If you want to grow - set a goal!

  • 2001-09-06
  • Paul E. Adams
"Bicyclists race faster against each other than against a clock," Norman Triplett

Last week I published a request for help from a reader whose business growth has been acting like the stock market flat! Here is one of the many comments in my e-mail box.

Dear Dr. Adams,

Let me offer my "2 cents."

I don't see the need for this business to design its own customer questionnaire. They are readily available and from my perception of the Mind Your Business column, she will have no difficulty in finding one.

I think her challenge is with her organization. She needs to determine who is committed to what is required to grow the business and who is not. It appears to me that collecting more information and hiring more organizational development consultants will not be very productive.

I strongly recommend that she needs to get a commitment from her team members which she hold them to. She must know who is up for the task and who is not!!!!

I must say that I am impressed by the owner and her knowledge. She appears very capable of leading her organization, but has to convert concepts into action!!!

M. Torre, former CEO Fortune 500 Company

Thanks Mr. Torre. Sales growth comes from setting goals - realistic goals. So try this.

What happens when you establish a goal and believe in it? You work toward it.

What happens when you achieve it? You feel good about yourself. It will fill you with a satisfying feeling of confidence and self-worth.

On the other hand, if you do not have any goals, you may get lazy, and not care.

Realistic goals can be effective motivators, especially when there is competition. Goals can be like competitive sporting events. You believe it is possible and go for it!

A sales quota is a goal; it is a target you expect your sales staff to meet. It must be a target they expect to meet as well.

Each must understand the importance of their target and how it fits in as part of your total business plan. To succeed you must have a set of attainable objectives.

When you wrote your business plan, hopefully you established specific sales and profit targets. To meet these objectives, you do it the way you build a brick wall, one brick at a time. You reach your income goals one sale at a time.

The sales quotas you assign to sales staff are the building blocks of your business plan.

The development of a quota system in your business can be simple - guessing what each sales territory can produce, or complex, such as constructing a detailed projection by customer and even by type of product.

Whichever method you use (most well written texts on sale management contain descriptive detail on constructing quotas) follow these simple rules:

1. Don't make the time period longer than a month, or it will create procrastination and lose its effectiveness.

2. A quota to be effective must be achievable. Otherwise, don't use them. Quotas that are impossible to obtain are ignored. Unrealistic quotas will make you look foolish.

3. To stimulate all your sales staff, report everyone's progress during the month (time period) in percentages for all to see. It is a strong motivator, no one wants to appear at the bottom of the list.

4. Don't penalize success by pushing the top performer's quota out of reach. They may retaliate by selling less.

5. Don't use a quota system as a weapon to punish poor performance. It will not solve the problem.

There is nothing better for stimulating success than a goal - try it!