8 SMART Sales Goals for Business Growth [+ Case Study]

Goals form the bedrock of any successful endeavor, and sales are no exception.

Whether they are personal goals or professional sales goals, setting them up the right way is crucial for success.

On the flip side, unrealistic and vague goals can deter performance.

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
~ Vincent Van Gogh

That’s why we’ve created this exhaustive guide: to help you break down your vision into small, manageable, and achievable goals.

What will you learn in this guide?

✔ What are sales goals?

✔ How do you set sales goals?

✔ 8 sales goal examples for sales teams

✔ How to convert your sales goals into SMART sales goals

✔ Practically tracking your sales goals

✔ Case Study: How EngageBay enabled a digital marketing 
  agency to track their sales goals and reduce churn by 15%

Let’s begin!

Table of Contents

What Are Sales Goals?

Sales goals are clearly defined objectives for both sales teams and business owners, designed to help improve performance. Sales goals are based on sales KPIs (key performance indicators) and, when executed smartly, lead to better conversion rates.

An excellent example of a sales goal is “selling $10,000 worth of products each month.”

According to a study, professionals with goal-specific plans fared better than those who just had the “I’ll give my all to this” approach.

But setting sales goals is no easy feat.

In fact, sales goals have to be derived from the broader vision and mission of the company as a whole.

This does not mean your sales objectives should have just one huge, ambitious goal.

Instead, sales teams must convert these ambitious, overarching missions into smaller, achievable, measurable goals.

How Do You Set Sales Goals?

So, how do you set effective sales goals?

It all boils down to three simple goal-setting steps:

1. Define Your Sales Goals

The importance of defining your goals cannot be overstated. Defining your goals will help you track progress, get clarity, and help you avoid pitfalls.

Keep in mind that goals should be a result of research and evaluation. Don’t just pull them out of thin air. Evaluate the previous year’s KPIs, win rates, and other data points, and then define your sales goals for the coming term.

2. Create a Strong Sales Plan

A goal without a plan is just a wish, a dream. All your goals should be accompanied by a well-established plan of action.

Taking the example from above, “selling $10,000 worth of products each month,” let’s create a simple action plan for illustration.

Step 1: Create teams for various processes

Generating leads → marketing team
Qualifying leads → sales team
Following up → sales team

Step 2: Define goals for teams and members

Marketing team → should generate at least 20 leads a day
Sales team → should make five breakthrough calls per day for lead qualification
Sales team → should nurture the qualified leads and hand them over to the sales executive for deal closure.

Step 3: Assign tasks to members

Offer tools to help members complete tasks
Make use of gamification and leaderboards to motivate them

EngageBay sales goals task management — *EngageBay sales project management*

3. Track Your KPIs and Metrics

“Keep in mind, measurements are not just numbers, but stories.”
~ Pearl Zhu

Your team may not always be able to reach the intended quota. That’s because a lot of factors affect the end results – and some can even be external.

That’s why it is important to keep track of all your sales metrics so that you know exactly what’s going on.

There are two ways to do this.

The first, arguably outdated way, is to track everything manually.

The second, and statistically better way, is to use a CRM software.

An all-in-one CRM software like EngageBay can help you keep track of all your KPIs, leads, sales pipelines, deals, and customers, and also automate your processes.

sales dashboard in EngageBay — *Examples of EngageBay sales KPI dashboards*

8 Sales Goals Examples for Your Sales Team

Now that you know how to set sales goals, let’s check out a few great sales goal examples.

From CLV (customer lifetime value) to NPS (net promoter score) and win rates, sales goals can be of many types.

The trick here is not to overwhelm your sales team with too many goals – just take the key ones and focus on them until you’ve made great progress.

We’ve taken the most effective sales goals so that you can understand how sales goals are crafted to bring in revenue.

#1. Increasing Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value or CLV refers to a metric that measures the total revenue that can be reasonably generated from a single customer over time.

Sales reps and managers can use this data to identify and segment customers that bring in the most sales revenue. The goal here is to target these segments.

Why it’s important to increase CLV: Acquiring a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining one. That’s why it is logical to gain profits from existing customers.

#2. Lowering Customer Acquisition Costs

Customer acquisition cost or CAC refers to the cost of converting a prospect into a paid customer. It is a priority for any business to keep costs as low as possible, and the goal here is to improve qualified lead acquisition through scoring and segmentation.

Why it’s important to lower acquisition costs: CAC covers everything, from marketing, sales, tools, salaries, and other expenses incurred while acquiring a new customer. If your CAC is more than the profits generated or the lifetime value of your customers, your company will lose revenue.

#3. Reducing Customer Churn

Customer churn shows the rate at which customers stop using your services and products. A higher customer churn rate indicates that your products or customer support are not up to par.

One goal that sales reps can take up is to target high-scoring prospects.

Why it’s important to reduce customer churn: SaaS businesses are especially vulnerable to churn as the revenue is based on a subscription model with fewer customers. Keeping track of churn is of paramount importance as churn rates usually rise if left unchecked.

#4. Improving Closing Ratio

Closing ratio defines the number of closed deals compared to the number of proposals sent out. It indicates the efficiency of a sales professional or sales team.

Sales managers must track this metric as it shows which strategies result in better figures (and which ones don’t work).

Why it’s important to improve closing ratio: Improving your closing ratio signifies that you have more business and, by extrapolation, more money. Close ratio also motivates each sales rep to realize what it takes to close an account.

#5. Improving Win Rate

The average win rate refers to the rate at which the final list (or stage) of prospects gets converted to paid customers. Sales managers must aim to craft a viable sales strategy that helps reps close more deals.

Why it’s important to improve win rate: Win rate is one of the most important metrics and is usually measured by most sales leaders. Better win rates bring in more revenue and stronger standing against competitors.

#6. Shortening Sales Cycle

A sales cycle refers to the duration it takes to convert a lead into a customer. Businesses with shorter sales cycle spans tend to generate better revenue.

There’s no predefined ideal sales cycle length as different industries have different sales cycles. The goal here is to cut down the length of your sales cycle.

Why it’s important to shorten the sales cycle: A shorter sales cycle reduces the probability of things going wrong during the sales process. In addition, shorter sales cycles directly impact the bottom line as it allows sales reps to engage with more prospects (revenue growth).

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#7. Improving Average Deal Size

Average deal value is the average amount per closed deal. The goal of sales managers entails closing bigger deals through various means, which includes engaging with top-tier, profitable customers.

Sales reps can close deals with bundled services, upsell, and cross-sell.

Why it’s important to improve average deal size: A bigger deal offers higher profit margins and reduced cost of delivery. Bagging a bigger deal can also help flatten out the fluctuations in your sales trends.

#8. Improving NPS

Net Promoter Score or NPS shows the satisfaction levels of customers and indicates how likely customers are to recommend your services or products to others.

Keep in mind that sales reps can sometimes end up coercing clients to offer better ratings than they intend to. If this happens, you’ll see good NSP scores but not great customer retention rates or actual word-of-mouth promotion.

Why it’s important to improve NPS: More detracters can also mean higher customer churn. Tracking your genuine NPS can help you evaluate and improve customer loyalty and satisfaction, ultimately leading to business growth.

EngageBay sales goals dashboard example — *Source: Business Analyze*

We’ve seen some of the key sales goal examples and metrics, but the question remains: how do we quantify these goals?

By using the SMART goal framework.

The following section covers this in detail.

SMART Sales Goals Examples

What are SMART sales goals? How in the world do you set SMART goals?

The ‘SMART’ in SMART goal stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Having SMART goals ensure that your sales goals are realistic, sets a clear timetable, and eliminates guesswork.

Let’s convert all the sales goals mentioned above into SMART goals, shall we?

#1. In four months, our sales team will reduce churn by 15% by training sales reps to offer better support

Specific: The goal clearly specifies reducing customer churn.
Measurable: Customer churn can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: We’ve set an attainable goal of 15%.
Relevant: Improving support directly correlates with loyalty.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of four months.

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#2. We’ll increase our average customer lifetime value from $50K to $75K through discount campaigns in six months

Specific: The goal clearly specifies increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
Measurable: Customer Lifetime Value can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: Increasing from $50K to $75K is a realistic change.
Relevant: Promotional discount campaigns do improve CLV.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of six months.

#3. For the next five months, we’ll reduce customer acquisition costs by 20% by segmenting prospects into lists based on interests and utilize them for personalized marketing

Specific: The goal clearly specifies reducing customer acquisition costs.
Measurable: Customer acquisition costs (CAC) can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: A 15% reduction is feasible.
Relevant: Segmenting prospects helps better understand their needs, which correlates with lowering acquisition costs.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of five months.

#4. For the next three weeks, our sales team will schedule eight more qualified sales calls to increase closing rate

Specific: The goal clearly specifies improving closing ratio.
Measurable: Closing ratio can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: Eight calls is an attainable goal.
Relevant: Successful qualified sales calls can positively impact closing ratio.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of three weeks.

#5. As a sales manager, I want to increase win rate by 25% at the end of one year by rectifying our sales conversion strategy

Specific: The goal clearly specifies increasing win rate
Measurable: Win rate can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: Increasing win rate by 25% is a realistic goal.
Relevant: A more streamlined sales prospecting plan can improve win rate.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of one year.

#6. This month, I want to reduce sales cycle from four to two weeks by focusing on the highest-performing channels

Specific: The goal clearly specifies reducing sales cycle
Measurable: Sales cycle can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: The goal is feasible.
Relevant: Focusing on the highest-performing channel reduces sales cycle duration
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of one month.

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#7. In the next quarter, let’s increase average deal size by offering a 30% discount on upsold services when customers purchase the base service

Specific: The goal clearly specifies increasing average deal size.
Measurable: Average deal size can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: Assuming users will opt for upsold services when offered a discount is realistic.
Relevant: Upselling using discounts can increase average deal size.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of 3 months.

#8. For the next month, our sales team should improve NPS by increasing promoters by 10% and reducing detractors by 5% using root cause analysis

Specific: The goal clearly specifies improving the net promoter score.
Measurable: Net promoter score can be measured and tracked.
Attainable: Increasing promoters by 10% and decreasing detractors by 5% is an attainable goal.
Relevant: Conducting a root cause analysis can pinpoint the cause of low NPS, which can then help your sales organization rectify the issues.
Time-Bound: The goal has a duration of one month.

To summarize:

Normal Goal	SMART Goal
Increase Customer Lifetime Value	In four months, our sales team will reduce churn by 15% by training sales reps to offer better support
Lower Customer Acquisition Costs	We’ll increase our average customer lifetime value from $50K to $75K through discount campaigns in six months
Reduce Customer Churn	For the next five months, we’ll reduce customer acquisition costs by 20% by segmenting prospects into lists based on interests and utilize them for personalized marketing
Improve Closing Ratio	For the next three weeks, our sales team will schedule eight more qualified sales calls to increase closing rate
Improve Win Rate	As a sales manager, I want to increase win rate by 25% at the end of one year by rectifying our sales conversion strategy
Shorten Sales Cycle	This month, I want to reduce sales cycle from four to two weeks by focusing on the highest-performing channels
Improve Average Deal Size	In the next quarter, let’s increase average deal size by offering a 30% discount on upsold services when customers purchase the base service
Improve NPS	For the next month, our sales team should improve NPS by increasing promoters by 10% and reducing detractors by 5% using root cause analysis

Case Study: Digital Marketing Agency Uses EngageBay To Keep Track of Sales Goals and Reduce Churn by 15%

One of EngageBay’s early customers, a US-based digital marketing agency, had a tough time reaching sales quotas.

In fact, one of their quarterly sales target reports showed poor growth numbers.

In addition to this, the agency hit obstacle after obstacle:

It faced severe issues unifying marketing, sales, and customer support teams
The agency had no way of monitoring the sales performance of the team and sales agents
Outdated data due to silos and sheets was causing miscommunication and inefficiencies

According to the agency’s director Rowan T, EngageBay helped solve the ‘Excel’ problem first.

“Soon as we saw growth in lead generation, we realized that managing all that data on Excel sheets was not working. We first started looking for only a super affordable sales and lead data management tool, but later we came to use EngageBay for a lot more.”

EngageBay’s sales, marketing and client management tools helped the agency quantify its goals and track progress with ease.

EngageBay has an audience segmentation feature that helped the agency focus on buyer personas, while its intuitive and customizable sales activity dashboard offered a holistic view of the key sales metrics.

We regularly collect feedback from our users, and this is what Rowan said after using EngageBay for more than a year:

“With little effort, we went from shooting in the dark to setting up attainable, realistic sales goals; this reflected in our revenue growth too.”

Thousands of small companies use EngageBay to track their sales goals, offer value to their customers, and close deals faster.

Here’s another one of EngageBay’s happy customers recommending the software:

Wrapping Up: The ‘Goal’ of Setting Sales Goals

By now, you’ll have realized the importance of sales goals – it’s fascinating how each sales goal relates to both the company’s overarching vision and each individual’s path to success.

That said, having too many SMART goals can dilute effectiveness and efficiency – the very essence of having them in the first place.

“Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.”
~ Jeffrey Gitomer, sales leader and business trainer

In a nutshell, you need to have SMART goals for all the key metrics and then use a CRM software such as EngageBay to aid and keep track of these KPIs.

If you are a small business, EngageBay is the best option as it offers an all-in-one CRM software at affordable prices.

Our motto, after all, includes ‘sell faster.’

EngageBay sales goals software — *EngageBay offers a suite of sales tools to help you ‘sell faster’*

EngageBay also offers marketing automation, sales management, and customer support tools to help you improve your overall business process.

Interested? Sign up for free and book a quick demo with our experts.