Ways to Make Team Goals More Actionable

We tell our sales reps to be gritty, to work smarter, not harder, to smash their quota but don't always do the best job pairing those inspirational calls to action with tools and techniques that allow them to do the things we ask. For years, I’ve loved the GROW Goal Setting Model. It is a great model, but I found myself tweaking it to reflect the things I think are fascinating and that actually work for revenue teams. 🧠 Ideas like: - Neuroplasticity - Harms of moonshot thinking - Value of gratitude and meditation - The frustration reps feel when they work tirelessly and still miss quota. That’s why I developed the PATH. 👉 Steal this framework to help your team not only set goals but achieve them. The PATH framework is a four-step process that helps you and your team set actionable goals, anticipate challenges, and ensure every step aligns with your aspirations. 1. Plan: Setting a Focused Goal Everything starts with a solid foundation. The first step is setting a focused goal. SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—work well here. This ensures you’re working toward a well-defined target, making it easier to stay focused and track progress. 2. Anticipate: Backcasting Once your goal is in place, it’s time to imagine your desired future state. I love writing goals as if they've already happened and writing out the details of what it took me to get there. This process ensures that you have realistic micro-actions that you can be accountable to on the PATH to achieving your goal. 3. Test: Pre-Mortem Next, you stress-test your plan with a pre-mortem (inspo credit: Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets) This exercise allows you to identify risks before they arise, so you can adjust your plan and stay on track. It also encourages you to uncover opportunities to leapfrog your progress by brainstorming creative solutions. 4. Harmonize: Alignment to Aspirations The final step ensures that your micro-actions align with your larger aspirations. It's a final sense check to ensure you've set a goal you care enough about that you'll put in the hard work required to achieve it. That work will be supported by a clear PATH to success. The PATH framework ensures you don’t just set goals—you achieve them. 💸 Want me to guide your sales or leadership team through this process as part of your year-end planning or SKO? Drop "PATH" in the comments to learn more.

One of my favorite tricks when goal-setting is to have side-by-side comparisons of actuals and efficiency bets to spark trade-off conversations. → This exercise allows the team to prioritize work and challenge current performance → Generate insightful conversations + brainstorming within groups → Prioritize modeling realistic yet challenging goals – many companies model to improve every data point (which is often unrealistic) &  don’t factor in ramp time to improve the metrics 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘀: The metrics you're betting on improving based on focused efforts over time. Example inputs are highlighted in green below. When creating and roadmapping goals in a documented format, I make two sections to compare side-by-side actuals (based on current performance) and then the efficiency bets (chosen inputs to take chances on to improve as a team). Let’s walk through a rough, simple example to illustrate this concept: 1. Inbound revenue goal: Planning to achieve X in new ARR for Q1 2. Work backward within your funnel to obtain various goals (win rate, ACV, avg. deal size, conversion rates, etc.) 3. For the actuals section: Put in these inputs as they have been performing for the last 6 mo.'s. Keep this exercise and the inputs as simple as possible 4. For the efficiency bets section: Decide on only 1-2 inputs you believe you can improve as a team. Pro-tip: ramp these over time for work to impact the improvements. E.g., you could model a ramp to improve the win rate by improving the quality of leads. Or you may improve the demo → deal created conversion rate by improving the sales handoff process (adding a direct sales calendar link in your form is one tactic to help here). 5. Compare the delta between the actuals and efficiency bets and decide on the bets you’ll be taking. Often, the actuals section will cause teams to flag the plan as not doable, especially when you layer in the program spend needed to achieve the goals. However, we know we should constantly be improving our performance. But, many teams try and achieve everything at once and overnight. This creates a lack of focus and sets up failure in reaching the goals. This approach adds a layer of the discipline of intentionally choosing what and how to improve a metric. In this example, choosing the realistic efficiency bets saves the fictional company ~$262k, brings a more efficient ROI (typically benchmark the Ad CAC to 6 months or less), and reduces the number of opps by ~49. A bonus with this exercise is that once you have brainstormed with your team and had conversions on choosing your efficiency bets, you already have the rough outline of work the team needs to prioritize working in. And, of course, it also provides a roadmap to achieve easily understood goals that are much more attainable. (Everyone likes to win ;).) If anyone does something similar to this, I’d love to hear more about your thoughts and experiences!

Bad goal setting can cripple your business (I know from firsthand experience). Here's how to set goals that propel your business forward. Step 1: Analyze last year’s performance. You can’t set the right goals without the correct information. So, take some time to gather data from the previous year to find areas of strength and weakness. Look at your: Revenue streams — what are your most profitable areas? Your biggest cost centers? Sales & marketing — can you spot trends in customer acquisition or marketing ROI? Operations — where is your business bottlenecked? Where might you be overstaffed? Employee performance — look at productivity and churn. Which direction are things going? — Step 2: Brainstorm areas for improvement. Write down all the possible things you could work on. This is a great group activity for your leadership team or even the whole company (depending on your size). The data you’ve collected in step 1 should give you some idea of opportunity areas. One tip: don’t discount an idea just because it’s hard. Often the biggest impact things are hard to do. But you should be realistic about the effort required to get something done, and its chances of success. — Step 3: Set SMART goals Specific: Define clear and precise goals. Instead of saying "increase sales," say "increase sales by 12% in the next 6 months." Measurable: Ensure each goal has quantifiable metrics. E.g. "Reduce customer acquisition costs by 15% by the end of the year." Achievable: Set realistic goals based on your resources, budget and other constraints. E.g. if you have limited cash, avoid goals that would severely impact your monthly cash flow. Relevant: Align goals with your overall business objectives. Ensure they address the key areas for improvement identified earlier. Time-bound: Set deadlines for each goal. E.g. "launch a new service by Q3." — Step 4: Develop an Action Plan For each goal, create an action plan that outlines: Steps and Milestones: Break down each goal into smaller, manageable tasks. Set milestones to track progress. Resources: Identify the resources needed (time, money, personnel) and ensure they are available. Responsibilities: Assign tasks to specific employees. Ensure everyone understands their role and what is expected of them. Timeline: Establish a timeline with deadlines for each task and milestone. Doubling down on one point there: always assign tasks to a single person. They can still bring in other people to contribute, but it’s one person’s responsibility to get it across the finish line. — Step 5: Monitor and Adjust Goals are not static. Regularly check your progress, and adjust based on new insights or changing circumstances. Schedule monthly and/or quarterly reviews to keep everything on track. Having a simple KPI tracker is a good way to keep tabs on things. Make sure you’re regularly checking in, and ask people to flag any roadblocks or necessary adjustments as soon as they identify them.