5 Principles for Setting Expectations in Your Sales Organisation
“When expectations are not being set”
The language around sales performance is usually about whether the numbers are achieved or not, in a very binary way. To some degree this simplicity is required since the whole objective is to bring in revenue however if you only ever talk about whether one number is hit or it isn’t, then realistic and appropriate performance management cannot happen
Setting expectations in a sales organisation is crucial for building a culture of accountability. It is the sales leader's responsibility to establish short-term and long-term goals for the sales reps. Here are five principles for setting expectations in your sales organisation:
Involve Your Team:
Setting performance expectations should involve not only your criteria, but input from your salespeople as well. Involve your reps as much as possible in the process, and at the very minimum, have them contribute to the follow-up process.
Categories of Expectations:
The specific expectations that you set will vary depending on the unique needs of your organization, but all will fall into one of these three categories: Performance Standards, Activity Metrics, and Behavioural Expectations.
Performance Standards:
Set clear performance expectations so your salespeople know what to work towards. What is the sales persons’ target? How many calls/outside sales meetings are they expected to make per week?
Activity Metrics:
Quantify sales activities, especially if your pipeline is weak. If you want to set realistic expectations, you need to base them on how much you need to sell. If we need to sell X amount, we need to do some multiple of X of proposals and quotes, because we only win a Y conversion
Behavioural Expectations:
Does your sales team really understand what you want them to do (behaviours) and what you want them to achieve (results)? Managers should make sure that they clearly set expectations by adhering to communication guidelines.
If you do not lay out explicitly what is expected of a sales person, how do you then expect them to be working towards those expectations
Often sales leaders think that the only expectation that needs to be set is the ultimate target, but this is only part of the picture – if you only ever focus on that one number you are doing them a disservice in terms of leadership.
Successful expectation setting in terms of performance management requires clear articulation of the rewards and consequences of differing levels of performance.
Contrary to what people may assume, sales individuals are inherently driven by structure.
YOU NEED TO HAVE SET OUT WHAT YOU EXPECT FROM PEOPLE IN ORDER TO PERFORMANCE-MANAGE THEM
You should also be thinking about ways to personalise the communication, check their understanding and ensuring expectations are documented
DO NOT MISTAKE SETTING EXPECTATIONS FOR MICRO-MANAGING
When managing performance on an ongoing basis you need to look at the results – if the results are not there, then look at the activities – if the activities are not there, then look at the behaviours
You need to provide both incentive / motivation and consequences to these expectations for them to have real impact ..
In a sales world hyper-focused on results, it is easy to lose sight of the importance of clear communication to set expectations. However, it is by clearly setting expectations that we can hold our salespeople accountable and achieve our goals