As we explained above when defining sales quotas, they can apply to an individual or a team, and for any possible period of time. The main difference in terms of sales quota types, however, is the level at which they are applied.
Output Level: Sales Results
If you type “sales quota” into Google, you will find a series of articles like this one.
However, most of them make a serious mistake: when discussing sales quotas, they only talk about the level of production - sales results.
While achieving sales results is usually the goal, this is not the most effective quota you can set to increase sales and make them more predictable.
What is most effective? It is maintaining consistent sales activity. More on this below.
While sales quotas remain the most malaysia cell phone number list popular, there are also a wide range of possibilities for sales quotas at the production level:
Recipes
Gross margin
Profit
Closed cases
...
It all depends on your industry and the exact behavior you want to encourage within your sales team.
If you work, for example, in a marketing agency that sells projects with external costs, your goal might be better represented by the gross margin generated. On the other hand, if you are a freelance writer and you sell your free time, you will simply want to maximize your income.
Entry Level: Sales Activity Measures
Although sales quotas are most often the end goal, they do not effectively increase sales or make them more predictable.
Selling isn't about hitting a revenue target. It's about making those x calls, sending those x emails, having those x meetings, ... every day.
Sure, the result won't be exactly the same every month, but setting metrics at the entry level will have a huge impact on your bottom line.
The psychological effect is also not to be underestimated: if sales cycles are a bit longer in your industry or if you sell slightly larger deals, you probably won't close a deal every day (or even every week or month).