Sales managers, do you know what each of your salespeople’s money goal is for 2026?
Many sales managers mistakenly think a money goal is a certain amount of money that a salesperson wants to make. This article describes what a money goal and how you can use that goal to motivate your sales team all year long.
January is the best month of the year to identify the money goals of each of your salespeople.
I love the 1991 movie, City Slickers. Three middle-aged men, feeling frustrated with their life circumstances, go on a cattle-drive themed vacation. In one scene, Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, is talking with the gruff old lead cattleman, Curly (Jack Palance). In an effort to give life advice, Curly initiates the following conversation:
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? (He then holds up one finger.)
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest doesn’t matter.
Mitch: But what is the “one thing?”
Curly: That’s what you have to find out.
What Curly’s advice means for you as a sales manager is that you need to discover and focus on the one thing that is most important to each salesperson. That “one thing” is unique to each individual salesperson. For many salespeople, that “one-thing” is money.
In January, ask each of your salespeople, “What is your personal money goal for 2026?”
Chances are, each salesperson will respond with a dollar figure higher than what they made in 2025. For example, a sales manager could hear, “Boss, my goal is to make $175,000. in 2026.”
Now you need to probe deeper by asking, “When you attain that number, what will you do with that extra income?”
Possible answers could include take an exotic trip, remodel the kitchen, buy a new car, save in my 401k, etc.
Key point #1: the money goal that truly motivates salespeople is their #1 personal reason why they want to make more money – what they will do with that extra income after they earn it.
I remember asking a particular salesperson what his money goal was. When I asked him the 2nd question – what he planned to do with that extra income – he could not answer me. In other words, the number he quoted to me was what he thought I wanted to hear. It was not a true personal priority for him, at least not yet.
So I told him to think it over, and I instructed him that when he knew what he would do with the extra income he expected to make to come back and talk to me.
The next day, he returned. “Boss, when I achieve my money goal I want to buy a new BMW 3-series.” I said, “That’s great! Now you have your #1 thing this year!”
That afternoon I stopped by a local BMW dealer and picked up a brochure of a new 3-series, and gave it to my salesperson. I found out later that he taped that brochure to his bathroom mirror. Every morning he was reminded what his money goal was.
He achieved his money goal…..by November! And he bought himself the new car.
Key point #2: in my experience, when you ask salespeople for their money goal, many will respond with an amount of money that they think you want to hear. In that case, their number is not a true money goal, because it’s not a personal priority for the salesperson. So dig deeper to help each salesperson to define his or her money goal.
And once you know each salesperson’s money goal – you’ll know the 1-thing you need to know to motivate them throughout all of 2026!
