What do you want your 2012 revenue to be?
Have you thought about this question? Hopefully.
Have you written down a specific goal for this question? Maybe.
Do you have a specific strategy to reach that goal? Probably not.
Do you know what tools and tactics you need to reach that goal? Most people don’t.
Our purpose here is simple: help you set and achieve goals for your business in 2012.
Download Get SMART: Setting Goals for the New Year, Auto Inc. Jan. 2012
For purposes of simplicity let’s talk about revenue. Let’s set a revenue goal. Let’s say each of your shops is generating approximately $900,000 in revenue each year. Let’s say you want to improve your revenue by 20%. Let’s figure out how to do that.
Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Maybe you’ve heard of the goal setting acronym, SMART. Let’s go over it briefly and then discuss each component in detail:
S is for Specific
M is for Measurable
A is for Attainable
R is for Relevant
T is for Timed
Now we’ll discuss them one by one and figure out how you’re going to set SMART goals.
Specific
A goal has to be defined and specific in order to be achievable. A specific goal is a goal that establishes exactly what needs to be accomplished by a certain date. When you set specific goals, everyone in your shop will know exactly what’s expected. Specific goals answer “W” questions:
What: What do I want to accomplish? You want to increase your revenue by 20% to $1,080,000
Why: Why is this goal important? (List the specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.)
This will benefit your shop by allowing you to expand and grow. (Remember, if you are stagnant, you are moving in the wrong direction). Achieving this goal will benefit you by making you more money and allowing you to take your family on vacation to a tropical locale.
Which: Which things must happen for you to achieve your goal?
Your shop must book 20% more appointments. How do you do that? There are two ways: first, you must advertise and market more effectively so more people call you; and second, each technician must book an average of 20% more appointments. (Certainly, building a new building or being in a new location would help as well, but those probably aren’t happening soon. You have to change the things you can immediately control).
Measurable
Measurable goals are…measured. You should be able to check the progress of your goal each day, week and month of 2012. If you cannot measure the progress of your 2012 revenue goal in March or May, then you will likely not achieve it by December. To set measurable goals, you must figure out how much revenue you need each week, month and quarter to get on track and reach the 2012 revenue goal you have set.
What are your milestones?
Note: Assuming that revenue will decrease during the holiday season, you must generate more revenue at the start and middle of year. It may not be as simple as equally distributing the revenue for each month of the year when you set your goal.
Attainable
Setting goals that are difficult, yet attainable, is very important. You should stretch your employees and yourself. The best way to achieve a goal is to ask your employees what would be attainable. They may surprise you and tell you they think they can book 2 more appointments each day or, work 30 minutes longer each day. Your 2012 revenue goal is big, but if you break it down into smaller steps, then you won’t be overwhelmed. To set attainable goals, answer the following questions:
What do we need to accomplish this goal?
The core of your goal, remember, is this: each technician has to get an average of 20% more people to come into the shop. You accomplish this by advertising more effectively and improving the ability of your technicians to sell. Remember, they have to get an average of 20% more cars in your shop. How are you going to do this?
1) In order to advertise more effectively, you need to measure the effectiveness of your advertising. Do you know which advertising methods produce phone calls and visits and which don’t? You can start measuring your advertising through inexpensive call tracking. Far too many shops pour money into advertising without knowing if it’s actually effective. You can’t afford to do that if you are going to reach your goal.
2) Your technicians have to improve their ability to sell and book appointments over the phone. If you haven’t been proactively recording and scoring the calls that come into your shop, you should start. This will tell you what needs improvement.
Are your employees good at booking appointments? Where can they improve? There are a variety of products on the market that record and score calls. There are Do-It-Yourself products and pay-someone-else products. These products are less expensive than you think.
Once you have information gained through recording and scoring calls you can train your employees and help them improve.
Relevant
Your technicians must see the relevance of the goal for them. How will achieving your 2012 revenue goal help them? What’s in it for them? If you can answer these questions you are more likely to reach your goal:
Why is this important to my team? To the company?
If you reach your goal, give your employees a bonus. Or, give employees whose phone performance has improved, a bonus. (Through call recording and call scoring you can know who is helping you reach your goal of increased revenue and who isn’t).
Timed
A goal without a deadline isn’t a goal; it’s a wish. Commit to an overall deadline and commit to incremental deadlines. This commitment creates a sense of urgency. Ask:
What is the due date of the goal?
The end of 2012.
What do I want to have done in the next month?
By the end of January you should have a system in place that tells you which marketing methods are generating phone calls and which are not. If you don’t, you’ll never know how much money you’re losing. Additionally, you need to have a way to hold your employees accountable for their phone performance. You should have the tools in place (recording, scoring, etc.) that will help them improve by the end of January. Remember, to reach your revenue goal each employee needs to book an average of 20% more appointments.
What are my shop’s action items each week?
Commit to listening to recorded sales calls with each employee each week. Slight improvements on the phone will yield big results. Remember, a 20% increase in revenue sounds daunting, but 1 or 2 more customers each day per employee probably doesn’t.
Conclusion
Here’s the bottom line: if you set SMART goals for your shop you will be way ahead of most competitors.
If you use this SMART formula you can achieve any goal you want. You just need the tools to get there.
Download Get SMART: Setting Goals for the New Year, Auto Inc. Jan. 2012
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