Sales target
| Sales target |
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| See also |
Sales target - it is a value that is set for sales representatives or sales departments and measured in terms of sales revenue or the number of units sold within a specified period of time. The created sales channel is primarily a representation of the implemented sales process in the company and potential customers who can join as new customers. It is also important for companies to monitor their sales targets on an ongoing basis. They provide relevant information on the marketing and advertising activities undertaken. This allows you to measure potential trends and model future cash inflows. The implementation of sales targets also allows for the visualization of revenue forecasts. This enables the company to determine the potential future profits and the current target group. Additionally, such an activity strengthens the sales activity.
Determining sales target
Setting sales targets is initially a difficult process. Well, first of all, it is important to identify:
- The added value of the product you own and offer;
- Positive features of the sales team;
- Training of the sales team in the area of transaction execution and product knowledge;
- Taking care of the quality of the product and current management of customer relations.
With this in mind, it is important that the entrepreneur at every stage of setting sales targets should be aware that the numbers alone are not able to perform the task. It is also important to identify the strengths of the offer. Preparation of a market analysis will allow for more effective management of the company's resources, and therefore the established sales targets will be characterized by a small standard deviation from the actual revenues.
Moreover, a correctly set sales target is evaluated by several departments. These include, but are not limited to, production, sales and management departments. Each of the persons employed in a given unit will be able to present a different perspective on the use of market advantage. Synthetic presentation of these comments will enable the preparation of a proper sales strategy, which will then enable the implementation of the target [1].
Achieving sales target
Achieving the sales target is possible mainly through the employment of qualified sales representatives. They are responsible for acquiring new customers and maintaining relations with people who have established permanent cooperation with the company. In addition, they prepare personalized sales offers and sometimes marketing materials.
Their basic salary is usually low, but nevertheless has to be compensated by relatively high margins on turnover, revenue or net sales. It is not difficult to observe that such persons are part-time part-time entrepreneurs, because on the one hand they need a security in the form of an employment contract (although this minimum) and on the other hand they want to depend their remuneration purely on the results achieved by them. Therefore, educating their minds that they are co-responsible for shaping the success of the company (and at the same time their own) is crucial to achieving sales targets [2].
The last of the important methods of managing sales targets is rational management of product deliveries. This means that storage surpluses do not exceed a certain percentage of goods coming down. This is due to the fact that, although one product may be essentially a hot, profitable product, the other may be a significant loss, offsetting the profits made by the former. Therefore, even if it is important to generate profit, in a situation of so-called warehouse bottlenecks, it is better to focus sales capacity on selling out these bottlenecks (in connection with and therefore compensating for potential losses) than trying to make up for these costs by intensifying sales of hot products. In the long term, this is disadvantageous for the company, since, having made up for the losses, it will saturate the market sufficiently, so that popular goods will no longer be caught in such a way [3].
References
- Cruceru A. F., Moise D., (2016), Customer Relationships through Sales Force and Marketing Events 2nd World Conference On Business, Economics And Management WCBEM2013
- Krawczyk J.B., Sissons Ch., Vincent D., (2012), Optimal versus Satisfactory Decision Making: A Case Study of Sales with a Target Computational Management Science manuscript
- Palmatier R. W., Steinhoff L., (2019), Understanding loyalty program effectiveness: managing target and bystander effects J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci.
Footnotes
Author: Martyna Barłóg
