Not consulting stakeholders

A big mistake is giving the job of creating sales goals to one person and expecting them to complete it in isolation without consulting with other stakeholders. It’s important to find out how the needs of customers will impact your sales in the coming months, while also maintaining an awareness of the competition and the way their plans and marketing could impact you. Sales goal setting is a team effort, so make sure you have everyone pitch in.

Looking backwards instead of forwards

Although the sales history of your company can shed valuable insight into future trends, it’s important to be focussed on forecasting rather than reporting on what’s already happened. When it comes to sales goals, they need to be firmly grounded in where you’re going, not where you’ve already been.

Not giving employees an incentive to work harder

Your sales staff thrive on the commission you give them, the promise of earning more driving them to do a better job and earn more money for your business. However, by promising all your staff an increase in salary every year regardless of your financial situation, they may lose some of that enthusiasm. This could skew your sales targets, as your top performers may not perform quite as well. Make sure you reassess any commission or pay increases each time you set new goals and base them upon the current financial climate.

No room for flexibility

You might think that setting a goal and sticking to it is a good thing, but extreme rigidity actually limits you. You need to make sure your goals remain achievable and adapt as you realise which targets you’ll be able to meet and which you won’t. There’s no sense striving for a goal just because you set it at the beginning of the year if there are other areas that could benefit more from your time and energy.

Commissionly gives your salesforce real-time updates on performance, serving to motivate and challenge the whole team to achieve. We also provide insights and intelligence to your financial managers and leadership teams, helping you to forecast and strategically plan for the future. We work with SMBs and larger businesses around the world to help them to work smarter and achieve more.

To book your free demo or start a complimentary 14-day trial of our sales commission software simply contact our team anytime.

The loss of motivation

There tends to be a predictable curve when it comes to most sales staff. They’ll start off with a lot of enthusiasm but it eventually begins to taper off. Keeping that enthusiasm going is a challenge for any company as you still want to drive sales. 

This can mean hiring more staff with all the expenditure involved, despite the fact you already have all the staff you need.

The better solution

Companies can be hesitant to give out financial incentives as they feel as though they are giving away money. In reality, the old adage rings true: you need to spend money to make money. A fair and balanced incentive structure will lead to better results. 

It’s not just effort that will be improved but also happiness. A more harmonious workplace is one that will naturally be more productive. Not only that, but other expenditures such as recruitment will be vastly reduced. 

Not just money

It’s not just cash that gets sales teams incentivised, it’s prizes too. Running competitions will bring out everyone’s competitive side as they strive to be the winner. Sales staff respond a lot better to positive rather than negative stimulus.

This is where sales goals software can help you in more ways than one. You can make sales performance goals fun rather than being an unachievable target. It helps to create an overall work environment that works harder and therefore earns more money for you. 

Keep everyone happy

While it might seem counter-intuitive to give away money, the overall effect is more sales being made. Sales management software is able to help achieve those results. If you need to update your sales commission software, contact Commissionly today.