1. Specific
A sales goal should clearly define what needs to be achieved, who is responsible, and how it will be accomplished.
Vague goals, such as “increase sales,” can cause confusion. Instead, specificity aligns your sales team around a shared outcome.
Example: “Generate 300 qualified leads from outbound email campaigns by the end of Q2.”
- Focuses the sales reps
- Aligns with the sales process
- Clarifies expectations and action steps
2. Measurable
To evaluate sales performance, goals must include metrics that allow you to track progress and measure success.
This is essential for monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) like lead response time, average deal size, or sales revenue goals.
Example: “Increase customer acquisition rate by 20% compared to the previous quarter.”
- Supports sales management dashboards
- Enables data-driven decisions
- Helps identify performance gaps
3. Achievable
A goal must be realistic given the current resources, sales team capacity, and market conditions.
Setting overly aggressive sales targets can demotivate team members, while achievable goals build momentum and confidence.
Example: “Each sales development representative should schedule 10 product demos per week.”
- Builds confidence
- Promotes accountability
- Improves morale across team members
4. Relevant
A goal should align with the broader business objectives, sales targets, and revenue goals.
Relevance ensures that every goal contributes to key outcomes, such as improving customer retention, increasing customer lifetime value, or reducing customer acquisition costs.
Example: “Reduce customer churn by 10% by implementing a new customer loyalty program.”
- Connects sales to strategic priorities
- Reinforces value in daily sales activities
- Aligns with both short-term and long-term sales goals
5. Time-bound
Every sales goal must have a clear deadline. This creates urgency and ensures the team stays focused on delivering results within a specific sales cycle, whether it's for monthly sales targets, quarterly sales goals, or annual sales objectives.
Example: “Close $250,000 in new sales revenue by the end of Q3.”
- Keeps the sales pipeline moving
- Supports structured reviews and goal adjustments
- Encourages steady progress and timely execution
Why do sales goals matter?
Setting clear and actionable sales goals is essential for building a high-performing sales team and driving consistent business growth. Here's why they matter:
- Provide direction and focus: Sales goals help sales reps and sales managers prioritize daily sales activities, ensuring everyone is aligned with the company’s broader business goals.
- Drive measurable performance: Goals tied to sales performance metrics like lead response time, average deal size, and customer acquisition rate allow teams to track progress and make data-driven decisions.
- Align individual and team objectives: From individual sales targets to team goals, setting clear expectations boosts motivation and accountability across all sales development representatives.
- Enable strategic planning: Well-defined goals support better forecasting, resource allocation, and long-term planning for sales operations and sales enablement teams.
- Improve tracking through KPIs: When linked to key performance indicators (KPIs), goals make it easier to measure progress, identify bottlenecks in the sales funnel, and optimize the sales process.
- Support customer-focused strategies: Goals related to customer retention, customer lifetime value, and reducing customer churn help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty over time.
- Encourage continuous improvement: Regularly reviewing monthly sales goals, quarterly targets, and annual sales goals helps teams adapt to changing markets and refine strategies to achieve sales goals faster.
- Boost revenue and efficiency: Whether through better customer acquisition, upselling, or refining virtual selling strategies, SMART sales revenue goals directly support higher productivity and long-term revenue growth.
How to create SMART sales goals?
Creating effective SMART sales goals starts with a clear understanding of your current sales performance, your desired outcomes, and how to align both with your overall business goals.
Here’s a step-by-step process to build goals that drive real results and help your sales team stay focused and accountable.
1. Analyze your sales process and pinpoint improvement areas
Before setting goals, review your current sales metrics, KPIs, and team performance to identify what's working and what’s not.
Examine key metrics, including customer acquisition rate, lead response time, customer churn rate, average deal size, and sales funnel conversion rates.
This will help you find gaps and set focused goals, whether that’s reducing customer acquisition cost, increasing qualified leads, or improving customer retention among existing customers.
2. Define realistic sales targets based on data
Once gaps are identified, determine what success looks like. Set sales targets and goals that are ambitious yet achievable based on historical data, current market conditions, and team capacity.
For example, if your sales reps currently convert 20% of leads, aiming for 30% might be realistic over the next quarter.
This stage is crucial for aligning your sales team's goals, individual sales targets, and revenue goals with overall business growth.
3. Apply the SMART framework
Convert your targets into SMART goals by ensuring they are:
- Specific: Clearly define the goal (e.g., increase sales revenue from inbound leads)
- Measurable: Use numbers or percentages to track progress (e.g., 20% boost)
- Achievable: Match the goal to team skills and resources
- Relevant: Align it with strategic sales goals and sales enablement goals
- Time-bound: Attach a clear deadline (e.g., within Q2)
Using a sales goals template can help you structure and document your goals for easy visibility across the team.
4. Communicate, educate, and empower your sales team
Even the best goals will fail without buy-in. Share your sales objectives with the team, explain why they matter, and connect each goal to larger business objectives.
Provide resources, coaching, and tools, such as a sales enablement platform or regular sales management dashboards, to support effective execution.
This ensures everyone understands the types of sales goals they’re responsible for and how they contribute to achieving sales goals, improving customer satisfaction, and driving revenue growth.
How to track your sales goals?
Tracking your sales goals is essential to ensure your sales team stays aligned, motivated, and accountable throughout the sales process.
To effectively track progress and measure success, follow these best practices:
1. Use sales dashboards
Sales management dashboards provide a real-time view of your team’s progress toward key sales goals. They enable sales managers and sales representatives to track key metrics, such as sales revenue, qualified leads, and average deal size, all in one place.
Dashboards are essential for monitoring daily performance and identifying bottlenecks in the sales pipeline.
2. Set measurable KPIs
Every sales goal should be tied to clear, trackable key performance indicators (KPIs). Whether you’re measuring lead response time, customer acquisition rate, or monthly sales goals, KPIs help quantify success.
This ensures that all sales activities are aligned with your broader business goals and sales targets.
3. Review goals regularly
Consistent goal reviews, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly, are crucial for staying on track. This allows you to evaluate what’s working, refocus efforts, and make timely adjustments.
Revisit your annual sales goals, check your sales team’s progress, and identify gaps in sales rep performance targets.
4. Leverage your CRM
A robust customer relationship management (CRM) system helps automate goal tracking and reporting. CRMs allow you to monitor customer acquisition, track follow-ups, analyze win/loss rates, and reduce customer acquisition costs.
Integrating a sales enablement platform adds additional layers of intelligence to improve sales performance.
5. Adjust based on insights
Tracking is only valuable if you take action based on the data. Use insights to refine your sales strategies, reassign resources, or optimize underperforming campaigns.
For instance, if customer churn is high, your team can shift focus toward customer retention efforts and post-sale engagement.
1. Increase sales revenue
This is one of the most fundamental sales goals, aimed at generating more income from products or services sold. It helps sales leaders track business growth and assess the performance of the overall sales process.
Teams can increase revenue by improving closing rates, raising prices, upselling, or expanding into new markets.
Example: Increase monthly sales revenue by 20% over the next quarter through targeted upsell campaigns and follow-ups with existing customers.
Read More: How to increase sales: 25 Proven strategies to boost revenue.
2. Close more deals
Closing more deals means moving a greater number of leads through the sales funnel to conversion.
This goal directly supports meeting sales goals and increasing team efficiency. It requires strong follow-up, effective objection handling, and better sales enablement content.
Example: Each sales representative aims to close 30 deals per month by improving their follow-up cadence and utilizing new objection-handling scripts.
3. Boost booking rate
The booking rate refers to the number of meetings or demos scheduled as a result of outreach efforts. This early-funnel metric is crucial for maintaining a healthy sales pipeline and often serves as a leading indicator of future closed deals.
To improve booking rates, representatives should refine their messaging, enhance email open rates, and reduce lead response times.
Example: Increase the booking rate by 25% this quarter by utilizing personalized email sequences and follow-up texts to boost meeting confirmations.
4. Boost the number of cold calls
Cold calling remains a powerful strategy for sales development representatives in outbound teams. Increasing cold call volume can lead to more discovery calls, qualified leads, and customer acquisition.
While quality matters, setting clear quantity goals helps build discipline and opens the door to better conversations.
Example: Each SDR will make 80 cold calls per day to generate at least 10 conversations with potential customers.
5. Increase qualified leads
Generating more qualified leads ensures that your team spends time on prospects who are more likely to convert.
This goal strengthens the sales process by improving efficiency and boosting ROI on marketing and outbound activities. Qualification criteria may include budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT).
Example: Increase marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) by 40% in the next 60 days by refining lead scoring and targeting high-intent segments.
6. Increase average deal size
Focusing on increasing the average deal size helps boost overall sales revenue without the need to close more deals.
This can be achieved by bundling products, upselling premium features, or positioning long-term contracts.
It also helps improve customer lifetime value by deepening the buyer relationship and maximizing deal potential.
Example: Increase average deal size from $1,200 to $1,800 by promoting bundled solutions during discovery and demo calls.
7. Reduce customer churn
Reducing customer churn is crucial for sustaining long-term growth, particularly in subscription-based models.
It involves improving post-sale support, onboarding, and relationship management. Lower churn also improves customer retention, sales performance, and long-term business goals.
Example: Reduce customer churn from 12% to under 8% over the next 6 months by launching a proactive check-in cadence for high-risk accounts.
8. Increase customer lifetime value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value represents the total revenue a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.
Increasing CLV involves retention, upselling, excellent service, and relationship-building strategies. It's a key sales metric tied to both customer loyalty and revenue growth.
Example: Increase average CLV from $9,000 to $12,000 in 12 months by implementing a post-purchase upsell email series and success webinars.
9. Lower customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Reducing customer acquisition cost helps improve profitability and efficiency across your sales funnel. This can be done by improving conversion rates, optimizing ad spend, and enabling reps with better content and automation tools.
It’s one of the most tracked sales goals for growth-stage businesses.
Example: Lower CAC by 20% this quarter by replacing manual outreach with AI-driven lead enrichment and automated cold email flows.
10. Shorten time to close
Shortening the sales cycle means deals move faster through the funnel, increasing cash flow and rep productivity.
It involves removing bottlenecks, reducing back-and-forth communication, and enhancing content delivery throughout the sales process. This goal also aligns with improving the customer experience.
Example: Reduce average time to close from 28 days to 18 days by automating proposal generation and introducing pre-call qualification checklists.
11. Raise sales email response rate
Improving email reply rates helps move leads forward in the sales pipeline and boosts rep efficiency.
It often involves better subject lines, personalized messaging, optimized send times, and relevant CTAs. Tracking this metric also improves email marketing strategies.
Example: Increase email response rate from 5% to 12% by A/B testing outreach templates and utilizing buyer intent signals for targeted messaging.
12. Speed up response time
Faster lead response time is critical for improving conversion rates and reducing lost opportunities.
It shows professionalism and keeps the buyer engaged while they’re still actively researching. This is a key KPI for inbound teams.
Example: Reduce the average first response time from 2 hours to under 15 minutes by utilizing automated notifications and routing through the CRM.
13. Deepen lead engagement
Lead engagement focuses on how actively and meaningfully prospects interact with your team or content.
Improving this increases the likelihood of conversion and pipeline velocity. Engagement can be improved through personalized follow-ups, interactive demos, and strategic nurturing.
Example: Increase average lead engagement score by 30% through the use of video-based email outreach and live chat on high-intent pages.
14. Improve net promoter score (Nps)
NPS is a critical customer satisfaction metric and a strong indicator of loyalty.
Improving it typically involves enhancing post-sale support, listening to customer feedback, and addressing identified pain points. It's often used to measure long-term sales goals and product-market fit.
Example: Increase NPS from 40 to 55 by implementing quarterly satisfaction surveys and conducting 1:1 follow-ups with detractors.
15. Increase market share
Growing your market share helps you dominate your niche and build a competitive advantage. It requires strong positioning, targeted acquisition, and brand trust.
This strategic sales goal is ideal for scaling businesses entering new regions or verticals.
Example: Increase U.S. market share in the healthcare segment from 8% to 12% by the end of the year through regional partnerships and outbound campaigns.
16. Increase quota attainment
Quota attainment measures the percentage of sales representatives who hit or exceed their targets. Improving this boosts team morale, retention, and overall sales performance.
It can be improved through better coaching, clearer expectations, and stronger enablement content.
Example: Raise team-wide quota attainment from 60% to 85% over the next two quarters by introducing monthly performance reviews and skill-based coaching.
17. Acquire new customers
New customer acquisition is the foundation of business expansion. This goal often involves lead generation, outreach, and closing net-new accounts. It pairs well with goals focused on qualified leads, CAC, and onboarding experience.
Example: Acquire 200 new customers in Q1 through a combined paid ads and outbound email strategy targeting SMBs in fintech.
18. Increase unit sales
Unit-based sales goals work well for retail, product-based, or volume-driven businesses. Increasing unit sales drives revenue, clears inventory, and strengthens sales forecasts. It may involve promotional offers, bundling, or sales contests.
Example: Sell 5,000 units of our new product line within 60 days using limited-time discounts and influencer promotions.
19. Increase customer upsells
Upselling increases average deal size and enhances customer lifetime value. It involves identifying customer needs and offering premium features or higher-tier plans.
This goal is great for post-sale account managers and customer success teams.
Example: Increase upsell revenue by 25% by training reps to position premium plans during QBRs and adding targeted in-app upgrade prompts.
20. Boost customer cross-sells
Cross-selling drives revenue growth by introducing customers to complementary products or services that they may not have considered otherwise.
It works best when timed correctly and personalized based on customer behavior. It’s a valuable part of sales enablement and product-led strategies.
Example: Generate $150,000 in Q3 from cross-selling professional services to current software clients.
21. Improve sales forecast accuracy goals
Accurate sales forecasting enables better planning, resource allocation, and alignment with business goals. It reduces surprises and improves trust across leadership. This goal requires clean customer data, reliable CRM input, and regular pipeline reviews.
Example: Improve forecast accuracy from 60% to 85% by implementing weekly deal reviews and standardizing pipeline stages.
22. Increase annual contract value
Increasing annual contract value (ACV) drives recurring revenue and boosts customer lifetime value. This can be done by offering multi-year plans, tiered pricing, or feature upgrades. It's a key metric for SaaS and subscription-based businesses.
Example: Grow average ACV from $8,000 to $12,000 by incentivizing 2-year contracts with added onboarding and support packages.
23. Schedule more demos
Demos are a high-conversion step in many B2B sales funnels. The more demos booked, the greater the chances of closing deals. This goal encourages reps to improve outreach and follow-up strategies.
Example: Increase weekly demo bookings by 35% by adding calendar links to outbound emails and introducing demo-based CTAs in landing pages.
24. Improve customer retention
Retaining customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Customer retention efforts enhance loyalty, decrease customer churn, and increase recurring revenue.
This is closely tied to onboarding, support, and proactive engagement.
Example: Improve retention from 78% to 90% by implementing a 30-60-90 day onboarding journey and quarterly check-ins with key accounts.
Check out: 24 Best customer retention strategies to drive loyalty & success.
25. Increase customer acquisition rate
This goal focuses on acquiring more customers over a set period and is key to sales growth. It's often measured in percentage growth or the total number of customers per month or quarter.
Example: Increase customer acquisition rate by 40% this quarter through optimized landing pages, retargeting ads, and outbound cadences.
26. Increase hold rate
Hold rate measures the percentage of leads that stay engaged after the initial contact, such as after a call or demo.
A higher hold rate signals strong value alignment and better nurturing. It's important for reducing drop-offs and maintaining pipeline health.
Example: Improve hold rate from 50% to 70% by improving call follow-up processes and sending post-demo summaries within 24 hours.
27. Improve email marketing
Strong email marketing directly supports lead generation, nurture campaigns, and sales enablement goals.
Better segmentation, personalized content, and optimized timing can significantly improve open, click, and reply rates.
Example: Increase email campaign click-through rate from 3.5% to 6% by revamping subject lines and segmenting based on deal stage.
Key takeaways
Struggling to set sales goals that actually drive results?
You’re not alone. Many sales teams fall short because their sales objectives are not clear, measurable, or aligned with their revenue goals.
This is where SMART sales goals make all the difference by streamlining your sales process, focusing your sales reps, and boosting overall sales performance.
In this blog, we’ve compiled 27 proven SMART sales goals examples to help you increase sales revenue, improve customer acquisition, and hit every sales target, whether it's monthly, quarterly, or annual.
Whether you're working on customer retention, setting sales rep performance targets, or lowering your customer acquisition cost, these examples will help turn goals into outcomes.
If you're ready to start achieving your sales goals, improving your sales funnel, and tracking the right KPIs, this guide will help you exceed your sales goals and unlock measurable revenue growth.
What are sales goals?
Sales goals are measurable targets that guide a company’s efforts to improve sales performance, boost revenue, and support overall business growth.
They help sales teams stay focused, prioritize the right sales activities, and align with long-term strategic objectives.
Common sales goals include increasing qualified leads, improving customer retention, reducing customer acquisition costs, and enhancing customer lifetime value.
When paired with the SMART goals framework, these objectives become clear, actionable, and easier to track through key sales metrics and KPIs.
What are SMART sales goals?
SMART sales goals are clearly defined objectives that follow the SMART framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
This structure ensures that your sales goals are realistic, focused, and aligned with both short-term sales targets and long-term business goals.
Here’s a breakdown of each element in the SMART framework:
1. Specific
A sales goal should clearly define what needs to be achieved, who is responsible, and how it will be accomplished.
Vague goals, such as “increase sales,” can cause confusion. Instead, specificity aligns your sales team around a shared outcome.
Example: “Generate 300 qualified leads from outbound email campaigns by the end of Q2.”
2. Measurable
To evaluate sales performance, goals must include metrics that allow you to track progress and measure success.
This is essential for monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) like lead response time, average deal size, or sales revenue goals.
Example: “Increase customer acquisition rate by 20% compared to the previous quarter.”
3. Achievable
A goal must be realistic given the current resources, sales team capacity, and market conditions.
Setting overly aggressive sales targets can demotivate team members, while achievable goals build momentum and confidence.
Example: “Each sales development representative should schedule 10 product demos per week.”
4. Relevant
A goal should align with the broader business objectives, sales targets, and revenue goals.
Relevance ensures that every goal contributes to key outcomes, such as improving customer retention, increasing customer lifetime value, or reducing customer acquisition costs.
Example: “Reduce customer churn by 10% by implementing a new customer loyalty program.”
5. Time-bound
Every sales goal must have a clear deadline. This creates urgency and ensures the team stays focused on delivering results within a specific sales cycle, whether it's for monthly sales targets, quarterly sales goals, or annual sales objectives.
Example: “Close $250,000 in new sales revenue by the end of Q3.”
Why do sales goals matter?
Setting clear and actionable sales goals is essential for building a high-performing sales team and driving consistent business growth. Here's why they matter:
How to create SMART sales goals?
Creating effective SMART sales goals starts with a clear understanding of your current sales performance, your desired outcomes, and how to align both with your overall business goals.
Here’s a step-by-step process to build goals that drive real results and help your sales team stay focused and accountable.
1. Analyze your sales process and pinpoint improvement areas
Before setting goals, review your current sales metrics, KPIs, and team performance to identify what's working and what’s not.
Examine key metrics, including customer acquisition rate, lead response time, customer churn rate, average deal size, and sales funnel conversion rates.
This will help you find gaps and set focused goals, whether that’s reducing customer acquisition cost, increasing qualified leads, or improving customer retention among existing customers.
2. Define realistic sales targets based on data
Once gaps are identified, determine what success looks like. Set sales targets and goals that are ambitious yet achievable based on historical data, current market conditions, and team capacity.
For example, if your sales reps currently convert 20% of leads, aiming for 30% might be realistic over the next quarter.
This stage is crucial for aligning your sales team's goals, individual sales targets, and revenue goals with overall business growth.
3. Apply the SMART framework
Convert your targets into SMART goals by ensuring they are:
Using a sales goals template can help you structure and document your goals for easy visibility across the team.
4. Communicate, educate, and empower your sales team
Even the best goals will fail without buy-in. Share your sales objectives with the team, explain why they matter, and connect each goal to larger business objectives.
Provide resources, coaching, and tools, such as a sales enablement platform or regular sales management dashboards, to support effective execution.
This ensures everyone understands the types of sales goals they’re responsible for and how they contribute to achieving sales goals, improving customer satisfaction, and driving revenue growth.
How to track your sales goals?
Tracking your sales goals is essential to ensure your sales team stays aligned, motivated, and accountable throughout the sales process.
To effectively track progress and measure success, follow these best practices:
1. Use sales dashboards
Sales management dashboards provide a real-time view of your team’s progress toward key sales goals. They enable sales managers and sales representatives to track key metrics, such as sales revenue, qualified leads, and average deal size, all in one place.
Dashboards are essential for monitoring daily performance and identifying bottlenecks in the sales pipeline.
2. Set measurable KPIs
Every sales goal should be tied to clear, trackable key performance indicators (KPIs). Whether you’re measuring lead response time, customer acquisition rate, or monthly sales goals, KPIs help quantify success.
This ensures that all sales activities are aligned with your broader business goals and sales targets.
3. Review goals regularly
Consistent goal reviews, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly, are crucial for staying on track. This allows you to evaluate what’s working, refocus efforts, and make timely adjustments.
Revisit your annual sales goals, check your sales team’s progress, and identify gaps in sales rep performance targets.
4. Leverage your CRM
A robust customer relationship management (CRM) system helps automate goal tracking and reporting. CRMs allow you to monitor customer acquisition, track follow-ups, analyze win/loss rates, and reduce customer acquisition costs.
Integrating a sales enablement platform adds additional layers of intelligence to improve sales performance.
5. Adjust based on insights
Tracking is only valuable if you take action based on the data. Use insights to refine your sales strategies, reassign resources, or optimize underperforming campaigns.
For instance, if customer churn is high, your team can shift focus toward customer retention efforts and post-sale engagement.
Ready to track your sales goals with clarity?
Salesmate helps you track, optimize, and achieve your goals faster with built-in dashboards and automation.
27 Common sales goals examples
Setting clear sales goals is key to aligning your sales team, streamlining your sales process, and driving consistent revenue growth.
Whether it's monthly targets, long-term objectives, or daily actions, the right goals help you track progress and boost accountability.
Below are the strategic sales goals examples to customize for your team or business strategy.
1. Increase sales revenue
This is one of the most fundamental sales goals, aimed at generating more income from products or services sold. It helps sales leaders track business growth and assess the performance of the overall sales process.
Teams can increase revenue by improving closing rates, raising prices, upselling, or expanding into new markets.
Example: Increase monthly sales revenue by 20% over the next quarter through targeted upsell campaigns and follow-ups with existing customers.
2. Close more deals
Closing more deals means moving a greater number of leads through the sales funnel to conversion.
This goal directly supports meeting sales goals and increasing team efficiency. It requires strong follow-up, effective objection handling, and better sales enablement content.
Example: Each sales representative aims to close 30 deals per month by improving their follow-up cadence and utilizing new objection-handling scripts.
3. Boost booking rate
The booking rate refers to the number of meetings or demos scheduled as a result of outreach efforts. This early-funnel metric is crucial for maintaining a healthy sales pipeline and often serves as a leading indicator of future closed deals.
To improve booking rates, representatives should refine their messaging, enhance email open rates, and reduce lead response times.
Example: Increase the booking rate by 25% this quarter by utilizing personalized email sequences and follow-up texts to boost meeting confirmations.
4. Boost the number of cold calls
Cold calling remains a powerful strategy for sales development representatives in outbound teams. Increasing cold call volume can lead to more discovery calls, qualified leads, and customer acquisition.
While quality matters, setting clear quantity goals helps build discipline and opens the door to better conversations.
Example: Each SDR will make 80 cold calls per day to generate at least 10 conversations with potential customers.
5. Increase qualified leads
Generating more qualified leads ensures that your team spends time on prospects who are more likely to convert.
This goal strengthens the sales process by improving efficiency and boosting ROI on marketing and outbound activities. Qualification criteria may include budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT).
Example: Increase marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) by 40% in the next 60 days by refining lead scoring and targeting high-intent segments.
6. Increase average deal size
Focusing on increasing the average deal size helps boost overall sales revenue without the need to close more deals.
This can be achieved by bundling products, upselling premium features, or positioning long-term contracts.
It also helps improve customer lifetime value by deepening the buyer relationship and maximizing deal potential.
Example: Increase average deal size from $1,200 to $1,800 by promoting bundled solutions during discovery and demo calls.
7. Reduce customer churn
Reducing customer churn is crucial for sustaining long-term growth, particularly in subscription-based models.
It involves improving post-sale support, onboarding, and relationship management. Lower churn also improves customer retention, sales performance, and long-term business goals.
Example: Reduce customer churn from 12% to under 8% over the next 6 months by launching a proactive check-in cadence for high-risk accounts.
8. Increase customer lifetime value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value represents the total revenue a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.
Increasing CLV involves retention, upselling, excellent service, and relationship-building strategies. It's a key sales metric tied to both customer loyalty and revenue growth.
Example: Increase average CLV from $9,000 to $12,000 in 12 months by implementing a post-purchase upsell email series and success webinars.
9. Lower customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Reducing customer acquisition cost helps improve profitability and efficiency across your sales funnel. This can be done by improving conversion rates, optimizing ad spend, and enabling reps with better content and automation tools.
It’s one of the most tracked sales goals for growth-stage businesses.
Example: Lower CAC by 20% this quarter by replacing manual outreach with AI-driven lead enrichment and automated cold email flows.
10. Shorten time to close
Shortening the sales cycle means deals move faster through the funnel, increasing cash flow and rep productivity.
It involves removing bottlenecks, reducing back-and-forth communication, and enhancing content delivery throughout the sales process. This goal also aligns with improving the customer experience.
Example: Reduce average time to close from 28 days to 18 days by automating proposal generation and introducing pre-call qualification checklists.
11. Raise sales email response rate
Improving email reply rates helps move leads forward in the sales pipeline and boosts rep efficiency.
It often involves better subject lines, personalized messaging, optimized send times, and relevant CTAs. Tracking this metric also improves email marketing strategies.
Example: Increase email response rate from 5% to 12% by A/B testing outreach templates and utilizing buyer intent signals for targeted messaging.
12. Speed up response time
Faster lead response time is critical for improving conversion rates and reducing lost opportunities.
It shows professionalism and keeps the buyer engaged while they’re still actively researching. This is a key KPI for inbound teams.
Example: Reduce the average first response time from 2 hours to under 15 minutes by utilizing automated notifications and routing through the CRM.
13. Deepen lead engagement
Lead engagement focuses on how actively and meaningfully prospects interact with your team or content.
Improving this increases the likelihood of conversion and pipeline velocity. Engagement can be improved through personalized follow-ups, interactive demos, and strategic nurturing.
Example: Increase average lead engagement score by 30% through the use of video-based email outreach and live chat on high-intent pages.
14. Improve net promoter score (Nps)
NPS is a critical customer satisfaction metric and a strong indicator of loyalty.
Improving it typically involves enhancing post-sale support, listening to customer feedback, and addressing identified pain points. It's often used to measure long-term sales goals and product-market fit.
Example: Increase NPS from 40 to 55 by implementing quarterly satisfaction surveys and conducting 1:1 follow-ups with detractors.
15. Increase market share
Growing your market share helps you dominate your niche and build a competitive advantage. It requires strong positioning, targeted acquisition, and brand trust.
This strategic sales goal is ideal for scaling businesses entering new regions or verticals.
Example: Increase U.S. market share in the healthcare segment from 8% to 12% by the end of the year through regional partnerships and outbound campaigns.
16. Increase quota attainment
Quota attainment measures the percentage of sales representatives who hit or exceed their targets. Improving this boosts team morale, retention, and overall sales performance.
It can be improved through better coaching, clearer expectations, and stronger enablement content.
Example: Raise team-wide quota attainment from 60% to 85% over the next two quarters by introducing monthly performance reviews and skill-based coaching.
17. Acquire new customers
New customer acquisition is the foundation of business expansion. This goal often involves lead generation, outreach, and closing net-new accounts. It pairs well with goals focused on qualified leads, CAC, and onboarding experience.
Example: Acquire 200 new customers in Q1 through a combined paid ads and outbound email strategy targeting SMBs in fintech.
18. Increase unit sales
Unit-based sales goals work well for retail, product-based, or volume-driven businesses. Increasing unit sales drives revenue, clears inventory, and strengthens sales forecasts. It may involve promotional offers, bundling, or sales contests.
Example: Sell 5,000 units of our new product line within 60 days using limited-time discounts and influencer promotions.
19. Increase customer upsells
Upselling increases average deal size and enhances customer lifetime value. It involves identifying customer needs and offering premium features or higher-tier plans.
This goal is great for post-sale account managers and customer success teams.
Example: Increase upsell revenue by 25% by training reps to position premium plans during QBRs and adding targeted in-app upgrade prompts.
20. Boost customer cross-sells
Cross-selling drives revenue growth by introducing customers to complementary products or services that they may not have considered otherwise.
It works best when timed correctly and personalized based on customer behavior. It’s a valuable part of sales enablement and product-led strategies.
Example: Generate $150,000 in Q3 from cross-selling professional services to current software clients.
21. Improve sales forecast accuracy goals
Accurate sales forecasting enables better planning, resource allocation, and alignment with business goals. It reduces surprises and improves trust across leadership. This goal requires clean customer data, reliable CRM input, and regular pipeline reviews.
Example: Improve forecast accuracy from 60% to 85% by implementing weekly deal reviews and standardizing pipeline stages.
22. Increase annual contract value
Increasing annual contract value (ACV) drives recurring revenue and boosts customer lifetime value. This can be done by offering multi-year plans, tiered pricing, or feature upgrades. It's a key metric for SaaS and subscription-based businesses.
Example: Grow average ACV from $8,000 to $12,000 by incentivizing 2-year contracts with added onboarding and support packages.
23. Schedule more demos
Demos are a high-conversion step in many B2B sales funnels. The more demos booked, the greater the chances of closing deals. This goal encourages reps to improve outreach and follow-up strategies.
Example: Increase weekly demo bookings by 35% by adding calendar links to outbound emails and introducing demo-based CTAs in landing pages.
24. Improve customer retention
Retaining customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Customer retention efforts enhance loyalty, decrease customer churn, and increase recurring revenue.
This is closely tied to onboarding, support, and proactive engagement.
Example: Improve retention from 78% to 90% by implementing a 30-60-90 day onboarding journey and quarterly check-ins with key accounts.
25. Increase customer acquisition rate
This goal focuses on acquiring more customers over a set period and is key to sales growth. It's often measured in percentage growth or the total number of customers per month or quarter.
Example: Increase customer acquisition rate by 40% this quarter through optimized landing pages, retargeting ads, and outbound cadences.
26. Increase hold rate
Hold rate measures the percentage of leads that stay engaged after the initial contact, such as after a call or demo.
A higher hold rate signals strong value alignment and better nurturing. It's important for reducing drop-offs and maintaining pipeline health.
Example: Improve hold rate from 50% to 70% by improving call follow-up processes and sending post-demo summaries within 24 hours.
27. Improve email marketing
Strong email marketing directly supports lead generation, nurture campaigns, and sales enablement goals.
Better segmentation, personalized content, and optimized timing can significantly improve open, click, and reply rates.
Example: Increase email campaign click-through rate from 3.5% to 6% by revamping subject lines and segmenting based on deal stage.
Frequently asked questions
1. What are the 5 SMART goals for sales?
The five components of SMART goals for sales include:
2. What are the goals of sales?
The primary objectives of sales are to drive revenue growth, acquire new customers, and foster strong relationships. Key targets include increasing revenue, improving average order value, and tracking the number of customers acquired through effective sales calls.
3. What is a performance goal in sales?
A performance goal in sales measures the effectiveness of sales personnel and their activities. It includes targets such as increasing sales calls, improving conversion rates, meeting revenue targets, or expanding the customer base and average order value.
4. What are the types of sales goals?
There are several types of sales goals that businesses set to guide their teams, each targeting different aspects of the sales process:
Revenue goals: Focused on achieving specific revenue targets, such as increasing sales revenue by a set percentage or amount within a specified timeframe.
Customer acquisition goals: Aim to increase the number of customers through lead generation and closing new deals. These goals often focus on improving sales calls or outreach strategies to attract new clients.
Customer retention goals: Target the improvement of customer satisfaction and loyalty, to retain existing clients.
Sales cycle goals: Aim to shorten the sales cycle, making the process from lead generation to deal closure more efficient and effective.
Activity goals: Focus on the sales activities that drive success, such as making a certain number of sales calls, scheduling demos, or following up on leads.
Conversion goals: Focus on improving the rate at which prospects are converted to customers, tracking how effectively sales reps move leads through the sales funnel, and closing deals.
Hinal Tanna
SEO SpecialistHinal Tanna is a SEO strategist and content marketer, currently working with the marketing team of Salesmate. She has a knack for curating content that follows SEO practices and helps businesses create an impactful brand presence. When she's not working, Hinal likes to spend her time exploring new places.