It’s not enough to say “Our goal is 20% growth this year.” First, it’s too long term for anyone to be motivated to change their behavior. Second, it’s impersonal. Why do all team members care? Third, 20% sales growth is an effect, not a cause.
Instead, we have to ask, “What would cause sales to go up 20% this year?” Then ask, what are the smaller steps that have to be taken now? Who needs to change what or how they are doing things to cause this? How can we communicate and train and equip them to perform this different behavior? What’s the plan? By when?
(Make sure you understand your problems clearly. To set things right, you have to see things right.)
So it may sound something like this:
We must adjust our marketing to bring in more inquiries. By January 31, we will implement this specific thing, and change that, and do more of that. We must change the way we are selling in this specific way, by training them, using this sales tool, and train this team starting January 14 and concluding on Feb 27. We must adjust our product mix by…by Feb 10…etc.
Now you have something you can execute on, and if communicated and executed well by your team, should lead to higher sales.
A schedule with assigned tasks is a great way to complete a project but never allow your posted completion date to be the same as the desired completion date. Build in some wriggle room that your employees are not aware of to compensate for the fact that we are all human and unexpected things do tend to happen, quiet often.
Also, check with your suppliers and vendors if your expected schedule agrees with them and how much the cost is for expedited services or delivery. Everything in this world has a price and it is good to find out ahead of time to build a more accurate budget and schedule.