I want more leads. I want more repeat customers. I want a greater market share. I want to beat out my competitors.

You likely have multiple goals you want to accomplish, but… are these goals being broken down into achievable steps, is the process documented, and are the results being tracked?

Does your team have a clear understanding of the main objective and are all facets of your sales, marketing, and service working together to achieve your big ambition?

You may have heard the term S.M.A.R.T goals before— it’s somewhat of a buzzword. In this helpful guide, we’ll highlight the process, provide a downloadable template and help you reap the benefits of putting S.M.A.R.T goals into practice.

Specific

The less specific a goal, the more difficult it is to determine how long a goal should take to complete or how to measure success. Rather than setting a goal to increase sales, a S.M.A.R.T goal would be to increase sales by a set amount and through a specific action. For example, improve sales by $250,000 by acquiring 3 new customers.

In this step, choose the particular metric you want to improve, like website visitors, incoming leads, or deals won. You should also identify those on your team who will be working towards the goal and ensure they have the resources they need for success.

Measurable

You will need to have a measurable endpoint as well as smaller measurable points along the way to track your progress. These are not set and forget goals. Keep in mind that goal setting is a dynamic process. You can always refine your goals and work toward new challenges if the metrics are not as you had hoped.

Attainable

Make sure your goal is seated in reality. If you have a goal of increasing website visitors to 80,000 a month, but currently only have 5,000 visits a year, your goal may not be achievable. It’s important to base your goals on your own analytics rather than industry benchmarks, or what your competitors are doing.

Relevant

Your goal needs to relate to your company’s overall goal and account for current trends in your industry. Don’t focus on improving white paper downloads if the downloads aren’t currently converting customers. If you are aware of what is working on a small scale, you’ll be more adept at setting goals that are realistic and beneficial to your company and bottom line.

Timely

Finally, your goal needs to have a clear endpoint with a realistic timeline. One tip is to prioritize smaller victories so that you get buy-in as you work toward accomplishing longer-term goals.

Now you're ready to define your next S.M.A.R.T goal and reap the benefits of this structured process.

Get your questions answered on how best to implement SMART goals. Take a look at this resource, or contact us for more useful tips.