OKRs are all about business growth, change and innovation but what does OKR actually mean? Put simply, it stands for objectives and key results. When we break it down, the objective part is the organisational goal or objective you want to achieve. The key results, on the other hand, are the markers of success which are attributed to said objective.
Ok, so you know what OKR stands for but you’re struggling to create meaningful corporate objective statements and key results. Today we’re taking a look at some OKR examples, and offering some top tips when it comes to writing effective OKRs for your business.
Before we dig in, it’s important to note the importance of connecting with your audience when it comes to writing your objective statements – make sure you remember this and it’ll help you when it comes to team buy-in.
Why use Sales OKRs?
Almost every business wants to increase their sales, but how can you achieve this? Using OKRs with your sales team can help you achieve strategic alignment, provide greater focus for your team and give you a better chance of hitting your wider company objectives i.e. more sales!
Sales-focused businesses often work with numbers all day, so it may seem counterproductive to throw more targets into the mix. However, OKRs provide you with greater clarity on what actions your sales teams need to take to improve and achieve success.
Whereas, KPIs and objectives alone simply track and reflect organisational performance. Having both is important, as they individually serve different purposes for motivation, alignment and momentum.
OKR goal-setting tips
- When writing your objective statements use language that’s not only right for your organisation but that will also inspire your teams to deliver on the objective.
- Always give the reasoning for the objective. Include an answer to ‘which will’ so your teams the reason for having this focus.
- A good key result needs to be measurable – we generally always recommend metric-based key results, as these give you a tangible measure that you and your team can reflect on.
When writing effective OKRs the style should very much reflect your organisation and your objective, but here are a number of examples to give you a starting point when it comes to creating your OKRs.
Sales OKR examples
OKRs cycles usually run for 3 or 4 months, and it’s important to track progress and confidence ratings against OKRs throughout the cycle. Otherwise, you can quite easily get to the end of an OKR cycle not knowing what’s likely to be achieved.
Example 1: Increasing revenue
I want to increase my revenue – let’s look at how an OKR can be structured to support an increase in revenue target.
Objective:
Increase quarterly revenue by 15% which will take quarterly revenues from £1000,000 per quarter to £115,000.
Key Results:
- KR 1: Increase monthly leads to sales conversion rate from 10 leads to 1 sales to 10 leads to 3 sales.
- KR 2: Decrease the sales cycle from 30 days to 25 days.
- KR 3: Increase website traffic by 10%
Now let’s look at an OKR which focuses on improving the leads to sales conversion rate.
Example 2: User journey
Objective:
Create an incredible user journey to increase the number of qualified leads.
Key Results:
- KR 1: Respond to 85% of enquiries within 12 hours.
- KR 2: Reduce the number of fields on sign up and gated content forms to less than 5 in 90% of forms.
- KR 3: Increase number of product demonstrations booked from 60% to 80% of new enquiries.
Example 3: Event-focused
Objective:
Host a live virtual event for 200 customers in September to celebrate the new product launch.
Key Results:
- KR 1: Product in final testing by July 1st.
- KR 2: Reach 200 registrants for the event by August 1st.
- KR 3: Spend less than £2K on all marketing promotion for event
Example 4: Establish ourselves in the industry
Objective:
Gain more industry prestige and brand awareness so the organisation is recognised as an industry leader.
Key Results:
- KR1: Secure 3 featured articles in a reputable trade publication
- KR 2: Attend 15 conferences
- KR 3: Release 4 video case studies with FTSE 100 companies.
Example 5: Better marketing engagement to increase leads
Objective:
Achieve phenomenal marketing engagement to increase leads and therefore paying customers.
Key Results:
- KR1: Increase monthly website visitors from 300,000 to 600,000
- KR2: Increase monthly trial signups from 500 to 1,200
- KR3: Increase monthly conversion of new paid customers from 120 to 300
These OKR examples should give you some food for thought when it comes to crafting your own business objectives, but if you’re stuck and simply need a helping hand get in touch with the giants or check out this helpful guide to OKR implementation to rehash the basics.