If you’re looking for ways to motivate your sales team, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll discuss different types of sales team incentives and how to use them effectively. We’ll also provide tips on creating contests and awarding travel trips.
11 Sales team incentive programs to motivate your entire staff (even remote)
What is it that motivates your to get up every morning to go to work each day? Is it the fact that you work with a great team of salespeople? Are you excited about a new opportunity? Are you passionate about your job?
These things may be true, but sales team incentives are still essential in keeping sales professionals motivated.
Despite having the most rewarding job and working with the most amazing people in the world, there will be times when it isn’t easy to find motivation.
This is true for both managers and sales reps.
How can you keep your team motivated?
Employee engagement is increased by sales incentives . Incentive Research Foundation conducted a study that showed that an incentive program properly designed can increase performance by as much as 44%.
It can be hard to find motivation, especially in these difficult times. You should set up a incentive programme to boost morale and motivate your team.
What sales incentives can you create to keep your team motivated, even when it is difficult, to sell? How can you motivate your entire team?
1. Cold hard cash
Money speaks. Many reward programs for salespeople offer a fixed amount as a bonus for hard work.
Cash incentives are great because your team works hard for money.
To encourage reps to concentrate on a goal, you can either create a clear commission structure or offer cash bonuses. This is usually done by paying a set amount to achieve a specific goal, such as exceeding quotas, closing certain deals, or meeting a sales activity target. Sales professionals should embrace leaderboards.
But don’t assume your team members prefer cash to any other prize. Another study found that 85% of respondents to an Incentive Research Foundation survey preferred cash rewards to cash if they were able to choose from other.
What other options are there for sales incentives?
2. Product prizes
Giving away physical products is a great way for your sales team to be motivated.
You might also offer:
- Tech gadgets like the iPhone and smartwatch
- There are many fun products that you can buy for your home, including a 4K TV, coffee maker, and sound system.
- Hobby products include a high-end bicycle, rock-climbing gear or a musical instrument.
Product prizes can be an excellent incentive for your employees, as long as it’s something they want. They also serve as a physical reminder about their achievements. It allows them to relive their winnings over the years.
To make this incentive more appealing, you might give your team the option to choose between two or three products.
3. Training and courses
Reps who are motivated and driven to improve their professional and personal lives can be a powerful motivator.
This type of incentive is very rare: The American Psychological Association reports only 44% of US employees are satisfied with the development opportunities at work.
Therefore, why not offer professional development opportunities as an incentive?
- A professional coach will provide sales training
- Tickets for a conference or sales event
- Advanced techniques in sales training
- Workshops, training, and guides to help you make CRM training more effective.
Your team might also be interested in the chance to grow. You might be interested in:
- Cooking classes
- Art classes
- One month membership to a gym
- Access MasterClass’s online courses website
4. Entertainment
Tickets to the big game Front row tickets to their favorite band. Romantic dinner for two
Entertainment incentives are a great motivator, as they are things reps would love, but aren’t willing to spend money on.
These times might require you to be more creative in your entertainment choices. You can replace a nice meal out with a fancy dinner at home or with food delivery services.
5.
Activity-based rewards
After a long month of pushing their reps and going above and beyond for the reward, wouldn’t they love to have a day to relax and play golf or go to the spa?
You could also offer incentive programs such as:
- Rock climbing
- Skydiving
- Bungee jumping
- Zipline
- Escape rooms
This category also includes travel incentives. Research dating back to the 1970s shows that travel incentives have a higher return on investment than other rewards due to their high motivation.
It may be necessary to adapt normal activity-based incentives for sales in light of current world conditions.
Airbnb offers many online experiences, including online magic shows, online cooking lessons, and online cocktail making. They also offer private concerts, online dance classes, escape rooms, and online dance classes. You can search online to find experiences that you can gift your reps.
6. Subscription boxes
Subscription boxes are very popular right now. You can have personalized products delivered right to your home. This is a great option if you have remote sales teams that are in crisis.
This allows you to give your reps what is important, while keeping a safe distance.
These are some of the most sought-after subscription boxes:
- Birchbox: Beauty and Skin Care Products
- TryTheWorld: Gourmet Food from All Over the Globe
- Frank and Oak: Eco-friendly clothing, men and women
- Barkbox: A box full of treats for man’s best friend
- MistoBox: Coffee boxes customized from top roasters
- Dollar Shave Club: A selection of carefully curated grooming products, for men and women
- KiwiCo: Boxes containing hands-on activities and crafts for children and teens
- Winc: A wine club subscription that offers wines customized to your likings
7. Extra PTO
Time is money. If this is true for you, you might consider additional time off as an incentive.
Your reps are hard at work to achieve their goals and meet the metrics required to win the incentive. Why not reward them with some free time from work?
Your sales reps will be more productive if you reward them with time. This will encourage a better work-life balance. It’s a way of reminding them that there are more important aspects to life than work, and that the reward for working hard should be being able to spend quality time with their families.
8. Recognition in the company
While most workers are happy with their jobs, 44% of workers were not satisfied with the recognition from their employers.
Another study showed that as much as 50% of workers who were given an incentive at work were more focused on how it was presented than the reward itself.
Recognition can be a motivator. (Hence the popular ’employees of the month’ reward system.
How can you use recognition to motivate sales (without hanging your rep’s picture on the walls)?
You might also consider including recognition in your incentive program. For example, you could offer such offerings as:
- Lunch with the CEO of the company
- Particularly, Slack channel received praises
- A Cameo video of their favorite celebrity shared by the team
9. Office upgrades
You can offer office upgrades as an incentive
This option is
Office upgrade incentives
- Standing desk
- High-quality office chairs
- Noise-canceling headphones
- Dual-monitor system
- Lighting and other accessories for the office, such as decoration and lighting
10. You have the chance to spin our prize wheel
Can’t decide on some sales incentive schemes? Give your reps a lot of options and let them spin it!
It’s very exciting to spin a wheel for a chance at a great prize. It can be exciting to not know what you will get. The actual spinning of the wheel can also be an enjoyable event that adds to the recognition factor we mentioned above.
11. Let them choose their own incentive
Of course, within reason.
Your team is made up individuals with different tastes, hobbies, needs, and interests. Instead of giving your reps a single prize that might not appeal to them all, let them choose their reward within a budget or limit. This gives them the freedom and motivation to choose what motivates them.
You can even encourage your reps to visualize what they would choose if they won at the month’s beginning, motivating them to push for that reward.
These are just sales incentives that you can put into practice within your program. How can you create a program that motivates all your reps?
Here are some tips for setting up incentive programs
It takes time to create a sales incentive program.
These are the best practices to help create a winning incentive program.
Get to know your sales reps personally
Your incentive won’t motivate your reps if it isn’t personal and appealing.
Get to know your reps before you create an incentive program. What are their hobbies? What are their hopes and dreams? What are their dreams?
In a survey by The Incentive Research Foundation, participants were asked about their reward preferences. 99% of participants had preferences that were unique to the others in the survey.
Each rep is unique. Be kind to each rep when designing your rewards system and offer them something that appeals.
Everyone has a chance to win
Your sales team can be composed of top performers, average performers, and low performers.
Each group should be addressed individually and motivated according to their needs. Low performers will not be motivated if all incentives are given to the top performers. They will lose faith in themselves and their ability to achieve the reward.
This is possible through creating an incentive program that offers all reps the chance to win.
For example, you might set a goal for each rep to close a sale by the 15th of the next month and receive a prize. You can also set sales goals based on activity. You could set a monthly goal for cold calls, or a certain number of sales calls.
You could also reward reps for improving their metrics by offering incentives to the rep who achieves a certain stage’s highest conversion rate.
Each rep will be motivated and able to achieve their goals if the team sets common goals, not just for the top performers.
You can avoid a toxic sales culture by offering incentives that encourage team cooperation. Everyone is rewarded for giving their best.
Use a leaderboard to keep everyone’s views clear.
In contests that have an incentive, transparency is crucial. Reps shouldn’t waste time trying to figure who is ahead when they should be focusing their efforts on selling.
A sales leaderboard can be a great way of showing transparency. Close allows you create leaderboards that automatically show how each rep ranks according to sales goals such as calls, emails, time on the phone and leads created, closed, or closing deals.
Keep it simple
Complex reward systems and reporting can demotivate your team rather than motivate them.
Clear and simple should be the goal or requirement for the incentive. Do not add too many conditions or rules to the mix. A clear and achievable goal will be more motivating than a series or complicated hurdles.
Align your sales incentives to company goals and culture
Your company stands behind certain principles and values that it promotes among its employees. These values are probably the reason that most of your sales team came to your company.
Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your sales incentives are in line with your company’s culture. This is likely to be what your employees care about.
If you are an EdTech company, for example, your employees probably care a lot about education. Why not give incentives for professional growth or classes that will enhance their personal lives?
You could also offer your sales reps the opportunity to spend time with their favorite charities if your company has an incentive program.
Create sales team incentives program to motivate your team
Personalizing sales incentives for each rep on your team will increase their motivation to take action.
You can use the incentive ideas that we have discussed to find incentives that appeal to each rep and give them the boost they need to work hard even in difficult times.
What is your experience with sales incentives What has worked and what didn’t? Have you ever had a sales incentive with unintended consequences?
Conclusion
Sales team incentives are a great way to motivate your sales force and boost productivity. By offering rewards such as travel trips, gift cards, or cash bonuses, you can encourage your team to reach their goals. In addition, contests can be a fun way to keep your sales force motivated and engaged.
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