“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into visible”. The great quote by Tony Robbins is definitely true for sales, too. For sales teams, setting and monitoring goals and performance is key to success. We put together our best tips for next year and a practical example of a personal dashboard view for a sales rep called Anna.
(If you would like to jump to the example of a personal dashboard right away, watch the intro video below.)
Increase the share of sales reps that reach goals
How many people in your sales team achieved goals this year? 20%, 40%, 60%?
If you google data on b2b sales and to what extent sales reps typically reach their goals, you can quickly find a Salesforce study suggesting that roughly 57% of sales reps expected to miss their quota in 2019. According to another study, the quota attainment - meaning the share of sales reps reaching their quota - in SaaS companies is typically around 65%.
This year has been an unprecedented year in some industries and teams have struggled immensely or even seen their entire business “melt away”. For others, the pandemic has brought about great opportunities and business has grown like never before.
Many of our customers struggle with the fact that sales activities and pipeline are in one system and goals are in another. In addition, CRM systems typically support goals for sales results (€) but not necessarily goals for other crucial metrics. CRM systems work well for recording and monitoring sales processes and interactions with clients but many fall short in supporting easy and effective goal-setting and monitoring of performance against those goals throughout the sales cycle.
Our top 5 tips for 2023
Based on our continuous work with our clients, we came up with our top 5 tips on how to set goals for sales in 2023. We also provide a practical example of what a personal dashboard for a sales rep could look like.
To ensure that a bigger share of your sales team can reach or exceed their goals, make sure you:
Set goals for sales results and key indicators leading to success
Structure goals on different levels: personal, business area, company
Visualize goals and results - example of a sales rep dashboard
React fast based on performance
Create a single source of “company truth”
All sales teams typically have “stars” that consistently perform well but with a consistent, well-structured goal setting and visual monitoring of performance, you can boost the overall performance level of the entire team and increase the share of sales reps that reach their goals.
Let’s have a closer look at each one.
1 Set goals for sales results and key indicators leading to success
In our experience, best sales teams set goals for not only end results - meaning the value (€) and volume (#) of cases won - but also for earlier parts of the sales funnel.
What are the critical steps along the sales process that need to happen before the deal is closed? What do the best sales people do during the sales process that help to explain their success?
Here are some typical examples that our clients typically measure and set goals for:
Number of new sales opportunities opened
Size of the offer base (€)
Hit rate %
Personal sales forecast (€)
If you are tracking sales activities, you may also include activity goals such as:
Number of meetings held or demo’s booked
Number of offers sent
For sales results, the most obvious ones are:
Value of won deals (€)
Number of won deals (#)
Depending on your business, you may have many other crucial metrics too, but these seem to be common across our client base.
Talk to our experts
2 Structure goals on different levels: personal, business area, company
Goals need to be well-structured across the sales organization to ensure the overall company objectives are met. We typically see our clients define goals across the organization by:
customer type e.g. new customers, existing customers
sales channel e.g. direct sales, channel sales
business unit or service area
location - region or country
One thing worth highlighting is that company goals are typically the sum of business area goals but never the sum of personal sales rep goals.
Hence, remember to take into consideration any new hires, possible leavers, unplanned leaves and high and low performers when comparing the total company goal to the sum of individual goals.
On a company level, the typical goals include:
The overall value of won cases (€)
Overall volume: number of won cases (#)
Overall hit rate %
Average deal size (€)
Ideally, the sales goals and actual performance are easy to monitor across the organization so that the top management can draw conclusions on which business areas to invest in and which corrective actions need to be taken.
3 Visualize goals and results: example of a sales rep dashboard
We created an example of a personal dashboard that illustrates how you may set up visual dashboards for each sales rep.
Let’s call her Anna. 👋👋
A live, personal dashboard is a great way to keep Anna focused on the most important metrics, illustrate where she is succeeding, and help her easily see where she needs to improve.
(Click on the image below to enlarge the image.)
Anna’s personal dashboard includes Anna’s key goals and shows her real-time performance regarding each one. The top-row includes the main goals regarding the value of new opportunities, value of offer base, Anna’s win rate % and her monthly sales - both achieved and her forecast for the month.
A red tile indicates that Anna is below her goal for the month.
The dashboard shows Anna’s personal goals and metrics throughout the sales funnel. The red and green tiles on the dashboard indicate progress in real-time. When Anna is at or above her goals, the tiles turn green and when she’s below her goal, the tiles are red. Clicking the numbers reveals more detailed data on each individual deal and long-term trendlines for each metric. To test the interactive dashboard, head over to our live product-demo.
This makes it easy to see at a glance where she’s doing well and where Anna needs to improve.
Anna’s sales results for the ongoing month may be excellent but if Anna has not opened enough cases, she can expect to have a tough time meeting her goals in the following months.
Furthermore, if she does not have enough meetings booked for the upcoming weeks, she cannot expect to have enough cases to close in the future either.
On-track goals break down a monthly goal to daily goals and monitor whether Anna is progressing at the right pace to reach her monthly goal. A green tile indicates that she’s progressing at the right speed and should be able to meet her goal for the month.
Dear Lucy also has an “on-track goals” functionality that breaks down Anna’s monthly goal into daily goals. This helps Anna to see, whether she is progressing at the right speed.
For instance, if it is already the 10th of the current month, Anna should have already closed roughly 30% of her monthly goal.
Many of our clients have shared stories on how their sales team like seeing their performance visually - being able to see own numbers turn from red to green is a rewarding and a concrete way to see success!
A visual representation of sales team performance helps create consistently higher sales performance across the team. Sharing personal dashboards openly within the team help people understand what are the common aspects that explain great sales numbers:
What is common between the high performing sales reps?
Do the sales reps that sell the most also have the highest number of meetings?
Do they open more cases than others?
Is their average deal size higher than average?
What explains their success and how can others model that?
See our live demo
4 React fast based on performance
When goals are clearly defined and progress visualized, monitoring the performance of the sales team is consistent. When you can see the performance across the organization, you can quickly draw important business decisions.
For example, you can
Invest more sales resources to business areas or teams that seem to be doing well
Recognise underperformance quickly and act accordingly
Boost marketing in the right places - double down investments on business areas that flourish or on lead sources that seem to generate the most sales
Define the required steps and timeframe for new sales people to build their offer base and start closing deals
5 Create a single source of “company truth”
In order to keep goals top-of-mind throughout the year, the best teams have an easy way to access and view goals and real-time performance in one place.
Ideally, sales goals and performance can be seen at a glance and the data is easily accessible and understandable.
In the most advanced teams, the most crucial sales numbers (goals, actuals, and forecasts) are available in a similar manner for
Weekly sales team meetings
Sales directors and the CEO on their smartphones
Executive team’s monthly meetings
Sales reports to the board of directors and/or investors
With a well structured solution, there should only be “one company truth” so that everyone from the sales team to the CEO to the board of directors can clearly see and understand where the company is headed.
Interested in Effective Sales Goal Setting?
If you are looking to make sure your team can reach goals or generate more predictable revenues, see our live demo for practical examples of sales goals and reporting views or contact us to learn more.