Setting Business Results Goals for your Small Business Sales Team

Friday Funnel Focus by EPOCH Sales Management Solutions

Business Owners own the responsibility of setting the Business Results for their company that drive the Sales Objectives for their Sales Team.  Sales Objectives are then set by the Sales Manager or the Business Owner, acting as the Sales Manager, to achieve the Business Results.  Sales Managers, or the Business Owner acting as the Sales Manager, also own the responsibility of establishing Sales Activity Metrics to support those Sales Objectives.  This process aligns the small business sales strategy from Business Results Goals to Sales Objectives to Sales Activity Metrics to help drive the sales team in the right direction.  Let’s dig deeper into setting Business Results Goals.  Let’s cover 3 things:

1. What are typical business results goals for a Small Business?
2. What analysis should be done?
3. What goes into a Sales Goal Exercise?

What Are Typical Business Results Goals for a Small Business?

Business Results goals are typically in one of 3 categories:

• Financial
• Satisfaction
• Market Share

Sample Financial Results Goals

• Bookings
• Revenue
• Revenue Growth
• Total Pipeline Value
• Weighted Pipeline Value
• Pipeline Growth
• Profit
• Gross Profit
• Return on Sales
•  Cost

Sample Satisfaction Results Goals

• Overall Customer Satisfaction
• Ease-of-Doing Business Index
• Percentage of Customers Satisfied
• Percentage of Customers with Intent to Refer
• Number of Customer Referrals
• Employee Satisfaction Index
• Employee Intent to Stay
• Employee Engagement Index

Sample Market Share Results Goals

• Market Share
• Percentage Market Share
• Market Penetration
• Relative Market Share

Typically, small businesses set Financial Results Goals such as Bookings or Revenue Targets to drive their small business sales teams.  They are the simplest, most straightforward business results goal for a small business. 

Once an annual revenue or bookings number is set, we recommend that quarterly numbers are set to account for seasonality and/or scaling of the business.  Quarterly numbers can be easily broken down into monthly numbers when you divide by 3. We recommend setting weekly numbers by dividing the quarterly numbers by 13.

What Analysis Should Be Done?

In Chapter 1 of Predictable Prospecting, Marylou Tyler and Jeremy Donovann describe how they developed their Six Factor SWOT Analysis to get the most out of SWOT, 4P’s and the Five Forces Framework. The logic they used is as important as the framework.  Modify their framework as necessary. Here are some takeaways:

• 4P’s are the marketing Product, Price, Promotion and Place.
• Porter’s Five Forces are:
• Industry competition
• New Entrants
• Power of Suppliers
• Power of Customers
• Threat of Substitutes

When doing a SWOT analysis many companies brainstorm Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats one by one for each of the four categories. This can produce availability bias where some activities may get overemphasized while others get missed. Marylou and Jeremy recommend you build a list based on the 4P’s and a modified Five Forces:

By reviewing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for each of the 15 categories, it reduces availability bias and provides a more complete SWOT analysis.

When done, assign each item a simple high, medium or low score. They focus first on prospecting, but also consider the entire sales process.  Prioritize each SWOT column till you have 3-5 items in each to provide a good picture of your SWOT Analysis.  They recommend a quarterly review.  For those who embrace Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) or similar 90 day/quarterly focus programs, consider adding the review of Marylou and Jeremy’s Six Factor SWOT Analysis to your quarterly meetings. For further insight read Chapter One of Predictable Prospecting.  You will see an example of how they apply their Six Factor SWOT analysis. 

What goes into a Sales Goal Exercise?

Our Sales Goal Exercise is heavily influenced by EOS. You can find additional information about the EOS Concept in Gino Wickman’s book, Traction.  Here is our template:

1. Sales Goals
1. “10 Year Target” -
2. 3 Year Picture
1. Revenue$:
2. Profit$:
3. What does it look like?
3. One Year Plan
1. Revenue$:
2. Profit$:
3. Increase Customer Satisfaction to:
4. Increase Market Share to:
5. Annual SMART Goals

1. 90 Day Rocks
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________
4. ________________
5. ________________
6. ________________
7. ________________

1. Customer/Prospect Challenges/Issues/Pains
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________
4. ________________
5. ________________
6. ________________
7. ________________

1. Company Differentiators
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________
4. ________________
5. ________________

1. Other Strategy Items
1. Values
2. Purpose, Cause or Passion
3. Niche
4. Category

Use these processes to set your business results goals for each year and review, as needed, in your quarterly meetings.

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