Updated On: 21 May, 2025
“Never reduce a target. Instead, increase actions.” - Grant Cardone
Sales targets – they make the sales world go round. In fact, if you had to think of terms that could be called almost synonymous with the sales team, ‘sales targets’ would be one of them; they are what make the world of sales so notoriously cutthroat, fast-paced, and high stakes.
Let’s face it though: Sales professionals’ entire careers have been made and broken on sales targets in the past, and the term has gotten a little bit of a bad rap.
Companies have now become a little more enlightened in the way they are run, the culture they cultivate, and the way they look at growth. A lot more importance is being placed on the sales process and sales activities being conducted to achieve goals, than on the pressure of the target.
So, if you’re a sales manager looking to set goals for your team, it’s important to now look behind the target figure.
That’s where ‘SMART’ sales targets come in.
Smart sales targets lend a positive spin to having numbers to meet. Traditionally, sales targets were set and representatives were left to work on them with day-to-day selling activities.
Selling efforts were supported by managers via mentoring, intervention, sales enablement initiatives, and so on, on an as-needed basis.
This kept the pressure on the sales representatives quite high – they needed to meet their targets or they’d lose incentives, and be faced with poor performance reviews…not great for sales effectiveness, overall.
What SMART goals do is align achievable targets as well as a roadmap to achieving those targets, offering support to executives on the way.
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SMART targets are set in specific areas – they tell sales representatives exactly what is expected of them, to the extent that they can come to work every day and have a look at their target to align their mindset and activities.
What SMART sales targets have in common with any other is that they are number-driven. Each representative has a number to work towards, whether that is the number of conversions or a micro-step towards them.
While SMART targets are measurable, they aren’t based on ideal numbers – they’re actually attainable goals that will challenge the sales representative without overwhelming him/her. The idea behind keeping targets attainable yet slightly aspirational is to keep the team motivated.
Just as SMART targets are attainable, they must be realistic. Ensure, for example, that your sales representative has everything she/he needs to achieve the targets. Think about the journey of achieving the target, not just the end goal that you would like to see happen.
This is one of the most important aspects of SMART targets. They must be time-bound, not open-ended. This could be any time frame that seems appropriate for the goal – as short a time as a fortnight or month, and as long as a year. Keep in mind that there is significant energy that must be put into keeping up motivation and progress tracking for long-term goals.
Imagine your leader calls you in and, based on certain business goals, lays down a sales target that sounds a bit hard to reach.
Of course, you’re expected to rally and figure out different strategies that can make it happen. In your position as a sales manager, this might be a situation you’ve faced quite often – it’s also a situation that lays on the pressure and can leave you feeling intimidated rather than excited.
The idea is to not pass that pressure onto your team – executives who, after all, have a lot less experience and need a lot more nurturing than you might.
When you set SMART targets for your team, it allows them to feel motivated and supported rather than like they’re being pushed off the deep end – it actually improves sales effectiveness.
Let’s look at the benefits of setting SMART sales targets:
Because, at their core, SMART targets are ‘specific’, they bring a lot of transparency with them. Sales representatives are kept accountable for achieving them simply by having such a clear goal ahead.
It also gives you a great starting point from which to check in with your team members periodically, rather than having to keep track sporadically of who is making how much progress on their sales numbers.
SMART targets aren’t standalone numbers that need to be achieved in isolation – they can and should tie into bigger objectives.
If you have higher sales numbers to achieve next quarter and a particular salesperson tends to miss targets because of a low number of follow-ups, that’s a good area to set the goal in.
When that salesperson has a goal to make a set number of follow-ups a day, it will help him/her get more conversions and meet the company’s sales targets next quarter.
When a sales representative is given a realistic, clear goal to achieve within a stipulated time, it helps them feel encouraged and supported.
This is the culture you want to cultivate – sales representatives working on their goals while working towards the success of your company.
On the other hand, team members who are expected to blindly chase sales numbers will be unhappy at work. They will spend more time interviewing at other companies than working on your sales targets.
Sales targets are always personalized and specific rather than just a number. That means, in order to set a SMART goal, you have to be aware of the salesperson’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to selling.
And that means that while working on their goals, your sales representatives are also working on their skills and growing as salespeople – it’s a win-win for both them, as well as your organization.
It also means they’re more likely to stick around with you because they can see growth within themselves.
Think of it this way. When you give your sales representatives a number they need to achieve at the end of the quarter, they will continue to avoid activities they don’t enjoy, and their weak spots will continue to be weak spots.
A salesperson who avoids ‘share a referral’ calls with leads will continue to miss his/her sales targets. When you give them a SMART sales target that is based on their weaknesses (increase upselling by XX% this quarter), it forces them out of their comfort zone.
Let’s circle back to the quote from Grant Cardone at the start of this blog post – “Never reduce a target. Instead, increase actions.” While this was meant to say ‘be ambitious, make it happen’, we’re taking it out of context.
SMART goals help you work actively towards achieving sales targets – they force you to take action, and work actively towards meeting the end target. The focus, in essence, shifts to the action{s} to be taken.
Every salesperson works differently. As a sales manager, you’re no doubt aware of your team’s individual and collective weaknesses or barriers to success. The challenges they face in getting closures – no matter how small – are what should form the foundation of your SMART targets.
1. Difficulty in upselling clients
2. Difficulty ‘asking for the sale’
3. Higher lead drop rates
4. A low number of lead follow-ups
5. Higher churn rates
and so on
These are all personal challenges that can get in the way of salesperson closing deals or bringing in revenue targets – if you address these, they will be better equipped to meet conversion and revenue targets.
The best way to evaluate a salesperson’s barriers to success is to spend time with them, oversee their work for a while, hold review meetings and ask for their opinion or self-reflection.
More often than not, a well-motivated sales representative is aware of their own limitations and will be willing to work on them with you.
As a sales manager, you’ve no doubt been given sales targets that need to be met by the team. It’s also important; however, to be aware of the business direction the organization would like to take in terms of growth.
There are often certain types of customers that may need to be focused upon, or churn rates that need to be reduced, and so on.
Understanding these priorities of business relevant to growth – and hence your area of expertise I.e. sales – gives you an idea of where your sales team members need to perform.
1. A sales target meeting with your immediate superior/CEO
2. A review meeting with your superior to discuss company direction & growth
3. A goal review meeting with your superior to discuss your goals, and how you can support him/her in the company’s growth goals
While not all of these discussions will not completely fall under the purview of ‘sales targets’ and hence might feel like supplementary discussions, it’s important that you have the bigger picture view for you to actually increase sales effectiveness.
Once you have a bird’s eye view of your organization’s business goals, your role as a sales manager is to trickle that down to the individual level.
If your CEO is looking at the churn rate as a potential problem, what can you do as a sales manager to prevent it from escalating? Where should your team focus their efforts to make an impact on the larger business goal?
This is where you take your understanding of the company’s goals or targets, and hold them up against your team’s individual capabilities.
Along with your understanding of each member’s barriers to success, you now have a roadmap to what each individual sales representative should be working on as a SMART target.
By taking into consideration each sales representative’s strengths & weaknesses, and the company’s overall objective of growth, you’ll be able to set sales targets that are actionable, meaningful, and motivational.
While this is not necessarily a step to follow step 3 – it can in fact, somewhat be a part of the earlier process of identifying SMART sales targets – it’s important enough for its own mention.
SMART sales targets need to be attainable, which means salespersons assigned those targets need to find them achievable and motivating.
To make that happen, it’s highly recommended that you set sales targets in conjunction with each team member.
While this isn’t standard practice, it keeps your team members feeling involved and invested right from the get-go – not only in the company’s growth but in their own growth.
1. Hold a review meeting – similar to the one you had with your superior – discussing company objectives and direction of growth
2. Also discuss challenges they may be facing or barriers they might see in themselves
3. Discuss areas of growth and improvement for the team, and for them individually
4. Outline directions in which targets need to be set
5. Set actual numbers and write down the SMART targets together
6. Set dates for periodic reviews and progress check-ins
Once you’ve set SMART targets for each team member, it’s important to also set periodic check-ins and progress checks with each team member.
That’s part of what sets SMART targets apart from regular sales targets, where salespersons are left to achieve end goals or conversion numbers.
Because SMART targets can be action-based (conduct 5 follow-ups per lead) or results-based (achieve retention rates of 20%), there is a lot you can do to check in and support the team member along the way.
This also helps you adjust expectations and course-correct – did you overshoot when setting the sales target? Did you underestimate how efficient the salesperson is?
The best way to continually review progress is to hold review meetings or quick check-ins, see if the salesperson needs any support from you, and generally keep a tab on how the actions towards the targets are progressing.
This will allow you to proactively step in with sales enablement and improve sales effectiveness.
The success of your sales team vis a vis their SMART sales targets starts right from the setting of the goal.
So, when setting a SMART sales target, think of a smaller picture impacting the larger picture – the actions, steps, and results that will make them feel in control rather than giving them a bigger-picture sales target that intimidates them.
When setting SMART sales targets, look at past sales data to analyze each salesperson’s weaknesses and barriers to success – and also the team’s past performance.
While holding review meetings to check in on target progress, look at the data, and analyze the insights behind it together with the team member.
When celebrating the success of a team member for achieving their targets, talk in terms of data and numbers, and then celebrate their actions and skills to make it happen.
Not everyone is going to meet their SMART sales targets, and that is a contingency you need to prepare for.
The good news is that when setting SMART sales targets, you’ve already evaluated potential weaknesses and barriers to success for each team member – so, as a sales manager, you can keep an eye out for signs that progress is not taking place in the right directions, and step in as a support system or guide to prevent it.
Your job, in this case, is to the company; you need to make sure that targets will be achieved one way or the other by acting as a mentor, reallocating resources, providing lead support, and so on.
Don’t wait for the timeline to almost run out on a sales target before realizing that you need to step in to avoid failure. Be liberal with sharing resources, designing processes, holding sessions, and so on along the way for the team collectively.
Also be aware of any other resources that may need to be pulled to help your sales team achieve their targets – in crunch time, that could be additional resources, for example. Being proactive will allow you to step in before sales targets are close to being failed.
The bottom line you’ll see us mentioning throughout is that SMART sales targets aren’t meant to be intimidating numbers…they should be designed to motivate and inspire.
You will need to actively cultivate this atmosphere of motivation by bringing the team together, holding knowledge-sharing sessions that will help them collectively work on goals, celebrating the wins of team members, sharing recognition, and so on.
Now that you know what a SMART goal is, and why it’s important, it’s time to put that information into practice. Sales CRM software can help you set SMART concrete goals as part of hitting important marketing milestones in your growing business.
Ready to explore how CRM software can re-energize your business’ sales and analytical capabilities? Let us match you with affordable and easy-to-use Sales CRM software!
Kylas is an enterprise-grade CRM designed uniquely for growing businesses. It is easy to use and offers UNLIMITED USERS and FEATURES. If that’s something you are looking for then, why wait!? Schedule a Demo Today!
And there you have it – the ultimate guide to setting and helping your team achieve SMART sales targets! By now you should be ready to get rolling with your team, but if you have any questions, we’d be more than happy to answer them for you. Just drop us a message in the comments section!
Shagun is a content marketer at Kylas, extremely well-versed in all things Marketing. She works closely with the sales team to create best-in-class content for our readers. Her experience combined with her thorough research skills makes all her blogs very in-depth and insightful. In her leisure time, Shagun enjoys hiking, gardening, and immersing herself in music.
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