Sales management · Quotas and targets
Reps can all beat their quotas while the company misses its target.
A sales quota is the figure a rep is expected to deliver in a period. Two checks run through this page: whether every rep's quota sums to the company target, and whether each role's blend of expense, activity, margin and volume quotas fits what the business needs this year.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A sales quota is the figure a rep is expected to deliver in a period. Two checks run through this page: whether every rep's quota sums to the company target, and whether each role's blend of expense, activity, margin and volume quotas fits what the business needs this year.
A tiles-and-sanitaryware distributor in Kochi sets its company target at a figure that makes the owner comfortable, then gives each of six reps a quota by adding ten percent to last year's sales. By December five reps have beaten their quota. The company is short of its target, because the six quotas never added up to it.
The first check is arithmetic. Add every rep's quota, add the house accounts nobody owns, and compare the total with the company target. The second check is about what the quota measures. Volume alone rewards discounts, margin alone starves new accounts, and neither says anything about calls made or costs spent.
The owner sets the priority for the year. The sales manager picks the types and weights for each role and is measured on the same scorecard. Your accounts person confirms that the data for each measure exists monthly.
It follows the sales goals set in the sales process and the cost ratio on the benchmark page, and it comes before the territory and incentive pages that attach pay to these figures.
Where this sits
Topic 9 of 14 in sales management: quotas and targets. Setting targets reps accept and the business can afford.
- The topic before
- Sales expenses
- The topic after
- Forecasting and budgeting
If you want this done for you
The target was set in a meeting, not built from what your team can carry.
The work
What this is actually like.
“Quotas that do not add up”
If six quotas total less than the company target, the shortfall is built in. If they total much more, reps are set up to fail. Add them on one sheet with house accounts and the gap between the two numbers is the first thing to explain.
“Territory potential comes first”
A quota that ignores what a territory can yield punishes the rep with a thin market. Estimate potential from the number of dealers, the size of the market or last year's enquiries, and set the quota against it, so that the thin territory is not asked for the thick territory's number.
“Pick two or three types, not six”
A rep with eight measures pursues none. Volume and margin for a closer, volume and activity for a new-business rep, activity and expense for a trainee. Weights add to a hundred, and the largest weight is the thing you most need this year.
“Distributor sales are not the end sale”
If you sell through distributors, set the primary target on what the distributor buys from you and a secondary target on what the distributor sells on. Add an activity measure such as lines per call, so a rep does not fill the distributor's godown and walk away.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The roll-up table
One row per rep: territory potential, volume quota, margin quota, activity quota, expense quota. Below them, house accounts, then the total, then the company target and the gap. The owner and sales manager fill it together.
Result: Finished when the gap line is zero or has a written explanation.
The purpose check
A tick list of what the quota system is meant to do: set direction, control spend, judge performance, set pay and manage expenses. Beside each tick, the quota that does it.
Result: Finished when every purpose has a quota behind it or is struck out with a reason.
The scorecard per role
For each role, two or three quota types with a target, unit and weight, plus the monthly data source for each. A closer, a field rep and a distributor manager will have different cards.
Result: Finished when weights total one hundred and each measure has a named data source.
The manager's scorecard
The sales manager's own targets, built from the rep scorecards so that the manager wins when the team wins. Put it on the same page as the rep cards.
Result: Finished when the manager's card could not be met while the team's cards fail.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Why do quotas rarely add up to the company target?
Should every rep have the same quota?
Can we have a quota for activity as well as sales?
Who signs off the quotas?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
Services
The rest of quotas and targets
Or read all of sales management.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.