Jul 28, 2026 · 27 min · 12 segments
A revenue goal is more than just a number on a page. To make it a reality, you need to understand what has to happen underneath it. In this episode, Melissa walks through how to reverse engineer your…
Melissa ShanahanHost
[upbeat music] If you've set a revenue goal for your firm, but you're not totally sure how you're actually gonna hit it, this episode is for you.
Because a revenue goal on its own is really just a number on a page or a number in your head.
What makes it real is everything underneath it, the smaller goals that when you hit them, make the revenue almost a foregone conclusion.
So today I'm gonna walk you through how to build those, how to take the big number you want and break it into the pieces that actually get you there.
And when I say use data, we don't just look at last year and use the data and decide to add 20% to the top.
When I say revenue goal, like the mother goal, the top line goal, and it doesn't mean it's the most important.
It's like how to use it, the mother goal, to set goals underneath that, the sub-goals.
So I'm going to reverse engineer this with you to get some really solid goals into place that lead you to the revenue goal you want to see.
Then you'll have sub-goals that when we reverse engineered, it's the math that gets you to the revenue goal.
And then you'll have strategic priorities, which is the effort that we put forth, the levers that you're gonna pull in order to achieve the goals, especially the sub-goals.
Because that, achieving the sub-goals, is going to give you the revenue goal.
They decide what their big goal is, but I do wanna say something about the type of goal that you choose that is your mother goal.
There is one goal that matters more than anything else to you, and you should absolutely know what that is.
Then you can work backwards from it to see what conditions have to exist for that goal to be a reality.
[upbeat music] If you've set a revenue goal for your firm, but you're not totally sure how you're actually gonna hit it, this episode is for you.
Because a revenue goal on its own is really just a number on a page or a number in your head.
What makes it real is everything underneath it, the smaller goals that when you hit them, make the revenue almost a foregone conclusion.
So today I'm gonna walk you through how to build those, how to take the big number you want and break it into the pieces that actually get you there.
And when I say use data, we don't just look at last year and use the data and decide to add 20% to the top.
When I say revenue goal, like the mother goal, the top line goal, and it doesn't mean it's the most important.
It's like how to use it, the mother goal, to set goals underneath that, the sub-goals.
So I'm going to reverse engineer this with you to get some really solid goals into place that lead you to the revenue goal you want to see.
Then you'll have sub-goals that when we reverse engineered, it's the math that gets you to the revenue goal.
And then you'll have strategic priorities, which is the effort that we put forth, the levers that you're gonna pull in order to achieve the goals, especially the sub-goals.
Because that, achieving the sub-goals, is going to give you the revenue goal.
They decide what their big goal is, but I do wanna say something about the type of goal that you choose that is your mother goal.
There is one goal that matters more than anything else to you, and you should absolutely know what that is.
Then you can work backwards from it to see what conditions have to exist for that goal to be a reality.
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