Company Targets: 3 Ways to Set Company Targets

Company targets (or business targets) are incremental milestones set by a company to achieve larger goals that make up the strategic objectives in its business plan. Company targets are short-term objectives that provide business owners and stakeholders with benchmarks that indicate the measurable steps to take within a set period to meet long-term business goals. Examples of company targets include quarterly or monthly sales quotas, improving customer satisfaction within two months, or developing new social media marketing campaigns to attract new customers.

Company targets also help businesses realize if they drifted away from their original mission statement or are no longer meeting customers’ needs within their target market. In these scenarios, company targets provide an action plan to realign business objectives or reprioritize top-level goals.

People sometimes conflate the terms “company targets” and “company goals,” but they refer to two different types of strategic goals. Company goal-setting focuses on long-term objectives. When companies set goals, they provide a roadmap to profitability based on top-level priorities. Targets are short-term initiatives undertaken to accomplish company goals and measure their success rate.

Businesses set targets in several ways. Some tactics to begin developing company targets include:

1. 1. Determine key performance indicators. The first step in establishing targets is identifying which metrics indicate a successful business in your market. These metrics, known as key performance indicators (KPIs), include financial markers—such as sales by returning customers—and non-financial indicators like your staff’s job satisfaction and retention rate.
2. 2. Identify areas for growth. A critical factor in developing company targets is assessing your company’s primary activities and products over the previous year. Evaluate the success of your offerings to help you set company targets for next year and determine if new products or services could help increase your market share.
3. 3. Use the SMART framework. The acronym “SMART” is a practical five-step template for the business target planning process. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. SMART targets assure your targets are precise and quantifiable. Achievable targets are ambitious enough to serve as incentives for your employees, while relevant and realistic targets are attainable and impactful. Time-bound targets indicate the time frame allotted to meet the targets.

There are many kinds of company targets in all areas of business.

1. 1. Employee-focused: Large and small businesses can set business goals that focus on employee productivity and satisfaction. Achievable short-term targets within these larger goals can include hiring your first employee as a start-up or small business. Establishing an employee incentive plan or investing in new business tools that streamline interaction between employees and customers are examples of employee-oriented target-setting for larger companies.
2. 2. Expansion plans: If entrepreneurs plan on expanding a business—whether in the physical sense (such as a retailer opening a new location) or by exploring new revenue streams through new product lines or partnerships—setting targets within this larger business growth goal is vital.
3. 3. Marketing strategies: Investing in new marketing strategies or reorganizing a company’s online presence are short-term company targets that benefit long-term goals. New marketing avenues, such as social media, expand brand awareness to potential customers. Improving customer access to goods and services through a new or improved website can increase cash flow and produce more returning customers.
4. 4. Sustainability initiatives: The impact of a company’s footprint on the environment can also create opportunities for setting company targets. For small businesses, the target can be reducing paper use each quarter, while lowering factory emissions over a specific period can be an attainable target for a larger business entity.

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