How can you define your sales objectives and stimulate your sales force?

The definition of clear and realistic sales objectives is essential to your company's sales strategy. In fact, it is one of the essential conditions for a company's commercial success.

Setting sales targets is a very important issue: they describe precisely what your company wants to achieve over a given period. But for these objectives to be relevant, they need to be achievable, ambitious and motivating.

How do you set good sales targets? Why is it necessary to set good targets? And what constitutes a "relevant objective"? How can you monitor the results of your objectives while motivating your sales teams?

Find out in this article.

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What is a good sales objective?

A sales objective, also known as a sales target, is a clear and precise description of what your company wants to achieve over a given period, usually a year or more. These objectives are therefore essential to your company's commercial and overall strategy.

👉 Business objectives are numerous and can concern several areas within an organisation, for example:

• financial: achieving a well-defined sales figure, or showing growth of at least 10% in one year, etc.
• marketing: increasing the number of customers, improving the conversion rate by 25%, etc.
• human resources: improve employer brand, increase headcount by 30%, etc.
• communications: increase the communications budget by 10% to improve brand awareness, etc.

What are the commercial objectives?

Qualitative versus quantitative objectives

It is common to instinctively think that sales objectives are necessarily quantified, and therefore quantitative. These include

• market share
• sales figures
• number of contacts and/or contracts,
• conversion rate, etc.

But this is not always the case. Qualitative objectives, although more difficult to measure, are nonetheless very important. They may include

• improving brand image,
• customer satisfaction
• team spirit
• brand awareness, etc.

Short/medium/long-term objectives

To achieve their sales targets effectively and on time, your sales reps need to know their deadlines.

• Long-term objectives: these correspond to your company's sales strategy, have a major impact on your business and, most of the time, require significant resources.
• Short/medium-term objectives : these enable you to monitor progress towards your more important objectives and to be more effective at operational level.

👉 Tip: Break down your long-term objectives by year and break them down into smaller objectives, to be achieved on a more regular basis, by month or by week.

📣 Be careful, however, to take into account peak periods in your business. Adjust the timing of your targets to take account of fluctuations (for example, if you know that we don't make many sales during the summer).

Team objectives / individual objectives

Some objectives are assigned collectively or by team. For example, in the case of improving brand image, increasing market share, etc., each team member will have the same goals to achieve. Everyone will therefore have the same goals to achieve.

But often, in order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to define others that are more precise and more adapted to each individual. These individual or personal objectives make it possible to determine the goal to be achieved based on each person's tasks, their business profile and their productivity.

💡 It is important to define individual objectives because not all employees have the same criteria.

👉 Example: A salesperson with several years' seniority and a very spontaneous profile may make more sales over the month or year than a salesperson who has just arrived with a small customer portfolio.

It is therefore necessary to create collective sales objectives to boost team spirit and general motivation. At the same time, you need to customise individual operational objectives to suit different profiles and set sales targets that are achievable and attainable for each individual.

👉 Tip: To do this, you can create sales challenges with a collective response at the end, such as a sales bonus, a dinner at the company's expense, etc.

Method objectives/results objectives

When defining your sales objectives, you need to ask yourself whether you're looking to get your teams to work on a particular working method or whether it's only the result that matters to you.

👉 Do you want to implement a very specific sales action plan? Or let your sales force work as they wish, as long as the results are achieved?

• Methodological objectives: by relying on a very precise method, you don't necessarily guarantee that you'll achieve results, but in the long term, it's beneficial to the company. This may involve, for example, compliance with the sales process or the use of a specific sales technique.
• Result objectives : these are objectives that are often quantified, such as a sales figure to be achieved, a conversion rate, a number of contracts signed, etc.

Why set sales targets?

To make informed choices and simplify decision-making

Making choices, whether strategic or operational, is a lot easier when you have a clear idea of your objective. So you can make your decisions on solid foundations.

👉 Example: If you know that your annual objective is to improve awareness of your brand among the 18-25 age group by 20%, you could launch a campaign on social networks to have a greater impact.

To motivate your resources

Motivation is much more important if your team knows what it has to achieve. What's more, the fact that the whole department, or the whole sales force, is working towards a common, collective objective creates real teamwork and group cohesion.

To define relevant control and monitoring criteria

Defining clear and precise objectives gives you a solid basis on which to compare your choices and results. This optimises the monitoring of your activity.

How to set sales objectives?

The SMART method

In order to set relevant and achievable sales objectives, there is an effective and popular method in the sales field: the SMART method. It is made up of 5 elements that list the characteristics of a good business objective:

• S is for Specific : the objective must be clear and dedicated to a precise goal.
• M is for Measurable : a 20% increase in sales does not require the same effort as a 4% increase.
• A as in Accessible: this point makes it easier for teams to accept and adhere to the objective.
• R as in Realistic: go gradually, setting your objectives in stages to keep the group motivated.
• T as in Time : the objective must have a deadline and a precise timeframe. Set your sales objectives on a monthly or quarterly basis to better monitor their progress over the year.

SMARTIES method

If you want to take the SMART method even further, you can add the following 3 points:

• I as in Individual : as mentioned above, in some cases it is necessary to define individual objectives to generate greater involvement and ensure that they are achieved by adapting the objectives to different sales profiles.
• E as in Evolutive : it is important that your objective is flexible so that it can evolve as the project progresses. Don't hesitate to use commercial KPIs to monitor your objectives.
• S is for Simple: if your objective is simple, you'll be better able to motivate your troops and ensure that you get the results you want.

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5 tips for keeping track of your sales targets

1 - Implement rapid feedback

It's essential to set up regular, almost instantaneous feedback so that you're always informed of developments in your sales targets. Maintain a constant link with the manager or sales rep in question so that you can improve the actions taken if necessary.

2 - Prioritise transparency

Every sales rep should be able to track their progress in real time and see how they are doing in relation to their target, but also in relation to the rest of the team. Especially if the objective is primarily a collective one. Don't hesitate to set up a reporting or dashboard system to monitor your progress more clearly.

3 - Equip yourself with a specialised tool

There is software that can automate a large number of time-consuming sales tasks (updating KPIs, monitoring progress, sales reminders, etc.), and track the impact of your sales actions and progress towards your sales targets in real time.

This software comes in several forms:

• Sales management software,
• Commercial CRM,
• dashboard and KPI software, etc.

So that you don't get lost in the shuffle, we've selected 3 effective software packages that have already proved their worth:

🛠 Kestio is a 100% digital, customisable sales support platform specially designed to boost the sales force of VSEs and SMEs. Highly intuitive and easy to use, it not only gives you access to real-time monitoring of your sales targets , but also gives you the benefit of tailored support from certified sales experts.

🛠 monday.com CRM offers effective tracking and reporting features to monitor the progress of your objectives in real time. Thanks to clear, entertaining and customisable figures and dashboards, you can make decisions based on solid indicators that are constantly updated in line with your activity.

🛠 The Sellsy CRMsuite helps you manage your entire sales cycle. In particular, it allows you to generate a range of customisable reports and dashboards, updated in real time, to monitor your performance and identify opportunities. Visual and easy to use, Sellsy is perfect for teams focused on efficiency.

4 - Maintain a spirit of challenge

To keep your teams motivated, you can set up a reward system in the form of badges, bonuses or verbal recognition. This will encourage consistency, productivity and sales performance among your sales force.

5 - Optimising relations between salespeople

To help you achieve your sales objectives, it's essential to have good relations with your sales staff. Listen to their needs, their difficulties and their successes. Support them where necessary, and show that you are there without being too intrusive.