Incentives to Boost Sales Are Different Based on Each Rep’s Role

There are lots of ways that rewards can help your sales team improve their numbers and solve everyday problems. But how each rep uses incentives to boost sales depends greatly on their role and what part of the sales cycle they work on.

In fact, using incentives to boost sales really starts with your marketing team, who can use rewards to increase their webinar attendance, bring in more leads, and support customer engagement activities.

But once a lead is in the hands of your salespeople, rewards can be even more effective in moving prospects further along the buyer’s journey. Here are how reps in each sales role can use incentives to hit their quotas and benefit the company’s bottom line.

READ MORE: 3 Ways Online Gift Cards Can Help Close More Deals

Sales Development Reps (SDRs)

SDRs typically interact with people in the beginning of the sales cycle and are often in charge of prospecting, qualifying leads, and scheduling initial meetings. Prospecting is never easy, considering that less than 24% of sales emails are opened by recipients, and it takes an average of 18 calls to connect with a buyer on the phone, according to Gartner.

For these reps, using rewards can be a great way to entice people to schedule a discovery call — and, even more importantly, actually show up. Offering an incentive helps you stand out from the crowd in a sea of sales pitches and emails. It’s also effective to re-engage a lead who may have initially shown some interest but then went dark and is no longer answering emails or calls. By providing even a nominal reward, you may be able to persuade them to prioritize the conversation.

Account Executives (AEs)

Sometimes known by other titles, AEs are usually the reps who conduct presentations and demos for prospects, talk through obstacles and pricing, and close the deals. There are several ways they can use incentives to boost sales:

• To sweeten the pot. Offering a compelling reward for your contact when the deal is signed can help push them over the edge in their purchase decision — and maybe even convince them to advocate for your product or service to other internal decision-makers.
• To create urgency. A prospect who is dragging their feet because they’re having issues with internal approval, awaiting legal review, or swamped with other priorities can be extremely frustrating for a sales rep, especially at the end of the month or quarter. A deadline-based incentive can help give them a little nudge to get it done.
• To welcome new clients. Sometimes, even when the sales process was smooth sailing, it’s a nice gesture to send a little thank-you after the fact. It gets your relationship off on the right foot, setting up the opportunity for the account manager to create a loyal repeat buyer and advocate.

Account Managers (AMs)

AMs, who can also be called client or customer success managers, depending on the structure of the company, are charged with retaining existing customers and, wherever possible, generating upsell and cross-sell opportunities. For them, using incentives to boost sales comes down to using incentives to keep customers happy and, hopefully, make them into advocates. This can include:

• Showing appreciation for their business. Sending gifts during the holidays, to mark their major anniversaries as a customer, or at other appropriate times not only helps strengthen the relationship, it also creates ongoing touchpoints to promote any new offerings.
• Generating referrals. Research has shown that referrals have a higher conversion rate, so when a customer gives you a lead, it’s a hot one and should be rewarded. Remember that while a referral often means a friend at a different company, it’s just as valuable when your contact refers a colleague in a different department who also has a need for your product or service. The latter may not lead to a new contract, but it could result in a much bigger spend from an existing customer.
• Promoting better product knowledge. When a customer has put time and effort into learning the full capabilities of your product or service, they’re less likely to jump ship to a competitor. That’s why incentivizing participation in workshops and training sessions will ultimately help your customer retention rates.
• Encouraging advocacy activities. Usually working with the marketing team, AMs are often the ones reaching out to customers asking them to participate in case studies, write online reviews, or join engagement communities. An incentive shows that you value the time they’re putting into these actions and are grateful for their loyalty.
• Providing customer appeasement. Every AM will inevitably have to deal with an unhappy customer. Of course, a reward can’t replace a quick and easy resolution of the problem, but it can help smooth over the issue and show your commitment to giving customers a great experience.

BHN Rewards’ integrations can help empower your reps to use incentives to boost sales by letting them send rewards directly from the tools they already know and use every day. Contact us today to find out more!

about the author

Hannah Prince

Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.

Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.