Setting Realistic Sales Goals

Marketers - If you are given impossible-to-hit targets, it's your fault, not the business. You are the problem. As a marketing leader, you must work with the founder, sales leader, revops leader, CFO, and whoever is part of the planning process to build realistic scenarios. Where we go wrong is that we nod and thank the team for giving us a top-down bookings model based solely on headcount capacity. Oh, and, where we didn't have any input. If you accept the model without pushing back, you've just signed up for a plan that's completely (more than likely) disconnected from reality. Your job isn't just to execute the plan; it's to influence the GTM model and plan. Challenge the assumptions made by finance, the sales leader, and the CEO. Bring data and historical data to the table so the business can see targets that are ambitious but also achievable. Sure, they will still be crazy large. But it's important to ground the crazy in reality. When marketing is given an impossible goal, it fails, and the entire business does. If you just take what is handed to you, you are not leading and are doing your team a disservice. So, where do you start? 1) Review the initial top-down plan. Don't reject it. Review it. 2) Model a bottoms-up pipeline plan by source (inbound, bdr, ae, partners, channel, etc). If you don't have historic numbers, take the last quarter and make a guess. It's better to be tracking against a number than not. 3) Give three options (Better, Best, Bestestest) and have a conversation about what it's going to take to get there. That means it's on the entire GTM team to meet the goals. It also helps in breaking down silos between sales and marketing. Cheers!

There's only 1 proven way to grow dramatically in sales and in life: Set ambitious goals that force you to take drastic action. The key is to have a strong WHY for each of your goals. Then outline the steps required to achieve them. I call these RAD goals. R: REASON A: AMBITIOUS GOAL D: DRASTIC ACTION Here are 3 examples of RAD goals I have achieved using this formula: / RAD GOAL 1 / Buy a $1.8M house, even though I could only “afford” $1.3M at the time. WHY: Provide our family with our “dream home” close to the beach in Los Angeles rather than have to move where it was cheaper to afford REQUIRED DRASTIC ACTION: I had to sell at least 4m in ACV which was double what I had ever sold. To get there, I had to sell differently and decided to invest $25k to join a sales mastermind and develop myself and my selling skills RESULT: Sold 10M from 2018-2019, purchased our dream home, and built our dream backyard shortly thereafter. / RAD GOAL 2 / Use my gifts every day to serve others and make a positive impact WHY: Had a near death experience during which I prayed to God and made a promise to start helping others and stop being selfish. I had to keep that promise. REQUIRED DRASTIC ACTION: I decided to post a short video every day on Instagram IGTV focused on helping others (365 day challenge) RESULT: I started and grew my personal brand, got very comfortable on camera making videos, and made a positive impact in the lives of others. / RAD GOAL 3 / Retire from corporate sales to run my coaching business full time WHY: The calling was now too big to ignore, and I knew I was ready to go ALL IN REQUIRED DRASTIC ACTION: Build and execute a business plan which would allow my “side hustle” income to surpass my Salesforce income RESULT: Retired from Corporate Sales in September 2021 and my company revenue ended at nearly $600K in 2021, which was more than I made at Salesforce the same year. The coolest thing about RAD goals is once you hit them, your benchmark gets raised and they become your new norm. What are your RAD goals for 2024 and beyond?

Years ago, the late billionaire Charlie Munger asked his head of sales: "Are we lying, cheating, or stealing? I've never seen growth this fast." His head of sales was Chet Holmes. Author of The Ultimate Sales Machine. Chet sold advertising for one of Charlie's magazines. When he started the job, they were struggling: Dead last in market share out of 15 magazines in their space. But Chet had an idea: He learned that out of 2,000 advertisers in their space, 167 of them accounted for 95% of the industry revenue (!) He made a list of those 167 and stopped pursuing the other 1,833 altogether. Cold turkey. His new approach was sending direct mail with physical objects every two weeks, and followed up with a phone call and fax (this was before email). Twice a month like clockwork he'd mail. Twice a month like clockwork he'd call. Twice a month like clockwork he'd fax. Four months later: Zero responses. But he knew he had to break through the noise and refused to give up. The next month, things changed. He landed his first big customer: Xerox. The biggest advertising deal in the company's history. By month six? He landed 28 of the 167. And had doubled advertising revenue. His magazine went from 15 to 1 in market share. He continued to double sales every year for three years. At the end of three years, he acquired all 167 of those accounts. Every. Single. One. In his book, Chet talks about this strategy: "The goal is this approach is to take your ideal buyers from - I've never heard of them, to - What is this company I keep hearing about, to - I do business with them." Here's the modern-day lesson: Your dream accounts don't need a single great cold email. You think sending a few great emails is going to do the trick. Yet here's the reality of your buyers: - Hundreds of emails every day - back to back zoom calls dusk to dawn - cold call after cold call, most of them ignored - Slack's lit up like a Christmas tree by noon They probably never even SAW that email you spent 20 min writing. If you're going to break through the clutter? - make a list of your top accounts - design a long-term series of touches - continue the drum beat for a long time You can't do this with every account. But you certainly can with your top 20%. Lock in and go.

People are often shocked when I tell them that at Enjay, my sales team has ZERO financial incentives. No commissions. No "deal closing" bonuses. "Limesh, how does the team function? What drives them?" सच बात ये है, I used to think incentives were the only fuel. But over 20+ years, I realised something uncomfortable. 👉 When business owners rely solely on financial incentives to drive sales, they are being lazy. It is their way of saying: "I don't want to teach you.  I don't want to build a process.  I don't want to create sales material.  Just take this money and bring me results." It is a shortcut. And shortcuts kill "Dhandha" in the long run. 👉 Here is the reality of our office:  We hire freshers.  If I dangle a carrot in front of a fresher who doesn't know how to sell, it’s not motivation.  It’s cruelty.  They need training, not pressure. 👉 Also, heavy incentives often breed "Toxic High Performers"—people who hit targets but destroy the company culture. 👍 So, how do we hit our numbers without the greed factor? 1. We Plan Together. Marketing, Support, Dev, and Sales sit together. We decide the goal. It is not dictated from the top; it is agreed upon mutually by the team members. 2. We Predict the Roadblocks. We ask, "What will stop us from hitting this goal?" We identify the bottlenecks before they happen. 3. We Monitor Execution, Not Just Results. We don't wait for the 30th of the month to scream at people. We watch the daily inputs. 4. We Focus on Potential. Incentives reward performance. Systems nurture potential. 👍 Business is an Infinite Game.  We aren't running a sprint to hit a quarter-end number.  We are running a marathon to stay relevant for decades. 🌹 Stop trying to bribe your team to work.  Build a system that makes their success inevitable. Thoughts?

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞/𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦. After two decades of sitting in those goal-setting rooms, here's my take: The number is never the problem. The absence of a path is. When a target feels impossible, your team does not need more motivation. They need more clarity. So here is what I do every single time: 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝. 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲. Break the big number into cohorts, and then cohorts into channels. Break channels into daily inputs that an individual salesperson can actually control and own. A $500k target is paralyzing. But break it down using the known conversion rate and that's forty leads per day per rep. Add a clear pipeline review cadence every Tuesday morning to guide the team before they need to ask you for it. Same number. Completely different energy in the room. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧. 𝐈𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. The best sales leaders I have worked with are not necessarily the best motivators. They are the best architects. They make the invisible visible. 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐚 𝐪𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐚. 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐩. Because people do not run harder when you raise the target. They run harder when they can see the finish line.

Bad goal setting can cripple your business (I know from firsthand experience). Here's how to set goals that propel your business forward. Step 1: Analyze last year’s performance. You can’t set the right goals without the correct information. So, take some time to gather data from the previous year to find areas of strength and weakness. Look at your: Revenue streams — what are your most profitable areas? Your biggest cost centers? Sales & marketing — can you spot trends in customer acquisition or marketing ROI? Operations — where is your business bottlenecked? Where might you be overstaffed? Employee performance — look at productivity and churn. Which direction are things going? — Step 2: Brainstorm areas for improvement. Write down all the possible things you could work on. This is a great group activity for your leadership team or even the whole company (depending on your size). The data you’ve collected in step 1 should give you some idea of opportunity areas. One tip: don’t discount an idea just because it’s hard. Often the biggest impact things are hard to do. But you should be realistic about the effort required to get something done, and its chances of success. — Step 3: Set SMART goals Specific: Define clear and precise goals. Instead of saying "increase sales," say "increase sales by 12% in the next 6 months." Measurable: Ensure each goal has quantifiable metrics. E.g. "Reduce customer acquisition costs by 15% by the end of the year." Achievable: Set realistic goals based on your resources, budget and other constraints. E.g. if you have limited cash, avoid goals that would severely impact your monthly cash flow. Relevant: Align goals with your overall business objectives. Ensure they address the key areas for improvement identified earlier. Time-bound: Set deadlines for each goal. E.g. "launch a new service by Q3." — Step 4: Develop an Action Plan For each goal, create an action plan that outlines: Steps and Milestones: Break down each goal into smaller, manageable tasks. Set milestones to track progress. Resources: Identify the resources needed (time, money, personnel) and ensure they are available. Responsibilities: Assign tasks to specific employees. Ensure everyone understands their role and what is expected of them. Timeline: Establish a timeline with deadlines for each task and milestone. Doubling down on one point there: always assign tasks to a single person. They can still bring in other people to contribute, but it’s one person’s responsibility to get it across the finish line. — Step 5: Monitor and Adjust Goals are not static. Regularly check your progress, and adjust based on new insights or changing circumstances. Schedule monthly and/or quarterly reviews to keep everything on track. Having a simple KPI tracker is a good way to keep tabs on things. Make sure you’re regularly checking in, and ask people to flag any roadblocks or necessary adjustments as soon as they identify them.

This is the most underrated problem I've seen when trying to build or expand partnership GTM: Leadership is initially fully behind a new partnership, excited about its potential, but that enthusiasm never makes its way down to the sales teams who are expected to execute. Without alignment, even the best partnership can stall before it has a chance to succeed. Why does this happen? Sales teams are often focused on their core products, and if a partnership doesn’t clearly benefit them or fit into their day-to-day operations, it becomes an afterthought. To turn things around, you need to make sure your partnership incentives, compensation, and training are in lockstep with the teams that will be selling your product. Here’s how to align incentives and drive results: 1. Ensure your incentives are compelling enough for frontline teams. It’s not enough to excite leadership—sales teams need a clear, tangible reason to sell your product. - Introduce a financial incentive or bonus structure that’s competitive with what reps earn on their core products. This could be a one-time bonus for the first sale, or an ongoing commission that rewards consistent effort. -Tie the incentive to their existing sales goals. If your product helps them hit their targets more easily, they’ll naturally prioritize it. 2. Structure partner compensation to motivate co-selling. If your partner compensation doesn’t align with their core goals, they won’t push your product. - Design a compensation plan that aligns with both the partner’s and your business objectives. For instance, if your partner’s core offering is hardware, incentivize bundling your software as part of the sale to create a win-win situation. - Offer performance-based incentives that reward partners for hitting key milestones—whether that’s a certain number of units sold, a specific revenue target, or even customer engagement metrics. Keep it simple and measurable. 3. Provide consistent training and engagement so your product isn’t just another checkbox. Sales teams won’t advocate for your product if they don’t fully understand its value or how to sell it. - Develop ongoing, bite-sized training sessions that fit into their schedules. Instead of overwhelming them with lengthy sessions, focus on 15-minute, high-impact trainings that teach them how to identify the right opportunities. -Pair training with real-time support. Join sales calls, offer one-pagers, and provide direct assistance during key customer engagements. When they feel supported, they’re more likely to feel confident pushing your product. This kind of alignment can make the difference between a stalled partnership and a thriving one. When sales teams are motivated, equipped, and incentivized to sell your product, the partnership stops being just another checkbox—it becomes a key driver of growth.

“Know your customers so well that your product fits them perfectly and sells itself.” That’s what Melody McCloskey, CEO of StyleSeat, said when reflecting on how she turned skepticism into success. When she pitched her “OpenTable for beauty” concept, Silicon Valley wasn’t interested. Despite the beauty industry’s massive market size, investors dismissed it as insignificant. McCloskey didn’t waste time trying to convince investors. Investors who were not her core audience and by in large not make-up consumers. Instead, she focused on the people who mattered most: the beauty professionals she aimed to serve. She spent 18 months bootstrapping StyleSeat. Melody went directly to stylists and salon owners to understand their deepest pain points. They didn’t just need a scheduling tool - they needed a platform that could help them grow their revenue and save time. She listened, refined her solution, and proved its value with her first users. By showing tangible results—like stylists doubling their revenue in a year - she built undeniable proof that her platform worked. Armed with data and a clear vision, she went back to investors with a powerful message: StyleSeat wasn’t just an easy to dismiss tool - it was transforming the beauty industry. That focus and clarity ultimately helped her secure funding and scale StyleSeat into the platform we know today. The results speak for themselves: - Over 155 million beauty appointments powered. - $10.6 billion in revenue generated for small businesses. ➡️ Here’s the sales lesson: The better you know your ideal customers, the easier it is to build trust, deliver results, and scale. For sales leaders, this means teaching your team how to focus their time and energy on the right accounts. It’s about moving away from “boil the ocean” tactics and zeroing in on where your product can have the greatest impact. When your reps understand the pain points, priorities, and potential outcomes that matter most to your ideal customers, their outreach becomes more than just a message - it becomes a solution. This level of focus doesn’t just drive short-term wins; it creates the foundation for long-term growth. Melody McCloskey didn’t try to sell to everyone. She prioritized a selective focus on the right customers. The customers who could benefit most from her solution. That decision didn’t just fuel growth. It changed an entire industry. 📌 How are you helping your team prioritize the right prospects for long-term success?

"Nobody hits President's Club out here. This team hasn't performed in years.” Day one as the new sales manager. A senior rep walked up and told me that to my face. The numbers backed him up. Worst team in the region. Worst region in the company. Years of missed quota. I had just been promoted. My first manager seat. If the team missed again, the next conversation with my VP wasn't going to be about turning it around. It was going to be about who fills the seat next. First 30 days I gave zero pep talks. I made zero changes. I sat down and pulled the data. Where deals stalled. What separated the few wins from the many losses. How reps actually spent their week versus what they reported. The problem was invisible to everyone. No clear KPIs. No scorecards. No accountability structure. The reps weren't lazy. They were running on guesswork. Here is what I installed. #1 Five to eight leading indicators per rep. Not fifty. Visible at every level. Each rep knew their number on Monday morning. I knew their number. The team knew their number. #2 Weekly 1:1s built on deal coaching, not status updates. Pipeline reviews built on deal inspection, not pipeline inspection. Skill development every single week. #3 A success playbook. Day one through quota attainment. What does a perfect day look like. A perfect week. What are the core KPIs. How do you actually run discovery. How do you manage your territory. Q1: 115% to quota. First time the team hit number in years. Same reps. Same market. Same product. New system. That year: President's Club. I got promoted to director of the market in 4 years with 85-plus reports. Every sales manager I left in place has hit President's Club every year since. The systems kept running after I left. That is the difference between a tactic and a system. Your frontline managers and the systems they run will move your number more than your CRM, your methodology, or your latest tool. Most leaders invest in everything except the layer that compounds.

“𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁. 𝗪𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 $𝟮𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.” I heard a version of that line at appraisal time for about 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 when I was an associate. And I took it seriously. Not because I was naïve, but because I trusted the person I worked for… and I didn’t yet have the pattern recognition to clock what was going on. It was only as I hit year three of hearing it that I finally thought: Hang on… t𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰. Today, I’d spot that in five minutes. Back then, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. The context mattered: ✅ 1,800 billable hours ✅ no BD budget ✅ no BD training ✅ no partner title ✅ no real guidance beyond “take people for coffees” If you’re being asked to generate substantial new business with none of the inputs… 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽. 🎯 And it’s not always malicious. Sometimes the person setting the target has 20-year institutional relationships and hasn’t had to build a book from scratch. And yes, in other places it is 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦: keep talented people grinding, always “𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦”. ⚙️ Either way, the point is simple: 𝗜𝗻𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. 𝗔 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻. 🧠 If you’re being measured on BD, ask for 𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗧 goals* and pay particular attention to the 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿: 𝗔: 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗥: 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 And to be clear: 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀: 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿. ✅ One last thing. If you’re being asked to hit goals 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺, don’t just carry it quietly and hope it sorts itself out. Ask the obvious question: “𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟭𝟮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀?” 💬 (Time, BD budget, training, warm intros, internal sponsorship.) Because if none of that changes… the outcome won’t either. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂? *𝘚𝘔𝘈𝘙𝘛 = 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤, 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘈𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦-𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥.