Sales Target 2021. How To Set Them Managers Guide!

In 2021 we have 261 working days at our disposal to hit our yearly sales target. By the time you are reading this it is probably much less. It is the 20th of January so we are left with 240 days. It is working 1920 hours. Seems a lot. But I hope you will not get fooled.

Surprisingly a lot of sales professionals still think the amount of time they have on their hands will allow them to easily reach the desired revenue target. Usually the ramp up time is slow and by the time you know it we will be heading into Summer Holidays which means our processes will slow down. Your prospects will be out on a leave or changing jobs, moving into new roles. Or maybe our legal team will have less capacity as they went on their dream holiday to the sunny beaches of Hawaii. Either way – you can forget about a productive summer – count those two months out!

Let’s unravel 5 simple steps of B2B Sales Targets planning to not end up surprised again in August with half of quota not being delivered and zero leave plans for Q4 as you will need to double down on teams efforts – Again!

It is the beginning of 2021 and like with all new year if you haven’t done that already, you are probably sitting now with sales management team and setting up your 2021 sales targets!

The board expectations are always the same. And I would be surprised if you did not know that by now. We need to achieve consistent and predictable revenue growth.

I will tell you a 5 steps process that will enable you to prepare sales targets for your team!

Start planning sales target with Revenue

Think of revenue as the starting line of a race. Revenue should be at the forefront of your business, and you should be constantly working to achieve it. If you spend time or money on anything that doesn’t relate to revenue, you’ve wasted precious time and money that could have contributed favorably to the sales target.

Perhaps most importantly, this approach focuses on revenue and prospects from the start. When your sales team has a clear understanding of how much business they should be achieving and where their efforts should be applied, everyone will know exactly what needs to be done to bolster your revenue & drive growth. This is the task for the sales management team!

Typically sales management need to focus on these:

1. Outbound sales is a fast and effective way to engage with decision-makers inside a company to generate interest and make a sale. Involves reaching out to potential customers via phone, email and social media. This can generate leads for your sales team.
2. Inbound marketing approach marries the art and science of customer acquisition through targeted efforts. It is a strategy that combines the content marketing and sales engagement to drive traffic to your website and convert.
3. Retention and upsell strategy is the number one return on investment for companies who want to continuously grow. It is also the process of selling more to your existing customer base.

These might include:

1. Capacity/Budget – how much do you expect to pay for those activities?
2. Conversion Rate – a metric that calculates the number of leads that convert into customers over a set period of time.
3. Cost per lead – calculate how much you will have to pay for each conversion.

As a Sales Leader, these metrics will help you track the progress of your sales team and show what to improve in order to reach sales target you set.

Outbound – Sales Target set up requires some sales management effort

Modern outbound engagement is more data-driven. Outbound sales is now about engaging with the right leads, at the right time and place, using the right channel. The result? A better business for you, and a better customer experience for them.

Having a consistent cadence of outbound activity is critical to your success. We have a proven formula that works – check it out!

1. Take a look at how much sales reps do you have. Let’s assume they are making 200 calls each day per person.
2. Those 200 calls will lead to 60 exploration calls and about 15 follow-ups.
3. The calls they made will end up with 20 product demonstrations.
4. Your 20 product demonstrations will lead to 10 created opportunities and further 3 Closed Won deals.

Easy right? No magic.

From the above calculations you already know:

1. The number of deals signed every month that will contribute towards your revenue sales targets.
2. The correct amount of people you need to hire to your sales team to be able to generate the required number of opportunities.
3. The average cost per each opportunity which will help you to allocate needed resources.

The next step is to build a scalable process that will focus on most important things and can be repeated.

Leverage the capacity model to set your sales target

The data-driven nature of the capacity model has enabled us to be predictive about what we can sell, with a high degree of confidence. Every business is different, so there can’t be a one size fits all sales model. But having a capacity model that increases your confidence – in your ability to scale – will give you a greater opportunity to succeed in scaling your business.

Here is how it works:

1. Start with the revenue. You already know how much you need to make.
2. Then work backwards. Taking into account the revenue, average deal size, how much resources will you need to achieve your goal?
3. Based on the monthly revenue you can estimate how many SDRs you need to book the desired  number of meetings.
4. Then you can identify the actual number of meetings that will lead to a product demonstration, how many of them will lead to creating an opportunity, and how many opportunities will convert into a closed won contract.

This is the power of simplicity of the capacity model for sales management purpose.

The capacity model is designed specifically for companies that are scaling fast. This model gives you the ability to forecast your growth, and effectively manage your business.

Designed specifically for SaaS companies with 150+ staff, this model allows you to invest in the future while planning for the present.

Impact your sales efficiency

Making sales as easy as possible. Your sales team is a vital part of your company’s success and the key to its future growth. To help them perform at their best, you need a system in place that makes sales as seamless as possible.

Let me show you how:

1. Identify Your Targeted Persona

The idea with creating a target persona is to create an image of the ideal customer. Once you have this, you can create a marketing persona ad that will acquire customers that are much like your ideal customer. Next step is to find the key decision-makers.

A decision-maker is someone with the power to buy your product/service. This is an important role in many businesses because they’re often the person with the power to decide what products get sold within the company.

2. Make sales and marketing work together

Many companies make the mistake of separating marketing and sales. And the reason for that is because they’re often measured by different metrics. That does not hel your team to achieve sales targets.

Most sales leaders agree that the best way to ensure alignment, and ultimately increase revenues is to put the two departments under one umbrella. Typically, Sales and Marketing report into different managers in most organizations. But putting a VP of Marketing above both groups ensures that both departments are working together toward the same goals. Both sides need access to the facts and numbers from the other department in order to succeed.

3. Nurture your leads effectively

It’s important that you optimize your B2B marketing operation.

Whatever you’re selling, it’s imperative that leads come into your funnel. Then give those leads a reason to stay interested and engaged. Give them content, tools and advice to nurture them until they’re ready to buy.

From blogging to email marketing, the best online tools can help you generate quality leads.

Your B2B marketing strategy needs to be multi-faceted. Use every tool in the marketing toolkit to nurture your leads until they’re ready to buy.

4. Measure your results as often as possible

Keep track of everything you need to improve your sales process. Measure your performance weekly and see the exact numbers that give you the most return on investment for your budget.

The goal tracking makes it easy to track all sales activity and get a snapshot of the health and progress of your sales funnel.

5. Take advantage over the sales tech tools

As with most businesses, the sales department needs to be equipped with tools and resources that help in their quest for new business. There are a plethora of tools that can aid salespeople in their B2B prospecting endeavor.

Sales tools are essential, but not every tool is a must-have. By asking yourself what problems you want to solve before buying sales tech, you can focus on what matters.

The right sales tools can dramatically reduce the time your sales team spends prospecting and identifying new leads. This will free up valuable time for them to focus on other areas of your business.

People are your greatest asset they will help you achieve your sales targets

You can have the greatest sales management skills but sales is still a people process. Tech and data can help, but it’s people that drive sales forward. Make sure none of your SDR’s fall through the cracks with a broken referral process, bad sales structure, or insufficient training.

To put it simply, if you want your sales to run properly and your team to perform at its peak, you need to invest in people and stick to a process.

From hiring the right SDRs to providing them with world-class training, you need to get them off on the right foot if you want to see results. You can do this with a structured approach and proven ideas.

P.S. If you’re happy with your sales team, that’s great! But it never hurts to think about how you can still improve on what you already have—just in case a new competitor wants to take your crown!

To recap

If you want to build a scalable sales machine, here are my key takeaways for sales management:

1. Always focus on revenue no matter what. Build your team around that goal.
2. Focus on creating a sales model that drives growth. The capacity model will help you to plan the resources you need.
3. Think about the details, rundown through your sales process and monitor all it’s areas.
4. Leverage new tech sales tools to accelerate your sales and enhance your processes.
5. Hire fast and build amazing sales culture that will emphasise success 
6. Bring sales and marketing together to maximise their performance.