Art
Siegel

Motivating Sales Performance: Win With Sales Contests

Do you already have a solid sales commission plan in place? And you are looking for a way to bring out the best in all your salespeople -- to produce maximum results from your top producers while still motivating the rest of the sales team? Try these methods of Motivating Sales Performance: Win With Sales Contests. 

Most salespeople derive at least part of their income from commissions, so they have a financial incentive to sell more. Your most highly motivated people treat every deal as if it were their most important one because they want that commission. Others on your team may be content to earn a little less, slacking off on one deal and assuming they will somehow make it up on another.

A good contest gives your entire sales team a booster shot -- a greater incentive to sell -- and to do it now. To enhance your team's sales performance, try some of the following ideas on how to make your next contest a winner.

Sales contest idea 1: Kick off the sales contest with a splash
Make an event out of the sales contest announcement. Your budget may not allow you to have a big splash, but regardless of the size, it's important to have one.

To add some fun, many managers design their contests around a theme and then print up contest announcements that reinforce that theme.

Sales contest idea 2: Keep the timeframe short
Most commission plans are based on long-term goals, such as annual or quarterly quotas. To serve their intended purpose, the timeframe for a contest should be fairly short. A month or so is usually good. You want the contest to cause a brief burst of added energy. If the contest lasts too long, your less motivated people may just delay getting started until the ending date approaches.

Sales contest idea 3: Use awards other than cash
Unless you have a very generous sales contest budget, it is tough to offer the winner enough cash to really serve as a motivator. Besides, a cash award tends to just disappear into the winner's checking account, like another commission check. It doesn't necessarily enrich the winner's life in any way.

Some managers use professional tools as awards: a leather briefcase, pen set, engraved clock, award plaque, etc. These have plusses and minuses. On the plus side, they give the winner recognition among his or her peers. On the minus side, after a while, the office is filled with these items, and they stop being special.

The best awards are those that create personal enjoyment for the winner, particularly because selling harder often means giving up a little personal time. And the winner's spouse or significant other also shares in the winnings for having given up some of that time. An example of a good but modestly priced award is a night out for two consisting of dinner at a fine restaurant, a show and a little cash for cabs, parking, a babysitter, etc.

Sales contest idea 4: Level the playing field
A big problem with most contests is that the outcome is pretty well known by everyone from the beginning. Every office has at least one top performer and a few people in the middle, with the rest hanging on, trying to make quota. The people you most want to motivate are those in the bottom half, who generally have no chance to sell more during the contest period than the top performers.

To give everyone a fair chance of being a winner, you need to set a contest goal other than number of deals or total dollars. As alternatives, try a goal such as largest percentage increase in sales relative to a prior period.

Sales contest idea 5: Reward sales teams
Some large sales offices are divided into sales teams. If yours is one of these, consider a contest in which an entire team wins, rather than just the top individual. But if the teams are different in size, skills or territory potential, then be sure to set parameters that give all teams an equal chance of winning.

Sales contest idea 6: Base the contest on intermediate sales goals
If you sell a product or service that has a long sales cycle, you need to base the contest on something other than closed sales. Depending upon what you sell, you might use the number of qualified prospects from a particular list who come to a seminar, number of demonstrations or number of prospect companies that agree to a free trial period.

If you use this type of approach, you need to make sure that the quality of prospects doesn't slip. It's easy to generate lots of sales appointments; it's harder if every appointment is with a fully qualified prospect.

Sales contest idea 7: Don't conflict with your long-term goals
A risk with sales contests, particularly those that focus on deals closed, is that the salespeople neglect other important tasks such as prospecting or servicing existing customers. During the contest, you have to make sure these important activities don't drop off.

Another conflict occurs when the contest is based upon one type of product: Your salespeople may try too hard to sell that product to people who really should purchase another part of your line.

Sales contest idea 8: Discourage sandbagging
Some companies are just too predictable about their contests; they run the same contest at the same time every year. So what do clever reps do? They delay any business they might have closed in the weeks prior to the contest. The problem with this is that business delayed sometimes turns into business lost.

To discourage sandbagging, avoid tipping your hand about the next contest. Don't be predictable about when you run contests, and never announce them in advance.

Sales contest idea 9: Keep them coming
Well-designed contests definitely improve sales, but when the contest is over, it's back to business as usual. A good plan is to stage at least three or four contests during a selling year. You know when your normally strong seasons are, when the sales force needs little added incentive. Plan your contests to fill in the slow times when everyone needs to try a little harder.

SeaBird Associates Inc
3011 NE 7th Drive
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Phone: 561-750-9233
E-mail: Art Siegel

About Art Siegel