Business goals for the year: turning "grow" into three targets your team can act on

"Grow this year" is not a goal your team can act on, because nobody can be behind on it. To make it one, split it into three numbers. How many orders do you want? How many quote requests does that need at your usual close rate? How many existing buyers must order again? Put one name and one date against each. The sum below uses figures that are all illustrative, so use your own records instead.

Why do goals like "grow by a good margin" fail?

Nobody can lose against them. A salesperson cannot tell on a Tuesday afternoon whether they are ahead or behind, and a goal that cannot be missed cannot steer anyone. It also tends to be set on the owner's hope for the year. The team may not believe it, so they nod and carry on as before.

Our post on setting sales targets for your team covers splitting one number across salespeople. This one comes earlier: choosing the numbers.

How do I build the three numbers from last year's records?

Work backwards from the order. Imagine an invented egg-tray and carton supplier in Namakkal who sells to poultry farms and egg wholesalers. The owner says they want to grow. Opening last year's invoices and quote file, they find, illustratively:

• 164 orders at an average of ₹18,000, about ₹29.52 lakh.
• 410 quotes sent, so 40 in every 100 became orders.
• 41 buyers in all, of whom 26 ordered more than once. The 164 orders over 41 buyers is about four orders for each.

The target is around ₹36 lakh, which at the same average is 200 orders. That is 36 more than last year. Where do the 36 come from?

If five more of the 41 buyers become regulars, and a regular places about four orders a year (the average worked out above), that is 20 orders from people the firm already knows. The remaining 16 must come from new quote requests. At a 40 per cent close rate, 16 orders need 40 more quotes, so 450 in the year instead of 410.

That table is the whole plan. It also shows something the single word "grow" hid. More than half of the extra orders come from people already served. The plan has a weak joint, though: a regular's four orders is an average, and in the first year only three of the five new regulars reach it, which leaves the owner chasing 8 more quotes by August.

Where do the numbers come from if I have never tracked them?

Use the last twelve months of invoices and quote files. Count the buyers, the orders and the repeaters. Look in WhatsApp for quote requests. It is untidy and takes an afternoon, but your own records are a better place to start than a guess.

If a figure cannot be rebuilt, say so, and make "start recording it" the first goal for that line. That is a legitimate goal, and it beats a guess dressed up as a target.

How do I test whether a goal is actionable?

Ask four questions of each goal.

• Can the named person change this number by something they do?
• Will they know where they stand without asking you?
• Does it have a date?
• If it is missed, will anyone be able to say why?

"Increase brand awareness" fails the first and the last. "Bring in 450 quote requests, counted by source" passes if somebody owns the channels that bring them. Where a goal fails, rewrite it until it passes, or drop it.

What if my team does not believe the owner's number?

Ask them to build it from the bottom, as above. If their version comes out lower than yours, the gap is the discussion: more enquiries, a better close rate, or bigger orders. Argue about which of those you can change, not about the total. A target that the team built from their own figures is one they will check on a Tuesday.

What about goals that are not sales numbers?

Cash, hiring, a new unit and the owner's own time are real goals. Keep them on a separate short list. The mistake is mixing them into the three. A team asked to hit twelve goals can rarely say which one comes first.

What goes wrong?

Two things go wrong often. The first is setting the revenue goal and leaving the enquiry goal blank. If the supplier wants 200 orders but does nothing about quotes or close rate, the plan depends on luck. State the quote target beside the order target and check each quarter which half is short.

The second is dropping the regular-buyer goal because it is the least exciting. Buyers who reorder cost nothing to find. If a quarter of last year's buyers have not ordered again, ring them before spending on anyone new.

This does not suit everyone. If you are a one-person business whose goal is to stay busy and be paid on time, the diary and the bank are your goals. A three-row table adds nothing.

Making the three numbers part of the week

Put the three numbers on a page the team sees and give them ten minutes in the weekly meeting. Ask each owner two things: are you ahead or behind, and what changed? When a number does not move, ask whether the goal was set right.

This week, pull last year's invoices and fill in the first column of the table for your own firm: orders, quotes, repeat buyers. The sales process hub shows the steps those numbers pass through. If you want the goals built with your own figures, see annual revenue planning and tell us what you need.