Sales Incentives Blog

Archive for the ‘Employee Motivation’ Category

1. Is Customer Service Dead? by Christopher Mead

   It seems that no matter where you go, that companies pride themselves on putting the customer first, but that doesn’t really seem to be the truth. I have found nightmare stories from telephone customer service operators, to in store employees. But I have also read some amazing stories of how an employee went well beyond their job description to make a Read the rest of this entry »

Employee Empowerment

The modern entrepreneur bears the dual responsibility of working towards the smooth functioning of the business and retaining quality staff, as part of the long term scheme for the success of the venture.

Employee empowerment is an absolute business essential today. It involves the expressions and avenues through which the non-managerial staff members are conditioned Read the rest of this entry »

“Examining Employee Motivation is Key to Long Term Business Success”

Many companies understand that if their employees are happy, they are more likely to be productive and the company will be more likely to do better when it comes to keeping clients happy and meeting set goals. Business owners may realize that employee motivation tactics would work, but if they do not understand on a personal level how these simple actions can affect a worker, they may not be likely to continue this process or procedure on a regular basis.

Instead, they may feel like they are wasting time or money and that the employees would be just as productive and happy if the particular employee motivation tactics were not in place. This can be especially true if a business owner tries out an unsuccessful tactic.

There are some businesses in which a particular motivation tactic would be appreciated and applicable for providing motivation, but if the same tactic were used elsewhere it would be degrading or demeaning. Because of this, it is very important that the proper technique is used in the right company or area. This may require a trial and error period, but this does not mean that the individual should give up on the idea of motivating employees through this process.

Instead, it just means that an employer needs to keep trying and find a more successful tactic. Employee feedback on particular motivation tactics could help a business owner figure out more easily what works and what does not.

Employee motivation is just as successful as personal motivators one may use with their children. For example, there are some parents that will give their child $3 for every A they get on their report card, $2 for every B and so on. This is done with the hope that the child will be stimulated to get as many A’s as possible. When it comes to employee motivation, the same tactics can be applied.

A business owner can set an attainable goal and the employees can work in order to do what they can to reach the goal and to be able to get the motivator that has been offered to them. It makes everyone feel good. The employee will feel rewarded and irreplaceable within the company and the business owner will be happy that the company is running successfully, which in turn will generate income.

When employees are happy, they can be more patient with the client, more willing to go the extra mile and more likely to be productive and efficient in their specific duties. There are a number of employee motivation tactics that can be put into place. Some can be as simple as weekly lunch meetings outside the office in which co-workers can bond.

By strengthening the bonds between co-workers through employee motivation tactics it is more likely that the business team will work like a well oiled machine, content in helping each other where and when they can for the good of the whole rather than for the good of the individual worker within the business.

“5 Tips on How to Choose Which Wholesale Promotional Products to Offer.”

Promotional products are given away primarily to create and sustain interest in a company’s products and services. They can be the products itself or, and this happens more frequently than usual, specially made products that are imprinted with the company’s name and manufactured exclusively to serve as giveaways. Since promotional products are usually purchased wholesale, even the smallest mistake can land you with thousands of useless giveaways. Thus, before pushing through with the production of your promotional products, make sure first that you’ve considered all the important factors that can affect it.

Tip #1 KNOW WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE LOOKING FOR FROM YOUR WHOLESALE PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS
According to a survey made by the PPA, customers deem the following factors significant when receiving promotional products: Usefulness (98.3%) – Your promotional product must be useful, not just to anyone, but most especially to your target market. Quality (71.8%) – If you’re not willing or able to produce promotional products of adequate or superior quality, then it’s better to employ another marketing strategy instead. Attractiveness (61.5%) –

Your product must also be visually pleasing to the eye and most especially once more to your target market. If your promotional product’s not something that your customer can proudly brandish in public, don’t give it away. Customers also indicated their desire for promotional products that are tasteful (59.8%), but since taste is entirely subjective, make sure that your promotional product adheres to your target market’s taste.

Convenience (45.5%) – Convenience can convey different meanings, and if you want to play it safe then you need to use promotional products that are conveniently compact in size besides being convenient to use as well. Uniqueness (43.7%) – Promotional products should also be unique if possible, but you can worry about this later on. Longevity (28.2%) – And lastly, promotional products – if possible – should be durable.

Tip #2 NEVER FORGET TO PRINT YOUR COMPANY’S NAME
There’s no point to having wholesale promotional products manufactured and given away if none of them bears the name of your company. Be careful, however, when having your company name printed because too large a print can be detrimental while too small a print can prove to be ineffective.

Also, consider if it will be better for you to have your company logo printed instead of your company name. Sometimes, image-conscious customers prefer to use promotional products that only bear the logo instead of the name.

Tip #3 SIZE MATTERS
If your wholesale promotional products consist of things like pens and lighters, these may be useful and even fashionably designed but they also allow you only a small amount of space to have your company name and logo printed.

Tip #4 THINK EXPOSURE
Useful is as useful goes but sometimes people end up using a promotional product frequently not just because it’s useful but trendy as well. One good example of this is giveaway caps. As long as the corporate logo or name is tastefully incorporated, customers probably won’t mind using it for almost all kinds of occasions.

Tip #5 MATCH THE PRODUCT WITH THE REASON
No company gives away promotional products without any reason. You yourself have your own reasons for giving away promotional products and one way to increase its effectiveness is by making sure that it matches the reason and circumstances surrounding it. Are you having wholesale promotional products manufactured for a trade show or to introduce a new product to the market? Follow these tips and you’re sure to end up with a wholesale batch of promotional products that are going to drive your sales up.

“7 Things You Need to Know about Employee Motivation”
The process of learning how to best motivate your employees is long but rewarding. Employee motivation is one of the greatest factors that influence your business’s ability to generate profit, it’s important that you know how to motivate the people working for you in the most effective way.

People Have Different Needs – If you’ve ever had a theology class, your professor might have mentioned that people were created unique but fundamentally equal. Thus, it’s important that you treat your employees fairly and without bias but at the same time acknowledge the fact that people have different needs as well. Thus, it’s important that you employ different ways of motivating them to take into account their differences. These differences can manifest itself through an employee’s race, culture, gender, educational attainment, work experience, age, or other similar factors.
To know which factors a person best responds to, you need to take the time to get to know your employees one by one.

Fear Only Has Temporary Effects – Yes, fear can indeed work as a motivational factor but only for a temporary basis. In the long run, it may still be able to ensure that your employees work the way you want them to but they’re certainly not doing so for the right reasons. And in the end, these employees will either rebel against you or leave your company. Either way, you lose.

Money Matters – Say all you want about intrinsic motivation but in the end, it’s never enough to put food on the table. You need to offer both types of motivations to your employees if you want them to perform the way you want them to. You need to give them both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and there are no exceptions to this rule.

Make Them an Integral Part of the Company – You only need to look at how companies like Disney and Starbucks operate and you’ll understand just how important it is to show that you can’t survive without your employees. It’s a given already that they need your company to survive – you’re the one issuing their paychecks after all – but they won’t be able to feel that it’s a vice-versa-thing unless you prove it to them. When they realize that you mutually need each other, your employees will definitely feel more motivated to work harder even if you’re not promising them a hefty cash bonus at the end of the rainbow.

Do Not Delay – When an employee achieves a particular feat, make sure that you reward him appropriately and immediately. Delaying on giving the employee the reward he so richly deserves will only cause him to lose motivation in continuing to do the same in the future.

Give Your Employees the Freedom to Choose – Just because you feel that a particular reward is best for a particular employee doesn’t necessarily mean that the said employee will agree as well. As such, it’s important that you always give your employees the freedom to choose which prize they wish to work for.

Lead by Example – Employees won’t be sufficiently motivated even if you’re giving them a lot of incentives to work hard IF you’re not working the same hours they do. As manager or owner of a business, it’s important that you lead by example. Don’t ask others to do something that you’re not willing and able to do yourself!

“Motivate Your Employees Without A Lot Of Cash Out Of Your Pocket”

Let’s face facts. It is hard to run a business in this day and age. Not only is money tight everywhere you look but it is getting harder to find quality employees who are willing to make the grade when it comes to sales. You need to have employees who are doing all they should be plus a little more to make your business successful in every way. The real question is, how does one make that happen?

Well in most cases business owners try to provide more money as far as salary and bonuses are concerned. However, one must wonder if this really does the trick. After all, if the employee gets more money for simply going through the motions, why should they do any more then that? That is the real downfall to raising salaries without having something in return.

What you are really looking to do is motivate your employees to make sure they are getting the job done and going above and beyond the call of duty. Now you could spend thousands of dollars and send them all to a seminar hosted by some over priced, capped teeth, infomercial reject and hope that does the trick. In most cases this will do nothing more then make the employees resent you for taking away their free time to go to the seminar.

There is a solution that will work. What about offering an incentive program for those that reach a certain goal? Sure, you say, and I am made of money. Well you do not have to be made of money to create a winning motivational reward program that will have the employees jumping at every chance to win.

The solution is all about travel and vacations. Who does not love the chance to get away? We all do. Seeking out some peace and quiet, away from the rigors of the daily grind. Your employees are no different. They would love the chance to get away and you can now give that to them without spending a load of cash.

The secret to this system is in the packages or vouchers. Instead of paying for a vacation out of pocket you simply buy a package deal by way of a travel voucher and award the winning employee with that. Sound simple? Too good to be true? Well it is simple, and it is true.

Using a company like that deals in travel vouchers only, you can easily create a high quality vacation employee motivational program and save a lot of money doing it.

You want to make sure that you are purchasing in bulk only. Buying these kind of deals by the piece will cost you more money then you could have ever imagined. The more vouchers you purchase the better the deal becomes. In many cases the companies offer volume discounts when you make a larger purchase. So instead of purchasing enough for one round of incentive programs you should go with two or more. With that you will get the best deal and save a good amount of money in the process.

Every business, like it or not wins or loses through employee motivation. Achieving employee motivation is not easy. We are all different and all respond to varying situations in different ways. It is much more than employees doing their work properly. Employee motivation once generated in an organization is positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is what builds our self-esteem. Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company’s workers bring to their jobs.

Whether the economy is growing or shrinking, finding ways to motivate employees is always a management concern in any business. Employee motivation is a natural offshoot of employee empowerment. Higher management has a crucial role to play here.

Job enrichment has been a motivational technique which is receiving increased attention. Secondments, mentoring and standing-in for colleagues on leave are suggested methods of enlarging a job and increasing motivation.

Organizations desiring to improve employee motivation need a system in place that consistently rewards employee achievements. I’m always surprised how few organizations have such a system.

Furthermore, many organizations are finding it quite a challenge to meet the growing needs of employees. Also the nature of employee needs have changed over time.

Though usually self-starters, the best employees typically require more from employers to remain motivated over time. A primary motivator for exceptional talent is having the ability to speak their minds in a free and unrestricted fashion, and develop their own social networks.

Workshops and internal seminars may be seen by some as usurping the management role, or in danger of producing a company run by committee. But, done right this is a great motivator.

Employers often make use of this by presenting challenges to the employees. In making use of this type of employee motivation employers often include competition such as a promotion or cash.

Employee motivation can sometimes be particularly problematic for small businesses, where the owner often has spent so many years building a company that he/she finds it difficult to delegate meaningful responsibilities to others. But entrepreneurs should be mindful of such pitfalls, for the effects of low employee motivation on small businesses can be devastating. Employee Motivation in the Workplace is important, and the job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees.

Individuals as a general observation, will often have more difficulty understanding and valuing the motivators of others that are very different from their own. Improve staff knowledge of the other parts of your business, through cross division mentoring, improved social networking, and secondment, and individual employees become more successful. The team becomes much more than just the sum of its parts, and profitability will rise as well.

One top company which operates throughout the US recently set up an incentive program. At first those who promoted the idea met skepticism throughout higher management, but were allowed to get the project started. All were delighted when employees were enthusiastic about the incentive program and liked to be able to see how their individual contribution to the company earned awards. Over the course of the year, employee absenteeism was reduced by 75% and employee productivity (measured in call times, number of calls and customer service ratings) was increased by 43%.