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Setting goals gives your SDRs something to aim for. It also helps forecast potential pipeline revenue, builds team confidence, and keeps reps on their toes.
Today, we’ll examine some B2B sales goals and provide actionable examples so you can start on the right note.
But first, let’s understand the significance of sales goals.
Sales goals are objectives sales reps can rely on to plan their sales activities and change their workflows to achieve the set goal over a time period.
These goals can be based on your desired business growth, performance, and specific sales KPIs. They can be set monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Why are they important for B2B sales teams?
More reasons why B2B sales teams must set goals:
1. For accountability
Sales reps with set targets know where their performance stands and take better responsibility for achieving them. Goals and targets also inculcate a sense of ownership and let reps actively contribute to the bigger picture.
2. They create learning opportunities
If a goal is challenging, sales reps would improve their focus and tap into their creative problem-solving abilities. The same goes for failed goals, where sales reps are offered the chance to learn from their mistakes and try alternative ways to achieve them.
3. For benchmarking
Goals, especially if realistic, create a sense of direction and benchmarking. Data fetched from goal progress tracking lets companies identify roadblocks and trends so they can make specific adjustments to improve performance.
4. Trigger process development
Once you’ve created your sales goals and lined them up for execution, they give you a roadmap or action plan that helps you forge a path toward achieving your ultimate business objective.
Sales goal types can fall under multiple categories:
A stretch goal is an ambitious, largely unachievable objective that exceeds the standard, realistic limit. For example, a goal that requires sales reps to triple their individual sales quota by the end of the quarter.
Why are they needed: Although setting stretch goals for sales is usually not recommended as it can leave reps unmotivated if not achieved, some believe challenging goals can push sales reps to improve their problem-solving skills.
SMART goals are more realistic and ensure the objectives are attainable within the envisioned period.
SMART stands for:
Specific: Very specific and unambiguous sales goals that explain precisely how you will achieve them, who’s involved, and what the outcome should be.
Measurable: Defining the exact number you aim for, be it revenue, reduced customer churn, or repeat purchases.
Achievable: These goals are the opposite of stretch goals. Here, you set an attainable target.
Realistic: A sales goal must support your sales strategy. For example, don’t set a goal for Instagram customer acquisition if social selling is not your forte.
Time-bound: Every sales goal must have a finish line, and setting a time-period to achieve it helps you get there.
Why are they needed: SMART goals clarify a business’ targets by making each team member’s objective actionable and easy to achieve.
A company’s revenue goal can involve multiple smaller goals for each sales rep. For example, each sales rep is assigned a target to achieve and contribute to hitting the company’s revenue goal.
Why are they needed: Most reports show that sales teams that set and track revenue goals are more likely to exceed their targets.
Lead generation includes multiple facets, such as driving brand awareness, generating revenue, providing better customer service, etc.
For example, a lead generation goal aims to multiply the number of SQLs by initiating targeted email outreach.
Why are they needed: Lead generation goals can bridge the gap between sales and marketing as these goals need cross-team collaboration for quicker results.
A conversion rate goal aims to hit specific funnel-stage conversion targets, such as an increase in high-quality leads or a higher lead-to-customer conversion ratio.
Why are they needed: Since the conversion rate is a vital sales KPI, targeted conversation rate goals can improve sales process efficiency and pinpoint roadblocks.
Here’s your roadmap to setting realistic SMART goals:
Step 1: Define your goals (start with a revenue goal)
Making a revenue goal your number one objective sets a high-standard benchmark for other goals to follow suit. This tip also adds weight to the opinion that every sales goal you set must be revenue-driven. If not, it must be dropped or replaced.
Here are some actions to define along with stating your revenue sales goal:
Outbound sales tasks: Cold calling, email outreach, social selling, etc., that help salespeople engage with top decision-makers at a target company
Generating inbound leads: The marketing team generates qualified leads via content marketing, paid ads, and more
Defining metrics: Set goals on metrics that are critical for your business growth. For example, conversion ratio, leads generated, close/won deals, meetings booked, and cost per lead
Step 2: Create an action plan
An action plan contains clear steps that must be followed to achieve a goal within a time limit.
For example, if your goal is to increase customers acquired by 50% compared to the previous year, your action may look like this:
An outbound sales rep sends 200 cold emails weekly. 200 emails turn into 50 responses and 20 follow-ups
Define KPIs for individuals. For example, book X product demos/week
The sales team must nurture and add Y qualified leads/week to the pipeline
X demos should lead to Z sign-ups
Step 3: Improve sales performance and efficiency
Setting SMART goals involves improving your team’s efficiency and their sales performance by:
Here’s a list of the top SMART sales goals you can use for your business:
You can break your targeted annual revenue into smaller monthly targets to make it more realistic and achievable. Monthly goals can be either team or individual goals.
Example: Increase the month-on-month revenue by 5%
Sales revenue goals reflect the cash flow a business needs to sustain yearly while making sufficient profits. They can be set for a team, region, or product line.
Example: Increase sales revenue by 15% in Alaska by the next quarter.
This goal is for businesses that sell physical products or services. It can dictate your sales team’s targetable quota over time.
Example: Each sales rep must sell at least 100 units per week.
An average sales cycle lasts about 90 days, and most companies aim to shorten their cycles each quarter by setting specific sales cycle goals.
Example: Reduce the cycle time of mid-market leads by 10%.
Customer acquisition is a critical lead generation goal that aims to onboard new customers over a period of time.
Example: Acquire 10k new customers from Florida by the end of this year.
Another essential lead generation sales goal is increasing the number of top-of-the-funnel leads that meet your target ICP.
Example: Increase SQLs by 10% month-on-month
CAC is the total expenses incurred to acquire a new customer. It can include tool costs, marketing costs, and other sales expenses. A lower CAC indicates a profit has been made from a sale.
Example: Cut down CAC by 50% by next quarter.
Although win rates can differ from sales rep to sales rep, they are still perfect for determining which of your strategies is performing well. However, ensure you set an achievable win rate goal instead of stretching it.
Example: Increase individual win rates by at least 5% next month.
The net promoter score (NPS) is an essential sales KPI to boost customer retention. It shows how satisfied customers are with your product/service/operations.
Example: Increase promoters by 5% next month.
Although customer churn is unavoidable, you can aim to keep the numbers below industry standards by finding ways to make valuable customers stay. For example, improving customer service, matching your products to market trends, etc.
Example: Reduce the quarterly churn rate by 10%
Loyal customers reward businesses with referrals, upsells, decreased CAC, and improved lifetime values.
Good customer relationships are key to retention. If this is your top sales goal, ensure your sales reps brush up on their communication skills and are ready to deal with objections and complaints as soon as they are reported.
Example: Improve customer retention numbers by 10% by the end of this year.
CLV predicts the value of the customers’ interactions in the long term. A sales goal for increased CLV can mean increased spending with your company or their active years.
Examples:
ACV indicates the average revenue generated from each customer contract and is useful for businesses with subscription plans.
The annual contract value can be measured by calculating the sum total of a sales rep’s monthly target.
Example: Achieve ACV of $100k per sales rep in 2024.
A shorter sales cycle points to more sales and better revenues. However, cycle length can vary between industries, so it’s best to set a sales cycle goal based on what’s optimal in your industry and competitors.
Example: Cut down the sales cycle length from 6 to 4 weeks.
This can be an individual sales goal assigned to each sales rep based on their abilities. The goal is to fill up the sales pipeline with qualified leads.
Example: Schedule 20 meetings per week.
This goal needs close tracking of email KPIs, such as click-through and open rates.
Example: Increase product demo sign-ups by 15% from each email campaign.
If your sales rep takes longer or makes too many calls but no meetings are booked, this indicates an urgent problem that may require new training.
Example: Increase meetings booked by 30%
SMART sales goals give your teams an outline for success. Ensure the goals you set align with your business needs and your individual sales reps' goals.
Introduce your sales team to hit their sales targets on time with Docket AI. As a digital sales assistant and enabler, Docket provides instant access to critical information and resources to help cut down the sales cycle length.
