If you only have one goal -- meeting an annual or even monthly sales target -- you’re selling yourself short.
Smaller goals let you build confidence with incremental wins, allow you to track successful actions and support your use of Kaizen methodology to continuously improve.
A Harvard University study found setting specific goals increases motivation beyond simply telling yourself, “I’ll just do my best.”
The study ultimately reported that those who stuck to a goal-oriented plan performed 30% better than those who didn’t.
What would a 30% better performance look like for you?
Below, find out how to set sales goals on an smaller scale for greater success.
To set smaller goals, you still need to know where you're aiming for.
Once this is established you can then begin to break this down into manageable 'chunks'.
First: What's your annual target?
This should be big and grand and aspirational, but needs to be grounded in reality.
Consider your current circumstances: What does it cost you to work and live? Your target should comfortably cover this.
Now, look at your previous average case size...how many mortgage cases will you need to complete on to achieve this?
This number is going to be your annual target.
Bear in mind your commission split! Don't simply divide your average case size by your annual target.
EG: Joe's average case size is £2500 and he wants to earn £50,000 for the year. he will need to complete on 70 cases to achieve this.
Now: what's Your ACTUAL target?
You DO NOT convert at 100% so you can't simply start to break down your annual target using the number you've come to above.
There will be drop offs at every stage of your sales process so we need to work your 'sales waterfall' in order to effectively plan how we'll achieve the end goal.
The simplest way to get your 'actual target' is to get your 'conversion rate' - the percentage at which you personally turn an initial lead into a fully completed sale.
Once you have this percentage you need to apply that to your annual target to work out the number of cases you'll need to 'create' to achieve your target.
EG: Joe wants to take home £50,000. At his conversion rate of 20% he will need to 'create' 350 cases this year.
You can go further than this, and i'd recommend for the most accurate target setting that you do.
As stated above, there are a number of 'drop-offs' within your sales process, each reducing down your initial lead 'pot' by a certain percentage.
Ideal you'll want to understand your conversion rate a each point, and work your way 'down the waterfall' to get an even more accurate figure to set targets, as well as a set of touch-points you can look to refine/ improve as you track your activity.
Next: break that down.
DO NOT divide your 'actual' target by 12.
Eg: If we were to do this for Joe, that would be 29 cases created per month.
Get your calendar out and mark in holidays and days off. Your target needs to be LOWER that month, and in the previous month(s) HIGHER to factor in 'lost' days due to absence from work.
Next, look back over last year and consider 'slow spots' in the year. There were points last year when there were fewer leads in the pot, fewer calls and a general slow down.
Sometimes this is expected (Christmas and New Year) sometimes this is less obvious at first (a good recent example would be the World Cup).
Mark these slow weeks/ months/ quarter in your diary and again, factor this in when setting your monthly targets.
Whilst your monthly figure will rise and fall, it should get you to your annual goal.
TOP TIP: 'Stretch' your target by rounding up your monthly targets meaning if successful you'll actually over-perform and wont have it all to do in December.
Next: Break that down...again
A month is typically around 4 weeks, but just like monthly targets, you should NOT be dividing by 4 to get your weekly target.
Eg: Again, if Joe did this his weekly target would be 8
To get a grip on how to divide up your weekly targets look at your previous performance and the performance of your peers.
When did leads convert best? If its week 2, your weekly target should be larger than week 4, where you notice conversion is lower.
Again, your weekly targets for a month should equal what you aimed for, and again, if you want to be even more successful, 'stretch' your targets by rounding them up.
Next: Break that down...yeah, again.
Once you have a weekly target, you need to look at the company conversion over an average week, by day.
Eg: If Joe did this he would be looking at a target of getting 1.5 people a day through to case creation.
Weekdays are NOT created equal and your contact rate will be different on each day.
You want to maximise your effectiveness so look to plan your working week around when you'll be most successful.
If taking leads on Tuesday and Wednesday nets you the most success, your daily targets for those days should be higher than the other days in the week.
Want to go further?
Even just looking at the AM/PM split of each day can help you further refine your plan of action.
Lastly...break that down again!
No, seriously.
Take your weekly target, expressed as a £ value, and divide it by the number of hours you're going to dedicate to work that week.
This gives you an hourly £ figure - your 'pounds per hour'.
You ARE NOT going to try and work to this! But what you should do is bear this number in mind when you're wasting time.
If you aren't taking leads, making calls and sourcing deals to push you towards the goal, every hour you 'lose' that amount of money you've calculated.
When you feel demotivated, think about your 'pounds per hour' to help you get back to work revitalised.
Let's Recap
To summarise...if you want to be A THIRD more successful, take action:
Set an ambitious annual target for yourself. A monetary value backed by your current average case size.
Work out the actual work you'll need to do in order to achieve this. Look at your conversion rate and from this, calculate the number of cases required.
Break it down monthly and weekly. This will tell you what you need to be doing so that you can plan your activity.
Actually take the time to plan your activity in. Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things. Take action and plan activity in order to be more motivated.
Break down your 'pounds per hour'. This serves to motivate you as you work (or don't).
One last thing...
You need to regularly 'audit' your progress against this target.
At the end of each month, have you achieved your goal?
If yes:
great, how?
DO MORE OF THIS (if possible)
Utilise Kaizen methodology and ensure you're replicating successful activity consistently.
Make success a habit by actually looking at what you did well, recognising why it worked and committing to repeating it.
If no:
great, why?
DO LESS OF THIS
(if possible, if not SEEK SUPPORT)
Your targets should 'flex' to take into account and 'absorb' a poor week or month.
If you do poorly in a week, doing nothing will affect the month, quarter and year.
If you do poorly, adapt by recalculating you targets and push yourself for the rest of the month or even quarter, yes, its more work for you, but you're likely to succeed if you do this.
If you don't know why it's not working, seek support! A fresh pair of eyes may led a new perspective...be brave and do this before you fall to far behind on your targets.
The trick to all of this is ACTUALLY DOING IT. An hour planning this out could make you 30% more likely to achieve this, so for so little of your time it would be foolish not to.
Want to know more on how to progress and refine your goals?
Click HERE for e-learning module on SWOT analysis (a useful tool for establishing development areas) and SMART, a goal setting framework.
Worried about setbacks and how to recover from missed targets? Click HERE
Think SMART goal setting is a little old school? Click HERE