… ‘The reality is that it takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you’re just going to end up quitting.’ Unrealistic beliefs…kill high standards.”26
Setting objectives and goals that achieve high standards is an art. Achieving high standards takes work, analysis, thought, and incredible persistence when faced with an unpredictable future.
Goal feedback
You need to get feedback – a reading on how you are doing. You receive feedback from yourself by successfully solving problems and closing sales, by analyzing what you did right, or by failing and analyzing what you did wrong. For example, analyzing statistics about your ratio of total calls to successful calls will give you feedback on how you are doing. Furthermore, you should get feedback on your objectives and goals from your manager on a regular basis. You have the right to know how you are doing and what your manager thinks you can do to improve.
Objective‐setting practice
Sound individual objectives must be:
1 Measurable
2 Attainable
3 Demanding
4 Consistent with company goals
5 Under the control of the individual
6 Deadlined
Here is a mnemonic for setting objectives – MADCUD. I will provide you with more details about using and prioritizing the MADCUD objectives on a daily and weekly basis in Chapter 25: Time Management. But for now, here are the elements’ definitions:
Measurable
The measurable criterion relates to the concept of clarity. Objectives and goals must be specific enough to be measurable, for example, “to increase sales by 15 percent” or “to increase your number of face‐to‐face presentations from a current average of 10 per week to an average of 15 per week.” Notice that objectives always begin with “to,” which implies an action you are going to take.
Setting specific, measurable, revenue objectives is not necessarily a good idea, although it is common practice. Rather than setting the final objective as a revenue objective, it is more productive to set a series of specific, measurable, smaller objectives that will help you reach a desired monthly revenue level. In the chapter “A bias for action” in In Search of Excellence, Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. quote the president of one successful company who says he has his managers focus on a few important activity‐based objectives. If they have this task‐oriented focus, he says that “the financials will take care of themselves.”27
Attainable
Set moderately difficult but attainable objectives. If objectives are reasonable, challenging, and attainable, they are motivating. If people perceive objectives to be unattainable, they will not work hard to achieve them. It is important to give time and thought to setting realistic, attainable objectives so that when you accomplish them you will feel successful.
Demanding
Demanding, like attainable, is related to difficulty. As seen in Figure 4.1, an objective has to be not only attainable but also sufficiently demanding to be challenging. High achievers are particularly motivated by demanding goals that challenge them. For high achievers the big payoff is the conquest and feeling like a winner, more so than any money that might be involved.
Consistent with company goals
Individual objectives should be consistent with company objectives and goals. For example, broadcast salespeople sometimes work at cross‐purposes to their sales departments by concentrating on selling rates that are too low or by “cherry picking” inventory, which means only selecting the highly rated advertising slots or special low‐price offers to sell. Such practices would be inconsistent with an overall company goal of maximizing revenue, for example.
Under control of the individual
Another seemingly self‐evident criterion for sound objectives states that they must be under the control of the individual. Instead of setting a revenue objective, set objectives for the number of calls you will make or for the number of presentations you will give. These are activity objectives. Too often, the concept of setting activity objectives is overlooked, especially by beginning salespeople. For example, objectives that would not be under the control of salespeople would be “to increase revenue next month by 25 percent.” But what if that next month’s ratings on your television station went down 30 percent or last month was the bottom month in a yearlong advertising slowdown. You cannot control ratings or the general economy; you can only control how hard you work and your own activities.
Deadlined
Your goals and objectives must be deadlined; they must have a due date. Without clear deadlines, goals and objectives become amorphous. Here is an example of some objectives a radio salesperson might write: “Next month I will increase my average rates from last month by 10 percent; I will increase the number of prospecting calls I make in the average week from 10 to 15; and I will make 25 percent more face‐to‐face presentations.” These goals are measurable, attainable, demanding, consistent with company goals, under the control of the person, and deadlined. Notice the phrase “a radio station salesperson might write.” Objectives that are not written down are worthless because they are merely intentions. A further way to increase your commitment to your objectives is to give your manager a copy of your written objectives.
Remember to keep your objectives flexible. If they are carved in stone and unchangeable, your objectives can lose their motivating effect particularly if they turn out to be unreasonable because of economic conditions, because of a shift in competitive positioning, or because of a change in your organization’s priorities or strategy.
Take Full Responsibility for Your “Cycle of Success”
High achievers set demanding objectives and goals, enjoy solving problems, take calculated risks, want immediate feedback on their performance, and take personal responsibility for their own “cycle of success” (see Figure 4.2).
The cycle of success is an ongoing cycle of ever‐more demanding objectives and goals that lead to ever‐increasing success. But just as the AESKOPP formula for success was multiplicative in the sense that if any of the seven AESKOPP elements were not present, success could not be achieved, so it is with the cycle of success in that all of the elements are inextricably linked.
