To some marketers, "quota" is a four-letter word. Set
them too low, and your salespeople may not strive to reach beyond
them. If they're too high, staff members who fall short may
suffer from wounded morale. That's why many marketers are
banishing the quota in favor of more positive, individualized
goal-setting systems.
In the 12 years Michael Bloch has been printing the newspaper
Business Strategies, he has never set a quota system for his
advertising representatives. "Quotas don't serve a
positive purpose," says the Pittsford, New York, publisher.
"People need to know what's expected of them, but you get
better results if you focus on [improving] measurable tasks."
Instead of quotas, Bloch has his salespeople keep track of their
phone calls, appointments and proposals for several weeks. Then he
speaks to them individually about where they are and where they
would like to be.
The idea behind Bloch's motivation method is to have
salespeople focus on the things they can control. They don't
have direct control over how many sales they close on any given
day, but they can control the number of phone calls they place, the
number of appointments they set, and the number of presentations
they make to prospective clients. "Selling is a combination of
specific tasks," says Bloch, "and if [salespeople] focus
on those tasks and do them well, their sales will go up."
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