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The issue at the top of every sales manager’s mind is how to set sale quotas that will actually be achievable, yet challenging enough that it will raise the bar year over year. If this is an area your company has struggled with in the past, you are not alone. A recent survey from CSO Insights found that 42.8% of sales reps missed their quota.1 The results from TAS Group and Salesforce report an overwhelming 67% of sales professionals fail to meet individual quotas.2 If you’re responsible for setting the sales quotas in your organization there are a few ways you can establish quotas that help salespeople excel, yet achieve the goals needed for business growth.

Define Realistic Quotas

Quotas should be set by someone who knows the territories, the people driving the numbers as well as management’s objectives for the best results to keep everything tethered to reality.

  • Start by referencing performance trending data from previous years. Holidays, peaks, and seasonal lulls should be reflected in your goals.
  • Be attentive to the current market trends pertaining to your business. As the market is constantly changing, you may not have the same opportunity for growth as you did this time last year. On the other hand, there may be more opportunities should a competitor suddenly show signs of weakness, depart from the market, merge with another company, etc.
  • Consider the capacity and capabilities of each of your sales people. Some of your sales people will need additional training, coaching or mentoring to improve performance to even meet slight increases in quotas.  Others may have the capability to perform well in sales,but may lack the capacity due to the number of accounts that they already handle so demanding higher quotas without additional manpower (e.g. supporting admin staff for data entry) may be challenging.
  • Define the specific impact that geographic territory and/or industries may make upon quotas. Some may be more profitable, easier to obtain, struggling, growing, etc.  These are all factors which should be considered when establishing quotas.
  • Speak with each sales team member individually to better understand concerns that their current quota, what they feel that they can do in the future that feels realistic, what kinds of support would help them achieve higher numbers, etc.
  • Discuss with your team as a whole some ways that the whole team can work together more efficiently to support each other and work together to help everyone achieve higher quotas whether it’s encouragement, healthy competition, creating mentorship environments, etc. If your team feels that their input matter, they will be more involved and more likely to meet their goals.

Implement a Strategy  

Crafting a strategy is a vital part of motivating your team. Break down big goals with smaller ways of measuring success such as a certain number of calls or meetings each salesperson should be making.  Now might be the time to consider implementing new methods such as social selling.

Some strategies might be as simple as getting back to the basics. Train your team on some of the obvious qualities like curating content, asking questions, and following up with potential clients. However, make sure you are stressing honesty above meeting a quota. Boosting sales through an any-means-possible approach will result in the loss of trust and reliability.

PRO-TIP:  One of the best ways to help your sales team’s performance is to have a library of information accessible for them.  This can include a knowledge base of questions that prospects frequently ask, ready-made product specification sheets, copy/paste friendly proposal answers, case studies, and so forth.  If you don’t have such a library in place, consider a round-table meeting between your marketing and sales department.  There may already be content such as this in place that your sales team can and should be using which can make the sales efforts that much more productive and effective.

Keep Top-Performers Engaged 

With a reasonable goal in place, you will most likely find that some members of your team far exceed their quota. Fight against your natural impulse to raise the quota to keep your top performers challenged. This may have the opposite effect and make them feel punished rather than rewarded. However, action should be taken to avoid coasting or boredom.

Rather than piling on more work, remember to reward these valuable members of your team. Travel incentives are an excellent means of rewarding your top performers.
For information on the value of travel incentives, look here.

Part of recognizing your leading salespeople might be entrusting them with more responsibility. Provide them with harder accounts or bigger clients or new projects. Ask if they would be interested in mentoring newer hires or members of the team who are struggling. Similarly, consider giving top-performers the option of teaming up with other members of the team to help them tackle sales and share in the commission.

Monitor Underperformers 

More often than not, you will have a couple salespeople who are constantly falling below the quota. Waiting until the end of the quarter or year to discover underperformers will only make the problem more difficult to fix. Strive to have a system in place where you will be aware who is struggling right away.

This is another place where setting smaller goals will come in handy. By setting the desired number of calls, meetings, or sales that should be completed in a given week or month, it will give fewer places for someone lacking motivation to hide. Whether or not you set concrete goals, you should be tracking your team’s progress in meeting their quota. Consider implementing a software system that will help you monitor this. If you notice that someone is falling behind, you can address the problem before it is too late.

There may be a myriad of reasons why someone is struggling. They may be disengaged, discouraged, or in need of additional training. Take the time to discuss this and brainstorm a solution together. Be careful not to slip into lecture mode. Instead, attempt to guide conversation into a solution that will help your worker take responsibility for their sales quota. In some instances, the worker may not be cut out for the job. It is important to realize this early on before extra revenue is lost.

Conclusion

By using internal and external data combined with the input of your team, you can set quotas that are both attainable and challenging. Make sure to be there along the way to coach your team, paying careful attention to top-performers as well as those who are falling behind. When handled correctly sales quotas can be a great way of incentivizing your team to set their sights higher than ever.

Want to set up a travel incentive program that will help you achieve your goals? Contact Gavel International to learn more about our travel incentive and meeting programs.

Sources:

1 http://maximizebusinessmarketing.com/high-costs-hiring-mediocre-b2b-sales-people#
2 https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/08/sales-managers-performance.html

Jim Bozzelli
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