With financial turbulence and drastic modifications in work environments, your gross sales workforce is probably going burnt out proper now. A well-designed gross sales contest is likely one of the finest instruments in your arsenal to fight this burnout.
Conserving your workforce members engaged, motivated, and impressed is commonly far trickier than educating them what to say on a join name or in a prospecting e-mail. Try this listing of gross sales contest concepts and execution to encourage your gross sales workforce and make promoting enjoyable once more.
Desk of Contents
15 Participating Contest Concepts
Listed below are 15 of our greatest gross sales contest concepts to check out in your workplace — whether or not in individual or digital. Many of those gross sales contests will be run concurrently or throughout the identical interval.
Professional tip: Use a number of contest concepts through the 12 months to permit salespeople with totally different skills to get a second within the highlight.
1. Every day Prizes
Run a each day gross sales contest and provides away a each day prize. Every day may have a purpose (e.g., most calls on Mondays, greatest sale on Tuesdays, and so forth.), or you may run the identical contest each day and reward every winner with a each day prize.
Professional tip: Create an environment of enjoyable surrounding each day prizes by having a drumroll or hype music earlier than declaring the winner.
2. Salesperson of the Month
Salesperson of the month is a standard gross sales contest. Select a high salesperson, both quantitatively by most gross sales or greatest deal or qualitatively primarily based on the supervisor’s alternative. They might then be Salesperson of the Month and obtain a recurring prize.
Professional tip: Deliver up the present salesperson of the month topically in conferences (with applause) to each acknowledge their efforts and encourage participation.
3. Conversion Contest
Run a gross sales contest to reward the salesperson with probably the most lead-to-customer conversions. You possibly can reward this winner each day, month-to-month, or quarterly.
Professional tip: Strengthen your advertising and gross sales alignment for this contest so your gross sales workforce can entry and convert any marketing-qualified leads (MQLs).
4. Upselling or Cross-Promoting Contest
This contest rewards the salesperson with the most important or most vital upsell or cross-sell. This encourages your gross sales workforce to seek out alternatives to make further gross sales with present prospects, akin to further software program or a bigger subscription plan.
Professional tip: Repeatedly talk about new strategies to upsell and cross-sell, letting your gross sales workers share success tales so everybody can study.
5. Retention Contest
Much like the earlier two contests, a retention gross sales contest rewards the salesperson who’s retained probably the most prospects or maybe has the longest-running buyer for the month, quarter, or 12 months. This encourages your gross sales workforce to spice up your buyer retention and, due to this fact, your ROI.
Professional tip: Try this text on retention strategies and share it together with your gross sales workforce.
6. Buyer Critiques
This contest is just a little totally different from the others on this listing. A gross sales contest centered round buyer evaluations primarily rewards the salesperson with probably the most or most optimistic buyer evaluations.
Evaluate contests are a bit extra concerned, as they require your gross sales workforce to ask for buyer evaluations after gross sales calls or conferences. However this could be a good factor — it encourages your workforce to gather dwell suggestions and study extra about their prospects’ experiences and tips on how to enhance them.
Moreover, your workforce can report these evaluations at giant gross sales conferences and maybe to your broader workforce and group.
Professional tip: Buyer evaluations are important for native website positioning, so attempt to get prospects to overview your gross sales workforce and group on-line.
7. Gross sales Bingo
Gross sales bingo is a multifaceted gross sales contest that permits your gross sales workforce to pursue many smaller objectives. Much like regular bingo, gross sales bingo requires a 5 x 5 bingo chart crammed with aims akin to:
- E-book a gathering with a director.
- Schedule three demos.
- Make 25 calls.
- Ship 5 LinkedIn messages.
You’d then cross out the gross sales bingo playing cards and ask your workforce to mark off the aims as they full them. (Bear in mind the Free field within the center!) The primary individual to get 5 in a row would then win a prize.
Professional tip: Run your gross sales bingo contest inside a particular interval (month-to-month or quarterly) so it would not go on too lengthy.
8. Most No’s
A “most no’s” gross sales contest is one other distinctive but optimistic one. I don‘t know anybody — together with salespeople — who enjoys listening to the phrase “No.” This gross sales contest primarily rewards the salesperson in your workforce who receives probably the most “No’s” inside every week or month (or a interval of your alternative).
This contest makes your workforce comfy with listening to the phrase “No” and encourages them to make as many calls as doable, pushing previous objections and refusals.
Professional tip: Getting a lot of no’s will be demanding. Take the strain off with a lighthearted dialogue the place gross sales workers can share humorous “no” tales and commiserate.
9. Greatest Pitch
That is the one gross sales contest on the listing that may be held both internally. A gross sales contest for the perfect pitch rewards the individual in your workforce with the perfect gross sales pitch.
You may decide this winner in a few methods — both maintain a gathering the place everybody can current their pitch after which vote for the perfect (however not themselves) or have your workforce current to VPs and executives to obtain suggestions.
Professional tip: Common role-playing gross sales pitches can enhance closure stats, so embody gross sales situations commonly in conferences.
10. Gross sales Bracket
The final and maybe most concerned gross sales contest is a gross sales bracket contest, just like March Insanity. The truth is, I’ve seen it referred to as “Gross sales Insanity.”
To run this contest, create a bracket together with your total gross sales workforce. Set a threshold for every pairing (salesperson with probably the most gross sales, greatest sale within the month, most “Nos,” and so forth.) and select a winner to maneuver on to the subsequent spherical.
Finally, you will find yourself with a “championship” spherical that may end in an final winner. The gross sales bracket contest is exclusive as you may run a unique gross sales contest for every spherical, elevating the stakes because it nears the championship spherical.
Professional tip: Ensure that your leaderboard/bracket is viewable to everybody and steadily up to date.
11. Most Improved
A most improved contest offers your low-performing gross sales workforce members an opportunity to shine. Decide at the very least one KPI you need to measure, akin to conferences held, cellphone calls, new prospects, and so forth., and observe which member of your workforce blows their earlier data out of the water.
Professional tip: When you select this contest, you could meet one-on-one with all gross sales workers to determine their previous averages in order that they know what purpose they need to take into consideration.
12. Raffle
A raffle with a number of prizes lets folks wager on the gadgets they need. Select which KPIs to incentivize and observe and provides your workforce members tickets once they expertise success.
Professional tip: Make every prize value across the identical quantity, or you should have plenty of competitors for the massive prize and never a lot curiosity within the smaller ones.
13. Buddy Promoting
Strive a collaborative promoting contest thought with buddy promoting. Pair your workforce members and have them work collectively to see who can shut probably the most gross sales. The pair that generates probably the most income or closes probably the most offers wins a prize.
Professional tip: Contemplate pairing high-performing salespeople with lower-performing ones so everybody can study.
14. Elevated Fee
It is a contest that everybody can profit from. Select a day when fee will be raised a few percentages, and let your workforce know. Throughout these 24 hours, gross sales groups could make extra fee and can be incentivized to make extra gross sales.
Professional tip: You may maintain this elevated fee day throughout your gradual season, supplying you with and your gross sales workforce a much-needed enhance.
15. Content material Contest
Do you know that content material can enhance conversion charges by 161% throughout all industries? Work together with your advertising workforce to determine key items of content material you need pushed, akin to a information, white paper, or webinar. The salesperson who will get probably the most downloads or attendees for the content material wins!
Professional tip: Be sure you embody an entry in your kind subject that lets leads put in who referred them to the content material to allow them to get credit score.
Gross sales Contest Prizes
- Financial Prizes
- Present Playing cards
- Electronics or Tools
- Complimentary Meals
- Boss for the Day
- Free Duties from the Boss
- Free Trip Day(s)
- Free Private Growth
- Floating Trophies
- Promotions
- Winner’s Selection
11 Motivating Prize Concepts
Inquisitive about what you may reward your gross sales workforce with once they win your gross sales contest? Listed below are 11 gross sales contest prize concepts. Observe how some could also be extra acceptable for bigger, longer gross sales contests, and a few are a superb match for these each day and weekly contests.
Professional tip: When you’re questioning what is going to incentivize your gross sales workforce, ask them. Run an nameless survey for prize concepts.
1. Financial Prizes
A financial prize is fairly simple — merely reward your gross sales contest winner with a greenback quantity supplied in money or as a bonus on a paycheck. (Remember to speak together with your accounting workforce for those who go for this choice.) Bigger financial prizes are extra acceptable for long-term gross sales contests and preserve your gross sales workforce and engaged.
Professional tip: Embody prize quantities in your quarterly gross sales funds so executives find out about this upcoming expense.
2. Present Playing cards
A present card prize is a enjoyable strategy to help an area or beloved enterprise and will be perceived as one thing exterior a standard compensation construction. Contemplate reward playing cards for eating places, film theaters, gasoline, or pay as you go all-purpose reward playing cards.
Professional tip: Purchase reward playing cards that the winner will really use. For instance, if certainly one of your salespeople is a vegetarian, they possible received’t admire a present card to a steakhouse.
3. Electronics or Tools
Give away electronics or gear as gross sales contest prizes. This might embody a pc or cellphone, and even non-work-related “toys” like a grill, baggage, digital camera, or coffeemaker.
Professional tip: When you’re not planning on protecting the taxes included in a prize, let your gross sales workers know to allow them to select whether or not to just accept the prize and pay these taxes.
4. Complimentary Meals
Reward your gross sales contest winner with free lunches for every week or month. Maybe you provide to order in, cater lunch for a time frame, or have your winner expense their meal.
Professional tip: Set a spending restrict so you may predict the associated fee.
5. Boss for the Day
Put your gross sales contest winner in cost for the day, actually. Allow them to work in your workplace, park in your parking spot, and even run or be a part of a gathering they in any other case would not.
Professional tip: Make this prize much more enjoyable by giving them an outfit that mimics their boss’s each day put on. For instance, you probably have a mustache and put on glasses, give them these props as a part of their prize.
6. Free Duties from the Boss
This reward offers away one thing arguably extra invaluable than cash — time. Reward your contest winner with a free process to be accomplished by you. This offers your winner an opportunity to offer away a process or challenge you may deal with.
Professional tip: Let your workforce know they will select a humorous process exterior of labor, akin to cleansing their home, washing a automotive, or cooking a meal.
7. Free Trip Day(s)
Everybody loves a time without work. Give away a free trip or private day as a gross sales contest prize. Since this one is so invaluable, put it aside for an extended, bigger gross sales contest that runs much less steadily.
Professional tip: Contemplate additionally giving a certificates to observe a film or a cross to an amusement park so your winner can benefit from their time without work.
8. Free Private Growth
Reward your gross sales contest winner with a free gross sales coaching seminar, academic stipend, or ebook they will use for private improvement. Be sure you contemplate the demographic and pursuits of your gross sales workforce, as some of us will not be concerned with or have time for this prize.
Professional tip: Contemplate letting your winner use their private improvement stipend on a non-work associated prize akin to a pottery or images class.
9. Floating Trophies
A floating trophy prize is precisely the way it sounds — a trophy or plaque that’s rewarded to and handed between the winners of a weekly or month-to-month gross sales contest. One of these prize is often paired with a smaller incentive like a present card or small financial prize, though it carries bragging rights in and of itself.
Professional Tip: If you need your winner to get consideration from different departments and guests, make sure you select an eye catching and distinctive trophy they will show on their desk.
10. Promotions
If a brand new place opens up, contemplate motivating your workforce with a promotion. Salespeople sometimes thrive off competitors, particularly if one thing as massive as a promotion is obtainable. So, let your workforce know that the competition winner could be the subsequent boss.
Professional tip: Contemplate being clear about wage will increase and title modifications earlier than awarding the promotion so everybody can handle their expectations.
11. Winner’s Selection
Present your gross sales contest winner with quite a lot of prizes to select from, whether or not listed right here or not. This retains your total gross sales workforce and engaged in your contest and dealing towards the prize no matter their pursuits.
Professional tip: Much like a complimentary meal prize, it would be best to set a restrict for the price of a winner’s alternative prize.
Methods to Run an Efficient Gross sales Contest
Previously three many years, I’ve discovered an awesome deal about efficient gross sales contests (usually by making errors). Listed below are six of my greatest takeaways.
1. Preserve it easy.
Your salespeople shouldn’t have any bother understanding the principles of your contest. When it’s laborious to know tips on how to win — or who’s at present in first place — their enthusiasm about collaborating takes successful.
What does a easy contest sound like? You possibly can reward each salesperson who meets a sure goal for conferences set or give prizes to the 5 reps who enhance their calls-to-demo price by the best share.
Intention for a contest you may clarify in two sentences or much less. And for those who’re nonetheless not sure if it’s complicated, ask one of many senior salespeople in your workforce for his or her suggestions. (As an additional advantage, they may spot loopholes or problematic guidelines you’ve missed.)
Professional tip: Be sure you maintain just one contest at a time. This ensures you received’t distract your workforce from the conduct or consequence you’re making an attempt to advertise.
2. Make it enjoyable.
Contests ought to have a component of enjoyable. Somewhat levity helps your salespeople bond and makes the competitors extra memorable.
To offer you an thought, I used to offer away my companies to the profitable salesperson. I’d wash the rep’s automotive, choose up their dry cleansing, even clear their home — no matter they needed.
It’s at all times enjoyable to see your boss doing a menial process. One of these prize additionally reveals your workforce you’re dedicated to their success (and have an awesome humorousness!)
Professional tip: Strive crafting your contests round workplace inside jokes as nicely. For instance, maybe the winner will get to take everybody to lunch at an area restaurant all the workplace loves.
3. Contain your gross sales workforce within the planning course of.
Alternatively, let your reps select what they’ll win. I used to get everybody in a room and ask, “Do you want a workforce motivation program?”
The reply was at all times sure. I’d clarify the competition guidelines, then say, “You’ve acquired X {dollars} — resolve what the prize or prizes can be.”
This technique has three results:
- Your reps are extra invested. Having direct management over a serious facet of the competitors drives buy-in from the beginning.
- The reward isn’t what you assume they need; it’s what you already know they need.
- Your salespeople will really feel gratified by your choice at hand over the reins.
Professional tip: Even for those who don’t use an thought for a selected contest, preserve a report of it in case your workforce desires to make use of it for future contests.
4. Give each day or weekly updates.
Few folks keep dedicated to a contest in the event that they don’t know the place they stand. Try to offer each day or weekly updates, relying on how shortly every salesperson’s standing modifications. At HubSpot, we sometimes put up a dwell dashboard so each rep can test on their progress every time they’d like.
Some salespeople will test it each hour — that’s how intent they’re on being primary. Think about dropping this highly effective motivator simply since you didn’t preserve your workforce up-to-date.
Professional tip: Have your workforce log gross sales in HubSpot’s free CRM software program so everybody will be up to date in actual time.
5. Don’t make false guarantees.
It’d sound apparent, however by no means promise a prize you may’t ship on. In 2002, a waitress who received a gross sales contest for a brand new Toyota was understandably livid when she was offered with a toy Yoda as a substitute.
She sued her employer — and received.
When you don’t ship what you promised, your salespeople will lose belief in you (to not point out, all motivation to interact in future competitions). Earlier than you announce a prize, calculate what you’ll be on the hook for in case your reps do in addition to doable. You may not have the ability to afford the reward in the event that they actually blow it out of the park. When doubtful, skew conservative.
Professional tip: Provide chain points could make discovering prizes like tech tough. In case your winner desires one thing you may’t discover, allow them to know shortly so you may get them another prize or provide a present card to allow them to purchase it when it’s out there.
6. Hand out prizes ASAP.
I as soon as gave my salespeople their prize cash 9 months after they’d received it. Evidently, they weren’t blissful.
You’ve set a deadline for the competition — why ought to the deadline for the award be much less essential?
Distribute prizes as shortly after the competition ends as doable. It’ll be far simpler to rally your workforce for the subsequent contest in the event that they’re not nonetheless ready for his or her prizes from the final one.
Professional tip: Create a reminder for your self at the very least every week out to buy the prize or make plans for delivering the chosen incentive.
Gross sales Contests = Gross sales Outcomes
Observe these gross sales contest concepts, prize suggestions, and pointers, and your gross sales contests will noticeably affect your workforce’s motivation, camaraderie, and, simply as importantly, their outcomes.
Editor’s be aware: This publish was initially printed in February 2017 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.