Page 42 - Social Media Marketing

20 Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

Setting a Goal

Goals are anything you want to achieve, and they generally fall into
one of the following two categories:

1. Productivity goals: Productivity goals are those that relate to
how much you get done in a given amount of time. Calling 100
existing clients per week, for example, is a productivity goal.
Building your own web site or launching an e-mail marketing
campaign by the end of the month could be other productivity
goals. These goals simply state what you are going to do in
a given timeframe. They usually result in boosting sales and
revenue, but they may not.

2. Production goals: Production goals are directly related to how
much you sell or earn. If you sell cars, for example, you may
set a goal to sell 150 cars per year or $450,000 in gross sales.

Some sales coaches recommend that all goals should be pro-
ductivity goals, because you have control over your productivity,
whereas market conditions and other factors outside of your con-
trol may affect your ability to achieve a production goal. The only
problem I see with setting a production goal is that you have to be
careful not to let it affect your sales technique. If you become pushy
trying to meet a production goal or are too willing to cut a deal with
a client to make a sale, the goal could work against you. Other than
that warning, however, I see nothing wrong with setting produc-
tion goals. After all, as salespeople, how much we sell is often our
measure of success.

Keeping It Realistic ... or Not

Most experts in goal setting stress that you set realistic goals-goals
that stretch you without breaking you. The trouble with that advice
is in defining the word realistic. When I set a goal to sell 300 homes a
year, nobody in the industry considered that realistic. I set the goal,
which forced me to figure out ways to make it realistic.