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3 Key Tips on How to Make Sales Incentives Work for Your Business"
| Guest post by: Sheryl Strasser |
Article Overview: Your company’s sales team is arguably the most exposed and hardworking group in your workforce, and that’s just one reason why they need to be given the RIGHT incentives REGULARLY. And so yes, not just any incentive will do. What works for one company may not work for yours so it’s important that you take the time to know your sales team well and determine as well just what you’re capable of giving them.
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Free Download - Easy Fool Proof Ways to Develop Customer Loyalty and Retention By Sheryl Strasser |
3 Key Tips on How to Make Sales Incentives Work for Your Business"
Tips on How to Make Sales Incentives Work for Your Business
Your company’s sales team is arguably the most exposed and hardworking group in your workforce, and that’s just one reason why they need to be given the RIGHT incentives REGULARLY. And so yes, not just any incentive will do. What works for one company may not work for yours so it’s important that you take the time to know your sales team well and determine as well just what you’re capable of giving them.
Factors to Consider When Determining What Sales Incentives to Give
AGE – People’s likes and dislikes as well as their goals tend to differ as they age, and thus, it’s important to give sales incentives that will suit your sales team’s age range. If, however, they’re composed of different generations, then you need to choose something that will be ubiquitously desirable.
GENDER – Gender-specific sales incentives are tricky because you could be sued for discrimination, but they’re arguably more effective as well since you’re giving your sales team – man or woman – what they really desire. One way of solving the discrimination problem is by giving them the option to choose.
BUDGET – Naturally, giving away sales incentives shouldn’t bankrupt you. Evaluate your finances then determine just how much you’re able to spend. Having a budget will also challenge your mind and imagination to think out of the box and be resourceful.
Tips on How to Create Effective Programs for Sales Incentives
Sales Incentives Have Two Faces – And they’re called cash and non-cash incentives. It’s important that you offer both. Like it or not, people are generally easier to motivate if you’re offering both money and recognition in exchange of showing better job performance.
Motivation Comes from Within – Before creating any sales incentive program, you must also understand that no matter how hard you work on setting goals and determining prizes for employees, there won’t be any changes made if the employees themselves aren’t ready, willing, and able to change. Thus, be ready to be confronted once in a while with a few bad apples here and there. And when you do, don’t blame yourself: it’s those people – and not your program – that’s at fault.
Separate Sales Incentives for Short-Term and Long-Term Goals – You must prepare separate and appropriate sales incentives for your short-term and long-term goals. Cash and similar monetary incentives work better for short-term goals because they work like confectionaries by providing employees with a temporary boost of physical and mental energy. Stimulants for intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, will definitely work better for long-term goals because it gives your employees a reason to continue working the way you want them to.
3 S’s for Sales Incentives – When creating a sales incentive program, always make sure that it adheres to the 3 S’s rule: short, sweet, and simple. Anything complicated can discourage your sales workforce from bothering to change. And if you offer something sour instead of sweet, who’d want to work for it?
Take Advantage of Your Affiliations – If you only rely on your own resources to provide for sales incentives for your workforce, your options may be greatly limited. Thus, consider taking advantage of your affiliations. Negotiate with them for mutually beneficial contracts. Exchange favors.
Evaluate, Evaluate, Evaluate – And lastly, don’t stop monitoring the results of your sales incentive program. If you notice something that seems to have lost effectiveness, determine its causes then modify, eliminate, or replace it with something better.
What Are The Results of A Recent Poll?
Using direct sales incentives to reward and retain
How to use customer incentives to dramatically increase customer loyalty
How to build customer loyalty
Incentives Spiffs and Bonuses A Thoughtful and Deliberate Sales Program
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About the Author: Sheryl Strasser RSS for Sheryl's articles - Visit Sheryl's website It's definitely easy to see that a employee motivation programs is a great choice when you're longing motivate your employees with a employee motivation program you can motivate your employees today without having to spend a huge amount of money. Click here to visit Sheryl's website   A Look at Incentive and Rebates Programs Free Report How To Gain More Clients and Increase Sales What are Key Questions to Ask Yourself About Incentives and Rebates 3 Key Tips on How to Make Sales Incentives Work for Your Business So you want to intergrate a successful employee incentive programs |
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Top 19 Copywriting books
- 1. Ogilvy on Advertising. David Ogilvy. Wiley.
2. Positioning: The Battle for your Mind. Al Ries and Jack Trout. Warner.
3. The New Positioning. Jack Trout. McGraw-Hill.
4. Tested Advertising Methods. John Caples. Prentice-Hall.
5. How to Make your Advertising Make Money. John Caples. Prentice-Hall.
6. Guerrilla Advertising. Jay Conrad Levinson. Houghton Mifflin.
7. Direct Mail Copy that Sells. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall.
8. Sales Letters that Sizzle. Herschell Gordon Lewis. NTC Business Books.
9. Herschell Gordon Lewis on the Art of Writing Copy. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Prentice-Hall.
10. Romancing the Brand. David Martin. American Management Association.
11. The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, George Gribbin, David Ogilvy, Rosser Reeves. NTC Business Books.
12. Confessions of an Advertising Man. David Ogilvy. NTC Business Books.
13. My Life in Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books.
14. Scientific Advertising. Claude Hopkins. NTC Business Books.
15. How to Become an Advertising Man. James Webb Young. NTC Business Books.
16. The Lasker Story as He Told It. NTC Business Books.
17. Advertising Concept and Copy. George Felton. Prentice Hall.
18. The Copy WorkShop Workbook. Bruce Bendinger. The Copy Workshop.
19. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. Luke Sullivan. Wiley.
This should keep you busy for at least a year.
Enjoy!
Business Tips
- How about:
Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively?
Tips on how to deal with difficult customers?
Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers?
The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else.
Chris
Re: Finding AND Keeping Good People
- Employee retention or as you mention “Keeping the Good People” is one of the biggest challenges for any growing business. It takes a huge effort from the entrepreneur’s end.
I can come up with the following when it comes to KEEPing the good people-
1. Motivation of the employees
2. Recognition of the needs of the employees
3. Activities to make the employees feel valuable towards the organization
4. Make benefits more accessible
5. Offer profit sharing incentives
6. Create clear career paths at the company
7. Consider telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible working arrangements
8. Incentives are essential and they don't have to be huge
9. Have other managers praise an employee's work
10. Be sensitive to the balance between work and private life
New Small Business Topic
- Hello everyone,
I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section?
Here's a list of what we currently have:
Angel Investors
Branding
Bank Loans
Business Coaching
Business Plan
Franchises (New)
Insurance
Legal
Marketing
Public Relations
Sales
Small Biz Loans
Venture Capital
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
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