What Are SMART Goals and How to Apply Them in Sales

Why Business Goals Matter

Goals are typically part of a business strategy—they set the direction for the business and serve as a benchmark of success. Properly set goals provide everyone in the company with guidance for their work and the activities that lead them toward those goals.

Thanks to clearly defined goals, everyone on the team understands why they perform certain tasks. At the same time, they can always ask themselves whether their work is moving the company closer to the target—if not, they can switch to more meaningful efforts. Goals, in this sense, serve as a path for the team to follow. Without them, they would simply wander around aimlessly.

The main benefits of having goals are:

• they motivate,
• they support teamwork,
• they allow business success to be measured,
• and they provide clear direction for individual teams and the entire company.

How to Set Goals in Sales

The SMART method can help you define the goals your business should aim for. SMART is an acronym that describes the characteristics your goals should have.

According to this method, SMART goals are:

• S – Specific – defined as precisely as possible so that everyone clearly understands them and knows the direction,
• M – Measurable – set in a way that their fulfillment can be measured and expressed numerically,
• A – Achievable – appropriate for the market situation, employee count, or your finances; this makes the goals acceptable and embraced by everyone involved, encouraging collective effort to meet them,
• R – Realistic – not too high, not too low; goals that won’t be achieved instantly but will keep you motivated,
• T – Time-bound – establish a deadline for meeting the goals to be able to evaluate whether they’ve been achieved.
  
  

The advantages of SMART goals include:

• the team knows exactly what needs to be done to achieve the goals,
• they break the path to success into smaller steps,
• they minimize unnecessary work with unclear value,
• their achievability provides better motivation.
  
  

Goals should be derived from your business strategy. If you don’t have one, read up on how to create it.

SMART Goals – Examples

When setting goals, always make sure they meet all five of the criteria mentioned above. Aim to define and describe them as precisely as possible so you know by when they must be achieved and how you will evaluate whether they have been met.

You can have several sales goals—typically, one main goal is recommended, along with several sub-goals. The primary goal is usually long-term and more complex, while the sub-goals are smaller, short-term, and achievable within a year. However, all goals should always meet the five SMART criteria.

SMART Goals in Practice

Here are some examples of well-defined SMART goals to inspire you.

1. Increasing Attendance at Regular Conferences

S (Specific): We want to increase attendance at our regular events by 25% this year, and we’ll achieve this by sending a series of personalized emails before each event.

M (Measurable): We aim to increase attendance by 25%.

A (Achievable): We have staff to write the personalized emails and the tools to send them.

R (Realistic): Attendance increased by 25% last year, so we know achieving the same result this year is realistic.

T (Time-bound): The conferences take place in March, June, and November, so we’ll average and evaluate the attendance afterward.

2. Reducing Customer Churn

S (Specific): We will reduce churn among current customers by 7.5% compared to last year.

M (Measurable): We aim to reduce churn by 7.5%.

A (Achievable): We can identify at-risk customers and have a support team ready to call them, collect feedback, and offer solutions.

R (Realistic): Over the past year, we’ve improved our product, added features not offered by competitors, and enhanced customer support, so we believe customers will stay longer.

T (Time-bound): Measurement starts at the beginning of January and we will evaluate the results at the end of June.

By the way, we’ve written a detailed article on how to analyze lost deals and lost customers.

Making Goals Even SMARTER

Now it’s time to start working towards your goals and evaluating them as you go. The SMART method can actually be extended with two additional letters:

Goals should also be:

• E – Evaluated,

• R – Rewarded.
  
  

Regularly evaluate your goals and check whether you’ve achieved them. If you have, it’s time to reward yourself—which also helps motivate you to achieve the next set of goals.

How to Communicate SMART Goals Across the Team

To ensure SMART goals don’t get buried in a document, they need to be communicated to the right people—not just managers and team leaders, but every team member. The following steps will help you:

1.Present the goals.

Choose the channels through which you’ll share the SMART goals—host a meeting with a presentation or send an email. The key is that everyone in the team knows the goals and confirms this.

2. Track progress.

Create a shared space to continuously monitor the goals. This could be a spreadsheet, a project management tool, or a CRM. Use regular meetings to summarize the current progress.

3. Gather feedback.

Gradually find out how people are doing with achieving the goals. If you notice someone is struggling with a goal, it might have been set incorrectly or an obstacle may have been overlooked. In such cases, adjust the goals as needed.

4. Evaluate.

Whether the goal was achieved or not, pause and analyze the results. Discuss with the team how the goal was fulfilled, what insights they’ve gained, and what the company should take away for the future.

Monitor your progress in meeting SMART sales goals using your CRM. Among other things, it helps you stay on top of your leads and see which stage of the sales process they’re in. Try our CRM free for 30 days to find out how much easier it makes your work and whether it’s worth it.