7 years ago
February 21, 2017

7 Good Sales Incentives to Motivate Your Sales Team

Implementing good sales incentives can help you motivate your sales team towards better performance. Check out these effective sales incentives.

Rhys Metler

Having a motivated sales team cannot be understated. The more productive your sales people are because you’ve created good sales incentives, the more profitable they become. Whether you use job-related, tangible, or experiential incentives, you don’t need to break the bank in order to motivate your sales team. Good sales incentives don’t need to be costly to be effective.

Here are some good sales incentives to consider using when you need to boost motivation and increase profitability.

1. Paid Time Off

More often than not, your sales people give you more than 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. They work nights and weekends to close deals, achieve their quotas, and bring in revenue. Offering paid time off when your sales people achieve a certain goal, whether it’s a half-day Friday, the chance to sleep in and come in at noon on a Monday, or a full day off, can really motivate. Your sales people will appreciate being able to have some extra time with their families and friends after all the time they put in at the office.

2. Prime Parking Spot

Good sales incentives can be practical, too. If your company is located in a busy area with limited parking, then your sales people probably dislike having to pay to park far away and walk to the office. Offering them a prime free parking spot for the week or the month can really boost motivation. Of course, this will only work if all of your sales people drive to work. Otherwise, it won’t inspire performance.

3. Scratch-Offs

Create scratch-off cards that accompany every closed deal. Since you’ll be giving a card for every win, the majority of your prizes will be inexpensive. However, make sure to have one big-ticket item like a flat-screen TV or tickets to an event. Every sales person will receive a prize for each order, but because there’s a big prize to be won, they’ll be motivated to keep closing sales left, right, and centre to get a chance at winning it.

4. Top 100 Reward           

With a top 100 reward, you offer your sales people a prize of your choosing for every hundredth order placed (or a realistic number that suits your sales process and its length). Alternatively, you can also offer a prize for every 100 cold calls made—even if they were all rejections.

5. Pizza Party

A tried-and-true sales incentive idea, the pizza party is an employee favourite. It doesn’t reward individually, but rather, as an entire team. It can motivate your team to work together, collaborate, push each other, and help each other in order to achieve the team goal that will reward them all with a pizza party. Plus, getting out of the office breaks up the routine, allows for socialization, and boosts employee morale. So it’s a win-win.

6. Monopoly Money

Use tokens or Monopoly money to reward employees for different actions and goals. Every goal should offer a different amount of money, with closed deals getting the most cash. At the end of the quarter, have several different gifts of different value that your sales people can redeem using their phony cash. They’ll work hard to get more fake cash to get the gifts they have their eye on.

7. Appreciation Jar

Have all of your employees write up inexpensive gift options or recognition ideas that they’d like, then put them all in an appreciation jar. Every time reps are recognized for something, have them pick an idea at random from the jar and follow through. Of course, make sure to review all ideas to ensure they’re feasible and realistic.

Though a pat on the back and a sincere “thank you” can go a long way to motivate your sales people towards better performance, implementing good sales incentives can help you push your team one step further when you need to increase revenue or get them through a rough patch.

Rhys Metler

Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.

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