WHY SMARTER GOALS?

Most of us in the marketing business have heard of SMART goals, but what are SMARTER goals?

SMART goals are goals that are

SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ACHIEVABLE
RELEVANT
TIMELY

So what does the E and R stand for? This is actually the most important part, it's the research component, a time to check and review to make sure you are achieving your goals.

EVALUATE
RE-EVALUATE

It's really important when you are setting your goals for your business or marketing plan that they are specific. Make sure they are not too wordy and that they only include one goal, not three! A short precise sentence is sufficient.

Make your goals measurable, include a quantity or percentage, something you can measure. For example "increase income from sales by 10%". This makes it much easier to evaluate later.

Are your goals achievable or attainable?  It's great to 'reach for the stars', but don't set a goal that is going to be too hard to achieve. Be realistic. It's not that it won't be achievable ever, it's more likely that it's just not achievable yet, take baby steps first and set bigger goals as your business grows.

---

Make your goals relevant or realistic. If they're not relevant to your business or what you have control over then they're going to be very difficult if not impossible to achieve.

Make your goal timely or time bound - when do you want to achieve this goal? For example "Increase income from sales by 10% by December 2014." Again this helps you track your progress and of course will help when you evaluate your success.

The only way to know if your strategy has been successful is to evaluate it. Did you achieve your goals within the time you set? Were you way off, or close but not quite close enough? Or did you over achieve what you set out to do?

This is the opportunity where you can adjust your goals, maybe you need to change your income from sales to 8% by February 2015, or 15% by February 2015.

Make the necessary adjustments and come back and re-evaluate and adjust again in a month or so. Make your plan a working document, not a static document that sits on the shelf and you forget about it. What's the point of preparing a plan or strategy for it to collect dust?

Remember setting SMARTER goals is just one step in developing your strategy.
There is a lot more to it and if you need help or advice don't hesitate to contact us. We're more than happy to help.

Until next time...I hope you're kicking goals!
Take care,
Nicola
Director - Out of the Box Consulting.

---