Brainstorms

Stretch Goals Not Working? Try Setting Low Expectations for Your Sales Team

IBM proved it could work.

Published

11 months ago

March 11, 2025

INSTORE Staff Instore March 2025 Issue

Stretch Goals Not Working? Try Setting Low Expectations for Your Sales Team

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

In its heyday, IBM was known as being the leader in the computer industry, and more generally as a selling machine — its salespeople had a reputation for being incredibly e ective and smashing sales goals and records. A key part of this, according to a Business Insider report, was setting really low quotas: “They wanted the salespeople to not be intimidated to pick up the phone. They wanted the salespeople to build momentum and then overshoot their quotas and goals. This is exactly what happened.” If stretch goals haven’t proved that e ective for your sales team, why not try setting the bar a lot lower this year and see what happens?

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