Lesson #2 in 30 Ways to Grow Your Business. Developing Crystal Clear Sales Goals.

Defining Specific Sales Goals Is Essential.

Sales goals must be set.  Results must be measured.

The second lesson in 30 Ways to Grow Your Business In 90 Days or Less is how to develop crystal clear sales goals.

Here are some tough questions to ask of yourself when it comes to sales goals.

What do you want exactly and what are you willing to do to get it?  Who is holding you accountable?  What system are you following?

Successful entrepreneurs know where they are going every day, every week, every month, all year long.  They have a specific plan to follow.  The plan is in writing and they refer to it daily.  They have a dashboard reporting to them all the information they need to perform and achieve.  They have a pipeline and they measure everything they’re doing to ensure they meet their goals.

Successful sales people, business owners, and professionals are willing to be accountable to their team.  They have developed systems to scale and grow.  People systems.  Technology systems.  Sales systems.  Marketing systems.  Planning systems.  All of these are critical elements for success in business.

So what are your numbers?  What is your specific sales target today?  How about this month?  If you don’t have a number this exercise is all about helping you to pick a number before you do anything else today.  If you don’t have a sales number or income number you are targeting for today, this month and this year, stop and pick the numbers right now.  Pick both numbers each day, week, and month for yourself.  Write them down.  Keep the numbers on your daily planner, desktop or one page print out.

Getting crystal clear on your key numbers and developing a dashboard to review them daily is one of the most important disciplines of all.  You need to get super  clear on both your top line number and what you want as a personal income number.  Set and review these numbers as part of your daily planning discipline.

When setting goals for sales it’s important to set goals for your activities.  All good sales people and organizations measure activities such as phone calls, meetings, appointments, and sales.  You also need to set a daily goal for these numbers and track them manually if you have to do so.  Many clients and people I coach still use a written system on their daily planner.  I keep a note book with my primary to do list right in front of me all day every day.  I keep a one page dashboard to review.  I am also a huge believer in technology for CRM.  We use Infusionsoft and we coach our clients who use a wide variety of systems.  This kind of system is an incredible tool.

Some customer relationship management systems (CRM) track activities, emails, notes, and other essential data.  These are more like traditional CRM software solutions.  There are also the big content management systems out there.  I am referring to services like Box.net and Sharepoint.  These are more geared to sharing information, document collaboration, and work flow for teams and disperse organizations.

Let’s address another key point to enhance your chance for success.  Do you have a “major definite purpose.”  Napolean Hill in his classic book, Think and Grow Rich poses this question.  Think about this for a minute.  Do you have a major definite purpose in your life?  It’s typically known as the “big why” in your life.  Yes, sales and income numbers are important.  But in most cases you will find that motivation comes from a much deeper place.

When we take the time to pick goals, specific numbers for sales, business results and personal income and wealth we usually align it with a bigger picture that relates to lifestyle or significance.  Take the time each day to think about your major definite purpose and what’s driving you to perform and achieve every day.  We are all driven by something big.  Maybe it’s your family.  Or a specific global or community cause.  Could also be your business.

As for goal setting, it’s important to address the key differences between activities and results.  When working with our clients we address what we can control and what we can not control.  We can control our activities.  We can not control the outcome of a sale in terms of dollars and income.

Understanding the differences allows us to focus our energy on what matters most.  And what matters most is activities.  The number of times we reach out to call someone on the telephone, meaningful email dialogue, a conversation over coffee, a round of golf or a meal.  As business owners and sales professionals all we can really manage and to some extent control is our activities each day.  We can impact the quality and quantity of these relationships and communications through coaching, reading, networking, practicing and growing.

We talk about activities in the context of our behavior.  How are we behaving each hour of the day?  Is it pay time or no pay time in terms of the activities that require the majority of your time.  How are you investing your time?  Are you talking to customers?  Are you making sales calls?  Or are you doing something that someone else on your team could be doing?  Our behavior is something we can control.  Our activities every day reflect the focus with which we are working towards our goals.

Your attitude and approach to working with others will impact your sales goals.  As you define and work towards your goals you will find that accountability and achievement may be your best reward or outcome.  Your attitude is what counts most towards selling, managing people who work with you, keeping clients happy and every communication you have each day.

Once in a while I meet people who have no desire.  They have absolutely no “big why” or motivating factor to get up and go to work every day.  They just exist and survive.  No focus on thriving.  It doesn’t happen often but when it does it’s a great reminder to be grateful for desire and motivation.

Passion and purpose make each day exciting for me and I hope the same is true for you.  Some say desire is the root of all evil.  But that’s just another perspective.  We need to focus on desire as a way of creating the future we want.  A way to be of service.  To make a difference.  To get what we want.

Polite persistence is fundamental to achieving your sales goals.  Now that you have carefully defined what you want it’s important to remain persistent in your pursuit.  Being in business does not come easily to some.  Selling.  Servicing.  Fulfilling.  Accounting.  And wearing every other hat in the business is exhausting.  As sales professionals we know it’s important to be persistent.  It’s super important to be able to persist through the most challenging of financial times or times when it seems like you’re facing impossible odds.

Persistent people win.  The real pros have a system for following up over and over until it no longer makes sense to have any follow up communication.  Automated email follow up.  Broadcast voice messages.  Video emails.  Blog posts.  Wikis.  And all the other mediums for communicating and interacting and following up.

If you don’t have a software system you are pretty much screwed.  Having one and using one are two different things.  What really counts is having a system that you like and will use.  If you are part of a team you need to think about sharing calendars, key documents, reference files, applications, support and more.  If you have a system and you’re not using it, what are you thinking?  If you don’t have a system and you’re not using one, what are you thinking?

The lack of goals, systems, and success it is NEVER about money.  Heck, Google is free.  Google docs, gmail, and so much more.  It’s about you picking and committing to using a system every day and making sure it’s right for your team.  Desire.  Where does desire come from?  Why are some of us waking up every day completely focused on what needs to be done, by whom and when?  There are tons of free and very affordable technologies to get us focused and organized.  It’s our responsibility to use them.

The bottom line here ladies and gentlemen is pipeline.  We all have a pipeline of people, leads, prospects, centers of influence, friends, family, clients, past customers, service providers, etc.  But the pipeline that matters the most is the one that hits our time every day.  The one that pays the bills.   The phone calls, emails, appointments, meetings, lunches, cocktails, events, etc. through which we interact.  We need to track and manage everything as it’s related to this pipeline.

Setting crystal clear sales goals for you and your team is the second step you can take right now to grow your business.  You should have your plan in place.  If not, we need to talk.  Your plan details your mission, your vision, and your goals.  This needs to be shared with your team.  Your team needs to know your goals and you need to know theirs.  Because together you have common goals.  Communicating about your business, marketing and sales action plan on a monthly basis is normal so you’re all working on the same page.

Again, focus on your activities when setting goals.  How many phone calls should you make today?  10?  How many new business meetings?  How many proposals (do you still do proposals?  We need to talk.)  How many sales today?

Control what you can control.  Not what you can’t.  Focus on your activities.

Here’s another one for me.  Meetings.  I generally don’t like meetings.  And since we work with clients all over the planet Earth we work virtually by phone, Skype, Fuzemeeting, etc.  So if we have to have any kind of meeting I want an agenda.  So should you.

Here’s the one I’ve adopted over the last several years with great success.  It can apply to general meetings, sales meetings, management meetings, etc.  One of the all time great meeting agendas for all your meetings.  I love this because it keeps us focused on our goals and to the point.

• What’s working?
• What’s not working?
• What’s missing?
• What’s next?

These are simple questions and should be easy for everyone on the team to answer quickly.  It’s about working and living in integrity.  Doing what you say you will do.  Being accountable to the team starts with your clarity about your goals.

Here’s one more thing to think about when it comes to setting crystal clear sales goals.  When  you sat down at the end of last year to write yourself a bonus check, what was the amount?  What?  You didn’t sit down to write yourself a big, fat bonus check and date it for December 24th, 2011?  (That’s the date I used to write mine.)  If you didn’t write yourself a bonus check and hold it every day why not take a moment to do it now?

I think Steven Covey wrote about beginning with the end in mind.  In the end, you are setting crystal clear goals and achieving most of them.  You are clear and you have a solid system.  Your team is on board with you.  You are accountable to someone who helps you execute.  You know what you want.

Think about it this way.  Set crystal clear sales goals and you will get to cash your bonus check every year!

What do you have to say about sales goals?  What system do you use?  How do you keep your team in the loop?

Thanks for sharing your comments and thoughts about sales goals.