SETTING GOALS AND MANAGING THE SALESFORCE’S

PERFORMANCE

According to Febry, National Trade Marketing Manager for Miller Import and Craft
Beers, working with members of the salesforce to achieve sales goals is a critical
element of the sales manager’s position. When representatives are having trouble
achieving their goals, sales managers need to find out what types of problems they are
encountering and what they can do.

A sales goal (quota) is a performance standard by which salespeople – sales

representatives and sales managers alike – are measured. The primary purpose of
having sales goals or quotas is to synchronize the direction and efforts of the sales force
with plans developed by a firms top management.

Sales goals are set so as to perform the following -

 Motivate the sales force of the company.
 Assess the financial return on the firm’s investment in its products and services.
 Compare the results achieved by salespeople in different sales territories and
regions.
 Focus the selling efforts of the sales force: Direct the efforts of sales force
towards certain sales activities a company wants them to engage in.

Sales goals are generally formed based on measures of performance that occur over
time. They are often described as being either-
 Input based- observable selling efforts a salesperson must take, for example, no.
of sales calls made or no. of new clients contacted
 Output based- the selling results a representative is expected to achieve, for
example, no. of orders a representative must receive, revenue, etc.
Many companies use a combination of both input and output based goals in order to
ensure that their sales representatives are engaged in customer activities as well as
meeting their output goals. In order to keep a check on the expenses incurred during the
sales process, companies also have an expense quota in place.

Companies need to figure out right mix of metrics that fits their organization to measure
the performance of their salesforce. Additionally, they also need to decide on the right
time period to track. Some people also argue that salespeople should be included in the
process of determining their sales quotas (known as bottom-up approach). Combination
of top-down and bottom-up approach with a little negotiation can help in reaching a
goal that both the sales representative and sales manager agree with.

Lastly, it’s very important that the companies give their salespeople frequent and timely
feedback about their progress toward their goal. This timely feedback can help the sales
managers to put in more effort or redirect their effort to get results as expected.