Successful salespeople rarely credit their organizational skills for their accomplishments but instead consider their art of persuasion to be their strongest asset. Yet those same people readily acknowledge that being organized, motivated, and able to multitask will do wonders to boost their closing rates and overall success. Many sales managers have found the SMART goals concept be one of the most successful techniques for improving the performance of their sales force, particularly when used in tandem with a CRM and lead generators.
The SMART Goals Broken Down
The SMART acronym employs the following components to help salespeople reach their goals:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
An exploration of each SMART element can reveal its true value and ultimate impact through improved results.
Creating a Specific Sales Approach
Your sales team needs to know what is expected of them. By creating specific guidelines and directions, you are laying the groundwork for their success, which in turn feeds the success of the company. Vague and uncertain commands (like “Go sell a lot!” or “Do your best!) are worse than no direction at all. After all, what is a lot or what is a person’s best?
Effective sales managers understand the importance of their role in kickstarting a sales campaign. By plotting out clear expectations, along with a proposed plan of approach, the sales team is given focus and a map to their success. With nothing left in the dark, you have a sale force ready to zero in on the job at hand: making sales.
The Importance of Measurable Results
Even the best-laid plans can go awry, which means that the ability to measure the results of the specific approach given to the sales team in the first stage of the SMART goal setting is of utmost importance. Typically, all that is required in most cases is the modest tweaking of certain goals.
For instance, if the original plan assumed that the sales team will close 20% of their new prospects and the first week comes in with a 15% closure rate, this measurement indicates a need to boost appointments, reexamine their sales approach, or a combination of the two.
Establishing Attainable Goals
Equally vital to the success of your team is the establishment of attainable goals. While every sales manager wants their team to conquer the world, by setting interim goals that are attainable for the average salesperson on the force, top performers are already motivated to smash those interim goals while the rest of the force are encouraged to sharpen their own sales skills without feeling as if an ax is delicately dangling above their head, threatening to drop at the first misstep.
The other value of setting attainable goals is that, as your sales team reaches them their interim goals, they are encouraged and inspired to improve their initial results and to climb in the sales ranks. There is nothing a sales manager loves to see more than a team of salespeople vying for top position and breaking personal records in their effort.
Creating Realistic Objectives
In addition to setting attainable goals, creating realistic objectives are just as critical. By providing top tools to your team, like the Sales NexusCRM, you effectively give each team member their own brilliant and dedicated assistant. Such an automated assistant can perform miracles when it comes to juggling the many prospects that require following up and continue churning out new leads to chase down and add to the pipeline.
With the advantage of such intelligent automation and client management, a sales force can deliver awesome numbers and become superstars in their own right. It’s no wonder that the top salespeople turn to the best CRM programs; they are interested in achieving the best bottom-line results so they can keep setting new records.
Set Timely Goals
Finally, there needs to be a finish line so your team knows where they are going and when they have arrived. By setting timely goals, the sales manager puts the final piece of the sales puzzle onto the table. Now it is up to the team to put it all together and see the larger picture.
Most importantly, with a deadline put on the calendar, the sales force can set a steady but strong pace to meet, and hopefully surpass, their sales goals. Reaching or exceeding goals means the paychecks keep coming and may grow bigger over time.
A smart sales manager will employ the SMART goals strategy to draw the best out of their sales force. An even smarter sales manager brings on the smartest CRM and lead generator, SalesNexus CRM, to skyrocket those results and profits.