Don't Tank your Sales Team with Unrealistic Expectations
Keys to provide clear context and expectations
Unrealistic or Changing Expectations
Both teams and individuals can crumple under the weight of unrealistic expectations.
Another way to completely crush the soul of your team is by changing goals midway through the month, quarter, or year.
Most of you would agree that unrealistic expectations and changing goals are bad, but both happen far too often.
There are lots of reasons that we could name - over a beer after month-end lamenting why we didn’t hit the goal this month. But that would be like Monday morning quarterbacking after the loss of the 49ers in the Super Bowl. Not super useful.
Here’s the fix: be clear on what’s most important to the business (context) and link what’s important to the goals you set (expectations).
So easy to say in a sentence, really hard to execute. But remember the two things that are helpful: context and expectations.
Context:
Most sales goals are products of a business need somewhere up the chain of command. The budget process, the promises the exec team made to the board, the return the market expects from your share price, or as simple as what the business needs to break even.
The point is, as a sales leader, understanding why helps.
Why? Because if you care about high performance, buy-in from your team, and want to give meaning to the expectations you are going to set, then you should spend time connecting the dots for the team.
Context provides purpose. Gives meaning. Creates buy-in.
Two examples:
“Our goal this year is to hit $15M in ARR because if we hit this, we’ve moved ourselves into the #2 market share position which allows us to access our next round of funding. That means all of our employees' options increase in value!”
“We are looking to win 500 new clients this year. If we do this, we are positioned to beat our budget and when we do that, we can unlock our 401k match at 100%!”
Some important components:
Specific goals that are related to your sales team ($15M in ARR or 500 New clients)
Why this matters to the company (next round of funding, exceeding budget)
Why it matters to the rep (increased stock option value, higher 401k match)
Expectations:
We’ve given the why, now let’s be clear on the what.
Would your rather follow:
“Results are all that matter”
-sales leader that nobody likes
Or
“Results matter, but here’s why it’s important to us”
-sales leader whose team consistently hits their goals
Yes, results matter.
But the best Sales Leaders translate high-level goals for their team into what that team can do to reach them.
$15M in ARR is something that is crystal clear to whom? The Sales Leader.
What does that mean for the rep? #2 market share and higher option value.
What is the rep responsible for? This is where many default to just giving reps a revenue number to hit for the month or quarter.
I believe that reps do best when we communicate the big goal for the team and then help them break it down to what their part is in that goal - often referred to as a quota (My opinion on how to set quotas can be found here).
The best leaders then go a step further and break down the expectations as it relates to results and activities. Here’s a previous post on the differences. This helps clarify the definition of what is “good,” which also helps everyone understand what is “not-good.”
For example, here are some definitions of we use for what “good” is:
3-5 new clients per month is our definition of good for results
20 potentials created a month
50 sales activities a day
These are clear expectations of what a sales rep can do, which helps focus them on doing the right things so they can hit the goals they set.
Once you define good - you can help reps design a day, week, and month around the controllable things they can do to impact their production.
In my experience, if we focused on the controllable inputs (activities), the output (results) tended to turn out… amazing!
Ultimately, a sales leader's role involves keeping the team focused on their part in achieving organizational goals. While businesses may need to pivot or circumstances change, maintaining clarity on expectations and providing the necessary support to achieve them are key. By emphasizing context and expectations, sales leaders can guide their teams towards success when the market, or your CEO throws you curveballs.
So remember: be clear on what’s most important to the business (context) and link what’s important to the goals you set (expectations).
-Joe