Setting Sales Targets and Objectives

Too often people scoff at the idea of sales targets. They claim that it makes no difference whether they have a target or not. This is no way to run a business.

Every business owner, irrespective of the business you have, needs targets. You probably need targets in different areas of this business like Sales, Wage Costs, Operating Costs, Energy Usage, Wastage etc.

They do not take long to set in place and they can be invaluable in the following areas:

• They enable focused conversations to be held with the team
• The facilitate discussion on improvement and change
• The enable standards to be raised because they give you a reason to improve standards
• They enable your business to grow.
• They will put more money in your pocket
• They can put more money in your team member’s pockets

There are numerous ways to set targets as follows:

• Decide what turnover and profit that your business will have in the year, establish any seasonality that you may have in the business and then break down the target into weekly and monthly numbers. This exercise on its own is very worthwhile because it will get you to ask:
  - Do I have the resources that I need to achieve this
  - Do I have the skills required to achieve this
  - What specifically do I need to change in order to achieve this.
• Share the Targets with the team and assign any targets to them specifically
• Design a solid reporting system visible to all in the business – how are you doing on a weekly and monthly basis. This is important and you need someone who will do this work diligently on a weekly basis.
• Have a weekly/monthly reporting system that will enable people to be held accountable, that will enable corrective actions to be take, to learn lessons and take different actions.

If you need help setting targets and improving communication with the team – get in touch