Right on target!

How can we ensure that we will always meet our targets? The most assured way would be shooting the arrow and wherever it lands, draw the bull’s eye around it and you will never miss the target. In fact, you would be achieving 100% accuracy. For wherever the arrow lands that is the target. It may sound absurd, but that is what we frequently do in our work place. Most of the time there is no clear set targets which then allows people to set their own. Don’t believe me, read on.

Do we set targets for our customer meetings, presentations, or leads follow up? Just to name a few. If we do not set targets than you have no way to measure success.

During my  presentation training and coaching sessions. Either post or pre-presentation, I will always want my coachee to set targets and align themselves with it. This will allow them to accurately measure how did the session go. I think it went pretty well, I felt that I connected with the audience, I gotten all my points across, I kept to time etc are not measurable outcomes and yet we often hear them. Hearing such outcomes is as good as having no targets. You may not get a second chance to present to the customer again, make it count.

Similarly, during my sales training and coaching sessions, a measurable outcome is super important. Often times the target is set to close the deal of a certain revenue size. Other than that, no other target is in place. We realised that to close a deal we would probably have multiple engagements with the customer. If we do not set targets for each meeting than how can we effectively measure each meeting’s outcome and decide whether we have moved the customer one step closer in the buying cycle.

A common phrase that you hear is “think big, start small” take baby steps. Which is a correct approach when you are tackling big goals. The next thing is to assign targets to baby steps. Know why and what you need to achieve. The follow-up conversation will be a lot easier. Be it buying a lunch, sending a gift, having coffee or presenting to a customer, set a target. Which will serve as a milestone for follow-up conversations. Especially useful when it comes to resources spend vs outcome achieved conversations