10 Sales objectives to crush your quotas [with examples]

Often, sales teams measure their performances and success by looking at their monthly quotas, average sales value, churn, ROI, and similar metrics.

But what if they don’t know what exactly they are working to achieve?

That’s where the need for having sales objectives comes into play.

This blog is here to share 10 sales objectives examples you must explore!

But first, let’s understand what “sales objectives” means.

What are sales objectives?

Sales objectives are long-term goals set to align the entire sales team towards pushing the company forward.

They act as a blueprint to define a sales team’s next steps to accomplish individual and departmental sales targets.

However, sales objectives are not the same as KPIs. They are the overarching themes that define the metrics that depict the success of sales.

Setting sales goals for driving results out of your reps’ actions is critical.

First, let’s discover the common challenges that sales professionals face while setting sales objectives.

Common challenges in setting sales objectives

The majority of sales reps spend most of their time on non-revenue-generating activities.

This high percentage is often due to unrealistic goals, an increase in menial tasks, and other underlying challenges that hinder companies from setting frictionless sales objectives.

Some of the major sales challenges that sales professionals face are:

• Managing volumes of data and segregating them into use cases
• The inability to manage data and business insights across multiple departments
• The absence of the company’s long-term or short-term vision
• Inadequate knowledge in accessing technology or tools to derive real-time insights
• Measuring success by defining shared metrics

Sales managers need to define clear sales objectives with a strategy to achieve the desired sales goals.

This way, it would be easier to overcome the majority of challenges coming their way.

So, let’s find the right way to set sales objectives.

How to use sales objectives effectively?

Most businesses use SMART sales goals to execute sales plans.

The SMART framework is effective as it covers the main attributes to create actionable sales objectives:

• S – Specific for any task/actions performed by the sales team
• M – Measurable to assess the success and failure
• A – Attainable on realistic grounds based on the resources available
• R – Relevant to align with your business, team, and individual goals
• T – Time-bound to achieve the particular goal timely, which boosts your team’s productivity

Let’s understand with a sales objective example based on a measurable and time-bound mindset.

Suppose your sales team aims to improve customer retention by 20% over the next year.

The SMART goal will help you define that the team must retain at least 5% of customers quarterly.

10 key sales objectives examples you must use

These 10 sales objectives examples will help you improve your team’s overall performance. Let’s dive in.

1. Increase win rate

Win rate is a top sales performance metric that refers to the percentage of prospects who became customers divided by the number of pending deals.

This metric is a clear indicator of the success of your sales funnel because a higher win rate suggests higher revenue.

Sales objective example:

Improve win rates by 10% by the end of the following two quarters.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Improve your qualification process to get qualified leads for sales
• Track sales activities of your sales reps over a period to remove bottlenecks
• Leverage sales intelligence to identify bottlenecks and opportunities
• Set up regular optimization of your sales process
• Provide sales training proactively for upskilling and reskilling
• Gather feedback from the sales team and customers to get a complete picture

2. Reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC)

Lowering your customer acquisition cost (CAC) saves resources for business expansion, enabling more spending on campaigns and tools for marketing, advertising, and sales teams.

Sales objective example:

Cut down CAC by 15% in the next quarter by employing highly skilled, less expensive methods to win customers, such as ensuring the product or service matches the customer’s current situation.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Analyze your current customer acquisition cost to discover key channel spends
• Calculate the ROI from each channel and identify your best sources
• Identify which channel drives high-quality (sales-worthy) leads
• Re-evaluate audience targeting and buyer persona to optimize the strategy
• Work on your pricing strategy to improve wherever possible
• Keep track of and use analytics to measure success

3. Lower churn rate

Customer churn rate measures the number of existing customers or subscribers canceling or not renewing your services. It also indicates how easily competitors can sway your audience.

Focusing on this sales objective helps secure your market capture and optimize the return on your customer acquisition spend.

Sales objective example:

Slash customer churn rate by 10% by the end of the month by offering attractive customer incentives or discounts.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Deep dive into sales reports to identify the point of drop-off
• Proactively address customer concerns
• Conduct surveys to seek customer feedback
• Train your teams effectively to offer better customer service
• Introduce a chatbot to assist customers 24/7
• Offer post-sales follow-up and onboarding support
• Monitor competitors closely

Related read: 6 Techniques for better customer retention that just work!

4. Enhance customer lifetime value (CLV)

Getting more sales from an existing customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one, especially considering rising customer acquisition costs across channels. Therefore, CLV is an important metric for your sales team to focus on.

Sales objective example:

Increase the average order value and purchase frequency by 10% before the year ends.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Segment your customers based on interest, intent, and preferences
• Set up upsell and cross-sell campaigns with personalized recommendations
• Offer freebies or free trials to encourage discovery
• Build a community of customers to boost loyalty
• Boost your customer engagement strategy with automation
• Run loyalty programs and offer incentives

5. Improve monthly or annual revenue

Increased revenue indicates a company’s profitability and competitiveness. However, no one-size-fits-all method works for generating higher revenue consistently. This sales objective can involve calculating revenue per sales representative or the entire team.

Sales objective example:

Reach a monthly recurring revenue target of 15% more than the previous year.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Focus on customer retention to increase recurring revenue
• Invest in marketing and advertising to attract new customers
• Leverage cold calling and emailing to the fullest
• Monitor sales pipelines to identify opportunities for more sales
• Increase purchase size by upselling products or services to active customers
• Use technologies like CRM, marketing automation, and analytics to boost revenue-making opportunities
• Train the sales team on cross-selling and upselling

6. Raise profit margins

If the revenue objective seems harder to execute, raising profit margins is an easier alternative to boost revenue.

Profit margins are popular profitability indicators representing profits made by selling more units with higher margins.

Sales objective example:

Increase profit margins/units sold by 10% through impactful sales calls by the end of the upcoming quarter.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Find out what products generate the most profits
• Upsell and cross-sell products to customers
• Emphasize the values that your brand offers towards solving their problems
• Train your reps to overcome sales objections during sales calls

7. Shorten deal closure time/sales cycle

A lengthier sales cycle indicates longer time spent closing deals and delayed revenue for your organization. This can result in prospects exploring more options in the market, leading to walkaways from deals.

Sales objective example:

Decrease deal closure time by 20% in the next quarter by pre-qualifying leads and eliminating cold leads early in the sales cycle.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Build a lead scoring model to prioritize leads
• Leverage lead scoring software to automate your qualification process
• Qualify MQLs for sales with ideal qualifying questions
• Help your sales team personalize their pitches
• Set your mundane tasks on autopilot with workflow automation

8. Enhance the number of high-quality leads

You can only optimize a sales process when you have the right leads in your pipeline. If you target too broadly, it may bring in prospects that are too far away from making a purchase. On the other hand, targeting too narrowly may reduce the number of leads your sales team can bring into the pipeline, leading to even fewer closures. The quality of leads is more important than their quantity.

So, your marketing teams must generate and qualify leads effectively, saving their reps time by providing the hottest leads for sales targeting.

Sales objective example:

Increase the number of high-quality leads by 25% with lead scoring.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Define your ideal customer profile and buyer persona
• Build a lead scoring model to prioritize leads
• Introduce an automatic lead scoring tool for faster and error-free lead qualification
• Set up and follow a sales qualification framework, including all the key qualifying questions

9. Faster response time

50% of potential buyers prefer a brand that responds first.

Customers and leads loathe long waiting times. Your prospects lose interest in your business if your response rate is low, which can adversely impact your brand image in the long run.

Sales objective example:

Every sales rep must respond to warm leads and prospects within a three-hour window of receiving an inquiry by creating a daily response schedule.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Introduce a sales CRM to manage your inbound leads and ensure faster communication.
• Set up auto-assigning of leads to ensure immediate attention.
• Implement an automated system to alert sales reps when a lead qualifies.
• Automate follow-ups using Sales Sequence.
• Conduct training for reps on time management and communication skills.
• Utilize a Mobile CRM to respond to leads anytime, anywhere.

10. Close more deals

Tracking the number of deals your sales team and individual reps close is essential. Remember that what worked once may not fetch the same results again. Preparing your reps to win every possible conversation is key to closing deals.

Sales objective example:

Close 20 deals by the end of the first quarter. Individually, each rep should close three deals by the end of the second quarter using sales best practices.

Tips to achieve this sales objective:

• Evaluate performance across your sales objectives to identify roadblocks.
• Provide sales enablement training to reps for better customer handling.
• Boost lead generation efforts via omnichannel targeting.
• Enhance your lead qualification process to secure quality leads.
• Build a custom sales pipeline to track deal-closing opportunities.
• Implement a CRM and automation tool to manage and track your entire sales process.

Final thoughts

Apart from setting actionable sales objectives, ensure you check in on them regularly — weekly or biweekly. Regular check-ins help your company and teams stay on track without getting overwhelmed as new opportunities arise.

Celebrate smaller milestones to keep the momentum going as your sales reps work toward achieving the main objectives. As sales leaders, guide your team toward achieving clear, actionable goals. Work towards your best-suited objectives, chase them, and measure success to set your teams up for excellence.