sale incentive

Sales Force Incentives: What is the long term effectiveness of motivational tools?

“Sales Force Incentives”

Sales force incentives are a vital part of business and one of the best reasons is that they work. This is one of the few motivators that can rev up a sales force for pennies on the dollar. However it has to be well designed and executed to reap the full benefits and get the most out of your sales force.

The reasons sales force incentives are so effective, is that they appeal to the basic instinct of a true sales person. The need to compete, to be recognized for doing well and essentially having their ego stroked and last but not least the ability to acquire more stuff for doing what they love to do. A good sales force incentive program can almost always assure a business owner that they will get results, but there are several rules of engagement that they have to keep in mind.

The sales force incentive requires a concise goal. This may be as basic as increasing sales, but there are other objectives that can be added to a sales force incentive. These range from generating new accounts to launching new products or even expanding your sales territory. The sales force incentives goals will greatly depend on where that particular business sees they are lagging behind the competition, or that there is an untapped market they need to explore.

The next thing a sales force incentive needs to accomplish is a clearly defined list or statement of accomplishments. In other words your sales force needs to know precisely what the amount of increase in numbers that are expected. Is it X number of dollars, or X number of new accounts? The comparisons can be from previous years or from the competition, however the current business climate and the potential of your sales team need to be taken into account.

The sales force incentive can be tricky in that, make it too unattainable and you end up demotivating the team, make it too easy and you will not make the returns needed to justify the money spent on sales force incentive.

The next important part of an effective sales force incentive is the budget. The budget should not exceed 10% of the projected sales increase, and should not be less that about 1.5-2%. This budget includes not just the sales force incentive but the promotion such as awards luncheon and also the administration of this program in the form of over time. Be prepared to be flexible in case it is very successful you might want to continue it or if it is not working, revamp it.

Picking the right sales force incentive is also crucial to its success. Cash usually works because most people like cash, and there is no cost to storing it. The down side is people tend to forget after it is put into an account or mutual fund and it is always a clear show of how much the company spent on the sales force incentive.

Take a team on a vacation and you can also gain the benefit of building the team spirit while rewarding them. The main idea is to keep the sales force incentive duration short. People are better motivated in the short term. Quicker rewards will help reinforce the behavior desired by the company initiating the sales force incentive.

Learn how to motivate employees with rapport building questions that clarify expectations, counter negativity in the workplace, and give people the language to express criticism and feedback without hurting morale. For more information on use sales incentives, visit us online today!

Direct Sales Incentives

“Direct Sales Incentives”

Direct sales incentives come in many forms, from cash bonuses for selling a given amount of a specific product, to selling to reach a specified sales quota. Some of these direct sales incentives do not always have an immediate cash value, but the idea of company wide recognition for that month, quarter or year, with perhaps an end of year bonus.

The major questions might well be: What is the best direct sales incentive? What direct sales incentive will help companies keep their best and most productive representatives? The answer to these questions is not universal, every company has to evaluate their staff and create a direct sales incentive that is geared to their needs and their triggers. A good direct sales incentive is not necessarily the one with the largest cash value, unless of course that is the driving force that gets your reps going.

There are companies that have survived on direct sales incentives that only provide certificates or letters of recognition and maybe also recognition at big company meetings or parties at the end of the year. This may not sound like much, but if recognition for a job well done is what your people need, then that will be the direct sales incentive that will work in your establishment.

We often go into business and see plaques on the wall with employee of the week or month. These are the direct sales incentives that have no monetary value per say, but the employees are quite satisfied when they see customers looking at their plaques, they know that they are being acknowledged by the company and by customers.

In order to really create an effective direct sales incentive plan you really do have to know your staff.

• What will cause staff be motivated to improve performance?
• What will the direct sales incentive tools cost the organization?
• What is the value that these direct sales incentives bring to the performance-increase fore casted for the organization?
• What types of direct sales incentives will motivate individuals to meet the set performance goals?
• The answers to these types of questions will help evaluate your sales teams and get you to develop a strategy that will be most beneficial to your company. It is also important to allow the employees an opportunity to contribute their ideas to what they value as a direct sales incentive. This will give them a greater sense of responsibility, and sense of value.

  There is such a variety of possibilities in reference to what you can offer as direct sales incentive. You could offer a team a vacation to some far off exotic place, for the whole family if their team reaches a specific goal. The most important thing to remember is that the most valuable direct sales incentive is genuine recognition for a job well done.

Learn how to motivate employees with rapport building questions that clarify expectations, counter negativity in the workplace, and give people the language to express criticism and feedback without hurting morale. For more information on how to motivate employees, visit us online today!