“Grow revenue 40% this year” is a target, not a plan. Sales teams that hit big targets usually do two things: they break the number down until it’s a weekly figure each person can see, and they decide which changes — new hires, new channels, better pricing — will make the bigger number possible. The first part is metrics. The second part is milestones.
This guide walks through both, and how to keep them connected through the year.
Step 1: Put the annual number where everyone sees it
Start with the target itself. In Clarion, the leadership team records it on the vision board under the one-year goals, as a revenue goal item — for example, “Annual bookings: $3.6M”. The 90-day goals sit beside it, so each quarter’s share of the number is visible too. See build your vision board.
This isn’t decoration. When the sales team plans a quarter, the one-year goal is the reference: do this quarter’s numbers and projects add up to it?
Step 2: Break the number down into metrics
Work backwards from the annual target to weekly numbers. A simple model:
- Annual bookings target: $3.6M.
- Quarterly and monthly: adjust for seasonality, not just ÷4 and ÷12. Say Q1 $750k, Q2 $850k, Q3 $900k, Q4 $1.1M.
- Deals needed: monthly target ÷ average deal size. At $25k, a $300k month needs 12 closed deals.
- Opportunities needed: deals ÷ win rate. At 25%, that’s 48 new opportunities a month — about 12 a week.
- Meetings needed: opportunities ÷ meeting-to-opportunity rate. At 50%, about 24 first meetings a week.
Each line becomes a metric on your sales scorecard:
| Metric | Frequency | Inverted? | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookings | Monthly | No | $300,000 (update each quarter) |
| Bookings this week | Weekly | No | $70,000 |
| New opportunities | Weekly | No | 12 |
| First meetings held | Weekly | No | 24 |
| Win rate | Monthly | No | 25% |
| Average deal size | Monthly | No | $25,000 |
| Sales cycle length | Monthly | Yes | 45 days |
The last three are your model’s assumptions. Tracking them tells you when the plan’s maths has stopped being true — if win rate drops to 18%, you need more opportunities or a fix, and you’ll know in weeks rather than at year end.
In Clarion, add each one with Add Metric on the Metrics page, with the right Frequency, a Target, an Owner, and Inverted metric ticked for cycle length. See create a metric and set targets and inverted metrics. When a quarter’s target changes, edit the metric’s target at the start of the quarter.
Step 3: Decide what has to change — those are your milestones
If the plan is 40% growth and the team runs exactly as it did last year, you’ll get roughly last year’s result. Something has to change. Those changes are your quarterly milestones.
Good sales milestones are projects that increase capacity, conversion or deal size:
- Capacity: “Hire and ramp two account executives — both carrying quota by 30 June.”
- Pipeline: “Launch partner referral programme — three signed partners, referral form live.”
- Conversion: “Roll out new discovery call framework — playbook written, every rep trained and observed once.”
- Deal size: “Introduce annual pricing tier — approved, in the CRM and on the proposal template.”
- Retention and expansion: “Run quarterly business reviews with top 20 accounts.”
Notice what they aren’t: “Close $750k” is a metric target, not a milestone. A milestone is something the owner can finish through their own work.
Three to five sales milestones a quarter is plenty. Each one gets:
- One assignee — usually the sales leader or a senior rep, not the whole team.
- A due date inside the quarter.
- A definition of done — “both AEs have completed onboarding, have a named territory, and have booked their first ten meetings”.
Add them on the Milestones page; see create a milestone. Break each into subtasks with dates — “job ad posted”, “shortlist”, “offers out”, “onboarding plan ready”. Each subtask becomes a linked action item, so the steps sit in someone’s to-do list rather than only on the milestone. See add milestone subtasks.
Step 4: Review both every week
In the weekly pipeline review:
- Scorecard shows whether the numbers are on pace.
- Milestone updates show whether the changes that should lift the numbers are happening. Each owner gives a status — on track, off track or completed.
Read them together. If opportunities are short and the partner programme milestone is off track, those are probably the same problem. Raise it as a challenge and solve it in the meeting.
Step 5: Re-plan each quarter
At quarter end, compare the bookings metric with the plan, check which milestones completed, and update the model’s assumptions with actual win rate and deal size. Then set next quarter’s targets and milestones. If you’re behind, the gap has to be closed by bigger changes, not by hoping next quarter is better. See run quarterly planning and set annual priorities.
Common mistakes
- Dividing by twelve. Most businesses are seasonal. Plan the months you’ll actually have.
- Only tracking the result. Without the model’s inputs on the scorecard, a miss is a surprise.
- Revenue targets as milestones. They sit “off track” for weeks and teach nothing.
- Too many projects. The team is also selling. Two finished milestones beat five half-done ones.
- Not updating the model. If win rate changes, the number of opportunities needed changes with it.