For every salesperson, the quarterly goal is the one thing they focus on all the time, probably even in their dreams. Achieving targets is the end goal for sales personnel. A target is set for every quarter which is reviewed usually immediately after the quarter ends. Every member of the sales team would be under pressure on the days just before the quarter ends, as no one would want to fall short of the target. A successful salesperson is one who not just achieves the quarterly goal, but exceeds it and does more than what was targeted. Is it really easy to exceed sales goals? Let’s find out how it can be done.
- Set your own targets
If you want to exceed targets, then don’t stick to the targets given by your bosses. Set your own targets which are higher. While setting this higher target be practical; set a realistic target, maybe 20% more than the target set by the company. If you can achieve this for 2-3 quarters, then raise it to 30% and so on. Don’t set unrealistic targets and create pressure for yourself. Decide at the start of the quarter, what you want to achieve and then break it down month-wise and week-wise. You can even set day-wise goals, this will motivate you to work smarter. At the end of every week do your own review to know where you stand. If you don’t achieve a week’s target, devise a revised sales strategy for the next week. In this way, you will be able to focus better on your work and get to achieve and exceed goals in a systematic way.
- Maximum effort in the first month
It is human tendency to wait till the last minute to complete things. But when you are on a mission to exceed your goal, you can not afford to wait till the last minute. In fact, do the opposite. Attack in the first month and put maximum effort. Try to get as many orders as possible in the first month of the quarter by maximizing your effort. This will reduce pressure later. And more importantly, if any prospect does not close in the first month, no problem, you have two months left. If you can do very well in the first month, you will be motivated to do even better in the next two months. This is a good way to exceed your goals.
- Get to the decision maker
For every prospect you pursue, there would be one decision maker, the main person who would take the final call. You need to identify the decision maker early and try to spend more time with him. Put more effort to convince the decision maker and he would have the power to take decisions quickly. If you go through lower levels, you never know whether they will be able to pass information correctly to the main person. So try to contact the decision maker at an early stage and use all your persuasive powers to get him to close the deal.
- Be straightforward
An excellent tactic to establish rapport with prospective customers is to be straightforward. When you resort to pressure selling, you tend to try and get the order by hook or crook. This is something customers don’t like. When you are straightforward, honest and sincere, this helps to impress the customer more than any sales technique. Once you have a good rapport with the customer, then closing the sale becomes much easier. If the customer perceives you as honest, he will be convinced that you will give him a good deal and that you won’t do anything unethical.
- Brand ambassadors can help
Your best brand ambassadors are your happy customers. They will act as your advocates and sell your product for you. Tap into your network of happy customers and take their help to get new orders. This is the best way of acquiring new customers. When someone recommends a product to his friend, colleague or family member, it carries a lot of weight. So keep a list of your happy customers and be in touch with them. Use them to get orders easily. This will help you exceed your targets.
- Use metrics
Metrics are the numbers that matter and which helps you to track all the work you have done. Leads generated, leads met, leads to prospect conversion, prospect to customer conversion and so on. This will help you to devise effective action plans. Using CRM tool would be beneficial as it helps you to record everything and gives you multiple analyses, which you can use to find out where you have a shortfall. The software also gives you patterns and trends to work on, which increases your effectiveness. In case your company does not have a software, don’t worry there are free CRM tools available online, which you can use to track your metrics.
Exceeding your quarterly sales goals is not very difficult. All you need is a proper plan and a systematic way of working and you can easily do it.
