Baseline Goal Setting

By following the PAR and PIP process, plus getting help with coaching and model calls, you should be able to increase your team’s activity and skills to achieve peak performance–you are now ready to set your baseline goal. This concept was taught by Stephen R. Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (although it never made it into his book).

As your team ratios and activity increases, so does your confidence. You may have a rep that started with 40 calls a day and a 5% return call ratio, but now they can easily achieve 100 calls per day and get a 20% return call ratio. Now it is time to learn about baseline goal setting.

We don’t achieve satisfaction from setting goals–we achieve it by meeting goals.  When we set goals to improve, we should set two sets of goals: 1) Our target stretch goals and 2) our baseline goal.

Our baseline goal is the minimum level of activity or skill that we will accept. It is based on our historical confidence that we know we can achieve.  Our goal is to minimize the values and flatten them, so our overall average is higher (usually 30% or more).  We find that it is not just the high goals that will increase our overall performance, it is stopping the lowest lows–so our average increases.

Baseline Goals – Example

The following example may help you understand why baseline goal-setting works so well:

Your rep sets a goal to give 10 presentations this week. They set a baseline goal to give 6 presentations (since they have achieved at least this amount 3 weeks in a row and feel confident). Friday rolls along and they only have 4 presentations. The most they’ve ever given in a day is 4, so they have NO confidence they can achieve their main goal of 10. Without a baseline what do they do?  They shut down, realize it is pointless to try, and start doing “pain-relieving, non-productive work” (busy work) and say, “I’ll get prepped so I can do better next week.”

Can you relate?  Most of us can.

However, with the baseline—they say, I can’t get 6 presentations to get my 10, but I KNOW I can get my two, “I’ve done that countless times.” Now, they are motivated to try—and they not only get 2, but they get 3 presentations!

The result: they have not given up hope, they stayed motivated to fight for their baseline and they increased their presentations by almost 60%.  If their other ratios hold true—their sales increase proportionally. They leveled their performance and their overall sales average increases. Later, when they are more confident, they can set a higher baseline goal and achieve even more.

The manager should review the personal and team baseline monthly to see if it makes sense to bring it up.  Eventually, it will hit a maximum—and they are now maximizing their capabilities, which are usually a LOT higher than we would have ever thought.

 Review Questions

• Why set up a baseline goal?

• What must you do before you set this goal?

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