Sales Animation: Best Practices Analysis (2/3)

In the previous article, Sales Animation: How the Budget is Broken Down, we studied the composition of a sales animation budget. Today, we will examine its breakdown and allocation based on your objectives and challenges. The 4 parts making up the budget should not be allocated without a defined strategy and a clear vision. A thoughtful and optimal allocation of your budget will allow you to achieve a real ROI on your sales animation.

Part 1: Sales Animation: How the Budget is Broken Down (1/3)
Part 3: Sales Animation: Maximizing Return on Investment (3/3)

A Historical Perspective

Many companies habitually create their sales animation budget around incentives. This allows for organizing the launch of a challenge with an incentives calendar that enables tracking their distribution throughout the sales animation period. Incentives therefore become the largest part of the budget. Project management and the tools used to manage the challenge and rewards revolve around these incentives and only receive a small portion of the budget.

We conducted a study with our prospects to understand their budget allocation strategy. Here’s what the study revealed: 58% of the budget is used for incentives, 22% for management tools, 13% for project management, and 7% for taxes. The study clearly demonstrates the importance of incentives in this budget allocation. We know that for sales animation to be effective, it must be strong and consistent. The small budget allocated to challenge management tools shows that attention is not focused on the animation itself. However, an underdeveloped sales animation, an unintuitive reward system, and minimalist project management will hinder the effectiveness of your mechanisms and your challenge in general.

Modern Sales Animation

Today, budget allocation is changing as companies increasingly focus on their ROI. In a high-ROI dynamic, the budget allocated to tools becomes the most important. Indeed, it is these tools that will enable continuous animation, the development of new behaviors, and lasting motivation. For maximum effectiveness and an ROI approach, your sales animation budget must therefore be allocated more equitably. Regular animation, implemented with engaging digital tools, will drive motivation and engagement from your teams.

We therefore observe, in this second pie chart, that the incentives budget decreases (32%), that the tools budget is more significant (47%), and that project management is slightly more supported (16%).

This budget allocation drives a strong ROI. Reducing the incentives budget forces a rethink towards more engaging and less material motivation and reward mechanisms, and allows for tax reduction. Digital rewards (digital badges, leveling…), partnerships, or non-material incentives (an extra day off, a karting activity, a bonsai for decoration…) are examples of less costly yet highly engaging rewards that will delight your teams. The incentive is merely an end goal. Your ROI will stem from how you achieve this goal.

Sales Animation: What not to Do

For an effective challenge, your animation must be continuous. The ‘electrocardiogram syndrome’ must be avoided. It manifests as the classic activity peaks that appear at the announcement of the challenge and at its end to obtain rewards. The void period between these two moments is a real hindrance to the effectiveness of the initially planned dynamic.

General Cost Benchmark

There is no ideal rule or figure for the total budget you should allocate to your sales animation. However, it must be substantial enough to cover your 4 expenditure categories. Furthermore, depending on your organization, the budget to be used varies. We can distinguish 5 main categories of internal sales forces: B2B, B2C, retail B2C, B2C distribution networks, and B2B. Here are the figures collected from our clients, across 4 of the 5 categories, and the conclusions we drew regarding an average sales animation budget.

B2C requires fewer animation resources because sales representatives are more sensitive to their variable salary, which often represents a large part of their compensation. It is therefore simpler to engage and motivate their teams to achieve their results. B2B requires implementing more motivation levers and more sophisticated mechanisms. Some companies with large distribution networks can invest several thousand euros per salesperson per year.

You now have all the keys to optimally allocate your sales animation budget. Use incentives as motivation levers, animate continuously with engaging digital tools like Incenteev, and let your teams surprise you!
In the next article, we will see what the approach and ROI impact of sales animation are.

Discover how Incenteev can maximize your ROI with engaging sales animation tools