Big Goals Are Great. Now Make Them Real.

This one’s a little different than our “regular” No Bullshit Marketing blogs. It’s a nuts-and-bolts, no-fluff post—because big goals are easy to announce and a lot harder to execute. If you want 2026 to look different, you need more than motivation. You need a plan you can actually run, week after week, with clear responsibilities and realistic expectations. So that’s exactly what you’re getting here.

Most Goals Need Work

Every January, business owners set goals that sound right:

  • “Double revenue.”

  • “Hire a salesperson.”

  • “Grow our service area.”

  • “Get more leads.”

  • “Finally get marketing consistent.”

None of those are bad goals.

But if you’ve ever gotten to March and thought, “Why isn’t this happening?” it’s usually because the goal didn’t come with a plan that can survive real life—staff bandwidth, seasonality, sales capacity, cash flow, actual lead quality, and the messy reality of running a business.

So let’s talk about how to break down big goals in a way that gives you a real shot at hitting them.

Step 1: Start with one measurable target

Before you build the plan, get specific. Not “grow” — grow what, by how much, by when?

Examples:

  • Increase monthly revenue from $200k to $250k by Q3

  • Add 40 recurring customers by December

  • Improve close rate from 25% to 35% by summer

  • Reduce cancellation rate by 20% by mid-year

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. And if you can’t manage it, you’ll end up guessing all year.

Step 2: Work backward to the inputs (the math matters)

Most goals can be reverse-engineered.

If your goal is revenue, the drivers often look like this:

Revenue goal → jobs sold → leads needed → traffic/calls/forms → marketing activity + sales activity

Here’s a simplified example:

  • Goal: $1,200,000 in annual revenue

  • Average job value: $6,000

  • Jobs needed: 200 jobs/year

  • Close rate: 30%

  • Leads needed: 200 ÷ 0.30 = 667 leads/year

  • Leads per month: ~56 leads/month

Now you’re planning something real—not vibes.

Step 3: Identify every “lever” you can pull (not just marketing)

This is where most plans fall apart: owners assume marketing is the only lever.

Marketing is a lever. So are these:

Growth levers to consider

  • Increase average job size (pricing, packaging, upsells)

  • Increase close rate (sales process, follow-up, training)

  • Increase lead quality (targeting, messaging, filters)

  • Increase capacity (hiring, scheduling, operations)

  • Improve retention (memberships, repeat work, reviews strategy)

  • Reduce wasted spend (bad leads, wrong channels, unclear offers)

If you’re relying solely on marketing to hit a big number… ask yourself:
Do we actually have the sales process and operational capacity to handle what we’re asking marketing to produce?

Marketing can create demand. It can’t fix broken follow-up, unclear offers, or a team that’s already maxed out.

Step 4: Assign ownership (one owner per outcome)

If everyone owns it, no one owns it.

For each goal, assign:

  • One “outcome owner” (the person accountable)

  • Support roles (who contributes)

  • A weekly cadence for checking progress

Example:

Goal: Increase qualified leads by 25% by June

  • Outcome owner: Marketing Manager (or Owner)

  • Support roles: Website/SEO partner, Ads partner, CSR team

  • Weekly: lead volume + quality review

  • Monthly: conversion review (lead → estimate → sold)

Step 5: Set realistic expectations by role

This is where leadership gets honest.

Marketing can be responsible for:

  • driving awareness

  • generating qualified inquiries

  • improving conversion on the website

  • supporting your credibility with proof and positioning

Marketing cannot be responsible for:

  • answering the phone

  • following up quickly

  • building estimates

  • closing jobs

  • operational delivery

  • customer experience

If a role isn’t set up to succeed, the expectation isn’t leadership—it’s wishful thinking.

A quick gut-check:

  • What does “success” look like for each role, weekly?

  • What do they control?

  • What are they being asked to own that they can’t actually influence?

Step 6: Build the 90-day plan (because yearly plans get ignored)

A year is too big. Your team needs a short runway.

Create a 90-day sprint with:

  • 3–5 priorities max

  • weekly KPIs

  • one meeting rhythm to track progress

  • a written scoreboard

What matters in Q1:

  • Are leads trending in the right direction?

  • Is your close rate improving?

  • Is the pipeline healthier?

  • Is the team executing consistently?

Then adjust and run the next 90 days.

Step 7: Be willing to reassess (this is the No BS part)

If you do the math and it doesn’t work, that’s not failure. That’s clarity.

Sometimes the real answer is:

  • Your goal is too aggressive for your current capacity

  • Your price point needs to change

  • Your close rate needs attention before marketing spend increases

  • Your offer needs to be tightened

  • Your team needs a hiring plan before leads ramp up

The goal isn’t to set goals that impress people.
The goal is to build a plan that works.

A simple framework you can steal today

When you set your 2026 goals, answer these in writing:

  1. What is the goal (measurable)?

  2. What inputs drive it (math)?

  3. What levers will we pull (marketing + sales + ops)?

  4. Who owns it (one person)?

  5. What does success look like weekly (KPIs)?

  6. What is our 90-day plan to start?

That’s how big goals stop being motivational posters and start becoming outcomes.

Want Us to Sanity-Check Your 2026 Goal Plan?

If you want a second set of eyes on your growth goal for 2026—especially the “Are we expecting marketing to do something it can’t?” part—reach out through our Contact Us page. We’ll help you pressure-test the math and build a plan that’s actually doable.

Ann Brennan