Source | Sales & Marketing ID | cnmarket Author | Tian Yitong

Let me start with a common problem encountered when empowering distributors, which is also a widespread issue in team management: do distributors set goals for their sales teams?

One distributor said: "Teacher, I used to set goals for my sales team, but I found that everyone was indifferent to them—setting them or not made no difference; it was all just going through the motions. Even with goals, they still failed to achieve them, so I stopped setting them."

During our coaching of many distributors, we found that goal management issues are not unique to this distributor but reflect the inner conflict and helplessness of countless distributor owners.

However, the lack of goal management for sales teams leads to another more troubling reality: "Because there are no goals, salespeople visit more customers when in a good mood and fewer when in a bad mood; they sell more when feeling good and less when not. To put it bluntly: my livelihood depends on the moods of my salespeople."

This helpless monologue from a distributor owner vividly depicts the true state of many distributors' management—"relying on the weather and selling based on mood." The fate of the enterprise is swayed by the unstable states of individual team members, making development naturally uncertain. Especially in today's fiercely competitive and highly involuted market environment, many distributors find it increasingly difficult to achieve performance targets.

So, where is the root of the problem? My view is: it's not that goals are useless, but that you lack a complete goal management system.

A complete goal management system is by no means just the single step of "setting goals." It is a scientific closed loop from setting, tracking, motivating, to reviewing. Below, we will break down in detail the six steps of this goal management system that can help many distributors achieve performance breakthroughs.

Step 1: Goal Setting—Science is the Prerequisite

Many distributors set goals based on "gut feeling," either too high, making the team intimidated, or too low, losing motivational significance. Another phenomenon is that salespeople also set goals arbitrarily. We often see in morning meetings: the distributor owner asks everyone to set today's sales targets. The first salesperson, Zhang San, says: "My sales target today is 5,000 yuan." The second salesperson, Li Si, seeing Zhang San report 5,000, immediately follows: "I'll also report 5,000." In reality, we all know such goals are not very meaningful.

So, how to set a scientific and reasonable goal? Scientific goal setting should consider the following factors:

  • Historical data: Reference last year's sales performance and growth rate.
  • Market potential: Analyze the market capacity and competitive landscape of the responsible area.
  • Company strategy: Clarify the company's future key product lines or channel directions.
  • Phased development goals: For example, for new product launches, achieve full coverage of suitable outlets within one month.

In summary, goal setting must meet several principles: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, "increase sales by 20% this quarter" is much more effective than "everyone should work hard."

Step 2: Goal Decomposition—Break Down into Actions

Goal decomposition can be done from the following dimensions:

  • Time dimension: Includes annual, quarterly, and monthly goals. These three are set at the company level, as employees cannot see that far ahead. Therefore, goals also need to be set at the employee level: monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
  • Product dimension: Many distributors face the phenomenon where salespeople only sell easy-to-sell products and avoid difficult ones. However, we all know that easy-to-sell products are not profitable, while difficult ones are. The reason salespeople don't sell profitable products, besides the difficulty of selling them, is whether "key single-product sales targets" have been set for them.
  • Market dimension (customer dimension): Goals can also be decomposed by customer, determining how much sales target different types of customers can undertake, which is another important dimension.
  • Organizational hierarchy dimension: This decomposition is mainly based on the organizational structure, breaking down the company's overall sales target layer by layer to departments and then to each salesperson.

One more reminder: during goal decomposition, not only should sales amounts be broken down, but also process indicators such as daily customer visits, new customer development, product distribution rate, and key terminal display compliance. The purpose is to make every salesperson clearly know: "I need to visit 15 customers daily, develop two new customers, complete 50,000 yuan in orders this week, achieve 8,500 yuan in sales today, and complete the display of one standard store."

After completing the above goal decomposition, for salespeople, goals transform from distant numbers into clear daily action guides.

Step 3: Goal Coaching—Teach a Man to Fish

Distributor owners must remember: setting goals and then abandoning them is a manager's dereliction of duty. Therefore, after goal decomposition, goal coaching is the next key support step.

So, how should managers specifically coach subordinates? I have listed some methods for reference:

  • Provide tools: Offer product scripts, market materials, visit processes, etc.
  • Train skills: Conduct training on sales techniques, customer relationship management, etc., targeting salespeople's weak areas.
  • Solve difficulties: When salespeople encounter difficult key accounts or market resistance, managers should step up, analyze problems together, provide strategic support, and even accompany visits.

Goal coaching is a crucial step, but in reality, many distributors lack this step. In today's shrinking market, whose sales do we need to grab? Of course, competitors' sales. How can we grab competitors' sales? One important point is: your market personnel must be more professional than your competitors'.

Step 4: Goal Motivation—Ignite Drive

After goal coaching, management still cannot expect salespeople to automatically produce great results, because people need to be motivated. Therefore, setting a reasonable incentive policy based on goals is the "accelerator" for goal achievement.

In reality, many distributors make a mistake in team motivation: they only incentivize results, not the process. I want to emphasize: motivation should not only incentivize results but also the process. Because if process indicators are done well, results will naturally not be too bad.

Specific goal motivation includes three dimensions:

  • Result incentives: Set up goal overachievement awards, sales champion awards, new customer development awards, quarterly/annual ranking awards, etc.
  • Process incentives: Provide immediate rewards for key daily actions, such as standard store creation, key terminal promotion, and execution of the eight-step visit process.
  • Spiritual incentives: Public recognition, team honors, rewards like family dinners, etc., can greatly satisfy employees' sense of achievement.

Step 5: Goal Tracking—Visualize the Process

After setting up the incentive mechanism, you still cannot rest; you must also track goals. I often say: "Without tracking, there is no management." So, goal tracking is essentially process management. Distributor owners must establish a regular goal tracking mechanism in their companies.

How to operate specifically? I offer three suggestions:

  • Daily morning meetings: Clarify daily tasks, reward good performance and punish poor, set benchmarks, and share experiences.
  • Weekly review meetings: Review last week's data, check goal progress, and conduct special discussions or learning.
  • Use tools: Use CRM systems, DingTalk logs, WeChat reporting groups, etc., to make everyone's work process and results "visible," facilitating timely problem identification and correction.

"Goal tracking" essentially means supervision. If management supervises closely, employees won't slack off, and process indicators will be done well. The key to this step is persistence. Some distributor owners always find excuses for themselves; they supervise for a while but then stop, and you'll find that good methods and habits gradually stop being executed by employees.

Step 6: Goal Review—Evolve Through Summary

After the goal cycle ends (e.g., month-end, quarter-end), the entire team must sit down for a review. For review meetings, there is a core concept that all managers should understand: review is not for accountability but for growth.

So, how to conduct a review? In essence, discuss three questions:

  • Goal review: Were goals achieved? Not achieved? Or exceeded?
  • Cause analysis: What was done well?—Summarize experience and solidify it. What could be done better?—Analyze the root causes of underachievement: market issues, capability issues, or strategy issues?
  • Action plan: Apply the lessons learned from the review to the next goal management cycle.

Finally, let me summarize: goal management is not a simple "task" but a complete "system." From "setting, decomposition, coaching, motivation, tracking to review," these six steps combine to form a powerful management closed loop, liberating the boss's "livelihood" from the salespeople's "moods" and transforming it into a scientific management system that is replicable, manageable, and predictable.

Many distributors who have implemented this six-step goal management system have not only achieved significant performance breakthroughs but, more importantly, their sales teams have developed automatic goal management habits, shifting from "I have to do it" to "I want to do it." The most important thing behind this is that managers must have systematic thinking and develop habits themselves. When managers form the habit of goal management, the team will gradually change.