When unrealistic sales goals are set by management (think parents), they violate three of the seven criteria. This violation is a recipe for failure not only for the sales person, but the sales manager as well as the entire organization.

Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford said the company plans to increase sales by 50 percent over the next four years. After analyzing the global market place, Ford is putting forth efforts to have 8 million vehicles sold annually by 2015. Based upon past history, analysts believe this goal is realistic and doable.

After reading this aggressive and realistic goal to increase sales, I realized that many small businesses from $100 million plus to $100,000 in sales continue to set unrealistic goals. In some cases, the small business owners know the goal will never be reached, but they continue to push their sales teams or even themselves forward thinking this will motivate them (or me) to achieve more. Unfortunately, just the opposite happens.

The SMART WAY

Years ago, I read in one of Zig Ziglar’s books about an acronym containing five criteria for goal setting. This actual author of this acronym remains unknown from my research.

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Realistic

• Time driven

As I worked with these goal-setting criteria for my own consulting and executive coaching practice, I realized that there was something else missing. So I supplemented the SMART Goal criteria with these three additional ones:

• Written

• Aligned to Purpose, Passion and Plans

• Yours

The addition of these criteria helped me as well as my clients with the major criterion being “Yours.” If you can remember back as a child when parents set academic goals for you, how did that make you feel? Were you truly internally motivated to achieve that “B” or “A” especially the older you grew?

A Recipe For Failure

When unrealistic sales goals are set by management (think parents), they violate three of the seven criteria. This violation is a recipe for failure not only for the sales person, but the sales manager as well as the entire organization.

Sales goals require historical analysis along with current market trends. In many cases, organizations have numerous revenue streams such as:

• New customers

• Repeat customers

• Online sales

• New products

• Existing products

• New services

• Existing services

• Local sales

• Regional sales

• National sales

• Global sales

Each revenue or sales stream requires careful analysis to ensure a realistic sales goal can be set that will require a stretch on part of the sales person or department, but not so much that it is unattainable.

Additionally, sales cycles also need to be considered. Many businesses have peaks and valleys in their sales that are consistent from year to year. To expect a uniform percentage increase each month is probably unrealistic.

What is a better methodology is to adjust sales goals specific to the past history. For example, in the retail sector the majority of sales for many businesses are made from November to December because of the Christmas holidays. During these two months the increase in sales may range from 50% to 70% to even more. To expect that same percentage increase from January to October is foolhardy at best.

Unrealistic sales goals usually suggest a lack of consistent goal setting and achievement not too mention no overall strategic plan. However, when sales managers to small business owners work with their sales teams to set WAY SMART goals, then it is much easier to increase sales and truly have a high performance culture and workforce.

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