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Why use incentives to motivate your sales team?
To continue to develop business flows, do you want to revitalize your company, and therefore your teams? The incentives are a way to achieve it.
In the business world, an incentive , that is, in the French
version, a motivation (of any form) is used to challenge, thank but above all
motivate your team .
It can take several forms: from a voucher in a store to an
escape game to weld together and bring the whole team together, including a
stay in Mauritius to have achieved the objectives of the first semester, many
companies do not hesitate. no longer today to devote more or less significant
resources (time and budgets) to these business challenges.
In this articles, we explain why you should use incentives
and business games to motivate your sales team .

What is the incentive?
Originally, the word Incentive means “motivation” . The
incentive is referred to as: “techniques intended to improve the motivation and
performance of a company's staff (most often, the sales team) .” (Definition of
E-marketing.fr) . According to an Ipsos and Edenred France study, 77% of
companies set up incentive operations for their employees.
In general, and in other words, it consists of organizing
and leading business challenges with a reward . But it is also :
• Business
games
• Gifts and
rewards to congratulate and thank your employees: boxes, trips, gift vouchers,
starred restaurants, hotel nights with spas, etc.
• Creative
workshops
• Sports
meetings
• Competitions
over a given period.
These incentive techniques are often used in order to
achieve certain precise objectives , which will be different depending on the
context, the products and services to be sold (new products, gain in shelf
shares if you are in GMS or GSS, gain in market share, setting up and listing
of new products, carrying out special operations) the resources allocated, etc.
Indeed, depending on whether you are talking to your
salespeople, or your HR for example, you will not give the same instructions
and will not have the same objectives .
However, valuation requires a qualitative approach: respect
for standards, respect for quality or implementation of best practices and
company values.
The advantages of using incentives
Congratulate the good work of
your team
Giving presents is a way to congratulate your teams and
thank them for the work done to achieve the goals. Know that the recognition of
efforts tends to greatly improve the performance of your teams.
Christophe Laval, trainer of trainers in recognition at
work, declares on this subject that: “ Recognition at work is an issue of
health, performance and motivation ” ( Tourmag ).
Example: sales reps finally fill out the CRM and everyone benefits from this data.
Maintain the motivation and commitment of your salespeople to your business
Incentives are by definition rewards won during challenges
and therefore are a source of motivation for your teams. Offering them to your
agents when they produce good results is one way to encourage them to remain
regular and rigorous in their work.
Further still, it is even a tool for engagement and loyalty
towards your company . They will feel in their place, integrated and recognized
and you will thus nourish the desire to continue working with you, and to do
better.
In this period of very particular health crisis where
teleworking is now commonplace, it is important not to let go of this practice
of incentives, on the contrary! Indeed, the teams are divided, the contacts
between them are less numerous. What could be such an activity to unite your
teams and re-motivate parents who have experienced confinement with their
children by combining professional and private life in an often small space.
Don't worry about organizing activities: remote incentives. Some companies have
already seen a good way to develop their activity, so there is no shortage of
ideas on the Web.
Create and encourage team cohesion
There are individual goals that can be coupled with
collective goals . In this way, you will strengthen the team spirit, allow some
to work with colleagues they did not know until then, and bring additional
values to your game and your incentive: cohesion and team spirit. 'team .
Collective activities such as escape game, tree climbing,
paintball and others are a perfect opportunity to create cohesion and
understanding within your workforce. Therefore, favor this type of activity
which will promote team building , that is to say team building.
And if you are lucky enough to be based in Réunion (like
us), you will not lack original, fun and constructive activities for your team
: rafting, canoeing in fresh or salt water, laser games, canyoning, hiking
aquatic, lava tunnel tours, ... You are bound to find the perfect activity!
Challenge your teams to push them to do even (and always) better
Incentives are a powerful motivator but also help to
stimulate your employees . In this way you challenge them by pushing them to
exceed their limits. Likewise, you make work more fun and therefore more
attractive .
“The reward is motivation in itself, but through a
well-designed challenge we activate other engines of involvement: the need for
recognition of the hierarchy, peers, the taste for surpassing oneself, a job
well done, performance, etc. ”Confides Valérie Samuel, sales director and
co-founder of Reward Process on the Manager Attitude website .
Boost your business
When setting up a challenge, your company will “live”
differently for a short period, its atmosphere will change , just like your
employees, who will focus on the activity in progress.
Motivation is a factor of development, and incentives, games
and corporate competition serve this principle.
Incentives: Good practices
Establish a schedule
It is important to establish a schedule . You and your
employees need a time frame.
Define the actors
In addition to the time frame, ask yourself the question:
this incentive concerns whom ? Is it the sales team, HR, or a specific team?
and even more your activity, your reward will concern which generation? a
majority of young people without children, a majority of parents? All
generations: X, the "Millennials", Z, not the same sensitivity , the
same apprehension of a reward . Who will drive? a colleague, the hierarchy,
each division of the company for each of its teams? Depending on your choices,
the impact will not be the same. This motivational lever should not be missed,
which can influence your activity and your turnover.
Set clear goals
Once the framework is set, look at the context and the
objectives, be clear in the objectives of the challenge: boost sales of a
product / service, launch a new offer… Use a SMART method to do this .
To learn more about the subject, we have also created this
article for you: On the usefulness of SMART objectives for your marketing .
Ensure the launch
The launch of the challenge must be scripted . No need to
dazzle your teams, but make a difference (always within your means!). For
example, mix in a little humor, or some music, your speech must be playful,
precise, original, it is important to arouse the desire to participate , while
remaining professional.
Creating envy around rewards is also a good way to arouse
the curiosity of your employees, who will wonder what you have in store for
them. Leave a few clues, and as you go, unveil what the reward (s) will be (or
will be) while maintaining the mystery.
You can also reveal at the outset what is planned if the
objectives are reached.
Remind the objectives and the
rules
In any game, there is an objective and a rule . It is
important to remind your employees! Because, even if it is a “game”, everything
must be done with respect and understanding of the rules.
They should be able to view the rules easily and track the
results . A shared document is the minimum, but to go further you can:
• create an
ephemeral site
• put
posters in your business with all the information they might need during the
game
• create a
Facebook page dedicated to this game (group)…
Plan recovery actions
When you start a competition that will last for a while,
motivation may run out of steam. To prevent this from happening, think of
actions to animate the challenge and actions to relaunch if necessary :
mini-game, announcement of intermediate results, small animations, ... So many
ways to breathe new life into an animation that is losing momentum. his rhythm.
Animate the challenge
according to the profile of the sales representatives
Who says competition, says prizes and rewards ! But how do
you choose rewards that would really please your teams? To do this, you need to
know the profile of your salespeople. Ned Herrmann, American researcher,
provides a solution.
Based on research on brain function by neurobiologists, this
American researcher has linked cerebral lateralization and information
processing. He has shown that individuals "select" the stimuli that
trigger their actions based on their "brain preferences".
“ Based on this approach, Ned Herrmann developed the HBDI® (Herrmann
Brain Dominance Instrument®) questionnaire, which, after treatment, produces a
person's“ Brain Preferences Profile® ”. Thus it becomes possible to understand
how the professional choices , the way of working , of learning , of managing
and of communicating .
Ned Herrmann has developed a grid that functions as a
simplified map of the human mind
- A (blue part): motivation by remuneration, tangible gifts.
Need for rationality, performance, logic.
- B (green part): motivation by the recognition of his
peers. Then use visible signs of recognition: trophies, employee of the month,
etc. Need for order, for recognition.
- C (red part): motivation by participation, fun, good
meals, personal recognition. Play on the human side, friendly and convivial.
Need for relationships, sharing.
-D (yellow part): motivation by involvement in the business
of the company, involve them in the future of the company, in decisions for the
company (at their level of course, this can range from a reflection on the
change of the conditions and the environment of the company to ask their
opinion and their assistance on a file). Need for experience, to express your
creativity, think more about the future.
The best is to organize a quiz, questionnaire or survey,
allowing you to know more about your agents and to define their profiles as
well as possible . In this way, you will offer them rewards that suit them
perfectly!
Incentives: the risks and precautions to be taken
Watch out for shortness of
breath
Attention and participation may run out of steam if your
challenge is too long. In this case, find out from your employees : is this a
lack of motivation? goals that are too complicated to achieve? or is it really
too long?
Do not hesitate to collect the opinions, in order to modify the
shooting if necessary and to improve the next games.
Don't give overly expensive
gifts
If you want to please your employees, no need to offer them
very (too?) Expensive incentives. Instead, allocate this budget to improving
their framework and working conditions for the long term.
Although a gift is always fun, if you can not make or
organize a challenge, explain your choice to them, be transparent about the
reasons that led to your decision.
Motivating your troops and giving them gifts that will make
them happy is never easy. Keep in mind that it's best to ask them what really
motivates them. You will be surprised, compensation does not necessarily come
first.
Remember that beyond incentives, it is about achieving
specific objectives to move your business forward and develop it .
Interested in this topic ? Feel free to download our guide
to business strategy for free . or consult our page dedicated to the commercial
prospecting strategy .
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