1. www.beyondtargets.com
Monthly Sales
Targets may
be flawed

2. January 1st 8am
As sales managers, we start our new
sales year with the one goal; to achieve
100% of annual sales target.
One hour later……
We’ve distributed our annual sales target
between our 5 sales executives team and
allocated monthly targets.

3. One hour later……
We now have 60 sales goals instead of one!
spread across 5 sales executives and 12
months
In just two hours we have managed to divide the
simple team sales goal into 60 sub goals

4. One month later…..
Ask your sales executives the following
question;
As of today, how much do you need to sell to
achieve this months sales target?

5. Phew, they answered
correctly.
That’s a good sign
anyway, isn’t it?

6. Now, ask your sales
executives this next
question;
As of today, how much do
you need to sell to achieve
this years sales target?

7. As of today, how much do you need to
sell to achieve this years sales
target?
Well, did they answer the question
immediately without looking at a
spreadsheet or sales report?
Is this not the main goal for your sales
executives?

8. Monthly sales targets
may be flawed for
the following
reasons;

9.  When sales are slow, a sales
executive has 12 monthly
opportunities to fail instead of
one annual opportunity to
succeed. Imagine what this
does to self confidence.

10.  When a monthly sales target is
missed, the sales executive
can reset the clock and start
again next month, with the
fools promise of making next
months target. But that’s not
the goal, the goal is to achieve

11.  Monthly sales targets are not
aligned to the buying process.
Why have monthly targets for
sales that can take 6 months
to close?

12.  Monthly sales targets really
complicate commission
structures.
Were monthly sales targets
introduced to coincide with
payment of monthly
commissions?

13. But most importantly,
monthly sales targets
hide the ONE clear goal,
the ANNUAL sales target.
This contributes to sales
failure
Check out “Unlock the power of your salesforce” by Bill Dettmer for more on

14. What’s the alternative to monthly sales targets?

15. Alternatively, you could put a
system in place that measures
sales progress based on the
ANNUAL sales target, not
monthly sales targets.
Then test your new system by
asking;
As of today, how much do you
www.beyondtargets.com
need to sell to achieve this years