You made it through the holidays! Your family voyaged home, you recycled the wrapping, and you sipped that last glass of eggnog.
Now it’s time for the new year. What New Year’s resolutions will you make? How will things be different next year and what bears repeating?
The start of a new year breeds self-reflection. As a sales manager, that most likely leads you to re-evaluate how to incentivize your sales team.
1. Money
The most common incentive is money. Yet, money doesn’t motivate as much as we assume it does. In his TED Talk, “The Puzzle of Motivation,” Dan Pink proves that money doesn’t promote the out-of-the-box thinking often needed to do the job. For basic tasks, money works; however, when it comes to creative thinking and new approaches, it won’t do much.
Related: Avoiding Burnout: How To Keep Your Best Salespeople Happy & Motivated
Basically, compensation has to be on par to keep the salespeople around, but it can’t be the primary means of incentivizing sales teams. Money only acts as the baseline from which you can build your incentives.
2. Recognition
More powerful than money, recognition motivates people, particularly millennials. As a manager, do whatever you can to foster this.
First, recognize your top achieving salespeople in print. People want to see their name at the top of the list and know their colleagues see it too. Declaring the “best” pushes your competitive salespeople to strive to be the best.
Once you’ve named the best, treat this salesperson like royalty. The number one celebrity in any business should be the top salesperson. Give them a luxury car to drive around as the company vehicle. It may cost you a little more each month, but it cultivates pride and loyalty.
I’ve seen people pass on highly lucrative job offers because they have a luxury car at their current job. The more you recognize that top person, the more you’ll motivate everyone to vie for the top spot.
3. Self-Motivation
Incentivizing your sales team works only to a certain point; intrinsic motivation takes achievement to a new level. Hire the salespeople who want to win for the sake of showing off their skills. For them, there’s nothing more fun than proving how it’s done.
Related: Time is Money: 4 Ways to Reduce Costs for Your Salespeople
I hired a sales guy one time that was amazing on paper. I assumed he was doing his job, but then realized that he hadn’t made a sale in his first two months. One morning, I brought him into my office to do his cold calls. I left for a little while and when I came back, I saw he hadn’t made any calls. He spent three hours just researching prospects (now CallProof would have done that for him). When I told him to pick one to call, he looked like he was going to pass out. I grabbed the phone, called one of his numbers at random, and booked the appointment immediately. In doing so, I taught him to get over his fear and make the call for the sake of a win.
Years later, I still want my sales team to realize that they can win. I may help them get the courage to sell by providing the money and recognition, but it’s all in an effort to breed self-motivation. Intrinsic motivation drives people like no other incentive can.
So as you think through what worked (and what didn’t) in 2015, consider how to incentivize your sales team in a way that cultivates personal wins. Maybe you pass around an ugly trophy (think: The League) to the top dog each month. Maybe you have team competitions for sales numbers. Incentivizing sales teams is an exercise in creativity.
What strategies have worked for you? Leave your ideas in the comments below.
