Ask anyone who works in sales: Summer can be SLOW.
For starters, it’s prime vacation time — for both prospects and sales reps. And with businesses starting to shift their focus to end-of-year planning, decision-making gets put on hold. Calls and emails go unreturned, and your sales team is left to circle back in the fall.
For these reasons, summer is the perfect time to get creative with your sales incentive programs. Take advantage of the season’s more relaxed tone, and have some fun incentivizing your sales team to reach out to leads and close deals.
Here are three fun sales incentive programs to motivate your team and help them get out of the summer sales slump.
The Fourth of July is a great time to incentivize sales reps to reach out to prospects in every state. Give the rep who talks to leads in the most number of states a digital reward they can redeem with an airline.
Travel incentives can be powerful motivators. According to a study conducted by the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) in 2021, group incentive travel awards are considered “very” or “extremely” motivating by 80% of survey respondents.
And when you consider the recent pent-up demand for travel, airline tickets are bound to compel sales reps to work their pipeline. You could also throw in an extra PTO day to make the sales contest even more enticing.
The beach is a natural theme for summer sales incentive programs. It also has the advantage of being easy to pull off. Decorate the office with palm trees, beach balls, and sand toys from a party supply store. Update your Zoom background with a fun beach scene. Have everyone wear Hawaiian shirts on Fridays.
Play up the theme by using a digital reward for Airbnb. Make a flyer with pictures of Airbnb locations near the beach. Whichever sales rep schedules the most sales calls or closes the most deals will get to take a fun weekend getaway at an Airbnb — at the beach or anywhere else they fancy.
Kick off this sales contest with a traditional summer menu: hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, potato chips, and watermelon. Then, it’s time to “grill” the competition.
Have your sales team use your CRM software to discover leads that were lost to your competitors. Then it’s time to hit the phones.
For every call a sales rep makes, award them a certain number of points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the contest wins a digital Visa or Mastercard they can use to treat themselves virtually anywhere.
Unlike an on-theme restaurant gift card or barbecue grill, this open-ended incentive gives your sales reps the freedom of choice. Who doesn’t appreciate that?
And as you brainstorm rewards for your upcoming sales incentive programs, ponder the IRF’s Industry Outlook for 2022, which reported that overall incentive budgets are expected to increase by 34% in 2022, with merchandise increasing 30% and gift cards increasing 34%.
Digital rewards are here to stay and gaining in popularity, something you can use to your advantage in your sales department.
Not convinced about the need for sales incentive programs? Here are some statistics to prove their effectiveness.
BHN Rewards puts the power of digital rewards to work for marketers, researchers, and HR managers. Don't forget to check out all the great content in our Resources section!
BHN Rewards puts the power of digital rewards to work for marketers, researchers, and HR managers. Don't forget to check out all the great content in our Resources section!
