How Sales Goals Are Set

A survey asked companies how they set sales goals for sales executives and sales reps

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Sales executives are accustomed to measuring the success of their sales force in terms of volume -- such as total number of calls or total revenues. Old habits are hard to break: Less than half the companies recently surveyed said they take profits into consideration when setting sales goals and evaluating the performance of their salespeople. Here's how the views of sales managers and salespeople stack up:

Sales goals are based on:

Revenues only

For Salespeople, 52%

For Sales Managers, 31%

Profits only

For Salespeople, 9%

For Sales Managers, 7%

Both revenues and profits

For Salespeople, 39%

For Sales Managers, 62%

Source: "Sales Productivity in the 1990s," a survey of 300 sales executives, 76% with 99 or fewer salespeople. Learning International, Stamford, Conn., 1991.

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