Knowing and applying the right incentives is essential to motivate your sales team. Yes, an effective compensation plan will ensure much of your company’s financial success. In addition, a good incentive system can help retain talent and increase employee dedication. In this guide, you will discover how to achieve these objectives. How? Well, first of all, understanding what sales incentives are. Then, learn how to motivate your sales team. And finally, how to design an effective compensation plan. For the latter, here are some inspiring examples of incentives for sales reps.
What are sales incentives for sales reps?
Sales incentives use rewards, recognition, discounts or money to motivate salespeople to meet objectives. These objectives range from closing more sales to increasing the average transaction value. Either way, sales incentives aim to inspire sales reps to do their best. To this end, valuing their achievements and recognising their performance through monetary or non-monetary rewards is essential.
How to motivate effectively?
To motivate your salespeople, you can use four types of incentives:
- Financial
- Non-financial
- Interpersonal
- Professional development
Let’s take it one step at a time!
Economic incentives
Economic incentives consist of cash rewards for employees. These rewards may be added to the fixed salary or awarded in other forms, such as commissions, gift-cards, promotions or work bonuses. The criteria for achieving economic incentives may vary. In fact, that is what is normal: that they vary. In any case, economic incentives are generally linked to performance indicators. Such as productivity, number of closed sales, and percentage of goal fulfilment.
2. Non-financial incentives
Non-financial incentives, as the name implies, offer non-monetary rewards to employees. These may include flexible work schedules, paid days off, and pension plans. The focus of these incentives is usually related to strengthening commitment. The same applies to results in improving the quality of life of employees.
3. Interpersonal incentives
Interpersonal incentives are associated with the subjectivity of each employee. The objective of this particular type of incentive is to foster a friendly and trusting work environment. That is, a work climate that facilitates listening to employees’ opinions. This will provide the conditions for professional growth. In the field of sales incentives, this is essential. The same from an environment of trust that boosts employee self-esteem as from a leader who appreciates the work of a successful salesperson and recognises it publicly. Or, for example, an effort to improve the organisational culture by implementing a feedback routine.
4. Professional development incentives
Professional development incentives consist of activities to improve an employee’s technical skills. These may be offered directly by the company or partially or fully subsidised. Offering professional development is very important, as almost 59% of employees do not receive on-the-job training and develop their skills on a self-taught basis. Examples of such sales incentives could be tuition reimbursement or subsidised technical courses or workshops.
The secret formula: a good incentive plan for your sales reps
Creating a compensation plan goes beyond offering rewards. It is an activity that requires careful planning. At the same time, it must be in tune with your sales force’s needs and your company’s financial possibilities. It is not that easy:
1. Investigate what motivates each salesperson.
The first step is to investigate what motivates each salesperson. This will help you plan the right sales incentive system for each individual.
2. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the commercial team.
Next, assess the strengths and weaknesses of your sales team. This is essential for setting achievable goals and designing a compensation plan that is commensurate with the predicted achievements.
Verify financial viability
Next, verify the financial viability of the vendor compensation plan. Find out if you have enough budget to award bonuses or subsidise other incentives.
4. Communicate the compensation plan
Finally, communicate the compensation plan to all stakeholders. It is important that the objectives and rewards are clear to everyone.
Incentive examples for sales reps: 14 ideas to encourage your sales team
Here are 14 ideas to encourage your salespeople to improve their performance and close more sales.
1. Money 💰
Cash is one of the most straightforward, practical and valuable sales incentives. It’s simple because it doesn’t require a lot of creativity, just good financial planning. It is effective because most people tend to put more effort into an activity if there is a clear financial reward. And it is valid because it satisfies a variety of essential needs. They range from saving money, paying off debts, or making a purchase.
2. Promotion 🚀
Another attractive sales incentive is promotion. It consists of giving the employee a higher position in the corporate hierarchy and a salary increase. It is a double reward: on the one hand, it offers the recognition and prestige that many people seek; and on the other hand, it increases the employee’s responsibilities and expectations, which usually means professional growth.
3. Travel
If you’re wondering how to motivate the sales team, consider offering travel with lodging and airfare included. There is nothing better than the possibility of discovering new places and taking a break from the commercial routine. Of course, with everything paid for by the company! And the best part is knowing that this trip resulted from your effort. This will make your employees come back refreshed to repeat the feat.
4. Paid days off 🏖️
If your company’s budget does not allow for a sales incentive as costly as travel, an alternative is to offer paid time off to top performers on the sales team. This is especially useful for your employees. Thanks to this, they can concentrate on their family, pets, hobbies and other interests outside the office.
5. Products 🎁
Giving away products is always a good option as a sales incentive. Of course, as long as they are items that people really want or need. After all, they function as a physical reminder of their achievements, something very powerful to motivate them in the work routine. You can give, for example, a 4K TV to that person who loves to watch his team’s soccer games.
6. Public recognition 👏
According to a recent study, more than 91% of HR professionals believe that recognition and rewards increase the likelihood that employees will stay with the company. In addition to this, yes, it is an excellent sales incentive. You can do this by complimenting internal communication channels or your company’s social networks. An excellent product for this purpose is Vip Awards, a market-leading employee recognition platform.
7. Courses and workshops 📚
If you want to reward your sales reps with something that will make them grow professionally, some good incentives for their development are courses and workshops. Of course, you are always focused on valuable skills for your activity. If you don’t know what to choose but like the idea, you can simply subsidise each employee’s choice.
8. Entertainment 🎉
Tickets for soccer matches, movies, theatre plays, concerts of great artists… Offering entertainment-related prizes and incentives is an excellent option to provide to your sales reps. Its great benefit is to help people temporarily disconnect from work responsibilities and simply have fun.
9. Subscription Clubs 🎁
Today, there are several subscription clubs, such as book clubs, wine clubs, food clubs, and and beauty clubs. This is an excellent option for commercial teams working remotely. They will allow your employees to feel recognised, valued and cared for, even at a distance.
10. Services 🎯
Imagine that an employee moves out of the house. And that, despite the chaos that this usually brings, it manages to achieve its share of sales. A good incentive here can be a service, such as a day of relaxation in a SPA. Or better, hiring a crew to paint or assemble furniture in your new home.
11. Exclusive events 🌟
Dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant, a workshop with a New York Times best-selling author, a ticket to a live TED Talk… There are many options for exclusive events that you can offer as a sales incentive for your team. This will make your best employees feel special, and they will try to maintain or improve their sales rate.
12. Office improvements 🏢
When it comes to office dynamics, there is always room for improvement. Why not use this as a sales incentive? A quieter room, high-quality chair or a good home office decoration are good options.
13. Donations 🤝
Some people are more selfless and prefer to share their rewards with others. One idea to meet this type of need is to make cash donations in your employee’s name to non-governmental organisations that champion causes with which they sympathise.
14. Incentive at employee’s choice 💡.
Finally, you can allow the successful employee to choose their incentive. You can set a spending limit if you want to have a little more control over the situation.
Beyond…
In this guide, you learned what sales incentives are, how they serve to motivate your sales teams and some strategic recommendations to create your incentive plan. However, this is only the first step towards your company’s financial success. A focus on the well-being and continuous development of your employees and the implementation of sound business strategies are also critical to achieving exceptional results over the long term. It is in this sense that you should keep Vip Incentives in mind. Our innovative solution boosts the performance of your sales team.
Vip Incentives is an incentive and rewards platform designed to drive motivation, engagement and results for your sales reps.
With Vip Incentives, you can create customised incentive programs tailored to your company’s and your salespeople’s needs. This platform offers a wide range of reward options, from financial incentives to unique experiences and exclusive gifts.
In addition, with our real-time tracking and analysis system, you will be able to measure the impact of your incentive programs and obtain valuable information to optimize your sales force’s strategy.
Don’t miss the opportunity to take your sales to the next level with good incentives. Contact us today and find out how we can help you achieve your business goals!
Go for it! 🚀
