{"id":1451,"date":"2018-09-25T18:53:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T01:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2018-09-26T09:17:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T16:17:21","slug":"business-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/business-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Business Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>90% of business goals are uncontrollable.<\/p>\n<p><em>Make $5 million in ARR this year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Get 1,000 installs of our new app this month.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Find 10 new customers this week.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>How do you think your team feels about uncontrollable goals?<\/p>\n<p>In the past, when our teams have had goals they have difficulty controlling, it meant:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Low morale<\/li>\n<li>Frustrated employees who put in less effort<\/li>\n<li>Missing the goal completely<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, our 7-figure business <a href=\"https:\/\/kingsumo.com\/utm_source=dmkthinks\">KingSumo<\/a> uses \u201cproactive metrics\u201d to develop more controllable, effective goals.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s completely changed the morale and growth of our business.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1452\" src=\"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/dmkthinks-blog-businessgoals-ksgrowth-e1537925028207.png\" alt=\"KingSumo growth\" width=\"720\" height=\"136\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today, in 10 minutes, I&#8217;m going to show you the types of business goals that are effective \u2014 and the types that aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the screenshot below from a company I know.<\/p>\n<p>Notice all the red for missed goals. Ouch.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1454\" src=\"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/dmkthinks-blog-businessgoals-missedgoals-e1537925432840.jpg\" alt=\"Business goals\" width=\"720\" height=\"239\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is common in the tech industry. When five of your six teammates miss their goals, that\u2019s not their fault \u2014 that&#8217;s poor planning by the business.<\/p>\n<p>But instead of adjusting how they approach their goals, most businesses will keep recycling the same goals&#8230; or panic they\u2019ve been missing goals, and set\u00a0<em>more<\/em> aggressive goals.<\/p>\n<p>When you miss your goals, or your employee morale is low, it\u2019s important to take a step back.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The problem with most business goals are they\u2019re VERY uncontrollable.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the worst decisions businesses make is setting a goal that team members can\u2019t hit. In the example above, can you really control revenue? Or installs?<\/p>\n<p>You can control\u00a0<em>factors<\/em> of revenue and installs, but controlling revenue is more difficult. Even if I succeed, it\u2019s mostly dumb luck.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/noahkagan.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Noah Kagan<\/a>, the CEO of our parent company <a href=\"http:\/\/sumogroupinc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sumo Group<\/a>, taught me the power of proactive metrics when goalsetting.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tQa019caFV0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Proactive metrics<\/a>\u00a0focuses on what you can control \u2014 so you reach your goals easier, and keep your team members happy.<\/p>\n<p>For example, at Sumo Group we\u2019re building a new product called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sendfox.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SendFox<\/a>. We have big aspirations, and our plan is to get 100 paying customers by end of year, 3,351 customers by June 2019.<\/p>\n<p>With that aspiration in mind, here\u2019s our proactive dashboard for SendFox:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1455\" src=\"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/dmkthinks-blog-businessgoals-smartgoals-e1537926171113.png\" alt=\"Smarter goals\" width=\"720\" height=\"115\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Notice how we don\u2019t have any goals about revenue or installs!<\/p>\n<p>In contrast to most business goals, we simplified:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>What are the most important factors to getting 100 customers by end of this year?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>What\u2019s a realistic weekly goal for those factors?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Who on our team can help us get there?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Use this philosophy in your own business.<\/p>\n<p>When you set business goals, be careful to focus your team on the factors that are more controllable.<\/p>\n<p>Your team will be happier, you\u2019ll understand the \u201cbroken links\u201d if you miss goals, and focusing on the controllable factors of success will build your business to the next level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>90% of business goals are uncontrollable. Make $5 million in ARR this year. Get 1,000 installs of our new app this month. Find 10 new customers this week. How do you think your team feels about uncontrollable goals? In the past, when our teams have had goals they have difficulty controlling, it meant: Low morale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1459,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions\/1459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}