It’s a new year filled with hope and promise, a clean slate, and new sales goals. Hopefully you experienced a good year in 2014 and got to celebrate a little bit, but it is time now to move on to attacking this year’s goals.

Here is a quick checklist for sales managers to make sure everyone is focused correctly.

1. All individual salespeople must know the expectations of them with regard to sales, including where the sales need to come from – new clients vs. expansion of existing clients or some combination thereof.

2. The compensation plan must be clearly articulated to each of the salespeople on the team and they must understand which outcomes are being rewarded. (Read more about sales compensation plan considerations here.)

3. An individual and group meeting schedule is set and all sales team members have committed to robust participation in both.

4. You have met (or are set to meet this week) with each salesperson one-on-one to discuss their personal goals for the year. While the company has its sales targets, it’s more meaningful to understand each person’s goals and truly learn what they are striving for. Are they trying to remodel their kitchen? Or perhaps buy a new car or boat? Whatever their goals may be, make sure they write them down, know the costs, and then assist them in figuring out the sales they need to close to earn the income required to turn those goals into reality.

5. Along with understanding their major goals, it is essential that they create an activity plan to help them achieve those goals. I suggest a quarterly activity plan. This plan will direct their daily actions for a quarter. At the end of the quarter, it may be necessary or beneficial to adjust those activities based on results…or it might be best to stick with the plan, but make sure to schedule a quarterly review at the least. Also, plan to discuss each week whether they followed their individual activity plan. Set up consequences for not following through. The key is that they are committed to the plan and take responsibility for it and the consequences.

6. Have an understanding of the marketing calendar and any campaigns that might be running, whether you directly manage this aspect or not. You may not have insight into the whole year but start with the first quarter. Analyze whether or not to run sales contests in conjunction with any marketing campaigns. Make 2015 the year that your marketing and sales activities work in tandem, in a well thought-out fashion.

7. Finally, make sure you go into the New Year with a clean and realistic pipeline. If you didn’t do it at the end of the year, make sure you go through and do a thorough analysis of all the deals in the pipeline with each individual deal owner and clean it up. Remember that all deals need an AGREED TO next step, which means both the prospect/client and the salesperson have agreed to the next step, and appointments and commitments are scheduled. Follow this motto: “Move it or blow it up.”

That’s it. Follow this sales manager checklist and then make sure to keep the discipline of coaching, holding your salespeople accountable to their agreed-upon behaviors and activities, and be prepared to motivate each individual on your team to reach their goals. Make this year your sales team’s best year yet!