Regardless of your company size, sales performance goals should be an intrinsic part of day-to-day activities within the sales department. Without sales performance goals, the sales team will remain unfocused and undriven – implementing such goals will encourage hard work with a great payoff.

What types of sales performance goals should you be incorporating into your company as we launch into the new year?

Reduce cycle time

Cycle time is the amount of time taken for a deal to be closed. Whether it be a transaction or negotiation, you should be aiming to have as short a cycle time as possible. The sales performance goal of reducing cycle times is essential – this is because it ensures your team are working at optimal levels.

Improve customer retention

As your business grows, so too will your target audience change. One sales performance goal that should be set, is to improve your customer retention. More importantly, you want to demonstrate to your clients that, even as your company evolves and changes, their loyalty will be worth it.

Increase sales by achievable amounts

Whether you choose to do it on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, your sales team should be focused ultimately on increasing sales. Whatever specific sales performance goal is set regarding this, make sure the target is tangible and achievable. For instance, setting a sales performance goal of improving sales by 8% by the end of Q1 is achievable – an 80% increase by the end of Q1 is not.

Whether an SME or an independent business, why not decide on your new year sales performance goals using the SMART method? No matter how you choose what goals to set for 2020 and beyond, consider Commissionly to see them through.

Commissionly is a reliable, intuitive platform that can help you motivate and pay your workforce as and when you need. Through quick surveys, you can gauge workers’ enthusiasm and drawbacks; additionally, through Commissionly, you can set sales performance goals and strategically plan how to ensure such goals are met.

If you’re a small to medium enterprise (SME) then you’ll know that every sales target and quota matters and that setting achievable goals is vital to success.

Communicate sales expectations between employees

Whether you’re the manager of the business or an employee, communication is key. Studies have endlessly proven that excellent communication in the workplace drives sales. This is because it creates a rapport between staff members, improving respect and an understanding for each others’ roles.

Therefore, communicating your sales expectations between one another will allow the team to feel bonded and more on the same page – increasing the drive to succeed.

Consider all the factors when setting sales targets

As an SME, you have to get sales targets right. Too low, and employees may start to slack as they feel they exceed expectations. On the flipside, set too high and employees will feel dejected and have low morale. To set effective sales targets, consider the following elements:

  • Realistic timelines
    Should you set daily sales targets, weekly, monthly, yearly? If you set a daily sales target, remember that this will be different to a weekly one, and a weekly one to a monthly – and so forth. Adjust expectations accordingly.
  • Revenues
    Calculate the revenues needed for the business to succeed. Also, don’t feel let down if these are more varied than you expected. A path of income is income nonetheless. Remember to input all revenues into your sales targets if you want accurate outcomes.

Look at what sales quota suits your SME the best

If you want to drive profit, you have to implement an effective sales quota. Here are the four most common types of sales quota, and what they can be used for.

  1. Sales quota based on activity
    Best for SMEs with a variety of touch-points, this style of quota works by measuring how much of an activity an employee does. For example, this could be the NUMBER of sales in a day, HOW MANY calls an employee takes, etc.
  2. Sales quota based on volume
    Ideal for those SMEs focusing on growing revenue, a volume-based quota focuses on just that – the volume. It tallies up the total generated revenue over a given amount of time. Additionally, it may look at the number of units sold.
  3. Sales quota based on cost
    If you’re an SME focused on expense control, this is the sales quota for you. It revolves around looking at an employee’s effectiveness at reducing costs. Such factors that implement into this include time efficiency, time invested, and additional opportunities taken.
  4. Sales quota based on profit
    This is the best quota for the SMEs that offer a range of marketable products or services. This is because a quota based on profit looks at the sales performance of employees, therefore working best when an employee has multiple things to sell.

If you’re part of an SME and wondering how to set sales targets and quotas, consider Commissionly. Commissionly is a platform that aims to simplify the inner cogs of a business. Whether it be ways to pay, motivating your team, or integrating a new aspect, Commissionly does it all. As an SME, any help you can get could make a world of difference. Commissionly is the smart, affordable hand that you can take while going on your business venture.

When working within a sales environment, one of the most important thing you will need to have is goals. However, goal-setting can often be easier said than done, as there are many factors that come into play when setting these.

Keep in mind the acronym ‘SMART’ to give you and your team the direction you need:

1. Specific

Goals are hard to achieve when they are vague. It is much easier to lose motivation with a vague and flimsy goal. By making it specific, you are getting right to the point of what you want. For example, rather than having your goal as “I want to encourage my team to perform well”, it should be “I want to set my team targets which are reasonable and encourage them to meet and exceed them”.

2. Measurable

Having a goal which is measurable is crucial. Being able to measure your progress will also indicate how far you are from achieving your goal. A goal which you cannot measure will not motivate you, as you will have no way of seeing how much you have achieved and how close you are to reaching your goal. By having targets and KPIs, it is a very easy way of measuring sales targets and performance, which will highlight any troubling areas.

3. Attainable

Attainability is important when setting a goal. If you cannot possibly achieve your goal, what motivation will you have for pursuing it? This is the side of you which can aim high but needs to also be realistic. You have the best understanding of your business, and what is achievable for your team. For example, within a sales role, it would be unrealistic to set a goal to overcome all objections.

4. Relevant

Many businesses have many different goals, so making sure that the goals you set are relevant to your business is vital. For example, if your sales team needs to build rapport with clients before making a sale, setting a goal in regards to first contact sales would have very little point. Alternatively, if your sales team are encouraged to make a sale as quickly as possible, then you would want to monitor the team’s conversion rates.

5. Time

Working out the time frame in which you will achieve your goal is one of the most important things you can do, as this will dictate how long you measure your success. It is often recommended to have a few short-term goals, and one or two long-term goals, so you can stay motivated on the present as well as the future.

Keep reading Commissionly’s blog posts to find out more about making the most of your sales team.

Motivation is important within any role, but it is vital within a sales environment. From large call volumes to rejection handling, even the best salespeople have to learn to be resilient and often have to rely on their own motivations to get through particularly difficult days.

Within an organisation, there are a few things that can be done to motivate a sales team and create a positive working environment.

Talk openly about sales commission

One of the biggest motivations of a sales role is money, and this is not something which should be downplayed. Many professionals within sales rely heavily, if not solely, on their bonus and commission. They are strongly aware that this will only be made if they put in the necessary work. And encouraging your team to talk about how much commission they have made in a month, can be motivating for those who may be earning less than their colleagues.

Encourage competition

Competition is a great way of increasing motivation within a sales team. By having weekly and monthly targets made visible to the whole team, it can motivate the bottom performers to reach the same level of expertise as their colleagues. It can also encourage competition among the top performers and boost their sales figures in the process. By having a friendly yet competitive atmosphere, you are encouraging your team to revel in their achievements and to work together to reach the most effective sales techniques for your business.

Visualise sales goals

Another way in which businesses motivate their sales team is by keeping everything visual. It is not a secret that those within sales are in it for the money, so by getting them to set goals and visualise them, can boost performance and ultimately, sales figures. The goals could be a new car, a relaxing holiday, or buying a home. Everyone has goals. Reminding your sales team of these goals whilst at work, is perfect motivation because only they have the power to reach their dreams and make them a reality.

When it comes to hitting your sales targets, you’re dependent on your sales team doing their best job. It’s easy to overlook the sales manager during particularly busy times of the year – such as Christmas – when everyone seems to be pulling their weight in equal measure. However, any good boss knows that it’s the sales manager that is intrinsic to the success of their business during critical sales times, and how happy they are is ultimately the measure for how happy your workforce is.

So, how can manager overrides make the difference not just to your sales manager, but to your entire team?

Motivation

If the sales manager is recognised as the driving force of their sales team, they’ll have the confidence in higher management to keep the rest of the sales team motivated. By utilising a manager override system, you don’t need to be concerned as to whether you’re suitably compensating your sales manager or not – they’ll know it, expect it and have more faith in your business in turn.

Ambition

Moving beyond day-to-day selling motivation, having a culture of ambition within your office is key to your company’s success. If the sales team see that the sales manager is happier, as a result of dependable manager overrides on commissions, they’ll feel more driven to aim for a managerial role themselves. This creates a friendly sense of competition and emotional investment in the business long-term.

Organisation

Your employees can only be as structured as you are. By setting up a manager override system, they’ll see your commitment to ensuring the smooth operation of the business. This can only improve company morale, as it’s far easier to be committed to a business that is devoted to prioritising the organisation of sales team pay.

What Commissionly offers

At Commissionly, we’ve set up a manager override system that makes incorporating them into a commission plan as simple as possible. It’s the first step for improving employee happiness on every level, and keeping your sales manager consistently happy to boot – something that can’t go amiss this festive season! Why not contact us today to find out more?

When it comes to setting your team’s sales goals for next year, there are a lot of factors to consider. It is important to remember that this will be a new year, a time for reflection and putting the fresh foot forward for new beginnings. So it is safe to assume that a lot of your team will be making new year’s resolutions.

Capitalise on these when you create sales goals for them. This will help you to make sales goals more relevant to individuals, improve sales performance and increase revenue for the business.

How can you align your staff’s new year’s resolutions to their sales goals?

Ask them what their new year’s resolutions are

As a starting point, ask your team what their new year’s resolutions are. Most of them should have at least one and if not, ask them to come up with one. Get them to write it down on a piece of paper (with their name on it) and give it to their team leader or yourself.

Assess the new year’s resolutions and align them to your sales goals

Next, look at these new year’s resolutions and see how they can be aligned to the business. Some of them will be easier than others. A common resolution (goal) might be to earn more, so you can look at how improving their targets and motivation, will assist them in selling more.

Another could be, to eat more healthily. While you might not think you can integrate this into your planning, you could suggest that staff members eat their lunch in the staff area instead of at their desk. Eating at a desk poses long-term health risks so you can support them in this way. It is important to keep in mind that not all goals you create have to be sales or money-related.

Have a meeting with your staff

The next step would be to speak individually to your staff and give them their new sales goals. Make sure to show them how their personal new year’s resolutions relate to the new sales goals. When they see the link between the two, they are more likely to have increased motivation for both their personal and professional goals.

You can also talk through methods for how staff can improve their general performance by giving an end-of-year final report.

So finally, mixing your staff’s new year’s resolutions with your business goals, when creating sales goals for January will most likely generate positive actions which leads to improved business sales.

If you require some assistance, use Commissionly’s commission software for small to medium business.

Most managers think they know how to set sales targets and quotas, but did you know that the formula should change depending upon the time of year that you are in? Buying habits change throughout the year, and when it comes to Christmas, more people are likely to spend money.

Knowing this, managers should adjust their sales goals at Christmas. Setting individual targets for each employee can help to maximise their motivation and performance.

But how do you know what types of goals to set?

Jump on Christmas sales

If you know that sales usually increase by 15% over the Christmas period, then it’s a fair assumption that your individual performance targets for employees can increase by 15% too. In order to understand such fluctuations, requires looking at the sales data over the past five years, to get an accurate value. Looking at sales data for the previous year will produce less accurate information to work from. It’s also worth comparing data across the whole industry. So take a look at this BBC article as a starting point!

Do something different this year

Are you doing anything different this year to boost sales? For instance, a boxing day sale or a Christmas promotion. These possibilities need to be taken into account. Do some research as to whether other businesses promotions have increased their sales. If there is a trend, then consider incorporating this into your sales goals.

Remember that many stores are likely to experience increased footfall over the Christmas period too, so this may give you a sales boost. Consider your conversion rate, and use this to estimate how many customers you can encourage to buy.

Focus on employees

Remember that employees are likely to be in a different mental space during the Christmas season. Staff who love Christmas can easily get their customers into the festive spirit. These are the best people to have on shift. Other sales team members may be feeling under pressure because they have families that rely on them. So it is important to consider their needs over the holiday time. An employee that is stressed by things going on at home will be less productive.

After having considered all of these, you may realise that you require a more accurate and metric-driven plan. If this is the case, then you need Commissionly! Our easy to use system allows real-time information to be used to calculate sales goals, targets and performance management, all which can help your business thrive. For more information, take a look at Commissionly today!

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, however, for businesses it can be rather slow. Some leads are thinking more about the end of the year than they are of the next year. This can be a hard time for sales teams as they struggle to find leads willing to be closed. Which inevitably leads to a slump in sales, that can prevent you and your teams reaching business goals.

That is unless you find other ways to motivate your team. And with a Christmas theme, you can do just that.

Having a few festive fun ideas in your commission structure is a great way to keep things fresh in the office. It can act as an additional motivator, talking point and builds team cohesion. So, here are a few festive commission ideas that you can use to motivate your team.

Secret Santa commissions

Set specific sales performance goals that reward team members with a special Secret Santa commission. This is an envelope that contains a secret bonus that is unknown until the winning team member opens it. The surprise could be anything from a £10 shopping voucher to a two-hour Christmas shopping lunchtime session.

If you can make them fun, then you are more likely to get buy-in from the team and possibly even a few laughs.

The Christmas jingle

Festive commissions don’t have to only be financially motivated. Instead, you could offer team members the choice of the next few songs to be played in the office when they meet set sales goals. Music can be a great motivator and many Christmas tunes are jolly and have an uplifting presence about them.

Visualise the month’s sales performance management

Sometimes people need visual cues to get them motivated during the winter months.

You can do this through some very simple drawings. Have a line that represents a journey on a wall, at one end put Santa’s grotto and at the other put a house. Everyone has a picture of Santa that can be moved across the wall.

Now you can either move the Santa as the days progress and add presents into their sleigh drawing to represent the sales. Either way is good to represent a story of their sales, and add a little festive fun at the same time.

Imagination is your only barrier

Christmas is a great time to add a little festivity into your commissions. By adding bonuses to the financial ones you already offer, you can motivate your team and add a little joy into the office.

What is also good, is that the options above can be customised to fit any holiday time. Santa across the wall could become a plane going on holiday!

The sales commission dashboard is fast becoming the most popular way to track and analyse sales. The benefits this little tool can bring to your business far outweigh the time it takes to implement. More importantly, when using a sales dashboard, teams report better workflow and a more knowledgeable approach to sales.

Will it work for you? The following are the most impactful benefits that come with using a sales commission dashboard.

On the spot analysis

Analysis is a great way to move your sales strategy forward. It is essential to a good business plan. Whether you are a team leader or a CEO, you will come to rely on it when decision-making. But analysis usually takes time, creating a gap in the flow between the data and your company’s reaction. This gap costs you profit: sales dip and your commission staff drag their feet. A sales commission dashboard solves this problem. Because it offers real-time analysis of commission, sales and staff performance, your company’s reaction to changing sales will be lightning-fast and the best it’s ever been.

Comprehensive management

Performance management is key to a sales company running on commission. Sales data can vary wildly between staff, with down-turns quickly snowballing. Therefore, it is key that you keep tabs on how your sales team is performing. The sales commission dashboard is an excellent way to compare the sales contributions of individual staff. It allows you to react quickly to a dip in sales performance and buoys up your sales data. More than this, it allows you to respond to high sales performances quickly, which is encouraging for sales teams. This results in a virtuous circle of positive competition, and better sales.

Optimising your forecasting data

Forecasting is ever-present in every sales meeting. The sales commission dashboard is an easy way to sift data, move analysis forward, and present a persuasive set of forecasts to the team. It is necessary in providing an easy guide to future sales techniques, and in setting meaningful goals for your team.

Every sales team has the same general goal – sell more.

Consistent monitoring of sales performance is the simplest way of checking that you’re on track to achieving constant positive performance. But it is important to note that setting the right goals will empower your team, keep the budget on track, and grow your profits. While setting the wrong goals can quickly derail necessary progress.

So how can you set sales goals the right way? What kind of benefits can you expect? Let’s take a look at how to set goals that will truly grow your business.

Break down your sales goals

Bigger goals can always be broken down into smaller tasks. This makes it easier to stay on target. First, calculate your annual or monthly sales goal. Use this amount to work backwards, to create smaller targets for each week. Seasonal differences and other predictable fluctuations should be taken into account. This includes the time it takes to train a new employee, or a reasonable amount of time to “ramp up” to new targets to maintain productivity and motivation.

Working backwards from your target also helps you look at what activities are involved to reach your goals. For example, if on average you need to speak to 10 leads for each sale, that determines both a skill benchmark (converting 1 out of 10 calls) and a booking benchmark (at least 10 a day to make 1 sale).

Set sales goals the SMART way

You’ve probably heard of SMART goals, but are you implementing them? This popular acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. When you’re determining how to set sales goals, SMART is an essential strategy to implement. SMART goals, especially when staff are able to see how they tie directly into their commission, make a team easier to manage.

You should be cognizant of common mistakes when setting sales goals too. Being clear on the targets and tasks required will set your sales team and business, up for success.

To help you reach your goals, Commissionly’s straightforward solution to commissions makes it easy to manage and motivate your sales force. Learn more about how you could use Commissionly to reduce the time spent managing your team, increase productivity, and spot key insights to strategically plan for your future.