Sales Team Engagement: How to Ensure the Success of Your Incentive Events

Sales force motivation programs are typically held at strategic times for the company. While the annual review period can trigger such initiatives, incentive events play a crucial role in sales team engagement—provided they are optimized.

It can therefore be judicious to organize this type of program from the start of the year. Discover why, and especially how to make your incentive events successful right from the back-to-work season!

The Back-to-Work Season: an Opportunity to Assess your Sales Force’s Motivation

The back-to-work season can be experienced very differently by each of your sales representatives. While some feel the need to gradually get back into the swing of things to then ramp up, others return from vacation with motivation to spare—at the risk of seeing it fade during the year.

To make your engagement program successful from the back-to-work season, it is therefore necessary to assess each employee’s motivation. An individual interview can help you get a clearer picture. Remember to ask them:

• What motivates them on a daily basis;
• What motivates them in the long term (over the course of the year);
• What could improve their motivation and make them want to achieve the set goals;
• What you, as a manager, can do to encourage them to give their best.

Tailored Incentive Programs for your Sales Representatives: why is it Important?

This initial assessment of your sales force’s motivation will allow you to design a tailored engagement program. Be careful: in this case, “tailored” does not mean “individual”. It’s more about adjusting your management efforts so that they are truly effective.

Generally, incentive events are aimed at the entire sales team. However, according to Pareto’s law, 20% of your employees close 80% of the sales made by your team: most often, these 20% already show signs of motivation and will probably not benefit from an engagement program.

What if you focused on the second segment, the next 20%? An engagement program can put them on the path of the first ones, provided it is optimized according to best practices.

How to Optimize your Engagement Program?

By correctly targeting your motivation program, you will be able to adjust it according to the real needs presented by the team—or the specific part of the team concerned.

First and foremost, “educate” your sales representatives by presenting the motivation program and its benefits. Promote your incentive event, while taking into account the remarks, suggestions, and issues raised by your team. They must not only understand the interest of such an event, they must also embrace it!

And the best way to gain your sales representatives’ buy-in is still the promise of a reward. Make no mistake: financial rewards are not necessarily a guarantee of unwavering motivation!

Very often, recognizing an employee’s work or commitment is enough to multiply their motivation tenfold. And what’s more, it’s free: compliment, recognize the efforts of your sales representatives to make them want to engage even more—during an incentive program, from the back-to-work season and throughout the year.

Download your white paper: “Engaging Your Sales Force to Retain Them” here

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