Toni Pisano is the Chief Customer Officer and a Board Member at PortPro Technologies, Inc.
As entrepreneurs, a lot of us tend to be visionaries. We have big ideas of what peak success looks like in our business or as leaders. But sometimes, we get caught up in big, lofty visions that are too abstract to be defined, making it tough to know if we’ve actually met our goals. This is where SMART goals come in, and they’re critical not only for your own business but for your customers.
Defining SMART Goals
SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Instead of making your goal, “I want to make more money,” turn it into a SMART goal: “I want to increase revenue by 10% by next year.” Now, we have something concrete to work toward.
Drilling down into specifics helps define what you want to achieve in your business. But as we know, businesses don’t work in a vacuum. We have customers, vendors and partners that help us reach those goals—and we help them reach their goals, too.
This is why it’s critical to discuss and set SMART goals with your customers, to get a sense of their objectives and make sure the goods or services you’re offering meet their specific, measured goals—all while building stronger relationships that show you’re invested in your customers’ success.
Having SMART Conversations With Customers
At my company, we’ve been setting up strategy calls with customers to understand their business objectives. We often hear things like “we need to be more efficient” or “we need to be more organized.” Those are great starting points for us to dig deeper and ask questions about what’s not efficient or which specific department or task could benefit from being more organized. Then, we follow up by putting together a game plan with SMART goals and action items to achieve their goals and measure progress.
Here’s a real-world example: We provide software to trucking companies that haul freight to and from ports, an industry known as drayage. Let’s say our customer wants more efficiency in dispatch—the department responsible for assigning trucks, managing routes and scheduling pickups and deliveries, among many other tasks. We would ask, “How long does it take your dispatchers to enter a load into the tech system?” If it’s three minutes right now, we could align on a goal of one minute by the end of next quarter. That’s specific to the dispatch department, measurable in the time reduction, achievable with our software’s capabilities, relevant to their pain point of inefficient dispatch and time-bound with the goal of next quarter.
Sometimes customers come to us with a less tangible goal, one that takes creative thinking to make it SMART. A common one we often see from trucking companies is improving customer service. How do we turn the conceptual goal of “better customer service” into a SMART goal? One specific way drayage truckers can improve customer service is by offering their customers better real-time visibility on the status and location of freight. Now, we measure that visibility and set a time goal. How many customers are interfacing with your portal, and can we increase the number by X% in six months? We tell them the software options that make the goal achievable and how it’s relevant to customer service. Voila! Our nebulous goal is now SMART.
Can this process feel tedious? It’s possible. But by having goal-oriented conversations, your customer knows you’re in their camp and that you have their best interest and goals in mind. They know you’re dedicated to making sure your product or service meets their objectives. You’re both working toward mutual success.
Showcasing SMART Goals Impact On ROI
SMART goals define success for your customers, and the benefits can reverberate back to your own business. We’ve all heard it: The customer doesn’t have the budget for new tools. But if the customer understands how the software directly correlates to their SMART goal, we can clearly demonstrate the ROI of technology.
In a trucking scenario, each load of freight might require a certain number of office personnel to enter orders, track containers and update customers. Take their collective salary, divide that by the number of loads they do, and you’ll get the average cost of managing one load. Let’s say it’s $30. We can set a SMART goal with our customer that by X date, we’ll get that down to $20 per load.
The savings are clear, and the technology, in essence, pays for itself. We no longer have to sell a vague concept of our software being worth the investment. We can be specific with exact numbers and precise ways the tech meets the SMART goal. Look for ways your business can demonstrate that value, too.
These types of goals can also be a motivating force for teams. If your customers’ employees have a specific target to hit, they might be more driven to meet that goal. Your own employees might feel a closer connection to the customer as they develop goals and help customers meet them.
SMART goals provide clarity and structure to turn vague ideas into actionable steps. The process of setting and aligning these goals with your customers helps build stronger relationships. By aligning on SMART goals, you can celebrate progress and milestones together.
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