Creative Incentives Inspire Results

After years of using closed-end incentive programs where the whole team plays but only stars come away with a prize, corporate America is waking up to creative incentive ideas that put the pedal to the selling metal.

By rewarding more than just the few top performers, companies can spread the positive sales results of an incentive program throughout the team.

According to Greg Greunke, president of Greunke Company and former president of Incentive Manufacturers Representatives Association (IMRA), an incentive program should create harmony between corporate and regional sales goals and also stimulate increased individual sales. “It’s also a good idea,” says Greunke, “to run your incentive program from corporate headquarters so that regional managers are not working at odds against corporate goals.”

Greunke believes that traditional incentive programs, based on sheer dollar sales, often fail to increase sales because a staff’s top sellers tend to dominate such contests: “As a rule, the top producers on a sales force are self-starters anyway. They don’t need the motivation an incentive provides. It’s the other, less successful but nevertheless important, members of the staff who need the extra push of an incentive program.”

To take advantage of these concepts, Greunke suggests these incentive ideas:

1 TOP 100 Reward salespeople with a prize for every hundredth order. The more orders a salesperson sends in, the more likely it is that he or she will win a prize. These prizes are open to everyone, however, and even a salesperson who sends in only one order can win a prize. This program works best in conjunction with other incentives.

2 SCRATCH-OFFS In this program a scratch-off card accompanies each order, so that salespeople receive a prize for each order. Because of the number of prizes, the majority will be inexpensive tokens. Occasionally, however, the reward for an order should be a big-ticket item.

3 REFERRAL REWARDS Give a prize for each referral. The value of the prize should vary with the size of the order the referral produces. Companies can provide rewards for strong production in any segment of the sales cycle. And, Greunke says, managers can see immediate results.

“We did an interesting program with a telemarketing staff based on the number of phone calls people made, as well as the number of orders they delivered,” he says. “In a short period of time a somewhat lethargic staff became extremely jealous and protective of their phone time.”

Adam Poirier, senior corporate account executive at The Sharper Image, agrees with Greunke that creative incentive ideas deliver bottom line results. According to Poirier, the hot incentive buzz words at The Sharper Image are trophy value.

“Our products mesh with the goals of a corporate incentive program,” he says, “because our merchandise is both valuable and unusual. Cash is a good motivator, but it has no trophy value. Salespeople tend to spend the extra money on gas, car insurance or other basic items; in two months they’ve forgotten about it. Soon they begin seeing cash incentives as part of their base salary, and the money loses its value as an incentive. In addition, unlike merchandise or travel, you can’t discount cash.”

The Sharper Image, says Poirier, offers a certificate program for any company’s incentive needs. “Sales people earn certificates with dollar denominations which can be applied at the end of the program to any merchandise in The Sharper Image catalog,” he says. “To maintain interest we print and send out a new catalog every month. Each time a salesperson looks through the catalog, he or she starts thinking about making the sales to get those prizes. We really like this program because everyone on the sales staff can be a winner, plus all the prizes have genuine trophy value. We also recommend that salespeople receive certificates for percentage sales increase, sales over quota or any other criteria, as well as dollar sales, to insure that the same people aren’t winning all the time.”

Still intent on using cash as an incentive? In that case, instead of handing over the money for your top seller’s next car insurance payment, try depositing that check into your big closer’s retirement account. This gesture serves a dual purpose. For one, it qualifies as a tax write-off, but more important, by investing in your employees’ future you are sending the message that the company cares about its employees and their families’ well-being. That’s one sure-fire cash incentive with trophy value that produces bottom line results.