“The establishment of objectives and the development of their respective action plans are the most critical steps in a company’s management process.” George T. Doran 

Corporate leadership is incredibly difficult. Managers are expected to rally their teams towards a shared goal and meet strict deadlines. Many of these projects fail because goals and measures of success are not explained clearly.  

That’s why George T. Doran created the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals in 1981. He laid out his plan of action in his historic article “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives.” 

In this piece, he presented a framework for goal setting and project management. He also made a strong case for the value of S.M.A.R.T. goals. He, wrote: 

When top- and middle-level management are indecisive or set inadequate objectives, errors in judgement will compound themselves throughout the entire organization. 

Over time, the S.M.A.R.T. acronym has shifted slightly from its original form. It’s now widely recognized as the this more modern version: 

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Attainable
4. Relevant
5. Time-Bound
   

This system helps leaders create data-driven goals that keep their teams on track and increase their odds of success. “The establishment of objectives and the development of their respective action plans are the most critical steps in a company’s management process,” explained Doran. 

Keep reading to learn how to use S.M.A.R.T. goals in your next brand marketing or recruiting project. 

The “S” in S.M.A.R.T. stands for “specific.” Project goals should be as specific and detailed as possible.  

Specificity allows teams to understand exactly what they need to do to succeed. It also avoids ambiguity and makes sure that everyone involved has the same goal in mind.  

For example, don’t say “We want to hire more experienced candidates and improve talent acquisition.” Instead, say “We want to hire 22 high-tech specialists for our new contract to build long-distance drones and shorten our hiring cycle by 20%.”  

The first goal is vague and hard to define. The second goal is specific, detailed, and leaves no room for interpretation. 

Now, you’ve created a specific goal that clearly lays out your expectations. It’s now time to give your team a metric for success. This should be data-driven and measurable. 

For example, use the following metrics if you’re looking to hire new specialists for an upcoming project. Give your team a specific number of new hires and a completion date.  

On the other hand, maybe you want to launch a new marketing project. Communicate to your team that “our goal is to launch a new client marketing campaign that results in 100 qualified sales leads.” This type of measurable goal makes it easy to identify success.   

Make sure to include more key performance indicators (KPIs) that can help you measure other goals. In addition, you should set clear limitations on the scope of the project to keep your team focused. 

It’s important to aim big and reach for the stars. But it’s also critical that you set a realistic goal for your team. To balance these priorities, set a big target that’s realistic compared to current benchmarks.  

For example, let’s say your team only moves 2-3 candidates through the hiring process every month. It would be unreasonable to expect them to hire 22 candidates in the next 30 days. However, it may be reasonable to set a goal of 5 hires in the next month. You can then increase that number to 7 hires in the following month and even higher in the future. 

During goal setting, it’s important to focus on goals that are relevant to your current objectives and the project in front of you. Don’t try to “boil the ocean.” Instead, pick a small goal that’s relevant to your current needs and can provide immediate value if achieved. 

To make sure that a goal is relevant, follow the goal to its logical conclusion. For example: 

We will onboard 22 new hires over the next three months to fulfill our new contract to build long-distance drones. This will bring in revenue of $80 million over the next 24 months. 

This example clearly shows how the goal is relevant to the organization’s needs and the value of accomplishing this goal. 

Finally, it’s important to make sure that every goal is time-bound. Failure to create a specific time-frame can extend the project far into the future without results.  

We also encourage managers to create mini deadlines throughout the project. This helps keep your team focused and on track. It also ensures that managers are aware of delays and other roadblocks before they derail the final deadline.  

For example, “We will hire and onboard 5 candidates this month, 7 candidates next month, and 10 candidates the following month. This will result in 22 hires over the next 90 days.” 

Without these midpoints, it’s easy to overlook critical challenges that can cause the entire project to fall short. 

Now, you understand what S.M.A.R.T. goals are and how they can improve marketing efforts. It’s time to put this into practice.  

We encourage managers to start with a small, low-stakes project to test this strategy in action. You can then tweak it before scaling and going all-in on a major campaign. 

Contact AMG Defense Tech if you need help reaching your marketing goals and defining your brand to candidates. Our experts can help you find the right candidates and create messaging that converts.