Knowing how to set targets for your SaaS company’s GTM team is key to achieving your overall business goals. Not only is it vital for business owners wanting to scale their business, but it’s also essential for salespeople to know what they are aiming to achieve, and what they need to do to achieve it.
However, setting targets shouldn’t just be guesswork, or determined by what you ‘think’ you should be giving to your employees. Targets need to be reflective of market conditions in order for them to be attainable and sustainable, whilst also helping your business to grow.
Here, we look at how you should set targets for your GTM team, and how SaaS companies should monitor performance, along with the market, to maintain momentum during growth periods.
1. SET TARGETS PER PERSON, NOT PER TEAM
Setting team-wide targets is often the go-to for SaaS business leaders, and for good reason. It gives team members flexibility if anyone is off sick, on holiday, or simply has a bad month - their team members can pick up the slack, and they can repay the following month by putting in the extra hours to exceed targets.
With that being said, team-wide targets often means those who are consistently working hard, meeting or exceeding their targets, and wanting to develop their career, aren’t given the recognition they deserve because their hard work is marked as a group effort. Ensuring targets are set per person will mean your GTM team members each have to work individually and together to contribute to your business growth.
2. ENSURE TARGETS ARE BASED ON DATA, NOT GUESSWORK
Giving everyone the same blanket target to hit, or simply guessing what your team members’ targets should be, isn’t going to be manageable or sustainable. Work backwards - decide where you want your business to be one year from now, then work out what you need to get there.
For example, if you want to hit £1 million in profit a year’s time, you need to work out:
- What this looks like in revenue
- How much you need to sell to reach that goal
- How many GTM team members you have
- What they are currently achieving
- What they would each need to achieve on a monthly basis to reach your goal
- How to factor in possible market changes
3. ENSURE YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM IS EXPERIENCED
Although this may sound like an obvious one, ensuring members of your leadership team are experienced in either a) business growth, b) setting targets for SaaS company salespeople, or c) both, is vital. Repvue found that of the 330 sales organisations published on their site, only 7 of those 330 businesses had more than 75% of their team members hitting their targets.
Repvue also stated that when referring to their top 20 sales organisations list, there are noticeably more public companies than VC-backed. There is a strong correlation between the number of public companies and those that employ tenured leadership, all of whom have experience navigating critical challenges, whilst scaling a business. Ensuring your SaaS company employs experienced leadership with the knowledge on how to set targets reflective of market conditions will have a noticeable impact on your organisation.
4. REVIEW TARGET FAILURES AND MAKE IMPROVEMENTS
If your GTM team is consistently missing targets, or specific team members aren’t reaching their goals whilst others are, this needs to be addressed. Continuous improvement does not just apply to those looking to achieve the targets - it also applies to those setting the targets, and how they can best support their employees.
Speak to the salespeople who are struggling to achieve their weekly or monthly targets. Is there anything in particular they’re struggling with? Do they need extra support, or more training? Are the tools they’re using helping or hindering them? Get feedback directly from your employees.
5. ADJUST / UPDATE TARGETS QUARTERLY, BIANNUALLY OR ANNUALLY
Keeping your targets the same will put a very noticeable barrier on your business growth, very quickly. When you get to a point where your GTM team members are achieving their targets consistently, it’s time to update your targets to continue with your business growth and revenue/profit goals.
After a period of consistency, speak to your GTM team about increasing their targets, not only to keep them motivated to work hard and feel challenged, but also to help them earn more money, whilst also improving the number of sales for your SaaS company. Review how many people are achieving their targets regularly, so you can see when you need to put new challenges in place.
STRIVE CAN HELP YOU BUILD A BEST-IN-CLASS GO-TO-MARKET TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY
Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.
