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> I used to run sales teams, my job was to try to give a realistic figure for how much our revenue would increase. Any experienced VP Sales will play down the number – most would prefer hitting a $20M target, over missing a $22M number by $1M and ending up at a higher number. That’s how you optimize for not getting fired.

8 bosses, Bob!

Good write-up.

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Thanks :) I actually find this a really interesting topic. This approach can have some merit - ie it leads to you not overspending and running out of money if you are reliant on new business targets being hit. However, the ideal situation is that your CFO manages the spending conservatively whilst the VP Sales goes out and pushes things as far as they can. There are some morale issues too with giving very high targets when you are a managing a team who are judged against those - for fast growth, you want to give people a sense of accomplishment (so constantly undershooting huge targets is a quick way to prevent that) but also for them to push the boundary of what is possible.

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