Episode 64 - Day 20 of 30 Days To More Sales - Know the Monthly Sales Number Your Business Has to Hit

I know because we’ve done it.

The team hit the number.

The sales report looked good.

Everybody felt like we should be celebrating.

And the money left at the end of the month was not nearly as excited as we were.

The problem wasn’t the effort.

The problem was that our sales goal had nothing to do with what the business actually needed anymore.

In one of our businesses, we had a monthly sales goal that had been around long enough to feel official.

Then the business grew around it.

We added people. More space. More software. More insurance. More of those monthly expenses that don’t seem like much until you put them all together.

But we kept using the same sales goal.

At some point I remember asking Paul:

If we hit the goal, why does it still feel this tight?

That’s what we’re talking about in Day 20 of 30 Days to More Sales.

Because your sales goal shouldn’t just be a nice round number.

It should know exactly what job it has.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL HEAR:

Why hitting your sales goal doesn’t automatically mean you had a good month
What happened when our business outgrew the sales goal we were still using
Why last year’s goal may not work for today’s business
The problem with simply adding 10 or 20 percent to last year’s sales
Why the amount left from each sales dollar matters when setting your goal
How owner pay and planned profit change the number your business really needs
Why different sales channels can affect how much your revenue actually leaves behind
When it’s time to recalculate your monthly number

YOUR ONE CLEAR NEXT STEP

Stop choosing your monthly sales goal based only on what sounds exciting or looks like growth.

Instead, ask:

What does this business actually need the month’s sales to pay for?

Look at your regular monthly operating costs.

Include the owner pay you need from the business if it isn’t already counted.

Decide what you want the business to keep for profit or reserves.

Then use the average amount your sales actually leave behind to determine the sales number needed to make that happen.

You’re looking for two finish lines:

The number that covers the business.

And the number that covers the business, pays you, and leaves what you planned to keep.

GET THE FREE DOWNLOAD

Must-Hit Monthly Sales Number Worksheet

I created the Must-Hit Monthly Sales Number Worksheet so you can calculate both numbers without trying to build the formula yourself.

You’ll get a completed example first, then a blank worksheet where you can plug in your own operating costs, owner pay, planned profit or reserves, and the average amount your sales leave behind.

Get the Must-Hit Monthly Sales Number Worksheet FREE here.

When you join, you’ll get access to all 30 FREE downloads that go along with the 30 Days to More Sales series.

30 DAYS TO MORE SALES

This is Day 20 of 30 Days to More Sales.

For 30 days, we’re looking at one place your product business could be losing sales and giving you one clear next step to fix it.

One problem. One fix. One clear next step.

Find all Product Biz Made Easy episodes here.

COMING NEXT

Day 21: Build Your Weekly CEO Hour

Tomorrow, we’re moving from money into time.

Because knowing the right numbers won’t help much if you never stop long enough to look at them.

I’m going to show you how to create one Weekly CEO Hour so the decisions that actually move the business forward don’t keep getting buried under orders, emails, customer questions, and whatever caught fire before lunch.