If some of your sales horsepower has set itself on cruise control and you’re looking for a way to speed up sales, how about some really hot new wheels?

Offer next year’s top annual performer one of the world’s truly great cars, the Porsche 911, and watch sales go into overdrive. Better start planning ahead, though. “We don’t make a lot of them,” the company says. “Even if you order a fairly standard model, you will have to wait about six months for delivery.”

That is part of the attraction, of course. Porsche sells 50,000 cars of all types in the U.S. each year, many of them the fifth or sixth vehicles to current Porsche owners. Porsche drivers may be some of the most fanatic fans on the road. These amazing machines create their own mystique. And it’s not just because of the price tag.

Porsche-o-philia is an expensive habit. A standard 911 sells for about $80,000. A lease costs around $2,000 per month, plus insurance and so forth. And not all cars are standard. In 2000, the company is offering a Millennium 911, finished in a special Chromoflair color that changes its looks depending on weather and lighting.

The Millennium Porsche is more than just an automotive mood ring, however. With leather and wood throughout the interior, 18-inch wheels, sun roof, a rear-window wiper and burl on the gear shift, the special edition has options valued at nearly $20,000 in an $89,000 car.

Beyond the Millennium, there is still hope at reasonable cost. The sporty Porsche Boxster line, begun in 1997, is priced from $41,000, or about $1,000 per month leased. But it is still a Porsche. “You will have to wait six months to a year,” the company says. “It’s not a Toyota.”

Option B

Porsche is not the only luxury car that can perk up a sales star’s interest. In fact, it might not be right for your best performers. “A Porsche is like a Maserati or Lamborghini,” argues Bill Gallagher of GuerrillaBusiness. Maserati’s GT 3200 and Lamborghini’s Diablo (Spanish for devil) are built for speed and selective tastes. “They are great cars, but the attraction depends very much on the person,” Gallagher says. “If I had one, I would always be in jail.”

The California-based Gallagher likes luxury cars as a special motivational tool. “On the West Coast, what you drive is who you are,” he jokes. “Out here, Mercedes is the car to get, then Lexus. The Infiniti is also close.” Pure engineering quality is part of the attraction, but not all. “The Saab is an excellent automobile, but it just doesn’t have the sizzle,” Gallagher notes. “Mercedes has it, and Lexus has it.”

Lexus has a range of special cars that might match your budget more closely. The LS 400 retails for $54,300. More moderate motivation might be supplied with Lexus GSs, which cost from $38,000 to $47,000. The manufacturer’s sports utility line ranges from the RX 300 SUV at $33,000 to the LX 470 at $59,500.

Motivating Everybody

So sizzle comes in a wide price range. But you still have to have a plan. Motivation guru Bob Nelson thinks it’s how, not what, you give that counts the most.

“You could lease a Corvette or an SUV and give it to the sales winner for a month,” Nelson says. “That way, you can make everyone compete against themselves. For example, the goal could be beating your last quarter’s sales by 30 percent.”

Nelson knows of one company that keeps Lincoln Mark 7’s on lease. Salespeople who surpass their quotas by a certain margin drive the Lincoln for the next year. He likes this “compete against yourself” approach for a simple reason. Management can calculate the gains from the improved sales performance versus the cost of the car, thus assuring that the company always gains from the incentive.

Presentation also counts heavily, in Nelson’s view. “Motivation is splash and sizzle. Talk about it. Give the winners their reward in front of their peers. Motivation is not just for the winner, it’s for everybody.”

Nelson emphasizes that motivation is not just for top performers. “Everybody has to feel they have a chance to win. There is a lot of selling power if you say everyone in this room has a chance.”

The splash starts with the incentive kick-off. “You have to leverage the theme from the start,” Nelson says. “If you are going to award a BMW, launch the program at the dealership. Have them decorate the showroom for your sales kick-off. It’s more hands-on and more real.”

The theme should be constantly reinforced. “You can put pictures of the car on all your memos, put a scale model in the corner – anything to remind people what you are doing,” Nelson advises. For example, if a Porsche lies at the end of the sales rainbow, you might provide interim rewards in the form of Porsche accessories. The company sells its own luggage, watches and sports equipment like tennis rackets. Many luxury vehicles have similar themed accessories.

“Too often, incentive programs focus on the ‘thing,'” Nelson argues. “They should also emphasize the pomp and circumstance. Nelson worries that single-winner incentives often leave only one or very few reps in the competition. “Then, each person has to do better than the next one. It can cause bitterness. Sometimes, somebody doesn’t get their messages or faxes.”

If you are thinking of special car as either a permanent gift or monthly perk, check around. “Don’t guess what they like – ask them,” Nelson advises. “Pick five possibilities and involve salespeople in your final choice.”

Little Things

Motivation also comes from the little extra things companies do with their regular sales fleets. Like the way Tom Krause manages a small fleet for Wisconsin’s West Bend Mutual Insurance.

“Our philosophy is that some people drive up to 50,000 miles a year,” Krause says. “This is their office. It’s not fair to fit them in a small car. We try to make them comfortable.”

West End provides 70 vehicles for its 14 regional sales managers, plus claims adjusters and auditors. “We buy mostly Chrysler products, Dodge Intrepids and Caravans,” Krause says. “They are primarily four-door sedans with power options. They are not the cars you see most salespeople driving. We get the Caravan with seven-passenger seating, for example. If they have children, they get an extra sliding door.”

West Bend pays all expenses for sales driving, of course. “We also let them take the cars on vacation. If they want to see Mickey Mouse or the Grand Canyon, we pay for all the gas and they reimburse us at 15 cents a mile.”

Krause retires cars from the fleet at 75,000 miles. Drivers get first claim on vehicles at wholesale prices, then their families or friends, then independent reps.

Providing just a little bit extra pays off for West Bend, especially in recruitment. “When we hire a new person, they say ‘Wow, I get to choose the model and color, and I get power door locks.’ It’s not just another Taurus or Lumina. We give them more than they need. It’s a statement we make.”

A Business Decision

In larger fleets, one manager cannot think through all the motivational challenges of car procurement. So Dow Chemical’s business travel manager Paul Zielinski, responsible for keeping almost 1,000 Dow reps on the road, does not try to micromanage incentives.

“In the fleet organization, my job is to secure the vehicles, work with the leasing company and put them on lease,” Zielinski says. “What type they get and how it is used to motivate them – that’s up to their business managers. They decide how to stimulate sales and recruiting.”

Dow’s business managers handle many different products. And they have different approaches to motivation. Zielinski uses a ‘tiered approach’ to vehicle acquisition. “We work with the big three, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler,” he says. “Our cars range from Tauruses to Intrepids on up to Park Avenues. And we may get a Seville for the CEO.”

Dow’s fleet is well above the norm for sales vehicles. The extra costs are well worth it, according to the managers responsible for results. “We have talked to the business managers about the advantages of downsizing or at least standardizing vehicle types,” Zielinski says. “They say they prefer to keep it this way for motivational reasons. And it all comes out of their profit-and-loss statements.”

Dow’s reps order new vehicles over Wheels’ Internet system. “The feedback from our folks is extremely positive,” Zielinski says. “It updates the driver on order status. From our perspective, it shortens the order cycle. We get replacement vehicles earlier, and that allows us to put used vehicles in the market place at the optimum time. That means dollars for us.”

With only 20 percent of his own time and one full-time assistant devoted to administering a 1000-car fleet, Paul Zielinski does not even try to second-guess the motivational advantages of car choices. “It’s the business leaders’ profit-and-loss. The final call is theirs.”