Why Most Founders Miss Their Sales Goals

Today’s Skill: Become A Hunter

The best Sales Professionals have a yearly quota, broken down by quarterly (or monthly) targets and a hyper-specific plan on how they plan to achieve it.

Quotas aren’t perfect numbers. They can be flawed in how they are determined. But, having a specific target in mind and a focused plan to achieve it is what makes it become realistic.

What gets measured gets managed, am I right?

Vague goals create vague action.

Today, let’s set a revenue goal for the rest of the year…and have a plan to accompany it.

Going forward, I want this to be how you plan each year.

Here are the steps below to build a foundation for your quota and stay on track.

Step 1. Set Your Quota

Quotas are tough to get exact because it’s a mix of past performance guiding expectations along with a “finger in the air” type educated guess on what you think will happen in the future.

And, if your business is seasonal then a straightline approach may not be ideal.

But, let’s keep it simple for the purposes of getting you started.

Take your total revenue you’ve done this year and divide it by the number of months completed so far.

For Example: $84,000 (total revenue) divided by 7 (Months completed this year) = $12,000 / month.

That means your quarterly quota is $36,000 and annual quota is $144,000.

Don’t worry, you can tweak it if you want. Remember, we are using real numbers of your business to try to make an educated guess to start.

We want something to build a plan against.

Now, let’s create a pipeline to sustain that number.

Step 2. Get Pipeline Coverage

I’d prefer for you to think about your quota in quarters so you can break up the year in even chunks but also give yourself leeway should you have a bad month or two.

Using our example, the quarterly quota was $36,000. (yours will be different)

Do you know the amount of money needed in the pipeline to cover that number?

It’s not $36,000 → It’s actually 3x that amount (or even 4x to be safe!) because you won’t close all of your opportunities and/or it’ll take longer than you think.

We prepare for that by creating a buffer.

That would make our Pipeline coverage for each quarter = $108,000

Doable? Absolutely. But only if you’re intentional.

Step 3. Plan Your Attack

The only way you can confidently hit or exceed your quota is to create a plan of attack.

This is going to be quite unique depending on your business but if you have nothing written down you need to create an action plan immediately.

Start with considering…

1. How much is in your current pipeline?

   → If you can’t easily pull this from your CRM then we may need to have a talk.

2. Are you above or below your 3x number?

3. How are you going to make up that difference, if short?

Start simple.

Maybe narrow your focus on your best industry or the activities that have yielded the most quality leads recently like reaching out to past clients (if you missed this newsletter from a couple weeks ago it may help.)

Get surgical with it.

Break it down to the simple steps.

And then plan these steps out daily or weekly. Preferably by time-blocking on your calendar.

Step 4. How Are Your Progressing

If you’re serious about growth, your CRM should reflect that.

1. Tag every deal with specific data points

• Inbound lead, Outbound lead, Referral, LinkedIn, etc - whatever lets you know the sourcing of that opportunity

• Is it New Business, an Upsell to another department or an Add-on to the existing business

• What market / industry is the business in?

2. Track accurate close dates and create a dashboard / report to look at often.

   → You should be continually auditing the pipeline (Here’s a refresher on how to do a proper pipeline audit)

3. Get clear on next steps and what you need to accurately forecast these opportunities to close.

   → You shouldn’t have a bunch of opps just sitting there idle. Progress them, move them or close-lose them.

This data will give you clarity when you look back on which clients are converting and which aren’t and can help you more accurately create a quota in the future.

What’s the “so what”?

Why does this matter?

The worst thing you can do is try to hit your goal on a whim without tracking.

It’s about being intentional.

I know you want your business to succeed and one of the proven ways to make that happen is to plan accordingly.

“Measure twice, cut once” as the saying goes.

That’s the type of precision you need to take with your sales process.

That’s why it’s vital to have a quota.

Your Action Item

Find your quota. Don’t skip this!

It should be achievable (but it might scare you a bit).

I’d rather you aim slightly higher and miss because it’ll help you build the pipeline for the future.

Remember, you’ll need a quota for next year, too!

And I’m here for you for accountability.

If you reply to this email and send me your quota and sketched out plan I’ll respond with some guidance and things to consider.

You got this!