Setting Realistic Goals

Setting Realistic Goals

When we make a sale, or take one step closer to meeting our
goal, we are overcome with a felling of achievement which
motivates us to sell more.

I’m sure that anybody who is reading this article has been in
the situation where they may have been given unobtainable goals
from one of their bosses, sales manager’s, or some higher up
somewhere in the company.

When goals are given that are unrealistic, the mission is doomed
from the beginning. It immediately gives a feeling of despair to
the sales team, which can be devastating to morale.

The sales team will do their duty and work as hard as they can
to obtain the goals, but when they fall short, they will have
feelings of failure, and will be reluctant to move on.

Simply stated, unrealistic goals, take the fun out of selling.

A personal story . . .

During my years in the banking industry, I managed a sales team
in a small branch inside of a grocery store. This is what is
known as In-store banking. It was estimated that seven thousand
people came through the grocery store where my branch was
located on a weekly basis.

With that statistic, my sales team was given a goal of opening
up six checking accounts per day, among other things.

This would be a monthly goal of one hundred and eighty checking
accounts per month. To me and my team, this was highly
unrealistic.

Then, In-store banking was brand new to the banking industry,
and these goals were being handed down by people who never once
stepped foot in an in-store branch.

Please understand, I am not bitter about this, I am just stating
the facts, and believe this to be an on going problem with
companies.

This problem works both ways. Sometimes the goals being handed
down are not enough, and a sales team will fall short of what
their potential could be.

Needless to say, my sales team never met their daily, weekly, or
monthly goals. We did however, fight the good fight and manage
to hold our own. But morale was never what it should have been.

Every six months my team and I would attend the semiannual sales
rally, where we would sit and watch as the other branches so
proudly accepted their awards for meeting their goals. It pained
me to watch my team walk away empty handed knowing that they
worked so hard.

My point is, when goals are being set, they need to be realistic
and obtainable. The more you or your team reach their goal the
more motivated they will be.

Once you are reaching your goal at a steady pace, challenge
yourself or your team, and raise the bar. Challenge them to
reach higher on a daily basis

Keep in mind, when you raise the bar, keep this new goal
realistic as well, you don’t want to become over confident and
put your goals out of reach.

One last thing . . .

The goals that are being set, should be put in place by a person
or people who know you, your staff, and your demographics. Not
by somebody in an ivory tower.

If they are not being put into place by the appropriate people,
suggest this idea to someone in your organization that you can
trust.

This article may be reproduced by anyone at any time, as long as
the authors name and reference links are kept in tact and
active.

Jay Conners
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/setting-realistic-goals-2309.html