Meeting ‘Impossible’ Sales Goals in 2013
If this sounds familiar, you can rest easy knowing that you aren't alone.
The start of a new year can be very refreshing for all of us who work in sales. Regardless of whether 2012 was a good year for you, Jan. 1 is the day on which everything starts over, which means it’s time to face new revenue goals. Chances are your goals for 2013 are higher than they were for 2012, which might be causing you a bit of anxiety.
If this sounds familiar, you can rest easy knowing that you aren’t alone.
There’s no need to worry unnecessarily about meeting sales goals that have been difficult or “impossible” to reach in the past. Breaking down big goals into small, approachable ones can help to make mountains seem more like bunny slopes. Here are five strategies to help set you in the right direction.
1. Close Any Unfinished Business
It’s tempting to hit the ground running once the new year begins by spending all your time prospecting. It’s a new year with new prospecting resolutions. While you definitely want to hit prospecting hard, you might have some opportunities lingering from last year that you can close quickly. Examine your pipeline and look for opportunities from the past 3 months that haven’t closed.
It’s a new budget year and prospects may feel that January is the ideal time to start a project they weren’t been able to get to last year.
2. Calculate Your Quota Gap
The best way to get a jump on 2013 is to calculate how many leads you’ll need to close your quota gap. You can do this by determining how much revenue you know you’ll close this year (renewals, monthly managed services, big projects and such). Divide the remaining revenue goal (your quota gap) by the size of your average sale. Then divide by your closing ratio. Sound complicated? Use our free Quota Gap Calculator to quickly determine how many leads you need.
You might find it’ll take less leads than you originally thought to close that gap!
3. Break Prospecting Down Into Monthly Goals
Looking at your quota as one huge annual goal can be overwhelming. Instead of thinking about how many leads you’ll need in a year to make your number, split it into the number of leads you need each month.
Don’t just divide the total number by 12, though. If you have a three-month sales cycle, for example, you’ll want to get all your leads for this year’s business by Sept. 30. That’ll give you three months to close them. While some of the leads that come in after that date may close this year, you don’t want to have to rely on them to achieve your 2013 goal.
4. Leverage Social Media
Social media has become one of the most important and effective tools that you can use to research and nurture top prospects. While many salespeople have avoided incorporating social media into their sales strategies thus far, make it a priority in 2013. There’s a wealth of data available to differentiate your prospecting approach from your competitors’ approach.
A simple search on LinkedIn can provide insightful information that can distinguish you, and will cost you nothing but a bit of time.
5. Stay Focused on Other Tasks, Too
Prospecting and lead generation are an important part of achieving your goals for the new year. If you tend to avoid it, schedule regular prospecting time on your calendar and honor it. If you’re like me and you love prospecting, it may be the other tasks that get pushed aside. Whatever your least favorite task in sales, schedule time on your calendar so it doesn’t get neglected and your sales don’t slide.
Achieving your sales goals in 2013 might seem impossible in January, but it’s actually rather attainable if you break it down then follow your plan.
On Jan. 15 and 16, we’ll be holding a free “Coffee with Kendra” webinar where I’ll be doing live email makeovers. If email prospecting is a priority for you or your sales team, sign up and submit an email for consideration. The webinar is free, and you’re invited!
Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment.
