Morale can also be destroyed if you’re not progressing as much as you ought to be. For instance, if you’ve made seven sales in six months but your target for the year is 24, then you’re massively behind the target.

This isn’t too hard to imagine. Sales Hacker estimates that 90% of salespeople are making the majority of their sales in the last week of the month, or the last month of the year. However, doing this is often the result of harder work and more hours. It doesn’t have to be that way.

So, what can you do to get back on track if you’re not meeting your sales targets? Here are some suggestions to help you meet set sales goals this year :

1. Know when you’re behind

Everyone should be regularly checking their progress towards set sales goals. By using sales performance management tools, you can continuously monitor your progress. Doing so will alert you if you’re not meeting sales targets and give you plenty of time to put plans in place to catch up. 

Sales performance management tools can also help you identify where the issue might be. Is the close rate too low or are you not prospecting enough? By finding out where the obstacles in your sales process are, you can make relevant changes that improve results, which avoids wasting time on endeavours that make no difference.

2. Check-in with old prospects

Sometimes you might not meet targets because you’ve not gone back to prospects who’ve said no in the past. However, just because they said no the first time, doesn’t mean they’ll say no the second time. If you go back to some of the old prospects you’ve not spoken to in a while, you might find that some are now ready to buy.

Old prospects are better than new prospects because they’ve already built up a relationship with you, so a lot of the hard groundwork has been done already. This significantly lowers lead times.

3. Remain in control

Emotion is an important aspect of selling. If you demonstrate that you’re passionate about the product or service you’re selling, you’re going to get better results. But you’ve also got to remember that you can’t seem desperate.

A desperate salesman makes fewer sales than one in complete control. So it is important to control any concerns you have about not meeting current sales targets and convert that worry into a positive emotion that will demonstrate how confident you are in the product.