As the end of the year is approaching and everyone is getting ready for all the upcoming holidays, let’s not forget what we want to accomplish in the New Year! December is an important month to evaluate your business’ past year and assess whether or not the planned objectives were met. Now is the time to implement a strategy for the New Year so that your company can reach its desired goals.
Designate Your Goals
When you are thinking of objectives to reach in 2019, it is important to start by selecting realistic goals you want to reach as a business. Let’s say Clarence Cars sells an average of 25 cars per month in 2018. Would a goal of selling 75 cars per month in 2019 be a feasible one? Realistically, no—however, a goal of 5 more cars per month than the 25 in 2018 would certainly be attainable. Working with achievable goals will help set the tone for a successful year and help drive your team to reach and/or go above them.
Creating Plans to Meet your Goals
Once your goals are established you need to set a plan on how you will reach these goals. Creating a plan can be very simple. Say you want to sell 5 more cars per month. Look at some of the concerns you had previously, and see how their solutions can influence attaining this new goal. It is important to address any concerns from the previous year and implement a strategy to overcome them in your new plan.
Measuring and Tracking
We have our goals set and our plan is ready to go; now, how do we make sure we are on the right track? It is important to measure your yearly goals on a monthly basis. Let’s say to start 2019, you sell 35 cars in January and 25 in February. Compared to the 25 cars sold per month in 2018, those 60 cars are already an average sale increase of 10 more cars per month for the New Year. However, when considering February alone, sales are not meeting the goal set for 2019. It is important to remember that each month is going to be different because of particular factors that influence the fluctuations in sales numbers. For example, February is a shorter month than others to begin with. There also could have been a snowstorm negatively affecting potential buyers’ ability to visit your dealership. Each month can be different, but as long as you continue to stay on track to meet your goal, your results will be attainable!