When I work with entrepreneurs, I’m always amazed by the number of them that set revenue goal without a plan on how to get there.

I’ll often hear goals of “I want to make $100,000 this year”, and then when I ask them how they will get there, they have no idea.

When creating a business you should be able to do this with three lines of business. Stick with three. One is too much pressure to achieve. If the prospect you are chatting with is not ready to move forward with the only option you are providing, what else do you have to offer her? Any more than three and you have too many things to focus on.

When I sit down with clients and do the planning phase we reverse engineer how we are going to get to the goal.

Step 1. Determine Your Goal

What would you like to achieve by the end of 2018? Your goal must be quantifiable. If you can’t measure it, is doesn’t exist. Let’s assume you want to make $100,000 by the end of 2018. Goals need to be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.

Step 2. What Do You Have To Make Your Goal?

Setting a goal, and saying it out loud, is only half the battle. Let’s assume you choose three product lines to achieve your goal. The next part to ask yourself is how much of each one can you reasonably sell in a month. You can determine this by using the average of your last year’s numbers, or if you don’t have that, what do you think you can do in a given month.

Step 3. Start Doing Some Math

Once you know how many of each product you can sell in a given month, multiple that by your average revenue (or profit if profitability is your goal). This will give you the amount that you can expect to bring in within a month. For example if you plan on selling 30 units of product A at $100, 10 units of product B at $250, and 2 units of product C at $1,000, you could expect to bring in (30 x $100 + 10 x $250 + 2 x $1,000) $7,500 in a given month.

Step 4. Make Your Adjustments

If your top goal was to make $100,000 in the year, you will still need to bring in an additional $833 per month ($100,000 divided by 12 months = $8,333 minus $7,500). At this point you will need to make reasonable adjustments to get closer to that number. Maybe you decide it will be easier to sell one more of product C at $1,000 than it will be to sell 9 more of product A at $100. If you can’t hit your goal exactly choose to hit a higher number than your goal. You will never be disappointed if you overachieve the number you set out to, but you will be if you miss your goal.

Step 5. Determine How Many People You Need To Engage With

This is where all the planning comes to action. Those moments when I do see entrepreneurs have a goal set out, usually the step they are missing is how to make that into reality. Far too few entrepreneurs I meet have no idea what a closing ratio is. The closing ratio is the number of prospects you need to engage with in order to make one sale. This can vary from entrepreneur to product sold. If you don’t know what yours is, use the Sales 101 ratio of 10 to 1. For every product you need to sell you need to engage with 10 new people. It should not make a massive difference if you are selling a more or less expensive product. It’s just where you focus and how quickly you can qualify your leads in the sales cycle process.

In the example above it was determined that we would need to sell 43 products (30 + 10 + 2 + extra 1). This would mean that we would need to engage with 430 people (10 x 43). For most people this can be an incredibly daunting number. But if you break that down, it could mean attending a new networking function every day or setting up a table at more trade shows. It could mean calling on that list of business cards sitting on your desk. It could mean changing how you will sell your product mix and putting more focus on selling the higher value products over the lower ones.

This is all part of the planning process. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Keep adjusting your numbers until you come to an action plan that is realistic and reasonable. You are far more likely to achieve your goals if you are focused on the actions to get you there.

About Kim Orlesky:

Kim is listed as one of the top sales leaders to follow, Startup Canada's Woman Entrepreneur, Success Magazine’s most inspirational blogger, and soon to be three-time author. She expands her presence with international speaking, including speaking at North America’s largest entrepreneurial event, Inbound, alongside Brené Brown and Michelle Obama. Her upcoming events include a 25,000 person audience in Dallas, TX next to Grant Cardone, Tony Robbins, and a handful of other sales leaders. Kim’s courageousness to quit her life and backpack solo around the world inspired her to use her mastery in sales to help entrepreneurs create better sales processes. With Kim’s help her clients create thriving businesses that transform selling strategies into exclusive invitations. Invite only the clients you want and love to work with. Kim is The Leading Sales Coach.

Connect with Kim online:

KimOrlesky.com

on Youtube

Facebook: Kim.orlesky

Twitter @kimorlesky

LinkedIn: Kim Orlesky

iTunes: The Kim Orlesky Show

Loved this article? Click here to sign up for Hatch Tribe Talk and we'll keep you in the loop with awesome blog posts, events, and resources for women entrepreneurs.