Setting Monthly Sales Goals

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Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey, guys, it’s Louis Massaro, author of Ten Rules of a Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery. How do you keep your sales team motivated? That’s such a big and important question that you should look at on a regular basis and figure out new and exciting ways to constantly keep them incentivized and motivated and excited.

So today we’re gonna talk about one of the best ways and one of the most simple ways to do that, and that’s setting monthly sales goals. If you’re not currently setting monthly sales goals for your sales team, you’re missing out on a huge motivator. And this could be if you have just one person that’s doing your sales, or if you have a team of 10. Either way, setting monthly sales goals is a big motivator. As humans, we all need something to chase. We need something to give us a little bit of a friendly

As humans, we all need something to chase. We need something to give us a little bit of a friendly competition, and something to win and achieve. So even if you have somebody and they’re not even a commission sales consultant, they’re just someone in the office that takes sales calls and they receive a salary, maybe they do some other stuff as well, or maybe you’re a one man operation and it’s just you. You could even set sales goals for yourself.

But we’re gonna talk about five simple steps that you could put in place if you’re not doing monthly sales goals to get those going ASAP. This is something that will help increase your sales. If you’re able to book more moves with the same amount of marketing that you have, and the same amount of staff that you have, that only adds to your bottom line, that only increases profit. And really, that’s why you’re in business, you wanna make money.

So by setting some sales goals and tying some bonuses to them, you’ll really start to create an environment that’s A, it’s more exciting, B, there’s some friendly competition, and C, they’re gonna book more moves, because when someone’s not really motivated, if they’re having a bad day… We’re all human. We all have bad days. Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep the night before, or maybe you’re just upset about something and you come to work and you’re just not in the mood to make calls. And people call in, and you’re not really feeling it, and you’re not really wanting to put the extra effort into trying to book that move, having an incentive out there, a bonus that is yours to either take or lose, will help you overcome that as a sales rep. Like I said, I’ve had over 50 sales consultants in one office, in one environment, and the monthly sales bonuses are a huge hit. And in other offices where we only had a few sales consultants, they were still a big hit.

So today I’m gonna give you five steps to go ahead and set this up if you’re not already doing it. There’s a lot of ways and a lot of different types of metrics that you could tie to a monthly sales bonus, but let’s talk about just a real simple way to get it going right away. First thing you’re gonna wanna do is set the goal. You’re gonna wanna figure out what is it that you believe they can achieve, but it’s also gonna cause them to stretch a little bit. You don’t wanna set goals that are unrealistic and unattainable. You want to set goals to where it’s gonna push them to be a better version of themselves to where they’re gonna… You know if they work a little bit harder and they spend a little more time on the phone and a little less time out on smoke breaks they could hit this goal, you’re gonna wanna figure that out. So take a look at their last three months. What have they been bringing in? And figure out what they’re capable of and set a goal of what you’d like to see them achieve in the upcoming month.

A good rule of thumb if you can’t really figure out what you wanna set it as, shoot for anywhere from 10%-30% higher than the previous month. Depending on the time of year, if you’re going in the slow season, or you’re going in the summer, you wanna compensate for that. There’s gonna be a natural upswing and downswing based on the seasons, but figure out a goal that you could sit down with them and discuss and say, “Hey, you think you could hit this?” And they say, “Yeah, I think I could hit that. I think I could hit even more.” The idea is, you wanna come up with something that is attainable but is also gonna stretch them. Once you set the goal, then you need to set the bonus. One of the easiest things to do is either say, “Hey, last month you booked $40,000 in business, and your goal is $50,000 for this month.” Or if you wanna do it based on number of moves, you could do that too. Once you get going and you start trying a few different things, you’ll figure out really what works for you. But setting it up on the revenue is a good way to do it. This way they’re not giving out discounts unnecessarily to get more moves, or they’re spending time to go after the big moves, which you want them to do. So setting it on revenue’s a good way to do it.

But then you’re gonna wanna set the bonus. What is it worth? What is it worth? You have to give ’em something that’s gonna make them excited. I would say anywhere between $100-$400 would be a good range of what the bonus could be for the month, depending on where they’re at. If you have a rep that is booking $20,000 in business and you’re trying to get them to book $25,000 in business, their bonus is probably gonna be $100, $125. Usually a good rule of thumb if you’re trying to figure it out for this very basic level of setting monthly goals is take a half of a percent of whatever the goal is. So if the goal is $50,000, you would take half of one percent, which would be $250. So if you’re trying to get ’em to bring in $50,000, their goal for the month if they hit $50,000, they’re gonna get $250. You set that goal, you make them aware of it.

And what you’re gonna wanna do next is you’re gonna wanna break it down for them. You’re gonna wanna show them… I like to bring ’em into my office and sit with them one-on-one and talk with them and say, “Here’s your goal,” and then break it down and show them what that means per day. The goal, when you break it down per day, may only be three extra moves a week or one extra move a day. And they then believe, “Wow, I could do that. I could definitely book one extra move a day,” or, “I could definitely book three extra moves a week.” When you look at a big number for the month, it might seem unattainable, but you wanna chunk it down for them. You wanna show ’em, “Listen, don’t worry about the whole month. Every day, just put in a little extra effort,” and whatever their goal breaks down to, figure out what it’s gonna be and show them how simple it is. “Look, you only need one extra move a day,” or, “You only need three extra moves a week.” Whatever the goal is and however it breaks down, break it down for them, because it’ll be a big motivator for them to see, “Wow, I could just make these incremental steps. Maybe I’ll take a few less smoke breaks and a shorter lunch or make a few extra calls.” But when you break it down, it’s a big motivator, ’cause now they feel like they can do it. There’s no point of setting goals if they don’t feel they could achieve it and nobody ever achieves the goals. You want them to achieve them.

The next step, number four, is a weekly update. Every week during this monthly period where you’re gonna set a monthly sales goal, you’re gonna wanna send them an update of where they’re at. Just email it to ’em, or if you wanna bring ’em in the office, or if you wanna have a sales meeting and discuss with everybody where they’re at, it’s really up to you how you wanna go about it. But at a minimum, send them an email and say, “Hey, here’s your goal and here’s where you are now, and here’s how much further you have to go.” Give ’em some encouragement. It’s not about trying to dangle it out there to where they can’t reach it. You want them to reach it. Because if they reach their goal, that’s more money for you and more money for your company. So when you’re setting your bonus amount, make sure it’s a bonus you feel comfortable with. Make sure it’s a bonus that when they hit that goal, you’re very quick to write them that check or give ’em that gift card or whatever. However you’re gonna bonus them, make sure it’s something you’re comfortable with and excites them, because you want them to get it. They’re not gonna get it every month, but usually you want somebody in the office to win, to get their bonus, because it then becomes believable.

If you set ’em too high and no one’s ever achieving it, they’re just gonna be like, “Yeah, yeah, okay. You’re gonna give me $400 bucks, okay. But I’m never gonna hit that.” When they start seeing themselves being able to hit the goal, when they start seeing their teammates hitting the goal, it becomes real. And now they break themselves out of the comfort zone, and they visualize themselves as a different type of sales consultant. They form an identity early on where it’s like, “Hey, every month I book $40,000. That’s kinda my… That’s what I do, that’s my caliber. That’s the type of sale consultant I am.” But when you help them to break out of that, and they go to $45,000, they go to $50,000, they go to $60,000, they’re like, “Wow, I could book $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a month.” Once they see themselves in that light, they’re gonna start producing more. Their booking percentage is gonna go higher, the amount of leads it takes for them to get moves is gonna be lower, so you wanna make sure that you’re keeping them motivated, as well.

And the last step is number five. When you do give these bonuses out, make it a big deal. When you do it, whether it’s one person in the office or several people get their bonus, make a big announcement, have a meeting, even if it’s two minutes. You get everybody off the phone and make it exciting, make them feel really good, like they just won something big. And let everybody else that didn’t reach their goal see that as well and cheer for them and clap and make it a big deal, make it exciting. Part of setting the goal is not just to set the goal and forget about it. It’s to also create excitement in your office. When you create some excitement in your office and there’s a little buzz going around between your sales team and there’s a little friendly competition and everybody wants to reach that goal, you’re gonna book more moves. It’s gonna be a more lively environment. You’re gonna see, you’re gonna have reps that used to kind of maybe sit back and take calls. They’re gonna be standing up now and they’re gonna be excited.

When you give them something to shoot for, especially a monthly sales goal, that’s why if you’re not doing… There’s a lot of other ways to incentivize and spiffs and different types of bonuses, but a monthly sales goal tied to a specific dollar amount, whether they’re a salaried employee or a commission, it doesn’t matter. When they think that they can get an extra couple hundred dollars a month, when you look at things on a monthly basis, you tie that to maybe bills you have to pay, or you’re like, “Wow! I could go lease that car that I want to get if I get this bonus every month,” or whatever it is for them. But when they have something to shoot for, it creates some excitement. So if you’re not doing this or you were doing it, or if you do it every once in a while, make this a practice. Put this in place and do it every month.

It may take them, your sales team, a month or two to get motivated and get excited about it if it’s something new. They may all be like, “Wow! Yeah! This is great, okay,” and you may see the change right away. But put it in place, keep ’em motivated, break it down for them so they can see, “Look, all you have to do is this and this on a daily basis,” send them a weekly update, keep them motivated, keep pushing them towards their goal. It’s only gonna drive your sales up. I’m telling you, if you’re not doing this, put this in place right away. You’re gonna see your sales go up, you’re gonna see your marketing costs go down because you don’t have to buy as many leads to book the same amount of moves, and you’re gonna become more profitable. You’re gonna have happy employees, they’re gonna be making money, they’re gonna wanna stay around, they’re gonna tell their friends. Hey, if you need more employees, they’re gonna tell their friends, “Hey, come work here.” And you’re gonna be able to recruit a higher caliber of sales consultants because they can make a little extra money there.

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