Setting up a goal is an important part of every business. It helps you to plan your work, strategize days, and bring everyone on the same page and move towards the goal. According to a report, only 53% of sales reps could hit their quotas.
For every sales team, the sales quotas serve as a benchmark for the sales representatives, which motivates them and brings out their best performance to support the business goal. Even if you want to scale and grow exponentially, sales quotas can be very useful.
What Does Sales Quota Mean?
We all know why it is important to set goals. Not only in sales particularly, but in general when we want to achieve something, we plan and work on it. We create short term goals and long term goals.
So why do we set these goals?
Because it is the first step of successful goal achievement. It marks your first point toward success.
Sales are no different too. Depending on the experience, time spent in the organization, and company position, the sales quotes are defined for the reps.
They are a set of definite targets and goals that are allotted by the management.
Sales quotas can be set monthly, quarterly, or even daily, depending on the organization, team size, and Industry, the quotas can be specific.
The Importance Of Sales Quota
Quotas motivate the sales reps to develop strategies that enable them to perform at the required goal level.
Upon completion of these quotas, it can lead to satisfaction and further motivation, or frustration and lower motivation, if the goal is not accomplished.
Sales quotas are a very powerful technique, under the right conditions.
To get a clearer idea of why it is important to have the sales quotas, check the below pointers.
1. Clarity
When you are working with the sales team, it’s very important to have clarity. Sales quotas help you eliminate the confusion and work easily with more clarity.
2. Challenge
They help you to open your mind and think of the larger impact that you can create.
3. Commitment
It is very important to be committed to your goals. You cant achieve them unless you put your hard work and dedication to it. Sales quotas do make you committed.
4. Hurdles
It is obvious to have hurdles and bottlenecks when you are working with sales. But sales quotas let you acknowledge your hurdles in the sales pipeline.
Well, the above pointers help us to understand why the sales quotas are so important. Further, it is not that the salesperson isn’t motivated to sell but a discouraged mind will lead to fewer sales and ultimately demotivating the entire team.
Different Types Of Sales Quotas
Before you set the sales quotas for the team it is very important to define them. Sales quotas are mostly based on sales activities, revenue, and volume.
1. Sales Activities
Since the remote sales culture is being adapted clearly all over the world, it is necessary to track the sales activities and measure them, if you want to scale your sales. These activities can vary from team to team and from industry to industry.
But the general idea would be the same everywhere. You can track the sales activities by the following points.
- The number of calls made
- Total closures the reps make
- How many meetings did the inside sales rep create etc?
These sales activities are a source of a goldmine for the sales team. Using Conversation Intelligence technology, you can use these activities as an advantage to scale your sales.
2. Revenue
Sales is a number game that we already have talked about above. Revenue quotas are the most general and common type of sales quotas. Sales reps need to sell the service/ product/subscriptions to earn a certain amount of revenue for the given period.
This type of sales quota is mostly set quarterly or monthly. Organizations that have high ticket value and longer sales cycle can set the sales quota annually.
Revenue quotas may refer to profitable revenue when prices are flexible and upselling is common or expected. If you have a wide range of products you must have different profit margins, you might want to use profit quotas instead of focusing on revenue. Profit quotas can be combined with incentives for the sales reps which makes a win-win for both.
3. Volume Quota
Based on the sales volume, quotas should be discussed in terms of dollars or in terms of units. These both are commonly used as they are easy to understand. The Sales volume quotas can further be divided into individual product quotas which helps the manager ensure that all offerings get appropriate attention. Dollar-based quotas may encourage salespeople to focus on items that are expensive but do not yield the highest profits.
There can be another type of sales quota which can be a combination of all the above quotas.
We know why sales quotas are important and why are their types. But it is equally important for every team to follow the sales quota tips that will help them move towards their quotas faster.
Tips For Sales Quota
So let’s talk about the sales tips that will help every organization and business that has a dedicated sales team.
1. Never talk about the past quotas
Strategies that worked last year may not work this year too. There may be ‘n’ number of reasons to prove this sentence. The markets change, the industry is dynamic, your internal teams change, your profits vary, etc, etc.
Instead, learn from your past. Analyze the mistakes and success ratio. Check which sales methodologies worked out for you and which didn’t.
2. Quotas should be discussed with teams
Team management cannot decide the quotas for the team behind closed doors. Making a decision is always in the hands of the management but it should be discussed with the team.
Sales reps and managers have battled on the ground and they understand the market better than the leaders. Data might say a different thing in general but the ground reality is different. For eg, the management might feel that the industry and market are doing very well and the quotas should be set higher.
But the sales reps may have a different opinion since they are the ones who are talking to the customers day in and day out. Therefore, the decision should be made by taking into consideration the inputs of sales teams and management.
3. Quotas should be realistic
Whenever you decide the quotas for your team, the big number should be real and achievable.
Organizations often set a larger and unachievable number for the sales team that makes the team feel demotivated. If you know that the finish line is unreachable you would not feel like putting efforts to reach because you know that it is not possible.
The same applies to the sales team. Organizations in the greed of increasing the revenue often lay the burden on the sales team but they fail to understand that this won’t lead them anywhere.
Since we know the tips and importance of sales quotas, let’s discuss how we can actually achieve them.
Killer Strategies To Achieve Sales Quotas
1. Establish a long term plan
Salespeople who want to achieve 100% of their sales quotas, can create a long term plan for their quotas. Instead of asking the question, How should I increase my number for this month? Ask yourself how can I plan my annual quota?
Then break down the planning into quarters and further into months.
During your planning, consider the quarter endings, vacations, and the months where the sales might boost. This process will help you stay consistent no matter what's happening in your buyer's world.
2. Explore your Use cases
Research well. Understand who your buyers are and what industry they belong to. Instead of selling your services to the same clients, explore other accounts. Talk to people from different industries and check whether your product/service can be a fit for them or not. The results can be shocking. You might not be aware that the people from X industries are also using products or services that you sell.
3. Make use of technology and tools
Selling your products/services in the year 2019 was very different from year 2020. The current year has been difficult with the outbreak of pandemic that led teams to go remote globally.
With the use of many new technologies like conversation Intelligence and tools like Convin, hitting your sales quotas become quite easy. They help you close more deals by understanding your sales activities.
Since the teams started working from home, managers are implementing remote sales strategies for their teams. With the help of remote sales tools such as a digital brochure maker or video conferencing software, it becomes easier for the sales reps and teams to work.
Conclusion
Sales quotas are always challenging. Increasing your sales activities and tracking your sales performance will help you reach your quotas faster.
Your team needs some really inspirational sales quotas for hitting the goals.
But the sales manager will see how quotas can maximize the value for their company and help further clarify a rep’s direction.
Experiment to find out which combinations work best for your team as there is no set of rules that if implemented will help you achieve your quotas. But a set of proven strategies and researched analysis of the market combined will help you succeed with the sales quotas.
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