Best Strategy for Exceeding Quarterly Goals
Doyle Slayton | Oct 11, 2009 | Comments 7
One of my directors used to say, “You can have a bad day, but don’t ever have two in a row. You might have a bad week but don’t repeat it the next week. If you have a bad month always bounce back the following month. Through it all, there is one thing you must always do. Make sure you always hit your goals for the quarter.”
Most people find themselves scrambling at the end of each quarter to achieve quota. I have a great strategy for exceeding your quarterly goals. Perfect it, and you’ll beat your goals quarter after quarter… year after year!
If you were to review your last year in sales and broke things down by quarter, did most of your sales come at the beginning or at the end of the quarter? Let me guess… the majority of your sales came at quarter end.
Most people try to spread their sales out evenly from one month to the next. They are cautious about having too big a performance in a single month and fear they’ll end up empty handed in the months to come. It’s a trap! You need to do the exact opposite. The key strategy is to front load your quarter. Pack every buyer possible into the first month of each quarter. Here are three reasons why…
Immune to the Pushers – People buy on their schedule, not ours. There will always be buyers who push their original purchase/start/implementation date. You’re in big trouble if you have a new client coming on board at the end of the quarter, something unexpected happens, and the deal pushes back 30 days. On the other hand, if you have them originally scheduled for the beginning of the quarter, you have another 60 to 90 days of wiggle room!
Work Better with the Lead – Some people will tell you they work well under pressure. That may be true in the short term, but it isn’t a good long term strategy. Most people work better with the lead. They perform best when they are winning and when there is less pressure. Success is like fuel!
Building Consistency – How many times do you hear managers talk about building consistent performance? Take into account the first two reasons listed above. Front loading your quarter makes it easier to build consistency. The strategy allows you to work ahead. It allows things to play out naturally, rather than forcing it, running out of time, and scrambling to close deals late in the game.
BONUS REASON – I call this a bonus because it mostly applies to sales that generate recurring monthly revenue. Let’s say your clients pay $1,000 per month for your service. Imagine you are adding 15 new clients this quarter. Instead of having five the first month, five the second, and five the third, (we’ll say everything works out perfectly for this example) you try to get all of them started in month one. Packing them in early brings $10,000 more in the first month and $5,000 more in the second month. At quarter end, you’ve gained $15,000 more for the same clients by generating the revenue sooner rather than later!
Now, some people will read this and say, “I can’t predict when my prospects will start.” You are exactly right, and that’s the point! Your strategy must be to get everyone who is able to start now, at the beginning of the quarter, to start now. The other buyers will naturally fall into place. Master this strategy and you’ll consistently beat your quarterly goals!
Share your best… What are your strategies for exceeding goals?
I enjoyed this post,
Your tips to insure you do not become a part of the end of quarter mad scramble were strong.
Another reason you do not want end of quarter/month mad scrambles is you are teaching your buyers when to buy.
For example; when is the best time to buy a car? End of month end of quarter when dealerships and salespeople are scrambling to hit their stair step monies.
You must not allow the car sales model to become your model.
One of the biggest ways to prevent this is to listen. Spend time listening to the needs of your buyers and in every future conversation reconnect with their need. Couple this with a lead nurturing program that compliments the buying process for your buyers…and you will blow away your numbers.
Mark Allen Roberts
http://www.outbsolutions.com
All of the above comments and ideas are great. What sales people get hung-up on is the get-it-done later concept. I have trained and instructed my sales forces to always be aware where you are weekly. Start the quarter off strong and don’t rely on finishing strong. With the events that have happened over the last 18 months, concumers have changed their buying habits. Sales people have to be cognisant of this and make their mark in the beginning of the quarter. This usually leads to growing top-line sales and makes for a more successful sales operation.
Doyle – great post.
Tactics applied to exceed target goals:
1) Create a feeding frenzy with your prospective audience, by smartly introducing buying incentives at the right time in the business quarter.
2) Establish a Customer Recognition Program – give something of value (not discounts or allowances) but something useful to your clients’ core business and watch the reaction at the buying level. They will reciprocate.
3) Given the nature of this blog topic – some of this deals with “behavior modification.” Expecting to change customer habits is one thing (conditioned response at that level takes time and continuous effort). On the flip-side, a hungry and aggressive Sales Team may be a better target. If you want them to “bring in the bacon” at the front-end of the quarter (providing the sales can be directed that way) – tie that into their Success Criteria and Compensation Package -then watch how Johnny runs.
Good Hunting!
Great advice that worked for me as a full time Sales guy. These days I Coach people on the principles of ‘Proactivity’ This is that principle in a Sales context. I never enjoyed going to Customers looking for ‘favours’. Always preferred to have things in my own hands and manage my own quarterly destiny. Stephen Covey calls this Q2 living. So true! Planning early and more importantly EXECUTING the plan with weekly accountability to SELF ensures you stay on the front foot and away from the strugglers list.
Alasdar Browne
http://www.precisioncoach.ie
Hi,
I am very new to the pre-sales position, so far i have been working as a Inside sales executive for a IT servicing firm, i was one of the top performers in getting good leads to my company, based on my performance, the company has asked me to take up the pre-sales activity and this time i will have to focus on full sales cycle till the closure end. as of now, i can probe, and get the requirements from the prospects with their time line to implementation, and a boiler point budget details, and fix up a call with my technical team to propose a road map of how we can deliver the project.
Once after that i feel little bit confused on how to approach the prospect, how should i ask the prospect to move further, what are the key things that i can propose to the IT directors or Vp-IT’s to end it with a closure. any valuable comments will help me to grow higher in my career…
Peter
Since everyone else will no doubt comment on the guts of this, Doyle, let me attack the premise. Okay? Great! I knew you were a sport!
First, there is no such thing as “a bad day” (in spite of what the bad hair day people will tell you, and I use this example only because I haven’t enough hair to have even a GOOD hair day!).
There is only BAD WEATHER.
When we feel like so much junk has ended up in our respective faces on any given day, and become quickly inclined to call it a bad day, what we need to remember is that a “bad day” is always a choice.
It can be a conscious or unconscious choice, but it’s always a choice.
This leads us to the next thought that it is just as easy to choose to have a good day as it is to choose a bad one.
Okay, I chose a good day, but it’s not going well… Aha! Then remember it is equally easy to “switch the channel” that’s playing in our brains to another station (from, perhaps “all talk” or “acid rock” to “easy listening”???).
Simply stop the bad day with some deep breaths and the realization that “bad” is a choice and, instead, choose to make it “good.”
Try this business/sales breathing exercise:
http://halalpiar.com/2009/05/4-steps-in-one-minute-zero-stress/
Make every day a great one!
Regards – Hal
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