Sales Job Motivation

What Are Goals?

They aren’t your dreams or wants, the ultimate rewards for your hard work. No, goals are where the rubber meets the road; they are the maps of the terrain, the way to use your work to get to the things you really want. They’re a bridge between the present and the future. For that reason, I like to take a bit of a different approach to goals. Rather than think about what it is you want to do, or are expected by your sales manager to do, I’d encourage you to work backwards. That is, start with those dreams you thought so much about, and are working so hard to nurture. Whether it’s a quiet place in the country, a portfolio stuffed with blue chip investments, or that luxury car, picture the thing you’ve set your heart on having. What will it take for you to reach your dream? More specifically, how much money will you need to earn, and how soon? These figures, transformed into meaningful targets, are a big part of the process, so if you don’t know, find out. Search online, talk to a salesperson, visit a dealer – do whatever you have to do to find out what you’re really going to need. Once you have, write that number at the top of a piece of paper. This is going to be the dollar amount that you need to raise in order to reach your dream. Whether it’s ten dollars, ten thousand, or ten million isn’t the point; knowing what you’re aiming for is. It’s important to point out that right now isn’t the time to be reasonable. If your ultimate dream is to buy Private Island that costs fifteen million dollars, and that’s what you really want out of life, then write it down.

What Are Motivational Goals?

A good motivational goal is any one that drives you forward, so now is no time to censor your wishes. Next, attach a time line to your goal. Decide how long you think it should take you to reach. This is an area where common sense should come into play. If you’re deeply in debt, then buying a Ferrari next week is probably going to be next to impossible. On the other hand, never set your dreams so far out that it feels like you’re never going to reach them. A dream that’s too far into the future isn’t all that motivating; you need something that’s going to compel you to work today. This is where the working backwards part comes into play. Take that dream, and the price tag you attached to it, and divide by the number of years or months you want to reach it in. As an example, your dream might be a beach house that costs half a million dollars, and you’d like to buy it within ten years. You now know that you need to save fifty thousand dollars per year. This becomes your intermediate goal. How many new accounts will you have to open in order to meet that figure? If you know, write it down. If you don’t, find someone who does, or make your best estimate. Every industry and territory are a bit different, but the chances are good that you or your sales manager has calculated the average value of each of your accounts (which is helpful information for you to know anyway), so you can use that to get pretty close to an exact figure. From there, you just have to figure out how many calls, letters, appointments, or other activities you’re going to have to generate to find those new clients. For instance, let’s say that you sell industrial equipment and supplies, and that your average new client nets you $2,500 in commissions. Certainly, you’ll have bigger orders and smaller ones, but you’ve calculated that most of them will come in somewhere around that number. From that basis, you can infer that you’ll need to find twenty new customers – about one every two and a half weeks – if you’re going to meet your goals. If you know that you need to call on five prospects to get one appointment, and that for each five you meet, you’ll typically close one into new business, then you can say with confidence that you’re going to have to make five hundred calls (since it takes twenty-five to find a new client) in order to reach your goal. Could you make ten calls a week to achieve your greatest dream? Would you make twenty, or even fifty?

Are They Truly Motivational Goals?

If you wouldn’t, then one of two things is probably happening. In the first case, you might just not be cut out for sales. This is a field where the truly self-driven succeed, and if the idea of having what you want most in life won’t compel you to find new business, then there probably isn’t anything that will. That being said, it’s more likely you just haven’t found whatever it is that you really want yet. For whatever reason, either because you haven’t thought about it long enough, or you’re afraid to admit to yourself what you really desire, you’ve just failed to hit on your true motivator. Once people find their passion in life, and the way to get to it, they tend to be relentless in their pursuit. So, if your dream doesn’t give you the urge to sell, it’s probably just not the right one for you. Remember, your goals are just going to be daily, weekly, and quarterly targets that carry you to your dream – make sure they’re leading you somewhere you actually want to go.