Sales Target
Measure and compare current sales to a target or past performance.
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What is a sales target?
A sales target is a specific goal or objective set by a company or individual for the amount of products or services they aim to sell within a given time period. Sales targets are often used to track performance and motivate sales teams. Targets can be set by revenue, units sold, or customer acquisition and are adjusted based on market conditions. Achieving sales targets is critical for a company's success and can impact revenue, profitability, and market share. Sales targets can also be used to evaluate performance and incentivize sales personnel.
One of the keys of setting a sales target is ensuring it’s visible to the entire team. Designing an effective sales target visual can have a huge impact. For example, a bullet chart captures current performance, past performance, and target in a single visual. Once trained on using this visual, your team will be able to instantly tell how sales are performing.
Sales Target Attainment Formula
(Sales for the current period/Sales target)x100
Who uses sales targets?
Executives, Sales Directors, Sales Managers, Sales Reps
Key terms
- Wins: The number of new customers over a certain time period.
- Revenue: Income received through sales activities.
Key indicators for sales targets
- Surpassing a sales target or the previous period's value.
- Revenue: Income received through sales activities.
How to calculate Sales Targets
The Harvard Business Review writes, “When 10%–20% of salespeople miss goals, the problem might be the salespeople. But when most salespeople miss, the problem is their goals.”
This highlights the importance of setting accurate yet challenging sales targets. It’s a delicate balance that requires accounting for business goals, past performance, and the performance of your individual sales reps. Setting sales targets and getting them right can have a massive impact on your team, and motivate reps to dig deep to close more deals, increasing your sales efficiency.
You need to consider a number of factors in setting sales goals, and account for specific targets like whether you’re going to increase new business, expand existing accounts, or work with past customers. Beyond that, sales targets should influence the structure of incentives for the team such as our commission and compensation model. For more information on setting sales goals, check out this in-depth piece from Close.io.
How to monitor sales performance against targets
Achieving sales targets requires active monitoring of your performance throughout the day, week, and month. Sales targets ought to be dynamic and focused on short term performance. The more individual reps can see and understand how his or her work contributes to the target, the more motivated they will be to achieve those targets.
One of the best ways to monitor sales performance against targets is to use a Sales Leaderboard and displaying it on a television. Consider also setting up a Salesforce dashbord.
How to build the Sales Leaderboard
Watch this short tutorial to learn how to build your own leaderboard for your team!
What are the key reasons to build a sales leaderboard?
- Track individual sales performance in real-time
- Track team sales performance in real-time
- Directly compare performance across multiple sales metrics or KPIs
- Use friendly competition to fuel motivation in the sales team
- Create a transparent, data-driven work environment
- Make quick decisions based on the data instead of waiting for end of quarter reports
Related Metrics & KPIs
