If your goals aren’t aligned with your boss’s goals, your sales motivation will likely suffer.
Hang on with me until the end as I explain this, because if you only read half of this, you’ll lose the point I’m trying to make about sales motivation and selling skills.
First off, there’s no way you will ever be motivated if you don’t have goals. But let’s look into the real issue of why they need to align with your boss’s goals.
Goals are designed to be tools to measure performance and drive people and groups to a higher level of performance. I’m sure you’ll agree with that, but the key word in the previous sentence is “groups.”
I believe if a goal involves a group, the outcome will naturally be higher than an individual goal. The best group you can have is your boss. If you have goals that don’t line up with what his or her goals are, how will they support you?
The more your goals can mirror your boss’s goals, the better off you’ll be and the higher your performance will be.
Now, here’s the second half — the part I really don’t want you to skip over.
It is possible that sometimes your sales motivation will suffer if your goals do indeed line up with what your boss is looking to achieve. This happens when the boss has goals that are either completely unrealistic — either too high or too low. In both of these cases, the goals can work against you, especially if the boss does not know their role in leading you.
If the boss is self-centered or clueless, then you can easily find yourself de-motivated.
Your objective in this type of situtation is to set two sets of goals. One set is public for your boss to see and the second set is for your own sales motivation.
Your public goals can line up with what the boss’s goals are and you’ll need to behave accordingly. Your second set of goals are the ones against which you want to motivate yourself. To help you stay motivated in this type of a situation, share your private goals with a peer who can help hold you accountable.
Even if you think your boss has unrealistically high goals, drive yourself to achieve them first with 150% of your focus. Your expectation should be to not just make the number, but exceed the number. The only time you need to come up with a second set of goals is if over a period of years, you have seen your boss’s goals never being met.
One final piece of advice. When your goals line up with your boss’s goals, don’t hesitate to ask them how they’re doing. It’s amazing how much your sales motivation can increase and your selling skills improve when you not only are held accountable, but also when you hold someone else accountable.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
