If you have a sales team, of any kind, it’s important to implement some sort of incentive or bonus scheme to keep them motivated and hungry, as this will keep them delivering for you.  These incentives could be cash based (commissions, bonuses, etc.), or non-cash based (trips, prizes, points, and other awards).

The type of sales incentives that will work best for your business largely relies on your capabilities, goals and demographics of your sales team.

At the Air Marketing Group, we reward our staff with both cash and non-cash incentives. We have learnt that a varied sales incentive scheme has many benefits: improved performance, higher sales rates and the ability to create a work culture many desire which will help your employability.

Find out more about sales incentive benefits

Focus

Retaining your sales teams focus day in and day out can be a challenging task. If you’ve got a specific target you need to hit by a certain deadline, a short-term sales incentive scheme with an enticing reward on the table, can work beautifully when focusing your team. At Air, if our sales team hit their weekly sales target we treat them to a 4:30pm drink or encourage everyone to put the phones down an hour early to attend an organised after work social. Creating a short-term scheme is often just enough to light a fire under people, driving the performance you desire.

Lead Excitement

Most businesses believe that the prospect of earning commission on a sale will be enough to motivate their team, unfortunately most will discover this isn’t the case. At Air, we have a variety of different tactics to keep things exciting and our team motivated. We recommend trying a washing line or a tactical wheel incentive scheme that gives your staff the opportunity to win a prize, do a forfeit or take a gamble. These prizes and forfeits could be anything from doing a dare, making someone a hot drink, or winning £50. Encourage your team to take risks that result in doubling their prize or losing it all together. The two examples above are great incentive schemes that get your team excited about what they’re working for and highlights that taking risks can be rewarding.

Loyalty

If you want to build loyalty amongst your sales team, we encourage you to think about implementing an incentive scheme that includes trophy value or emotional significance. At Air, we like nothing more than celebrating the success of our team, this could be anything from being with our company for a year, or having progressed to a new level within the team. Handing out rewards such as personalised vouchers are small incentives that really show your sales team their appreciated and that your company is focused on building a two-way relationship. We exhibit loyal behaviours when we trust that the person or thing we’re involved in will be good to us. By enriching your sales teams lives, you’ll evoke their desired to show loyalty.

Healthy Competition

Most sales people are competitive. Give them a goal, and they’ll want to out-do their counterparts. To encourage healthy competition, consider setting up a points system with a visible leader board. As a telemarketing company, we have created a visible leader board that showcases who’s winning the most leads. Allowing individuals to see where they stand amongst other colleagues inspired additional effort.

Collaborative Efforts

A well-designed incentive scheme can not only drive friendly competition, but also encourage collaboration. Get your team to work together, set team objectives such as an overall number of leads to be achieved by the end of the month. You can then add a significant team reward for reaching this goal. Think about organising a staff lunch or activity hour, not only does this reward but can be considered a team building activity. It’s important to create a culture of friendly competition, not just cut-throat rivalry.

Reduced Turnover

The main reason people seek new employment is due to a feeling of underappreciation. We have spoken about a short-term sales incentive scheme however long-term schemes are a way of giving away bigger prizes that show your staff their efforts are acknowledged. Air are running a 5 star incentive  that is run over a yearly period. Stars are given out over the year to people who have gone above and beyond, pulled through when the chips were down, or hit outstanding targets. If a staff member accumulates 5 stars over the year they are rewarded with a personal weekend getaway for them and a partner or friend. Long-term incentive programs are both great for reducing staff turnover and maintaining loyalty.

Culture

If you know anything about the Air Marketing Group, you’ll be aware of how important a positive work culture is to our business. We would not have achieved our positive, hardworking atmosphere if we didn’t regularly give our sales team incentives and show them just how much we appreciate them.

ROI

We know it’s the National #GiveSomethingAwayDay, created to give people the opportunity to give something away without expecting anything back. However, implementing an incentive scheme does allow your business to profit too. The more motivated your sales team, the more drive they have to sell and the better your clients and your own ROI. Having an incentive scheme in place will give you an all-round great company reputation amongst people both internally and externally.

We hope this insight encourages you to give something away to those who matter most in your business.

If you would like to work with a team that has an outstanding drive to sell, get in touch!