Earlier on I used to think that setting monetary revenue targets would help provide a tangible goal for everyone on the team to want to achieve. We all know we need sales and revenue to survive, but I thought putting a number to it would make it easier to imagine. The problem that occurred in this most of the time was, it constrained everyone on the team to a certain degree. If the target was $100k then we would be looking to close medium to larger sized accounts which would help us get to our target in time. If the targets were not challenging enough, the team would not really push itself to do the best they could. Finding the right number turned out to be a lot more challenging than we thought it would be.
When I began experimenting with not setting any revenue targets, and focusing instead on closing as much business as we could at regular intervals, things started to do a lot better. We began focusing on a couple of key accounts to gather momentum, and used that traction to push ourselves even harder the next time. On an average results started to get better, and the pressure of hitting specific numbers or achieving a quota was lifted. However, this strategy did not work with all types of teams. In order to keep pushing oneself, a certain amount of perseverance and self discipline is required. Some teams misuse the lack of accountability to not bring in required sales to keep the business alive. In this scenario, the story ends badly for everyone involved, as sales is the life blood of any business, without sales you cannot exist.
Even if one does not use specific revenue targets, I have found it useful to have team discussions on how many customers we need to close, in order to generate enough momentum to start closing at a faster pace. Does your business require one big reference customer which will make it easier for you to sell to the others? Do you need to show a certain track record with a number of implementations before your solutions can be trusted? The number of sales needed for your business to generate enough momentum to make the sales process easier and faster, is dependent on your particular product/service. What is your businesses magic number?