72 Setting Your Sales And Marketing Goals

Why Are Goals Important?

Knowing the mountain you are climbing, and what you want the view to be like when you get to the top, is important to think about before you start to prepare for the trip. Having a destination to go for creates direction and focus.

Clear sales and marketing goals that both you and your team create and commit to are a vital step to a successful marketing plan.

Your Challenge

Your challenge will be to make sure that the goals which you create are SMART. SMART is a simple way of creating goals that are meaningful to you. Your goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. If they are woolly, unachievable and completely irrelevant to your vision for the future then it is pointless creating them in the first place. So your first challenge will be to make sure that your goals pass the SMART test.

How To Make Your Goals Smart

Specific

• What is the goal/target specifically?
• Write it as if you have already achieved it.

Measurable

• How will you know you have achieved your goal?
• What will have happened or be happening?
• How will you measure the results?

 

You will need to have something tangible that proves your results.

Achievable

• Is this goal something that is within your own or your team's capability?
• What resources do you have/need to make it happen?
• Do you believe that is it possible?

Relevant

• How is this goal relevant to your vision for your business?

Time Bound

• When do you want to achieve it by?
• When can it be achieved?

Setting Your Own Sales And Marketing Goals – Special Response Checklist

• Look back over your business vision.
• Remind yourself of some of the things you want to achieve with your marketing.
• Create some broad sales and marketing goals to give you some direction and focus to start with.
• Now break these broad areas down into some key areas – sales revenue, generating new customers, building business with existing customers, profile building, website marketing.
• Consider the sales and marketing goals you have for each section.
• Write them down – are they SMART?
• Can you break any of them down into specific targets?

Put These Goals To The Smart Test

Sales Goals

• To reach a total revenue of £250,000 by the end of the next financial year.
• To achieve a profit level of 70%.

New Customers

• Ten new customers spending £3,000 per annum by December 2007.
• Five new customers spending £300 per month.

Existing Customer

• To retain 75% of our existing customer base.
• To increase the spend of 50% of our existing customer base by 10%.

Profile Building

• To build our profile within x area by achieving five publications regularly publishing our articles.
• To achieve three new poster and billboard sites.
• To create an opportunity to appear on local TV or radio during 2007.

Website Marketing

• To complete our new site by x date.
• To set up a Google advert campaign by x date.
• To complete our search engine submission package by x date.
• To research quality links for our site by x date.
• To achieve ten quality website links.

How To Use This Information

Once you have set your goals you will need to create a process for ensuring that they stay at the forefront of both your own and your team's mind. You may have them displayed in your office and talked about and reviewed at meetings. You will need to do whatever it takes to keep the focus. A goal will not miraculously happen as a result of creating it in the first place. It is like a seed – to grow it needs to be fed and watered. You will need to take appropriate action to make it happen.

73 Developing A Budget

What Is A Budget?

A budget is the amount you estimate spending on your business marketing over a defined period of time. A budget is the amount required to support the resources you will need to achieve the goals you have set. Your budget must balance with your estimated sales revenue figures. It must be an amount that assists in moving your business forward but doesn't bankrupt you in the process. Your marketing budget may be one of many budgets that you set for your business.