Most sales targets fail for one of two reasons. Either they were set so high that the team gave up in the first week, or they were set once and never looked at again until month-end. Both produce the same result: the target changes nothing.
Build the target from the bottom up
A target picked because it sounds ambitious will not survive contact with reality. A target built from actual numbers usually will.
Work backwards. If your average deal is worth Rs 40,000 and one in four proposals converts, then a Rs 4,00,000 monthly target needs ten closed deals, which needs forty proposals, which needs enough leads to produce forty serious conversations. Now the target is not a wish. It is a workload, and you can see immediately whether it is achievable with the team and the pipeline you actually have.
Make progress visible during the month
A target reviewed only on the last day of the month is a scorecard, not a management tool. By then nothing can be done about it.
What changes behaviour is visibility while there is still time to act. If a salesperson can see on the 12th that they are at 30% with 60% of the month gone, they can adjust. If they find out on the 31st, all you have created is an uncomfortable conversation.
Track the inputs, not just the outcome
Revenue is a lagging number, it tells you what already happened. The leading numbers are the ones your team can actually control: calls made, meetings held, proposals sent, follow-ups completed on time.
When someone misses a target, the input numbers tell you why. Low proposals means a prospecting problem. Plenty of proposals but few closures means a pricing or pitch problem. Without those numbers, all you know is that the target was missed, which is not enough to fix anything.
Individual targets, not just a company target
A single company-wide target lets strong and weak performance cancel each other out invisibly. Per-person targets, with each person able to see their own progress, turn an abstract company goal into something individual and specific.
Revisit quarterly
A target set in April and left untouched through March ignores seasonality, market changes, and the team you actually have now. Reviewing every quarter keeps targets connected to reality, and keeps the team believing the number means something.
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