SMART goals are crucial to setting, managing, and achieving our objectives, whether in business or personal life. They provide a clear path with concrete steps to follow.
By being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound, they help to prevent vague or abstract goals and instead encourage us to develop well-defined objectives that we can work towards in a structured way.
Quick summary:
SMART goals describe a specific method for goal setting. The SMART acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. These criteria are designed to ensure that goals are clear, reachable, and trackable.
What does each of the letters of the SMART acronym stand for?The acronym stands for S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Achievable, R-Realistic, and T-Time-bound. Let's look in a more detailed way at each one of the components:
| Acronym | Criteria | Explanation |
| S | Specific | Goals should be written with clarity to indicate what you intend to do. |
| M | Measurable | Goals should be quantifiable so that you have actual data that you have met your objectives. |
| A | Achievable | Goals should be attainable; they should stretch you a little enough that you feel challenged, but are well-defined enough for you to achieve them. |
| R | Realistic | Goals must be achievable and realistic, given the available resources. |
| T | Time-bound | Goals should have a well-defined schedule, including a start and finish date. |
Here is an example of a SMART-goal statement:
Our goal as the Sales team is to increase monthly sales revenue by 30% over the next quarter. The Sales and Marketing teams will accomplish this goal by launching a targeted email and social media campaign, optimizing the sales channel, and increasing follow-up rates with leads by 40%.
These activities will help boost overall revenue and help us reach our annual sales targets ahead of schedule.
When your manager asked to submit your quarterly goals to your performance tracking platform, he referred to submitting SMART goals. We have some questions to help you make your goals address each of the 5 letters of the acronym.
Write your initial goal in a basic way. Don't worry about it not being fully SMART; we will cover these details in the next section.
For example:
A SMART-goal statement might be: Our goal is to [quantifiable objective] by [deadline]. [Teams] will achieve this by [steps]. Accomplishing this will [benefit].
To increase your chances of achieving a SMART goal, make it as specific as possible. In order to do that, ask the following five Ws questions:
For example:
For example, instead of setting a vague goal like “gain more clients,” you can set a goal to sign 10 new clients by the end of the year. This makes the objective clear and measurable. Now, you can break it down, aiming to onboard 5 new clients every 6 months, and create a targeted outreach and follow-up strategy to reach that number.
The goal should have concrete specifications for measuring progress and determining when it has been met.
Essential questions to help you quantify your goal:
One way to set better goals is by using benchmarks. Standardized benchmarks help you understand what's typical in certain situations, specifically for your team.
For example, if your team typically closes 5 deals per month, you can use that as a benchmark to set a goal of increasing to 8 deals per month, and then track progress each week to ensure you reach the target.
Given available resources, knowledge, and time, the goal should be challenging yet achievable.
To make a goal achievable, answer these questions:
For example, let’s say you want to become an HR Manager to get a promotion. If you’re working in an entry-level role, expecting to get that position within a month is likely not achievable. However, you could set a goal to complete a certified HR course within the next eight months and look for a senior HR professional to be your mentor. By building your skills and experience over time, you’re setting a more realistic and actionable plan toward your long-term goal.
The goal should be realistic and aligned with overall objectives. It should stretch abilities but provide a reasonable expectation of achievement.
Reflect on the following question:
- Given the resources and constraints, can I realistically achieve this goal?
- Why do I setup this goal now?
Getting back to the example where you want to become an HR Manager. Eight months is a reasonable amount of time to obtain a certification, but if you consider completing a full HR course in less than two months, that is not realistic or achievable.
The goal should have a specific timeframe that creates a practical sense of urgency. Deadlines help focus efforts.
Ask yourself these questions to make the goal timely:
Deadlines help you stay on track with your goals by providing a clear timeline for action. For example, if you want to eat less sugar, saying "I'll stop eating small chocolates right now" isn’t enough. However, if you set a goal to eat one or two fewer chocolates for the next seven days, staying focused and reaching your end goal becomes easier.
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In summary, SMART goals are clearly defined, have quantifiable measures, are possible but challenging, relevant to broader aims, and are bounded by time constraints. Following the SMART framework helps create effective, meaningful goals with a higher chance of successful completion.
Tip: We expand on how to set goals with a 7-step framework that you can use if you want to be more efficient.
We are fans of templates and like to have one for setting goals. In this one, we have one section for each of the 5 SMART components and the questions that will help you professionally address the primary goal. We have shared a Word version and a printable PDF that you can download free of charge.
| Goal Component | Questions |
| Specific | What exactly do I want to achieve? Why? Who is involved? Where is it located? |
| Measurable | How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished? |
| Achievable | How can I accomplish this goal? What are the logical steps I should take? |
| Realistic | Given the resources and constraints, can I realistically achieve this goal? |
| Time-bound | When? What can I do today? What can I do in the next seven days? What can I do six weeks/months from now? |
Download our worksheet to help you define your SMART goals PDF version
Here are 10 examples across different departments and types of organizations:
Why should marketing teams use SMART goals? Well, it’s a great way to define objectives, improve focus on their work, and also accountability. It’s easier to track progress using KPI’s and analytics tools.
A SMART goal for a marketing team should be set in alignment with business priorities, be realistic, and have a timeline established to ensure success and ongoing improvement.
| Goal | Increase website traffic by 25% over the next quarter. |
| Specific | Increase the number of unique visitors to our website. |
| Measurable | Achieve a 25% increase in traffic. |
| Achievable | Through SEO optimization and targeted ad campaigns. |
| Realistic | The increase in budget to the add campaigns will lead to more traffic. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this over the next quarter. |
A Sales team will also benefit from using SMART goals. These will help them stay focused on their targets, set realistic achievements, align efforts with business objectives, and stay motivated with deadlines—the ultimate goal being to boost accountability, efficiency, and revenue growth.
| Goal | Boost sales revenue by 15% in the next six months. |
| Specific | Increase sales revenue. |
| Measurable | Achieve a 15% increase in traffic. |
| Achievable | By introducing new sales strategies and improving sales team training. |
| Realistic | The goal is according in line with the annual sales growth. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this in the next six months |
SMART goals help customer development teams stay on point at all times, embrace accountability, and achieve effectiveness. It’s a great way to test assumptions, learn from ongoing results and adjust them along the way, and use real customer feedback to adjust strategies.
| Goal | Increase customer retention rate by 15% in the next two quarters. |
| Specific | Increase customer retention rate. |
| Measurable | Achieve a 10% increase. |
| Achievable | By improving product/service quality and customer service. |
| Realistic | The increase from 10% to 15% is realistic. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this in the next six months |
Product teams have very specific objectives, usually. So, using SMART goals will enhance their success even more. Product teams should use SMART goals because they make goals clear, trackable, and realistic, with someone accountable for making sure they get done. This helps teams stay focused, collaborate better together, and innovate the things that matter to customers and the business.
| Goal | Launch a new product feature by Q3 that improves user retention by 10%. |
| Specific | Develop and launch a new product feature that has the highest priority in the roadmap. |
| Measurable | Improve user retention by 10%. |
| Achievable | Based on user feedback and analysis. |
| Realistic | The feature is not an addition to the current product, and there is enaugh manpower to focus on the goal. |
| Time-bound | Complete by end of Q3. |
For an HR Team, using SMART goals is crucial because it’s a way to align their initiatives with vast business objectives, such as improving retention, streamlining recruitment, or increasing employee engagement, but also to bring clarity, accountability, and determinable progress to their efforts by setting realistic targets, tracking key HR metrics like time-to-hire or satisfaction scores, and ensuring that every action taken contributes to succeeding within the desired timeframe.
| Goal | Reduce employee turnover rate by 20% over the next year. |
| Specific | Decrease employee turnover rate. |
| Measurable | Achieve a 20% reduction. |
| Achievable | By improving employee engagement and satisfaction. |
| Realistic | In the next 365 days a series of changes will be implemented, basedo on the results of the employee surveys, and leadership support. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this goal over the next year. |
Discover addional SMART Goals for HR
Customer support teams should use SMART goals firstly, in order to boost work efficiency, because a clear target leaves no room for wasted time, then to improve customer experience, by helping members to solve issues faster. Tracking performance is also crucial in customer support, and SMART goals will also assist in everyone’s improvement and development.
| Goal | Improve customer satisfaction score to 85% over the next quarter. |
| Specific | Increase customer satisfaction score. |
| Measurable | Achieve a score of 85%. |
| Achievable | By enhancing support training and implementing customer feedback. |
| Realistic | Increasing from 80% to 85% with support from the developers is achievable. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this over the next quarter. |
Startups are a chaotic area, and focus is needed here. Using SMART goals will help startups move with precision, speed, and purpose. These goals will enhance the team’s focus, support faster learning, improve team performance, boost communication with stakeholders, and keep the team balanced.
| Goal | Secure $2M in Series A funding in the next 12 months. |
| Specific | Obtain Series A funding by meeting with 100 investors interested about our industry, stage and geography |
| Measurable | Secure $2M. |
| Achievable | Through effective business, financial planning and networking. |
| Realistic | Growth metrics of our company are similar to other companies in the industry that already raised series A. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this in the next 12 months. |
Nonprofits and Charities can also benefit from setting SMART Goals, by helping to turn their vision into actionable ideas with real impact. They influence decision-making, enhance transparency, and ensure every effort counts toward making a difference.
| Goal | Raise $500,000 in donations for our annual campaign by year's end. |
| Specific | Increase fundraising for our annual campaign. |
| Measurable | Reach $500,000 in donations. |
| Achievable | Through a strategic fundraising campaign. |
| Realistic | By engaging new donnors to our fundraising campaign we will be able to deliver our annual program. |
| Time-bound | Achieve this by the end of the year. |
Tip: If you're interested in additional smart goals for work, we expand on this topic and provide you with 10 additional professional goals you can use within your business.
If you have written your goals in the SMART way, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, 80% of the job is already done, however, if you want to be an expert at working with SMART goals, review these tips:
The benefits of SMART goals are obvious for someone who is using them often. In a simple way, you switch from vague to brilliant. However, the results will be very impressive for someone new that implements SMART goals in their day-to-day activities. Take a simple example.
In this way, because of implementing smart goals in your workflow, you will leverage the following benefits:
As it is with everything in business, setting SMART goals is not all about benefits. It may take longer to design these goals than you expected, and then you may think this is a downside.
But let’s see exactly what the advantages and disadvantages of using SMART goals are.
Pros of SMART goals
Cons of SMART goals
What Does SMARTER Goals Mean?
SMARTER is an extended version of the SMART goal-setting strategy. The additional "E" stands for "Evaluate," reminding us to check on the progress of our goals regularly and adjust if necessary. The "R" stands for "Relevant," i.e., your goal should be consistent with your overall goals and beliefs.
What do you do after creating your SMART goals?
Here are three things we recommend doing after creating your SMART goals:
1. Share the SMART goals with the whole team and the stakeholders
It’s crucial to present and share the SMART goals with everyone so that, as the project progresses, they can check progress and ensure the project deliverables are on track.
2. Track progress regularly
SMART goals are not only about a final objective, but also small ones along the way. You need to track these regularly, and one effective way to do so is through weekly project status updates. Tracking them can be done in a Google document and then shared with your colleagues via email or a brief meeting.
3. Evaluate the project’s success
Using SMART goals offers clarity and helps you determine whether you achieve your targets or not. If you did, it’s time to celebrate. If not, ensure that you observe and identify what went wrong and what can be changed to achieve a better outcome.
What is the Origin of SMART Goals?
The acronym SMART was originally used in November 1981 in a paper by George T. Doran, a consultant and former Director of Corporate Planning for Washington Water Power Company, published in Management Review. The paper, titled "There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives," discusses the difficulty of setting objectives and offers the SMART criteria as a solution.
Download the S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives essay
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