Goals, Strategies and Tactics: What is the Difference?

We all have goals. We all have strategies we use to accomplish our goals. And we all have tactics that help our strategies to accomplish our goal. But what is the true difference between these three crucial parts of accomplishing what you want to accomplish? Goals, strategies and tactics all correlate to each other and they all are needed to succeed. A goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result. A strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. A tactic is an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end. I work as the Prestige Sales Manager at an Ulta Beauty location in New Jersey. I have several different goals that I want to achieve each week that take a lot of time, strategic moves and specific tools. One of my main goals each week is reaching and exceeding our sales goal for the store. I ask myself each week, how can we exceed our sales goal? What will be our strategy this week to succeed? First and foremost, you have to be strategic with scheduling to ensure that there is enough selling coverage so that all of our guest’s can be assisted. My other strategy is creating a focus day or event for the prime selling days. This is when we focus on one brand or a new product or launch product. We focus on selling and demoing the product to each person that is shopping and link selling the product to other products. Tactics I use to help my strategy succeed is training the team on certain products or new launches because you cannot sell what you do not know about! I also use our POS system to track sales and coach to the team where we are at on sales and what our oppourtunities and strengths are. Therefore, my goal is to exceed our store’s sales goal. My strategy includes impactful scheduling and eventing. My tactics are training and using the tools needed to track sales and coach to our team!