutionise your business and your sales. Sit back and do nothing and you could be missing out on a whole range of powerful, automated benefits.

1. In-depth understanding

Unlike traditional spreadsheets which are susceptible to human error, automated software tracks and analyses raw sales data in a totally reliable and comprehensive way.

However complex your operations, once the facts have been input, executives can tap in for an in-depth understanding of how their teams are achieving day-to-day, produce reports and commission payouts. Employees can rely on their sales data to accurately reflect their successes. When you stay informed, great things can happen. 

2. Motivation

Nothing is more useful to sales team leaders than having accurate information about individual staff performance in relation to commission tracking.

They can see at a glance how the work of each individual is impacting on department performance. That means they can dedicate their resources to identifying and supporting reps that are falling behind.

It is easy to look for patterns of achievement and add extra motivation when it’s needed to reach a particular sales goal. For instance, if one rep is great at closing sales for a particular service or product, a manager can tap into their skills in order to train others and build success across the whole team. 

3. The here and now

Unless you have money to burn and an army of super-accurate data inputters, the smart money is on web-based sales commission software. It means that your performance indicators, sales records and analyses are always up-to-date, and you can log into your data from anywhere. You know exactly where you stand, you can assess what the future holds, and you can plan ahead for the benefit of your business.

Sales commission software isn’t just for the bigguns. Small and medium-sized businesses are now able to invest in specialised automated dashboards that strip away the guesswork. If you are looking for increased productivity, escalating sales and a motivated team, check it out.

Meeting targets either on-time or before a deadline can be really exhilarating while missing targets can destroy morale.

Morale can also be destroyed if you’re not progressing as much as you ought to be. For instance, if you’ve made seven sales in six months but your target for the year is 24, then you’re massively behind the target.

This isn’t too hard to imagine. Sales Hacker estimates that 90% of salespeople are making the majority of their sales in the last week of the month, or the last month of the year. However, doing this is often the result of harder work and more hours. It doesn’t have to be that way.

So, what can you do to get back on track if you’re not meeting your sales targets? Here are some suggestions to help you meet set sales goals this year :

1. Know when you’re behind

Everyone should be regularly checking their progress towards set sales goals. By using sales performance management tools, you can continuously monitor your progress. Doing so will alert you if you’re not meeting sales targets and give you plenty of time to put plans in place to catch up. 

Sales performance management tools can also help you identify where the issue might be. Is the close rate too low or are you not prospecting enough? By finding out where the obstacles in your sales process are, you can make relevant changes that improve results, which avoids wasting time on endeavours that make no difference.

2. Check-in with old prospects

Sometimes you might not meet targets because you’ve not gone back to prospects who’ve said no in the past. However, just because they said no the first time, doesn’t mean they’ll say no the second time. If you go back to some of the old prospects you’ve not spoken to in a while, you might find that some are now ready to buy.

Old prospects are better than new prospects because they’ve already built up a relationship with you, so a lot of the hard groundwork has been done already. This significantly lowers lead times.

3. Remain in control

Emotion is an important aspect of selling. If you demonstrate that you’re passionate about the product or service you’re selling, you’re going to get better results. But you’ve also got to remember that you can’t seem desperate.

A desperate salesman makes fewer sales than one in complete control. So it is important to control any concerns you have about not meeting current sales targets and convert that worry into a positive emotion that will demonstrate how confident you are in the product.

In any sales-driven business, setting goals and targets is key to driving increased revenue. Without a defined target to aim for, staff can lack the motivation to do any more than the minimum possible: which is bad news for your business, and your bank balance. 

In order to keep profits coming in, and to get the most from your staff, setting sales targets is essential. Thanks to the sales goals software built into the Commissionly app, you can quickly and easily assign goals to team members and their managers.

Create sales goals that work

Motivating sales staff to put in extra effort requires a thorough understanding of your current commission model. This includes current earnings  and sales of your sales team members, and the level of revenue needed to turn a profit per salesperson. Once you know how much your team is delivering, and your targets for company growth , you can start setting targets and goals which address the difference between the two figures and deliver the results through sales team compensation.

Always be realistic about your targets for your team. Goals that are set too high can actually reduce motivation. Staff need to feel that their targets are achievable. Be clear about the potential rewards for meeting or exceeding those targets, too. In addition to their regular commission, consider offering a bonus or treat for the best performers over a set week, month or quarter.

Using software for goal setting

With Commissionly, staff are already motivated by seeing their commission stack up in real time. You can also track their performance to ensure they are meeting their quota. However, you can go beyond this with all kinds of sales tools – such as leader boards to add a competitive element to the team setting.

Using the Commissionly app, you can set goals for staff, and amend them whenever required. You can follow a team member’s progress towards a target and automate the process of collecting sales and commission data for a faster, smoother experience. Plus, you can identify staff that are struggling to reach their targets and offer extra support – and you can create bigger, bolder challenges for your best performers, too!