Setting sales goals is an essential part of advancing your business in the coming year. But goals are destinations, not directions. And like navigating through a new city in search of a landmark, you need both destinations and directions to get where you’re going.

The problem for many sales teams is managers and reps know where they need to go but have no idea how to get there. The key is breaking down larger sales goals into smaller, achievable actions. That way, every person knows exactly what to do to reach his or her objectives. By perceiving goals in terms of key sales behaviors and not dollar signs, reps can focus on completing tasks that accumulate into reaching and surpassing sales targets quarter after quarter, year after year.

Like all ambitious goals, sales goals can feel insurmountable. Phrases like “100% growth” or “$1 million in revenue” scrawled across a dry-erase board often intimidate rather than motivate.

But when you view sales goals as the destination and daily tasks as the step-by-step roadmap, you can begin to close the gap between the unattainable and reality.

Go to the end and work backward…

The best part of setting goals is that you already know the end. You know exactly what you want to accomplish, and you know exactly where you want to be a month, four months, or 12 months down the road.

Now, work backward.

Say you have a first quarter revenue goal of $1 million. You can use your historical CRM data from the previous year to estimate several important figures: your average deal size, the average number of opportunities per deal, and the average number of calls you made for every opportunity.

Then, divide the number of calls by the number of sales days in the quarter, and finally by the number of sales reps on your team to figure out how many calls each rep needs to make on a daily basis.

You can repeat this process with any metric you like. This is especially useful for beginning sales reps, or for those having a tough month, because it gives them clear guidance on where to focus their time and attention, as well as attainable daily targets.

Always know your current location…

Smartphones and map apps from Google and Apple make traveling and navigating easier than ever. These apps not only give you directions but also turn-by-turn instructions using GPS to ensure you stay on track from start to finish.

Now that you’ve broken down your goal into daily actions you can focus on making sure your team maximizes every call and every minute. With Zoho Motivator, sales managers can create and display specific KPIs—like calls, leads created, and deals won—so reps can see if they’re on track with one glance at their dashboard.

After choosing which KPIs to track and display, convert any of them into a Target so sales reps can instantly see where they are along the roadmap to reaching the goal. If you know it took 10 meetings a month to close one deal, set your target, display it on the dashboard, and inspire your reps to complete the steps that lead to more sales and hitting your goals.

By turning your sales team’s attention toward these leading indicators, reps will find it more manageable to reach lofty end goals. Then it’s simply a matter of using Motivator’s dashboards to customize what you track and view.

Take it a step further to increase awareness and engagement across your team by broadcasting targets at your office using Motivator TV.

One step at a time…

Reaching your company sales goals won’t happen overnight. And as any sales manager can tell you, there may be some months or some quarters you fall short. That’s part of sales.

And while every organization must set revenue goals, the roadmap is in your hands. Yes, some of these goals are ambitious, but when you spend each day focused on the activities and behaviors you can control, you’ll eventually reach your destination.