A bigger target is not a growth strategy.

The difference between asking for better numbers and making better commercial decisions.

Every planning season produces the same moment. The number for next year is set, it is higher than this year, and everyone nods. Then the room moves on as if something has been decided.

Something has been decided, but it is not a strategy. A target describes where you want to end up. A strategy explains why you will get there when you did not get there before.

The useful question is not how much more we want. It is what will be different. Which customers will buy that did not buy last year? Which offer will they choose, and why? What will we stop doing so the team has time for the new work?

When those questions have no answers, the target quietly becomes pressure. Discounts appear late in the quarter. Forecasts grow optimistic. Good people spend energy explaining the gap instead of closing it.

Commercial responsibility means holding the number and the reasoning at the same time. I would rather agree a smaller ambition with a clear logic than a larger one held together by hope. The clear logic can be tested, improved and scaled. Hope can only be repeated.

So before the next number is set, ask for the plan behind it. If the plan is the number, the work has not started yet.

A higher target can be reasonable when demand, capacity or an already tested offer supports it. The problem is not ambition. It is treating ambition as evidence that the business can deliver.

Test one growth hypothesis before turning it into a full-year commitment. Name the customer group, the offer and the reason it should win. Set a review date and a signal that would make you change course. More calls or meetings are activities; a change in customer behaviour is evidence.