Setting a goal correctly means taking several steps toward its achievement. This is especially important for business. One of the most effective approaches in goal setting is the SMART method. Let's understand what SMART goals are, their benefits, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the method.

Decryption of SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym where each letter represents a specific characteristic necessary for proper goal setting. It stands for:

S (Specific) — specificity

The goal should be clearly formulated so that all employees have the same understanding of what needs to be done. Essentially, a SMART goal always answers the question "What to do?" For example: reduce customer churn, increase sales, expand staff, implement technology.

M (Measurable) — measurability

A SMART goal should take into account a quantitative or qualitative indicator. Not just "Increase sales" but "Increase sales by 30%", "Increase profit to 50 million rubles per year". Having a quantitative or qualitative indicator allows you to track progress and understand when the goal is achieved. Or understand which indicators need to be worked on to achieve the goal.

A (Achievable) — achievability

A SMART goal can be ambitious but achievable. For example, the goal "Increase sales by 30% by the end of the quarter" is quite achievable, while "By the end of the week" is unlikely. Ambitious goals stimulate the team for results. Underestimated goals will never take the company to a new level of development: the goals are mundane, one can just go by the beaten path, not grow. Achieving them is boring. Unachievable goals demotivate, the team's hands go down: why work if you still can't fulfill the assignment.

R (Relevant) — relevance

The goal should be meaningful for the company, solve global strategic tasks, and elevate the company to a new level of development.

T (Time-bound) — time limitations

Set clear and real deadlines for goal achievement: three months, six months, or a year. Achieving a goal requires solving a series of tasks, and solving them shouldn't take three months. Otherwise, the goal may lose relevance, and most employees will simply forget what the goal is. Clearly set time frames will allow determining how close you are to the result and whether you have enough resources.

How to Set a SMART Goal

SMART goals are an effective planning tool. It helps to develop a development strategy, determine each employee's responsibility zone, and leads to the desired result. However, this tool will only work with the right approach and step-by-step goal development.

Let's set a SMART goal with the example of a pharmacy. Let it be "Increasing the pharmacy's profit from selling vitamins and supplements". And then supplement it by each criterion.

Specificity — increase sales of vitamins and supplements.

Analyze the sales system and competitors, the availability of goods on the market, and demand. What helps your competitors sell more vitamins? Perhaps they have launched online sales, and all requests are processed by chatbots. Follow their example!

Measurability — increase from 20 units to 30 units.

Determine the criteria by which you will evaluate effectiveness. Usually, these are quantitative, qualitative, or percentage indicators. It is also important to compare the achievement of goals in this direction from previous periods with the current situation.

Achievability — run social media ads, appoint an employee responsible for vitamins.

Ensure that the company has the resources to meet this goal: budget, personnel, competence, information resources. Save time on publishing posts about your vitamins and supplements on social media with, for example, a delayed posting service. And creating texts is easier with Postmypost AI. The neural network will write a good selling text and, if needed, develop a content plan.

Relevance — increasing the number of sold packages of vitamins develops a new direction, increases profit, and aligns with the company's development strategy.

Time-bound — from March 1 to April 1, 2024.

The more specific the time period, the better you can track if there is enough time and resources to achieve the goal. Perhaps from the beginning, you chose too ambitious and, consequently, an unachievable goal. Or, on the contrary, you underestimated the employees' competence, and they achieved the goal not in 30 but in 10 days. Meet weekly with the team and analyze the results.

Mistakes in Developing a SMART Goal

It's not always possible to formulate the perfect SMART goal on the first try. Experimentation with goal setting may be needed to avoid mistakes. Incidentally, there are several typical mistakes to be aware of.

Overestimated expectations

Set only achievable goals for the team. If there is only one SEO specialist in a conditional online school, it is naive to expect that he will write texts for social networks and mailings, answer user questions, set up broadcasts, and call potential clients.

Lack of flexibility

In the process of achieving a goal, something can change, especially if the goal is long-term. Financial crisis, pandemic, dismissal of an important specialist, release of a new product by competitors — all this may cancel your entire plan to achieve the goal. Do not blindly follow the plan to the last point; change it, develop a new content plan. If, for example, your followers suddenly love Reels with dogs, stop "feeding" them planned static pictures with cats. Otherwise, you won't achieve the goal and lose followers.

Lack of motivation

Set specific tasks with clear deadlines for the team so that the goal is achievable, not endless.

Advantages of a SMART Goal

Setting a SMART goal is simple: you only need to step by step check the goal's achievability against five criteria. Already at the planning stage, the global goal can be broken down into phased implementation of specific tasks. And this, in turn, makes the goal achievable.

Thanks to clear tasks, set deadlines, understandable KPIs, the result becomes measurable and achievable.

Furthermore, communication in the team is simplified: everyone performs their tasks, everyone knows the result to be achieved, and the necessary tools and skills are available for this.