Baseline Goal Setting
Whenever we are setting up a sales projection we are really creating a goal.
For us to succeed we must make learn to set and achieve our goals. We’ll all agree that success is in achieving our goals, not just setting them. Having a strong sales background has always helped me immensly --especially in the area of achieving goals.
It was in the early 1980’s while attending an in-house Stephen R. Covey seminar (before he was popular--but just as powerful) that I actually learned how to be
effective with goals, using a concept called, “Baseline Goal Setting.”
The theory of Baseline Goal Setting is simple, when you set your goals you should prepare two sets. One is the goal that you would like to achieve.
The other is a goal that is 120% of what you know you can always achieve. The reason becomes clear with a few examples.
Suppose you are in inside sales and have set a goal to sell $25,000 worth of software this week. However, you know that you have never sold more than $10,000
in a single day for over two years.
Now, let’s say it is Friday and you have only sold $8,000 all week. What do you do? Knowing that there is no way you can achieve your objective, you sell halfheartedly and at around 3:00 you mentally go home--knowing you’ll never reach your goal of $25,000. You say to yourself, “This week is blown, I’ll cut out early and get a fresh start next week.”
We’ve all been there.
Now, imagine if you had a target goal of $25,000 and a baseline goal (a bottom line goal that you know you can achieve 80% of the time) of $15,000. Come Friday morning you know you can’t meet your projected goal, but you should be able to make your baseline. So you work like a dog and come 5:00pm you’ve sold $8,000, for a total of $16,000 for the week.
How do you feel?
You didn’t make your ultimate projection but... you didn’t drop below your baseline. The result--you pulled in $16,000 for the week instead of $8,000 and you still felt like a winner. You didn’t let yourself down and you will feel OK about setting another goal next week.
Baseline Goal Setting helps you flatten out the lows within the highs and the lows of the sales cycle; the result--your overall average is considerably higher.
Later, as we are able to blow past our baseline and hit our regular goals we raise the baseline level. Pretty soon we always do better than $10,000 a day.
It is not surprising that most people do not set goals because they don’t achieve them and after repeated failures they just can’t stand the pain and stop setting
them. This occurs partly because too many of us have bought into the lofty phrase that, “It is better to aim for the stars and hit the moon rather than aim for a mole hill... and hit it.”
Unfortunately, this is like asking my five year old to dunk a basketball--he can wish and try all he wants but it will take growth before it is ever possible.
When we set our goals or sales projections we may wish to “publish” the baseline goal. We can then work like the dickens to achieve a lofty goal yet still meet the
company objectives every time by hitting above our baseline, and sometimes lower than our personal objective.
If we do blow past the highest goal it is usually because the low weeks weren’t as low as they might have been, because we achieved our baseline.
This concept of baseline goal setting should help you to achieve your maximum potential every time.
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