8 Steps to Stay Focused and Meet Your Sales Quota
You are juggling SO many responsibilities. You have meetings, emails, and a to-do list that seems to go on for days. But, ultimately, your metric of success and your paycheck rely on meeting your quota.
You need to stay focused and close those deals! Here’s how:
- Don’t get distracted.
- Make sure the quota set for you is reasonable. The number should not be pie in the sky. It should be empirically based. Review your accounts and potential customers and create a pipeline of opportunities. Set conservative and aggressive projections for each client with your manager. Your quota should fall somewhere within that conservative-aggressive range. Your projections should be based on your customer’s history or on general company benchmarks.
Once you’ve set your goals, be practical based on other items or time suckers that you might now have initially considered.
“From my experience individual contributors as well as leaders should challenge targets bottoms-up when setting or receiving new ones: considering the resources (your time) one can put in and what is required. If targets are based on closed deals, knowing how much time I need per closing and the subtargets to attain is crucial, especially if I attend trade shows or have side projects that require additional time.”
Philip Olesch, Senior Sales Unit Business Consultant at Sales Cloud
- Break your quota into manageable blocks. Create a strategy for the quarter and set smaller milestones to get you to the finish line. Set monthly quotas to accompany your quarterly goal. Further break that down into weekly or even daily goals.
By setting definitive goals and milestones, you are lighting a fire to make progress throughout your quarter and will not fall into the trap of trying to crap in deals at the end. This will make you appear (and be!) calm, collected, confident and in charge of your customer portfolio.
- Assign tasks and behaviors to hold yourself accountable to the goals you have set. (See our template to help you out.) You cannot just set goals without clear quantifiable action steps. Creating a routine with specific tasks will help you keep your eyes on the prize.
- Don’t get distracted. Did I say this already?
The biggest hurdle to missing your quota is the looming temptation of distraction. The attraction of procrastination is very real my friends. Don’t get distracted by the many competing areas you are also asked to focus on including meetings, company politics, research, training etc. It’s very easy and common to avoid the most important function of your job—selling! Don’t do it! Stay strong!
“One of the biggest keys to reaching quota is persistence, there will always be hard days, weeks, and months, but if you stay persistent and do what needs to be done on a daily basis you will ultimately reap the rewards.”
Judah Weiss, BDR at JFrog
Are things going well? Celebrate progress! The perk of setting smaller goals and milestones is that you can celebrate along the way. Be proud of your wins no matter how small. Let your progress motivate you to keep the adrenaline and momentum going throughout the sales journey. Positivity can be powerful.
- Assess your situation as you do or don’t hit those milestones you had set for yourself.
If you do not reach a weekly or monthly goal for one or more of your clients, don’t be down on yourself! This is why you broke down your quota into smaller steps. This is your opportunity to brainstorm how to face roadblocks you are facing as a team. Round up the troops, strategize, and come up with a new game plan to reach your quota. Because you approached your quota goal setting responsibly, you can adjust, or pivot as needed with a clear head on your shoulders.
- Create a collective team goal. Teamwork makes the dream work! You’re not alone, so don’t operate as a soloist. By working collaboratively, you can feed off each other’s energy and learn from and with each other.
- Finally, don’t get distracted. Did that point sink in yet? Olesch suggests that you “figure out things that help yourself to focus. It can be background music/noise or a different work setup.” We know you have lots of competition for your time. But. Ultimately. Your quota is the key performance indicator for your success, job advancement, and your paycheck. Keep your eyes on the literal prize.