#1 Reason why salespeople don’t achieve their goals: Their Boss!
According to Forbes Inc., the number of salespeople achieving their sales goals is only 57%. How many of your sellers achieved their goals this past year? Is your team above or below the 57% norm?
Here is what you, as their boss, can do:
Stop being their boss and become their coach!
When a sales professional is provided a goal or given an increased percentage to achieve their next year’s goal it doesn’t work. Why? Because it is the boss’ goal and not their goal – they don’t own it and therefore it’s not meaningful to them.
Ask each of your sales team members individually, what goal they want to achieve. Reality check, it will typically be higher than the goal you set for them!
When a sales professional is provided a goal it doesn’t work. Why? Because it is the boss’ goal and not their goal – they don’t own it and therefore it’s not meaningful to them. #SalesGoals #Business #Leadership Share on X
#2 Reason why salespeople don’t achieve their goals: They’re just 1-year goals
When a salesperson receives their annual sales goal, it can feel like another chore to complete or it’s like a new year’s resolution that fizzles out a few weeks or months into the year.
Ask each of your sales team members, what is your 3-year goal?
Goals that are part of a process and don’t have long-term meaning to the sales professional’s future success don’t work. If you want your sales team to be invested in their goals, then you must ask them about their long-term 3-year goals and how it’s aligned with their future vision.
Each person needs to be excited about their own future goals and career path, in addition to the company vision. This year’s goal can be connected to and aligned with future goals that are a part of something bigger for them and the company.Sellers can be optimistic about achieving their goals, yet when the going gets tough – they can be full of excuses as to why they can’t achieve their goals. #Sellers #SalesGoals #Business Share on X
#3 Reason why salespeople don’t achieve their goals: Excuses
Sellers can be optimistic about achieving their goals, yet when the going gets tough – they can be full of excuses as to why they can’t achieve their goals – the economy, the competitor has a better price, or customers are not returning calls.
Salespeople must have a strategy and action plan in place to achieve their goals each quarter and every week. They should be held accountable to report their activities each week and how those activities align with achieving their goals. Goals take extra effort to achieve and doing the same thing each week will not help your salespeople achieve their greater purpose and goals. They will give up quickly if they are not meeting weekly targets.
The best advice for sales leaders is to NOT tell your people their goals, but instead ASK them for their 3-year and 1-year goals. We’ve created a goals table that serves as a great tool to help you and your team formulate their goals to ensure better success in achieving them.
The best advice for sales leaders is to NOT tell your people their goals, but instead ASK them for their 3-year and 1-year goals. #SalesLeaders #SalesGoals #Leadership Share on XSchedule a coaching conversation with each of your salespeople to review their 2020 goals.
Here’s a list of great coaching questions you can send to your team in advance to improve your coaching conversation, accountability, and your coaching abilities to help your team achieve their goals.
- What are you most proud of achieving in 2019?
- What will you be most proud of achieving in 2020?
- What is one personal goal you want to achieve this year?
- What are your goals for 3-years?
- How will you celebrate your successes?
- What can I (as your manager/coach) do to help you achieve your goals?
- On a scale of 1-10, how committed are you to achieving your goals?
- How will you break these goals into monthly/quarterly goals?
- What are your top 3 strategies to achieve these goals?
- What activities do you need to do each week in order to achieve these goals?
- What obstacles do you foresee that will get in the way of you achieving these goals? How can you overcome these obstacles?
Download Teneo’s 3-year Goals Table to help you create concrete future goals.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.