We all have goals, and so often we fall short. This can be personal goals, like new year’s resolutions or diets, which seem a bitter memory. We aren’t talking about that (so no we can’t help you eat healthier) we are talking about your sales goals. These goals can often seem difficult to achieve if not impossible, so your sales target achievement can be a source of negativity. Want to know how to meet sales goals? Read on, as we will talk about how to achieve sales targets. We provide 6 tips you can follow and to ensure you get what you want, each a vital step to follow to achieve sales targets.

Measure your sales activities

Having something measurable is an essential part of success for any goal. You can find a wealth of articles on this topic, and for good reason. Lacking a measurable outcome to monitor you (or your team) is a big reason for not achieving sales goals.

If you cannot keep track of your sales activities and see if you are succeeding or failing, you will struggle to reach the goals you want. When you are not hitting your goals, you will see and consider new ways to improve your work. If you are succeeding, this can build a train of momentum to help you meet sales goals.

How to set sales targets, though?

Knowing how to set sales goals is a solid foundation of achieving your goals. Here are some tips:

First, consider your company goals. What are the goals for the current quarter or year? What are your KPIs? This will help you consider the goals.
Are you setting goals for a team? Think of goals which will motivate and incentivize, and that are truly achievable.
Break them down into smaller steps, this will make it easier and feel more achievable.
In addition to income based goals, consider action based goals. Numbers of calls, numbers of conversions etc. All of these play into your success.
Whatever you decide, keeping track and measuring success is vital and goes a long way.
When you have a goal or goals in mind, and a measurable outcome, consider how to achieve sales goals, with the remaining steps.

Monitor your pipeline

Check your pipeline every day. If it is low, it should motivate you to get some new prospects in the pipeline. If it’s high, consider your work balance. If it is manageable, then perhaps you have a good achievable goal, and you’re on track, which should encourage you, and hopefully you will be on track to achieving sales goals.

However, perhaps if you’re not closing the sale with a busy pipeline, it could indicate that your issue is elsewhere, or you have too many prospects at once you are struggling to juggle, meaning you need to consider some changes to your sales approach.

Knowing your pipeline isn’t going to necessarily help you get that sale closed, but it is a key way to achieve your sales goals, as without it, you won’t know what is coming, may overlook prospects, and can’t track your success.

Improve your close rate

You may have many prospects, and you may lead prospects through the sales process with ease, but if you’re struggling to close the deal, then you will struggle to achieve sales goals. You may have lots of closures, but along with lots of non closures. Rather than necessarily focusing on getting more prospects, get more closures.

Consider learning some useful closing tips and strategies to get that rate higher and better meet sales goals. Also, the next tip may well help you.

Shorten the sales process length

When you have a length sales process, with a multitude of calls or meetings, you have two problems which may lead to a lower closing rate. This will negatively affect your sales target achievement rate. Having a streamlined process will help you achieve sales targets much easier.

First, your potential client may get bored or simply get distracted by the time you get around to closing. Or they took someone else who acted quicker.

Second, you are wasting your time! Time that could be better spent achieving your sales goals. You will also be juggling such a range of clients that you will struggle to give them quality sales pitches and communication. While it’s essential in modern sales to not try to rush things into one call, you can consider shortening the sales process.

A good way to shorten your pipeline is to better identify prospects at the start, and use some discovery questions earlier on to eliminate any prospective time wasters. Get prospects who are definitely interested, suited, and capable of making the purchase. This means everyone in the pipeline is a potential buyer, speeding up the process with fewer calls going back and forth, and giving you more time to grow.

Increase your average sale amount

You need to consider how to add that bit of extra revenue to achieve sales targets. How do you do that?

Upsell or cross-sell. Add additional services, upgrades or anything else that you can offer to your clients, and you may be surprised what they are eager to buy. So long as you can do this in a good way and at a natural stage in the cycle, for example after the sale has been concluded, because people already trust you and are willing to get extra from you, especially if it’s good value.

Network to bring leads

Your network is a way to get a range of leads. Use your connections, for example on LinkedIn, to find people who may know some prospects for you, and then network to find yourself some extra prospects.

Make sure you plan this, have good pitches and goals for finding leads, consider other networking opportunities, and follow up any potential leads after you made your introductions.

Ask for more referrals

Referrals are one of the best ways to get good prospects. Ask a minimum amount of customers for referrals every week, and you’ll be getting solid and likely prospects, and you will achieve your sales goals in no time. It’s a simple technique, a measurable method, and one which will help you a lot!

Don’t accept the first “no”

The first no should not put you off. Persistence is key, and accepting it will no doubt reduce your closing rate and affect your sales goals. Only when you hear a firm “no, thanks”, especially after you provide further information, you should accept it. After a first no, you can leave them with some information for them to review, and you may find they also get back in touch. Hear why your prospect is saying “no” and try to respond with understanding. You may find they change their mind. And if not, you haven’t lost much by trying.

Conclusion

We talked about how to set sales goals, and 8 strategies to achieve sales targets. Remember to set measurable goals and consider the steps we gave, and you will be able to have better sales target achievement. You can also consider tools, such as Notiv, to help you achieve sales targets, by recording, transcribing and creating an automated summary of any meeting you have, allowing you to take notes without losing attention on the client. If you want to make sure your meetings with clients are better, consider how to have better meeting agendas, and this will definitely help you achieve your sales goals.