Setting goals a team believes
Set team goals on inputs the team controls — doors, conversations, callbacks kept — rather than on sales, which vary too much day to day. Targets that are unreachable in the assigned territory teach reps that targets are decoration, and that lesson is difficult to reverse.
Input goals survive variance
Sales are lumpy enough that a good week can produce nothing. Goals set on sales punish variance, and a team that misses a goal three times through no fault stops treating goals as information.
Territory has to make the goal possible
A target that cannot be hit in the ground a rep was assigned is a statement about the territory, not the rep. They will work that out quickly and adjust their opinion of management accordingly.
The goal nobody sets
Callbacks kept as a share of callbacks set. It measures collecting value already earned, it is almost always improvable, and it is one of the few team goals that does not require knocking more doors.
Common questions
- Should team goals be on sales or activity?
- Activity, mostly. Sales vary too much over short periods for a goal to be informative.
- What happens with unreachable targets?
- Reps stop treating targets as real, and that generalises to the reachable ones.
- What is an underused team goal?
- Callbacks kept versus set. It improves revenue without requiring more doors.
More on building a team
The manager side: recruiting, onboarding, retention and the cost of losing a rep. Where the paid tier eventually lives.