Your sales team has an end goal in sight quotabut do they know how to get there? It is a long way from prospecting a new account to making a final sale. There are lots of twists, turns and decisions sellers have to make along the way to closing a deal. Some companies drop sellers off at the starting line and say, See you at the finish line!? But smart companies give sellers a map, a compass, a radio to call for assistance, and most importantly, several checkpoints to provide guidance along the way. As you might expect, these companies tend to have greater sales.
Although every company’s checkpoints will be unique, there are at least two critical checkpoints that help sales forces determine the how? along the path to quota, according to research conducted by Vantage Point Performance and the Sales Education Foundation. These checkpoints are called sales objectives,? and they play a critical role in providing intermediary targets for sales forces to achieve on their way to quota. Without them, sales teams are at-risk of wandering off course, perhaps never reaching quota. Let’s examine both sales objective checkpoints to see why they are so critical for guiding sales performance.
Customer Focus
Time spent courting one customer is time not spent courting another, perhaps more desirable, customer. One way to keep your sales team pointed in the direction of the most desirable customers is to establish Customer Focus sales objectives. Customer Focus sales objectives help sales teams capture, retain and grow customers that align with your company’s overall business strategy. These objectives help sellers determine which new customers to target, as well as identify which existing customers might provide additional growth opportunities. Customer Focus sales objectives help a sales team target customers based on a defined size, industry, or geography. While there are multiple Customer Focus sales objectives to choose from, a few examples include:
- Revenue growth from key accounts
Revenue per customer segment
Percentage of revenue from target markets
Revenue by customer type
Segment penetration
Product Focus
It is great to have your sales force targeting the most desirable customers, but equally important is helping them to sell the most strategic products and services to those customers. Business objectives depend upon a sales force selling the right mix and quantity of products. Without these important sales objectives, your sellers will turn into their own individual marketing departments, setting your company’s product strategy for you. There are numerous Product Focus objectives in multiple categories, including product size, product type, product volume and product leverage. Below are a few examples Product Focus sales objectives:
- Revenue by product
- Number of new customers by product line
- Cross-sell rate
- Diversification across products
Your sales team has an end goal in sight quota. Together, Customer Focus and Product Focus sales objectives will help your salespeople navigate the how? and they can stay on the best path to quota.
