The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance

Introduction

A vacationer who was in Vermont to see the fall colors was surprised to see dozens of targets painted on one of the traditional red barns. He stopped the car and got out to take a closer look. The vacationer was astonished to see a bullet hole in the center of each target. When the farmer came out of his barn holding his rifle, the vacationer said, ''I've never seen shooting this good! How did you do it?'' The farmer replied, ''I shot first.''

Unfortunately, we have to draw the target first when we set goals, objectives, or quotas for salespeople. Goal setting, like much of sales management, is part science and part art. Because goals are critical in performance evaluation and compensation, goal setting is a contentious business. ...