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Goal setting is not a new concept. As business leaders, we buy into the importance of goal setting, but we need to be careful to avoid a common misstep—failing to accurately track these goals.

Let’s explore a few reasons why the tracking step is overlooked.

• Solid and measurable goals were not set, making tracking impossible.
• Tracking mechanisms were too complicated and cumbersome, so the measurement is not sustainable.
• The metrics don’t sync up with the overarching goals you’ve set for your organization.
• Other common factors can include lack of training, follow up and accountability.

Setting and tracking business goals, however, is critical to your success. It allows your business to know where it’s going, the plan to get there and the tools needed. Here are four questions to ask before you take your next steps toward goal setting.

How to Set Business Goals

Set objectives. Base what you want to achieve around your company vision, business, sales and marketing objectives. All objectives should be discussed with your team at the beginning of goal-setting exercises so that everyone is on the same page.

Identify Steps. Develop a plan to determine how you are going to reach these objectives. Be sure to break down the plan into smaller, reachable steps with action items to help your team understand how they are going to accomplish their goals.

Create benchmarks. Once you create steps with action items, determine when you want these steps to be complete. Create a timeline for your goals and set deadlines so that it’s clear when each step or milestone needs to be accomplished.

Apply metrics to your milestones. Set metrics or KPIs (key performance indicators) to understanding how you are performing throughout your journey to achieving your goals.

Set a frequency. Determine how frequently you will check in on your efforts. Regularly assessing your steps, timeline and KPIs will help you grasp how you’re performing in regards to your goals.

Three Questions to Ask to Determine if You’re on the Right Track to Achieving Your Set Goals

• Have I outlined the best goals? To be more specific, your goals should be understandable to your team, measurable, realistic yet challenging and in direct support of your business and brand objectives. The list could go on, but these core benchmarks will be the foundation of your business goals.
• Are your metrics understood? Your metrics should be accessible, reliable and as automated as possible. You may learn something completely new about your audience, your product or your sales funnel when you start to dig into the KPI data.
• How am I tracking my success toward those goals? The frequency with which your metrics are viewed and analyzed is important. Goal tracking is not a “set it and forget it” proposition. It should be an ongoing exercise on a set schedule to ensure that there is enough time and activity to provide the insights needed for learning.

Spring-Green, helps our Business Owners construct a comprehensive business plan focusing on both top-line revenue growth and bottom-line profitability. Because we understand the importance of setting and tracking goals, we have designed an interface that allows owners to monitor their KPIs daily to compare them to their goals, historical data and the performance of their peers. Contact Spring-Green to learn more today.