Your sales team is arguably the engine of your business. The sales team not only generates revenue for your business but also acts as a bridge between your customers and your company. Therefore, they have an incredibly important role in the growth of your company.
That is why it’s important to motivate your salespeople by setting the right sales goals. This can be done by using objectives and key results (OKRs).
Organizations use OKRs, a collaborative goal-setting method, to set ambitious goals with measurable outcomes. OKRs can come in handy in creating an environment where employees work with purpose. Companies like Google, Intel, LinkedIn, Airbnb have already achieved impressive results with OKRs.
In this OKR series, we’ve already talked about the basics of OKRs, the best tips to set OKRs, OKR examples for project management, OKR examples for product development, OKR examples for operations, OKR examples for finance, and OKR examples for marketing. As a further continuation of this OKR series, today we are going to talk about OKR examples for sales.
Before getting to OKR examples for sales, let’s talk about the best practices for OKRs.
Table of Contents
Best practices in setting OKRs
Setting OKRs that inspire your sales team is a matter of skill. If you are new to OKRs then it can be a bit overwhelming. So, to help you set the right OKRs, let’s talk about OKR best practices –
- Simplicity – There is no need to overcomplicate your OKRs. Just focus on objectives that you believe your sales team can achieve within the given timeframe. More often than not, organizations set OKRs for employees that spread them too thin. That’s not the right way to go about it. Prioritize objectives for your employees based on business needs. The number of objectives depends on the complexity of tasks as well as the availability of resources.
- Specificity –Be very specific in how you’d want your employees to achieve their objectives. Brainstorm different ways of reaching the end result and draw a specific action plan. For each OKR, consider how to evaluate performance. The more specific you are in OKRs, the clearer the expectations will be.
- Cascading the objectives – It’s common to see employees struggle in understanding how their OKRs contribute to the overall growth of the organization. An easy solution, therefore, is to cascade the employees’ OKRs – from an organizational level to a department level, and finally to the individual level.
- Measurable OKRs – Your sales OKRs need to be measurable so that you can note down the progress. The goal is to essentially avoid a situation where you are not sure about whether a sales objective has been achieved or not. Therefore, it’s advised to add metrics to quantifiable goals.
- Setting challenging goals –Goals should be attainable but they should be challenging to achieve as well. While easy OKRs can be de-motivating, it’s always a great idea to set stretch OKRs. However, keep in mind that the goals should be kept realistic and you should avoid setting employees up for failure.
- Breaking OKRs into smaller targets – You should create mini-goals within your key OKRs. When employees are aware of what needs to be done to achieve their OKRs, it motivates them while giving them a clear course of action.
- Celebrating milestones – You need to celebrate and recognize your employees whenever they reach a new milestone. Positive enforcement plays a big role in sustaining best practices. Instead of waiting till the end to recognize employee efforts, celebrate incremental progress as well. Encourage employees to share their OKRs and create a support system within your sales team.
OKR framework
Let’s now understand the key components of OKRs namely – Objective, Time period, Key results.
Objective
Objective is defined as the qualitative outcome of the goal that the company is looking to accomplish. While setting OKRs, the objective must be concise and easy to understand for everyone in the organization.
Time period
Time period refers to the set period used to measure the effectiveness of the team’s actions taken towards the objective. Usually, the time period is for 3 months for achieving OKRs.
Key results
The progress towards objectives is measured through results split into three key results. Think of key results as milestones that help the team get closer to their objective.
Creating OKRs for sales
You should start creating OKRs for sales by first having a clear understanding of the problem at hand. Moreover, there should be an individual tasked with overseeing the implementation and monitoring of OKRs.
When creating OKRs for sales teams, you can use the following formula –
We will___(Objective)___as measured by__(these Key Results)__.
Not just sales, this formula can be customized to fit the needs of other departments, organizations, or industries as well.
When creating OKRs for sales, it’s suggested to keep the process collaborative. You can organize brainstorming sessions with the entire team. This drives accountability and brings a level of ownership to the entire process.
All this ultimately empowers sales teams to create their own OKRs.
Now that you understand the basics of OKRs, let’s look at some OKR examples for sales.
Top OKR examples for sales
Here are a few OKR examples for sales. You can also use these as OKR templates to further create your specific OKRs. So, feel free to copy and modify them as needed.
OKR example 1 –
Objective:
• Increase the quarterly revenue by at least 20% over last quarter’s revenue of $700,000.
Key results:
• Get $30,000 in sales during the launch month of the new product.
• Finalize a recurring deal with 15% of the existing customer base.
• Decrease the sales cycle from 30 to 27 days.
OKR example 2 –
Objective:
• Improve the sales team with fresh recruitment.
Key results:
• Hire 10 new sales associates by the end of the month.
• Hire 5 new sales managers by the end of next month.
• Maintain a 3:1 onsite ‘Interview Offer’ ratio.
OKR example 3 –
Objective:
• Generate a new pipeline for bookings.
Key results:
• Generate $10M in ‘Land’ pipeline.
• Generate $3M in ‘Expand’ pipeline.
• Do 5 product demos per week per sales rep.
OKR example 4 –
Objective:
• Improve sales in the North American region.
Key results:
• Land 20 new customers with an ARR of more than $15k in North America.
• Introduce a new sales training program for the North American sales team.
• Receive 15 5-star reviews from customers who are willing to be references.
OKR example 5 –
Objective:
• Train sales teams to develop our sales reps.
Key results:
• Start a new sales training program with 3 training modules each week.
• Interview and hire a new sales trainer by the end of this month.
• Complete 6 weekly sales coaching sessions in the next quarter.
OKR example 6 –
Objective:
• Grow our upsell and cross-sell.
Key results:
• Increase upsell and cross-sell revenue by at least 35%.
• Increase net retention to 95%.
• Have regular weekly alignment meetings with customer success.
OKR example 7 –
Objective:
• Improve sales analytics.
Key results:
• Implement a new sales analytics and BI platform by the end of next month.
• Deliver weekly sales summary metrics to the Sales Management team by the end of this quarter.
• Deliver weekly sales pipeline metrics summary report to Sales Management team by the end of this quarter.
Conclusion
Sales are not only about numbers. It’s also about building and maintaining good relationships with customers.
There are always steps that you can take to improve the performance of your sales teams. The goal is to make them more productive, efficient, and adaptable.
OKRs can provide an efficient framework to keep your sales team working at its best. In this article, we shared various OKR examples for sales to help you get more out of your sales teams.
In case you are looking for OKR software for your business, check out this list.
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