Sales Quotas for Small Teams: Setting Targets Reps Can Hit
A fair sales quota for a small team comes from your own won deals, your current pipeline and what each rep can realistically handle. Then you split it into monthly targets, person by person. Been handing two to six salespeople one big yearly revenue number? The start of a new year is a good moment to break that habit. Below you’ll find a simple worksheet, a way to mix revenue and activity targets, a ramp for new hires and a plan for reviewing targets during the year.
Table of Contents
Why one yearly revenue number fails a small sales team
One annual figure hides who’s on track. And it gives reps nothing to act on in any given month. When only a few people sell, one strong (or weak) performer can swing the whole result, so individual targets surface the gaps while there’s still time to do something about them. A flat yearly number also ignores seasonality. Odd, really, since your own history already tells you which months drag and which ones are busy. Split the goal and you can track quota attainment, the share of the target a rep actually closes in a period, month by month. Not in December, when it’s too late.
What data should a sales quota be built from?
Your own. Past deals, open pipeline, team capacity. Not an industry benchmark that describes someone else’s market, pricing and buyers (those numbers look tidy in a slide deck, but they aren’t yours). Before you open the worksheet, pull these inputs:
- Won deals per rep and per month for the last one to two years
- Average deal size
- Typical length of your sales cycle
- Current pipeline value by stage
- Hours each rep actually spends selling, after admin, support and internal meetings
Most of this is already sitting in your CRM. EpicCRM supports data export to a spreadsheet, where you can track won deals, pipeline value and team results, and that’s all the worksheet needs. Short track record? Not a blocker. The approach in forecasting with limited history works for young companies too.
A simple sales quota setting worksheet, step by step
Start with the company revenue goal. Check it against pipeline and capacity. Then split it by rep and by month. The whole thing fits in one spreadsheet:
- Set the yearly company goal.
- Test it against last year’s won revenue and today’s pipeline. If neither backs it up, the goal is a wish, not a plan.
- Estimate each rep’s capacity from their own past output, not from the team average.
- Allocate the goal to reps in proportion to that capacity.
- Spread each rep’s share across the months using last year’s seasonal pattern.
- Add a small buffer, so the team goal doesn’t depend on everyone hitting their full number.
Columns for the sheet: rep, month, revenue target, actual won, open pipeline, activity target and notes. That’s it. The quota lives in the spreadsheet. Update it with actuals once a week. Numbers stay current, and nobody has to retype anything.
Activity goals vs revenue quota: which one should reps get?
Honestly? Most small teams need both. A revenue quota for the outcome, plus a few activity goals for the inputs a rep controls week to week. Revenue on its own punishes people for long cycles and lumpy deals - one delayed signature can wreck an otherwise solid month. Activity on its own rewards busywork that never turns into sales. So pick two or three activity goals tied to your own conversion history, like first meetings, proposals sent and follow-ups. Generic call counts don’t cut it. For the bigger picture, check the sales metrics worth tracking alongside revenue.
How to set a monthly sales target for a new hire
Give them a ramp: a reduced monthly sales target that grows as they learn the product and build pipeline. How long? Base it on your own sales cycle. If your deals usually take a quarter, nobody is closing anything in month one. Weight the early months toward activity goals, then raise the revenue share step by step. And look at what the newcomer inherits. Someone taking over warm accounts or an existing pipeline starts from a very different place than someone staring at an empty list. The target should reflect that.
Reviewing sales targets for reps during the year
Pick a fixed checkpoint, say quarterly or mid-year, and change quotas only for reasons outside the rep’s control. Fair reasons: a lost key account, a price change, a new product, reassigned territory or accounts, a colleague leaving. Not a fair reason: someone being ahead or behind. Move the target every time that happens and people stop trusting the whole system. Pretty fast, too. Short weekly check-ins keep surprises small, and weekly reports for sales managers make them quick to run.
Before setting any number, export last year’s won deals per rep and per month. That one sheet is enough to draft your first quota.
FAQ
Should every rep on a small team get the same sales quota?
No. Allocate targets by capacity, territory and tenure. Equal numbers only make sense when those factors are equal, and that’s rare even on a team of three.
How often should a small company set sales targets?
Once a year, broken into monthly targets per rep. Review them quarterly or at mid-year, and adjust only when something outside the reps’ control has changed.
What if we have less than a year of sales history?
Use the months you do have plus your current pipeline to set a conservative target. Then revisit it sooner than usual, for example after the first quarter, once more deals have closed and the patterns get clearer.
