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A Guide for Account Executives
Most sales reps set goals in January. By March, they've forgotten what they wrote down.
I've spent years watching reps start every year with energy, only to drift through Q2 without a compass. A big difference between reps who hit quota and those who don't usually comes down to a few things one being: They know exactly what they're chasing, and they measure it every week.
If you're an AE or SDR trying to earn serious commission this year, whether that's for a house deposit, paying off debt, or finally taking that holiday you've always want to go on, you can't just hope your pipeline sorts itself out.
You need a system. That's where OKRs come in.
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal-setting framework that's been used by everyone from Google to small startups, but most sales teams get it completely wrong.
Here's what you actually need to know:
Objective = The big thing you want to achieve
Key Results = The 3-4 measurable outcomes that prove you got there
That's it. No jargon. No 47-slide deck from leadership. No corporate waffle about "synergy".
For sales reps, OKRs are simply a way to connect your daily activities to the commission cheque you're trying to earn.
Traditional sales goals usually look like this:
"Hit 120% of quota this quarter"
"Close more deals"
"Get better at discovery"
The problem? These goals are either too vague or too focused on the end result without giving you a roadmap to get there.
OKRs are different because they:
When you've got a real financial goal, like saving for a house deposit, OKRs stop being corporate nonsense and start being the difference between renting for another year or getting your foot on the property ladder.
Before you write a single objective, work out your commission target for the year.
Let's say you need £180,000 in OTE to hit your deposit goal. That breaks down to:
Now you know what you're hunting. Everything else builds from here.
Not five objectives. Not "crush it and smash targets and be awesome". One clear outcome.
Your objective should be specific enough that you'll know if you've achieved it, but broad enough to give you direction.
Good Q1 objective for account executives:
Bad objectives:
Your objective should pass the "so what?" test. If someone asks "why does this matter?", you should be able to answer immediately.
This is where most sales reps fall apart. They write key results that are either impossible to measure or don't actually drive revenue.
Your key results need to be:
Here's an example:
Objective: Build a pipeline that makes £45k in commission realistic by end of March
Key Results:
Notice how each key result is:
If all your key results feel easy, you're aiming too low.
When you're trying to hit a serious financial target, comfortable doesn't cut it. You need to stretch.
One of your key results should make you think "that's going to be tight" or "I'm not 100% certain I can do that".
That's the one that will push you. That's the one that usually makes the difference between an average quarter and a great one.
For me, it's usually the progression metric. Getting X deals to demo with the economic buyer involved means I need to be ruthless about multi-threading and not letting people fob me off with the IT manager.
It's uncomfortable. But it's also the activity that correlates most directly with deals that actually close.
OKRs only work if you look at them. Every week, not every month.
I spend 15 minutes every Monday morning reviewing my key results and asking three questions:
If I'm slipping on a key result, I know by Tuesday, not the last week of the quarter when it's too late to fix it.
This weekly check-in is what separates reps who hit their targets from reps who scramble in week 12.
Your Q1 OKRs might not survive contact with the actual market. That's fine.
If your territory changes, your ICP shifts, leadership moves the goalposts, update your key results.
OKRs aren't a stick to beat yourself with. They're a compass.
The objective usually stays the same (you still need that commission), but the key results might need tweaking.
For example, if your average deal size suddenly drops because of budget cuts across your patch, you might need to adjust from "close 2 deals worth £80k each" to "close 3 deals worth £60k each".
You cannot focus on five major objectives at once. You'll spread yourself thin and achieve nothing.
One major objective per quarter. That's it.
"Get better at discovery" is not a key result.
"Run demo calls with economic buyer present in 80% of opportunities" is a key result. It's measurable and specific.
OKRs that live in a drawer are useless. If you're not looking at them weekly, you're just writing goals into the void.
Set a recurring calendar reminder every Monday. 15 minutes. Non-negotiable.
Your OKRs aren't for your manager. They're for you.
They're the system that keeps you focused when everything else is chaos. They're the difference between hope and a plan.
If leadership wants to track your activity, they can look at Salesforce. Your OKRs are your personal roadmap to the commission you need.
Generic sales goals don't motivate anyone. "Hit 120% of quota" is just a number.
"Earn £45k this quarter so I can finally put down a deposit on a house" is real. It's tangible. It changes how you show up at work.
When you connect your OKRs to the actual thing you're working towards, everything sharpens.
Here's what I've noticed since building OKRs that tie to my actual financial goals:
On discovery calls, when a prospect starts going vague on timeline, I don't let it slide anymore. I ask the hard questions because I know that deals without urgency is a deal that won't close this quarter.
When a deal stalls in legal, I'm chasing it every three days, not waiting for them to come back to me. Every week of delay pushes my commission back.
When I see a gap in my pipeline, I'm prospecting that same week, not hoping something will land. Because my key result says I need 12 qualified opps by end of quarter, and I'm ruthlessly tracking that number.
When I'm deciding how to spend my time, I ask: "Does this move me closer to one of my key results?" If not, I delegate it, automate it, or delete it.
OKRs force prioritisation in a way quota never does.
Use this template to build your Q1 2026 OKRs:
Objective:
[Your quarterly commission goal in one sentence - what does success look like?]
Key Results:
Example for Mid-Market AE:
Objective: Generate £20k in commission by end of Q1
Key Results:
Example for SDR Transitioning to AE:
Objective: Prove I can manage my own deals end-to-end and earn £10k in commission
Key Results:
The best key results focus on activities you can control, not just results you hope for.
Weaker key result: "Close 5 deals this quarter"
Stronger key result: "Run demos for 10 opportunities with economic buyer involved"
Why? Because you can't directly control whether someone signs, but you can absolutely control whether you're having the right conversations with the right people.
If you hit your leading indicators (quality pipeline, good discovery, proper qualification), the closes tend to follow.
Your key results should flow logically from pipeline → qualification → progression → close.
This makes it easier to spot where you're getting stuck. If you're hitting your pipeline target but missing your discovery target, you know you've got a qualification problem. If you're smashing discovery but deals aren't moving to proposal, you've got a progression issue.
If you hit all your key results by week 8 of the quarter, add a fifth one that pushes you further.
This is especially useful if you're ahead of your commission target and want to bank extra for the year.
Example stretch key result: "Close 1 additional deal over £30k to bank £6k extra commission for Q2"
This could be a peer, a mentor, or even just a mate who's also in sales.
Every Monday, send them your progress update. Two sentences. "Hit 3/4 key results this week. Pipeline metric slipping, need to book 4 more meetings by Friday."
External accountability makes you less likely to skip the weekly review.
Only if you want to. Your personal OKRs are yours.
Your manager already has visibility on your quota, pipeline, and activity metrics in Salesforce. Your OKRs are your personal system for hitting those numbers.
That said, if you have a good manager who's genuinely invested in your success, sharing them can lead to helpful coaching conversations.
You can have both. Team OKRs track what the sales org is trying to achieve. Your personal OKRs track what you need to do to hit your commission target.
They should align, but your personal ones will be more specific to your territory, patch, and financial goals.
A good rule of thumb: you should feel about 70% confident you can hit them.
If you're 95% certain, you're sandbagging. If you're 30% certain, you're setting yourself up for failure and demotivation.
Aim for "this will stretch me, but it's doable if I stay focused".
Yes, if circumstances genuinely change (territory shift, ICP change, market downturn).
No, if you just feel like they're hard and want an easier target.
The whole point is to stretch yourself. Don't let yourself off the hook too easily.
You analyse why, adjust for next quarter, and move on.
Missing OKRs isn't failure. It's data.
Did you miss because your key results were unrealistic? Adjust next quarter.
Did you miss because you didn't review them weekly? Fix your process.
Did you miss because the market tanked? That's outside your control, adapt accordingly.
The point of OKRs is continuous improvement, not perfection.
If you're an AE or SDR who needs a big year, whether that's for a house deposit, paying off debt, or finally achieving financial stability, you can't just grind harder.
Working more hours without a clear plan is just exhausting yourself for mediocre results.
OKRs give you clarity when everything else feels chaotic. They're the difference between hoping you'll hit your number and knowing exactly what it takes to get there.
Here's what to do next:
You're not just chasing quota this year. You're building towards something real and personal.
Every deal matters. Every call counts. Every follow-up gets you closer.
Make 2026 the year you stop hoping and start planning.
