12/1/2023-Q4 Goal Appraisal

Revenue goals are foundational to what drives you daily. (Yup…check!) But it’s the skill dev goals you set for yourself each quarter that drive your growth and development as a sales pro.

Ayn’s quote suggests she was a badass goal setter, eh?

With your turkey hangover far in the rear-view mirror, get your badassery face back on and assess your Q4 non-revenue goals.

So…how are you tracking with your skill and account goals this quarter?

Are you a smidge embarrassed because you thought goal setting only referred to your quarterly revenue goal? Or, did you set some skill and account goals this quarter and didn’t do as well as you had wanted? (That’s okay on both…just keep moving forward!)

…or maybe you slaughtered your goals! (GREAT!)

As you’re figuring out, it’s not as much about hitting goals as it is making goals.

It’s the first day of the last month of the quarter (got that?), and you have enough data about your performance to appraise Q4 goals. So…dust off those goals you set in late August and put ’em up to the mirror.

Goal-setting success is less about your achievement per each skill and account goal and more about your effort. (Hot-shot pundits will disagree because they want you to focus only on results. That’s just wrong.)

So…how was your effort this quarter?

Focus on the positives of your performance: what were the one or two things you accomplished against your goals that fill you will satisfaction and confidence?

There is the goal you chase each quarter with $s attached (a.k.a. your "quota"), and then there are other goals.

Those other goals are what you need to be consumed with because they drive the behaviors that get you to your quota! You need to set goals for specific accounts and skill goals, too.

So, assuming you did this for Q4, appraise your performance today, and determine which skills you want to work on next year. Appraising your Q4 goals will give you insights on what to work on next year. Here’s a partial list (all are covered by MySalesDay routinely):
+ Prospecting
+ Objection Handling
+ Negotiating
+ Qualifying
+ Presenting
+ Listening
+ Probing (questions)
+ Email Best Practices

The list goes on, and all of them matter. But you won’t get anywhere unless you set and measure goals every quarter. That starts with writing them down.

Achievement measurement criteria for a skill like "objection handling might look like this:
1. Create a list of anticipated objections ACME will have for my proposal.
2. Role-play the conversation dealing with the objection with teammates.
3. Observe and gauge the reaction from ACME client by their willingness to collaborate regarding the objection/challenge.
4. Use specific qualifying questions with ACME KDMs to understand how proposed solutions moved them past their objections.

If you actually do* the work listed by those four criteria, you’ll be on your way toward learning how your efforts correlate with results and skill growth.

Jay Shetty is a wise dude who opines about behaviors and habits that help individuals like you lead good lives, including physical health, mental stamina, personal actualization, and, yes, goal performance.

In this ~4-minute video, Jay references a study of goal-setting habits among Harvard MBA students that asked, "Why do 3% of Harvard MBAs make ten times as much as the other 97% combined?"

Of course, the answer centers on goal setting!

Maybe Jay can help you sharpen your goal-setting muscle. You got some big ’24 revenue goals coming at ya…and to hit ’em, you’ll need to focus on your skills and specific accounts.