Everyone has dreams and ideals. Without a clear, actionable path toward these visions, however, they may remain unfulfilled.  

When working with your team to set goals for 2021, it’s important to break down each goal into steps with clear metrics for success. One way to do this is by creating SMART goals. 

What’s a SMART Goal? 

SMART is an acronym for goal-setting. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-Oriented. 

Here’s an example of how a SMART goal might work in a medical sales setting: 

Specific 

“We’re going to sell more” might be inspiring, but it’s also vague. “More” what? How many “more” is good enough? 

“We’re going to increase sales of our total hip replacement kit without losing sales on any other kit” is specific. Now, your team knows how to allocate its sales efforts on each kit type. 

Measurable 

While the previous goal is specific, it’s not measurable. “Increase sales” is vague: Increase sales by how much?  

“We’re going to sell at least 150 total hip replacement kits per month” is measurable. By attaching a number, your team can see at a glance whether it’s met this goal – or how much work is left to do. 

Achievable

As you’re laying out the above goal, a team member raises their hand. “But we’ve never sold more than two of these kits in a month. And our only client who does joint replacements just closed its clinic.”  

This salesperson is pointing out that 150 kits a month may not be achievable – at least not yet. Perhaps it’s time to take a step back and see what intermediate goals need to be reached first. 

“We’re going to cultivate relationships with at least ten new clinics so we can sell at least 150 total hip replacement kits per month” helps address the achievability problem. 

Realistic 

Your team now knows how much of which items to sell. They know what relationships they need to build in order to do so. But do they have the skills to reach these goals? 

Determining whether a goal is realistic depends on knowing your team’s capabilities. Managers may need to set a goal for themselves: “I’m going to hire two more salespeople with demonstrated success at cultivating new clinic relationships.” 

Time-Oriented  

Often, the process of making a goal more specific and measurable also means orienting it within the flow of time. “We’ll sell 150 more kits per month” makes the goal time-oriented, giving a specific span and deadline by which the goal must be reached.  

When working on large goals, different blocks of time may need to be handled differently. For instance, you may be able to set your team to work cultivating new clinic relationships while you look for additional talent. Here, two phases of the same overall goal will proceed simultaneously. Each needs its own deadlines.  

The recruiters at SMR Group specialize in connecting our clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries with some of the best sales and marketing talent available. If a fresh perspective would help your team set and reach its goals in 2021, give us a call today.