Setting Sales Goals 

Setting sales goals is not only something you should do with management, but the team that’s responsible for making those goals happen should also be in the know!  Here are 6 steps to setting & hitting your sales goals. 

Set what’s achievable, not what you need. 

It’s easy as a business owner to look at sales goals strictly from a “need basis.” For example, most owners set sales goals by saying, “we need to hit $50K this month” or “we need to sell 3 dresses per week.” Rather than starting with needs, start with trends. You can “need” all you want, but at the end of the day it doesn’t make it achievable. More sales cannot be the solution to poor money management. 

The best thing to do when setting sales goals is to look at the previous year or previous month & aim for single digit growth (ex: 9%). If you did $5,000 in sales in January last year & your January sales goal could be 9% growth. This would mean that your goal for January in the current year is $5,450. 

Double-digit growth for any business is quite aggressive. If you launched a new product line, a new location, or invested in new marketing efforts,  setting double-digit growth sales goals would make sense. If you want to grow by 10% or more, without changing anything in your business, you aren’t setting the business or your team up for success.

Showcase different time tables & revisit often. 

It’s easiest to start by setting your annual sales goal. Let’s say last year you did $500,000 in sales & you believe with the resources you have available, you can grow by 8% in this economy. This means that your goal for this year will be $540,000. 

Take your annual sales goal & break it down into quarter, month, & weekly goals. 

Sales Goal for Year: $540,000

Sales Goal per Quarter: $135,000

Sales Goal per Month: $45,000

Sales Goal per Week: $10,384

** Assuming you are open all 52 weeks of the year. 

Create visuals for you & your team. 

Once you have set your sales goals by year, quarter, month, & week, it’s time to create visuals for you and for your team! Every business owner has their own way of doing things. Some owners prefer to look at spreadsheet, others prefer graphics on the walls they can see every day. 

Our recommendation is to make your sales goals visible on a daily basis to you and your team. Most owners use a whiteboard, chalkboard, or poster in the backroom to show sales goals. We also encourage store owners create some sort of interactive tracker for the team, so they can update progress on the goals. 

Your team could add a tally for every dress sold to the tracker or fill in a box every time another $5,000 is sold. 

Creating that instant gratification for your team is important especially when the goals you are looking at tend to be long term. It helps keep them motivated & in-tune with their goals. 

Create a discipline culture through routine.

Interactive trackers, as well as any other visual aids are a great way to make sales goals a part of a daily routine. The reason you want to make this a part of your daily routine is because the daily routine of tracking sales goals will eventually become a habit for your team. Habits create a discipline culture within your business. Since motivation is historically never there when we need it, it’s important to create the discipline of selling & tracking goals, so that even when your team doesn’t quite feel like it, they have the discipline to execute their job anyway. 

Set both team & individual goals.

It’s important to set both personal goals & team goals. In a team setting, let one goal unite everyone’s actions. However, the best sales people don’t see other people as their biggest competition, they see themselves as their biggest competition. It’s important to set personal goals with each one of your sales consultants as well. You can use the same formula you did to set store goals. Look at what each consultant did last year & help them set achievable individual goals for the upcoming year. 

Provide support for each goal.

Whatever goals you choose to set with your team, you have to provide the tools & support necessary for them to achieve those goals. Without resources to achieve them, not only will they not achieve those targets, but you will build a culture of frustration and resentment. Set a schedule for team training & provide an avenue for individuals on the team to access the training they need to hit their goals as well. 

As always, please reach out to continue the conversation or if you are looking to take your business to the next level!

Contact Us:

www.behindbridal.com & www.goodconsultingcollective.com

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