SMART Goals & Competencies Guide for Your Sales Team

Setting the right employee goals is half the battle won. Companies invest lots of time, effort and money to find innovative employee goals management. You may follow SMART goals, KPIs, OKRs or other approaches but it all starts with one very basic thing – defining the precise goal at individual, team and organizational levels.

Every employee has unique goals based on their work roles.  For instance, Salespeople may have a goal for customer acquisition, revenue targets, etc.  QA Manager may have a goal of implementing the ISO 9000 process and getting the certification.  Facilities manager may have a goal of having a new facility ready by the year-end.  HR manager may have a goal of hiring and onboarding 150 new employees.

Your goals can be short term or long term. But you should be able to track the progress throughout the goal period, review the achievements and assess the performance of your employees continuously. It gives an edge as deviations and disruptions can be detected early and rectified. When the progress falls short you can start improvising your process and get back on track. All these are possible only if you have precise and definite goals.

What is a SMART goals management system?

Only if your goals are SMART, you can able to reap the desired results.

To make your goals SMART, you have to make it

Specific – Define the goals clearly

Measurable – Define the milestones to measure the progress consistently

Achievable – Identify the skills and resources needed to achieve the goals realistically

Result-focused – Focus on the results and measure the outcomes

Time-bound – Fix a time-frame to achieve the goal

SMART goals are critical for managing the performance of your employees. Easy and simple to use Employee goal management software helps you set and manage your employee goals.

Sample goal form | Synergita

Here are the SMART goals library and competency library for your sales team.

SMART Goals Library for Sales Team

The Sales Goals Library deals with the functional goals of the sales professionals – be it sales executives, corporates sales managers, sales – operations head and sales – VP. It can be tweaked and reframed to fit the organizations’ needs.

Sales Goals/KPI		Description
Customer Acquisition	Qualify Prospects	Creating the ideal customer profile Identify the potential customers need or desire for the product or service Understand their financial prowess to buy
	Understand Customer Buying Process	Identify the persons who make the buying decision Time frame of the customer to make the buying decision and purchase
	Handle Objection Effectively	Understand your customers’ real concern Address their concerns sincerely to build credibility
	Close Business on Time	Create a sense of urgency such as a deal with a deadline to close the sale quickly
Sales Target	Forecast Accurately	Consider business environment, trends of your product or service, lifecycle of your product to forecast sales Use past sales data model to develop a realistic forecast Implement rolling forecasts with consistent periods
	Understand Your Sales Process	Clear understanding of the steps involved in your sales process If possible customize the sales process to the specific prospect Determine at which step each of your prospects is at present
	Negotiate for Mutual Success	Negotiate smartly and create a win-win deal for your company as well as customers
	Achieves Revenue Targets	Breakdown your revenue targets into quarterly goals Improve prospecting, pipeline building and reduce the length of the sales process to achieve your goals faster
Pipeline Building	Engages C Level Executives	Build a long-term relationship with C-level executives Ability to connect and engage them at their standards
	Leverage Referrals	Ask referrals from existing customers to build a strong pipeline
	Sells Business Values and Results	Show your prospects the solution to their problem, the business values and results they can achieve

Competency Library for Sales Team

Competencies are contributing factors such as skills, abilities and personal attributes that enable you to achieve performance excellence and therefore result in organizational success. Competency may not have a direct impact on your performance metrics. But the lack of it adversely affects the overall team and organizational performance.
This library lists the sample set of business and personal competencies required for Sales function. This library may be used as a guideline for choosing the right set of competencies for your sales team.

Business Competency	Description
Understand Customer’s Industry	Understand customer’s industry-specific needs and pain points before making the initial contact
Connect Product/Service to Customer’s Business	Customize the solution to fit the customer’s business
Business Acumen	Analyze the prospect’s personality at first sight and dynamically adapt the best approach to connect with them
Problem Solving	Use analytical and creative thinking to solve the problem quickly and efficiently
Organizational Skills	Managing the team, projects, schedules, priority activities efficiently
Customer Satisfaction Management	Manage, measure and improve customer satisfaction at all stages of the buying cycle
Political or Organizational Savvy	Exhibiting sincerity, Interpersonal skills, ability to network and social intelligence to charm and influence your prospects
Consultative Business Approach	Use the product knowledge to customize the solution to fit the perspectives’ needs and convey it in their familiar style

Personal Competency	Description
Communication Skills	Adapt personal communication style to that of customer organization and key individuals Deliver messages clearly through verbal and non-verbal communication forms Exhibit professional, respectful and convincing communication style Establish credibility with diverse people through adaptive communication Can develop and deliver compelling presentations
Leadership	Social & emotional intelligence Managing conflicts efficiently Decision making Prudence & commitment Effective delegation of tasks & empowerment of team
Initiative	Proactive in identifying issues and new ways of solving it Proactive in finding new opportunities and act quickly to monetize it
Reliability	Dependable in completing tasks and meeting deadlines
Interpersonal Skills	Proactive in identifying issues and new ways of solving it Work in a collaborative environment Effective communication and listening skills
Appetite for Learning	Enthusiastic to learn new techniques and skills Open to learning new things from peers
Critical Thinking	Foster independent and reflective thinking Identify biases, draw the inference and make proper decisions
Integrity	Exhibiting consistency in your principle and approach Committed to doing the right thing in all circumstances

Swing into Action

The sales – goals & competency library helps you frame your organization specific SMART goals and competencies for different roles in your sales team, say sales executive, sales associate, sales manager, sales – VP, etc.

Set the SMART goals for your sales team, follow up diligently and bag scores of customers.

Goals management is the backbone of the performance management process. Synergita has a robust goals management feature that helps you set and manage employee goals throughout the year.

Are you ready to start setting SMART goals for your organization using Synergita?

Sign Up here for Synergita live demo.