Each time I was responsible for managing a group or a regional office, I’d schedule a meeting in December with the entire team, so we could draft our business plan for the upcoming year. Each person in this group was invited to attend — whether to participate or to learn about business planning for the coming year and how we were going to monitor and measure our performance.

In this open session, we’d discuss what we had learned in conversations with existing clients during the year as it pertained to potential new business that we believed we could be awarded and/or granted an authorization-to-proceed.

I created a “sales forecast” spreadsheet that included columns for current repeat clients, potential prospects, assigned account manager, market sector (e.g., health care, education, etc.), and budget sales to actual sales for each quarter as well as the year.

We made our “best guess” as to how much each of these potential projects would represent in billable income and in what quarter of the year. Based on this sales forecast spreadsheet total, I would tell the group the minimum sales volume we had to hit. For example, if we projected $4 million in sales, the minimum sales volume we had to hit was, say, $2.1 million in order to cover salaries, benefits, overhead, and net profit. That told us, based on our projections, we would need to think about what positions we needed to fill and when we should fill them. If the actual sales volume turned out to be less, we could implement overtime in lieu of hiring more help. These projections were helpful for me as the manager, but they were also helpful for everyone else to better understand our business strategy for the coming year.

Next, we would discuss the agreed upon goal that each assigned account manager would increase his or her current client base. I’ve always been proactive in delegating work. Sometimes that means assigning a specific task for a particular project. Or, in the case of account managers, assigning responsibility for procuring a percentage of the years’ sales income, profit, and feedback regarding client satisfaction. It takes the whole team to perform if the team is going to succeed. No single individual should be assigned the full responsibility of the team’s success. Those not “in-responsible-charge,” should also be aware of this mentality because their performance plays an integral part of team success too.

Looking back at the current year, we could clearly see how well we did as a department for budgeted sales to actual sales volume, how many existing clients we procured new work from, and how many prospects we converted to clients. One of the lessons learned from this exercise was, by setting client and project goals per account manager, each individual could track their success and use that to set goals for the new year. Collectively, we could see how well we did as a department too.

The results from the current year were there in black and white. Some account managers exceeded the goals for revenue and new clients, while others came up short on one or more of the categories. The spreadsheet allowed us to see the percentage achieved (e.g., 80% of the projected new revenues goals were satisfied). This was valuable information because, without it, none of us would have known how well we had performed. And, it is important to note that 80% “actual” new revenue is better than not knowing what the actual value was for the year. In addition, individuals could use the information for the previous year to make a better “best guess” for the next year — and then strive to hit the 100% mark this time around.

The goal-setting exercise was also useful from an educational point of view for those who wanted to improve. Getting employees involved helps individuals grow in the HVAC industry and eliminates the assumption that the company is always profitable per job and at years’ end.

The same should be done to draft individual professional goals, such as, becoming an HVAC design engineer by setting four to seven milestone to achieve each goal. And, to do that, one must look back to look forward.