Dreams aren’t Goals
Everyone thinks that they have goals — most people do. However, often times people mistake goals for dreams, or aspirations. Differentiating between the two is very important. The quickest way to elaborate is through an example of myself. I have been caught telling someone that one of my life goals is to live on a compound, with a house for myself an a separate building for each of my interests. I’ll have a movie theater just down the “road” from my living house, I’ll have the sports field house with wrestling mats covering half, I’ll have my beach building (exciting right?!) . . . you get the idea. THIS IS NOT A GOAL — it’s a dream.
Why?
Because there are no concise, actionable, measurable steps I have set to attain this outcome, nor is there a firm timetable. Although, I am constantly pushing myself to attain wealth at an exponential rate and inevitably I feel I get my compound; calling it a goal is a mistake. It is an aspiration. . . for now.
It is a widely known tool used in various arenas to make SMART goals. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The link above is to an elaboration on that as a goal setting tool. . . in case you’re not form this planet or have never set a goal before in your life.
SMART goals have served many people well and the legitimacy of the premise is pretty difficult to refute, so don’t bother. However; it is obviously a good idea to analyze how you can apply this to your life, and then, of course do it.
In sales, having goals is vital to making a sales job a career. It is what keeps you motivated intrinsically, appreciative of small victories, and overall happy with your work — making it easier to maintain a positive paradigm.
Common Perils of Setting Sales Goals
The biggest detriment that can be associated with setting goals is the goals themselves being ineffective. There are a multitude of ways this can be poorly implemented. In my experience, ineffective goals generally exist because of one or more of the following:
Individual goals set by management
Individual goals based on performance of others
Sales reps setting goals with zero grasp of their own self-efficacy
Setting “dreams” not goals
There are obviously more reasons that goals are poorly made, feel free to leave some in the comments if you feel passionately that I missed something important.
Individual goals set by management
The reason individual goals being bestowed on sales reps by management is generally a mistake is simply that the motivation behind achieving those goals is different. Individuals, in general, don’t passionately care about the company as a whole. Even if they do, the consequence for the individual not achieving the goal is likely different than that of the manger(s) who created it. When adversity inevitably presents itself, it is unlikely that individual will react in a positive manner. Additionally, it is next to impossible to set a goal premise for large group of individuals
For example: 10 sales reps are told that this month their goals are to increase their generated revenue by 5%. For 2 of the reps this will be no problem, because they were “burnt out” last month anyway, for 5 of them last month was their lifetime best and immediately begin thinking of excuses or why it’s “understandable” why they failed. Lastly, 3 of them think that this goal is either too low or too high and won’t regard it as anything other than a chore; rendering the goal itself ineffective.
Now, having been in managerial positions often the example outlined above is tough to swallow, because much of it does have to do with the quality of leadership and that could be a whole book or and article on leadme.substack.com — hmmmm. At the end of the day groups should set group goals incentivize success and let individuals set their own contributions. It is simply going to be more effective.
Individual Goals Based on Performance of Others
Often in sales it is easier than you’d think to fuse your own performance with that of the organization or that of a close work companion (positively or negatively). Meaning that you could have a mediocre month that coincides with your market setting a new company record— everyone gets jazzed up like the Cubs just won the World Series, but two months from now, you won’t be able to recall anything significant from your performance that month. The same type of problem can be seen if a fellow sales rep crushes one month and you are close workmates, because you’re not a heartless cretin, you also get excited so the following month your new “Goal” is doubling your average month’s performance. That’s a solid goal, provided you have discovered some actionable plan or resource to make this possible. Most often, nothing new was found aside from the reignition of your ability to play make believe from when you were six.
Individual goals need to be based on ability of the individual striving to achieve them — this leads to
Self-efficacy in Goal Setting
So we know that setting goals is a good idea, and we know that we should set them ourselves and not let someone else set them for us; yet we’ve all seen a friend or a coworker set a target and, depending on how good your filter is, you either, laugh out loud or internally snicker knowing that they are not going to be anywhere NEAR that when time runs out. This or you look at them and wonder what the point of setting a goal that will be exceeded in half of the time allotted. Why does this happen?
Well, there are a ton of possibilities, but most often it’s because the aforementioned person has a very skewed idea of self-efficacy. The first of those two people, generally speaking, is the excuse maker. Their lack of performance until now has been a impeded by extrinsic forces beyond there control; but this time it’ll be different — it will not be. The second, similarly to failures of the fist example; attributes their successes to extrinsic forces or “luck”.
Both are skewed measurements of ability and will lead to goals that are, for lack of a better term, worthless.
So in summation, accurately knowing your own ability is as important as setting the goal itself.
Keys Setting EFFECTIVE Sales Goals
As mentioned before, maintaining a healthy grasp of the SMART tools to goal setting is always beneficial. However; here are some sales specific things to keep in mind:
Always be hungry
Your goal should push you to be better than you’ve ever been. Keep the target in reach, but setting a goal of complacence will never be beneficial and won’t be exciting.
Be Aware of Your Environment
Are you targeting hitting double your best month ever . . . in the slowest month of the year? This is not to say that you shouldn’t, but if you aren’t aware that you are headed into the historically slowest time of year for your widget; you’re in for a tough run.
Same Actions - Same Results
Some people have heard my spiel about goals and came back with quoting Grant Cardone or one of the other, I’ll call them, prolific sales influencers. Who have said never lower your target. Oddly, enough we at SellMe agree 100%. However; because we are not about setting dreams - if we’re going to be unrealistic with our goals we have to be prepared to be just as outrageous with pro-activity and actionable measures to create the results you hope to achieve.
Failing SHOULD Hurt
If you fall short of a target, it should bother you. You should be mad. You should be sad. If failing doesn’t cut you deeply, you either set an unattainable goal or you simply no longer care about your job.
EVERYTHING in life is a Boolean Option
Get it done or don’t. This sounds harsh, but at the end of the day no one cares why — did you get it done or not? Goals should not be thought of any differently. Being painfully honest with yourself will keep you centered and bring a substantially greater feeling of fulfillment when you hit your goal.
Those are some of the most impactful parts to think about and there will be a follow- up to this piece soon, but keeping these in the forefront of your thoughts while setting goals should definitely result in performance increases.
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