Set Your Second Quarterly Goals in 5 Steps (Workbook Included)
Kevin Shirley, Associate Broker (DC), GRI, e-PRO, ASP
The successful sales journey grows out of a smart strategy, great planning, an abundance mindset, and seamless execution. To succeed in your chosen field, you’ll need to create realistic goals you can meet on a set deadline.
QUARTERLY GOAL-SETTING WEBINAR BROADCAST WITH KEVIN SHIRLEY
Although nearly every person sets some short- and long-term goals in life, not everyone can achieve them. Many people fail simply because they make a list of goals every month or every new year and then never look at them again. But when you’re serious about succeeding in your career or business, it is necessary to take the right actions to achieve your desired outcomes. Experts advise breaking down the long-term goals into small actionable steps that can be processed and managed well.
You can set goals on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. The important thing is to get them down in writing. We each have lots of personal and professional goals, and to achieve them, we need proper planning and alignment. Experts assert that we are more likely to achieve what we set out when we make goal-oriented decisions with a thoughtful, intentional mindset.
Click on the image below for a free, 25-page workbook to assist you in setting your quarterly goals:
Here are five ways to get started:
Step 1: Learn from the past
The first, most critical thing you need to do before setting up your quarterly goals is identifying what you achieved in the current or previous quarter. You should consider your wins and losses from the previous three months and decide future measures and plans accordingly.
Whether you are new to the business industry or are leading a successful brand, it is crucial to understand what has been working in your favor what went wrong. Then adjust your strategy and goals for the future quarter accordingly.
Many professionals consider only their successes when evaluating past performance, but understanding the factors behind failures is equally important. When evaluated carefully, failures can help you avoid making similar mistakes in the long run. In fact, the greatest success stories in business are often accompanied by failures — sometimes extreme failures — at some point. Therefore, don’t feel discouraged about failures; instead, remember that they may present new heights to your business.
Prepare a realistic track record of what you have planned and executed in the past. This information may help you get a quick review of all strategies and inspire your future plans as well.
Step 2: Decide and prioritize your goals
Considering your past experience as an important guide for the coming quarter is the first step in planning your future goals. This can be carried out as an executive-team exercise or companywide process depending upon your business’s culture and company size.
When you write down your goals, figure out the ultimate accomplishments associated with them. Prepare a list of essential actions that you would like to take in the coming twelve weeks to improve your brand reputation. Now break down this larger plan into smaller sections and assign quarterly goals.
At the same time, you need to organize and prioritize objectives to ensure better planning and execution for the quarter. Do not forget to assign priorities to every person involved in the process so that they consider themselves responsible for accomplishing important tasks. Make sure you assign realistic and attainable goals with a reliable time-frame.
Start by focusing on the priority-based tasks to gain more confidence, and your business will soon find ways to grow in a competitive market. Also, assign these priority-based tasks to specific people so that they can make more efforts to achieve objectives within a limited time period.
Step 3: Establish responsibility and find an accountability partner
When you choose your business goals, it is important to make someone accountable for them (probably yourself!). Once the quarterly or weekly breakdown is done, every team member must be assigned a set of tasks. Simultaneously, it is important to assign set time deadlines to complete specific tasks to achieve the main goals on time.
Sometimes, it is challenging to ensure the desired level of productivity towards your business goals. In many situations, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay focused and accomplish a set of tasks, especially when you are the boss and actively involved in many other business-related activities, like lead generation.
Therefore, experts advise finding one or more accountability partners to ensure that you get things done on time. You can take help from your partner, friend, or spouse to handle the sequence, priority, and organization of tasks. If that’s not feasible, you may wish to find a professional coach who can act as your accountability partner.
When you have an accountability partner and every team member is assigned a task with a certain deadline, it is possible to achieve better returns in the long run. An accountability partner provides a clear, dispassionate analysis of your failures and success rates. An accountability partner or coach can also give you suggestions regarding what you must accomplish next and organize your goals and required action steps.
Step 4: Focus on collaboration and communication
No matter what kind of business you are running, you may have some milestones to be achieved on a monthly or weekly basis. To ensure that everyone involved in the team understands the set goals and milestones very well, you must learn to collaborate and communicate with each other. Those involved with the weekly milestones can provide you better updates on what they have completed at every next step. The team leaders also need to stay updated about the ongoing activities, failures and wins as well.
It is important to organize meetings from time to time to ensure proper communication among teammates. Whether your teams are working in-house or from remote locations, it is necessary to hold meetings to analyze performances and productivity levels from time to time. Collaboration from all team members can help you achieve goals faster and with enhanced team members’ satisfaction.
Step 5: Measure the performance and progress
Achieving goals is not just about executing tasks; you should also track the performance and progress from time to time. You can encounter many unforeseen circumstances while working towards your goals, but it is possible to ensure better accomplishments if you track your progress regularly.
If you’re not hitting your benchmarks, it may be necessary to make a few changes and additions to the process to improve performance. Team members should also be asked for their feedback and suggestions to meet desired outcomes out of routine processes. Even a few small tweaks in the plans can help you achieve your goals.
The moment you achieve a milestone, review your plan thoughtfully and jot down the details about applied changes to utilize that information in the future. From time to time, and with input and feedback from team members, it’s useful to update your quarterly roadmap; this helps assure better returns with enhanced productivity in the long run.
You should also be prepared to measure weekly and quarterly progress towards goals in terms of pre-set performance metrics. Most business professionals prefer using visual charts that show percentage improvements clearly. These charts also help to make everything clear on the way to your goals while highlighting the warning signs, red flags, and positive outcomes.
These charts must also be shared with all the team members while recognizing their growth process efforts. This will help you develop a better relationship with the team members, leading to enhanced performance.
Final Thoughts
When you are making efforts to ensure your business’s success, you must plan your goals and strategies. Each of us has 24 hours in a day, but the one who organizes all the tasks creatively may find an easier path to success. Make sure you develop a clear plan and solid strategy towards your goal to success. All the team members must be made accountable for the goal achievement so that they can feel more productive. Moreover, when you achieve a certain milestone, the credit must be distributed among all.
