Sales Challenge: 6 Innovations to Adopt in 2017

40% of companies that organize sales challenges say they are unable to precisely measure the impact of these operations on their sales. In the commercial sector, the same models have often been used for 10 or even 20 years, while business has accelerated and organizations have become more agile, more collaborative.

We analyzed with our experts the best practices for a sales challenge in 2017, which integrates into daily operations for maximum effectiveness. Here are 6 tips for visible results on sales and on the engagement of your teams around your strategic priorities for 2017.

1. The Challenge Must First and Foremost Engage the Core of the Teams: the Main Group

Most often, the distribution pattern of sales representatives represents a bell curve: 10% who are the lowest performers, 80% in the main group, and 10% who are the “stars” of the sales force, the top performers. In 2017, your challenge should no longer concern only the top 10%: the greatest potential for gain lies in the main group, the 80% who make up your sales force. For example, increasing the sales of the main group by 5% yields 4 times more than increasing the sales of the laggards or top performers by 10%. A challenge must therefore engage the core of the teams.

2. The Challenge is No Longer a Competition that Necessarily Rewards the Best Sales Representatives with a Trip

More than ever, the annual competition model, whose winners are known in advance, is being questioned. The year-long competition, rewarding the best based on sales figures and which doesn’t vary from year to year, no longer generates interest. The winners are always the same year after year, and most often, the gap widens from the very first weeks of the competition. Result: 90% of them, having no chance of winning, become demotivated and no longer participate.

Besides the competition, there are different mechanisms that can be utilized during a challenge:

• Tiers: rewarding the achievement of an objective (setting different tiers)
• Team challenges: multiple teams can compete against each other
• Boosters: a point bonus can be awarded (e.g., x2) for a short period
• Resets: run a sub-challenge each week or month that starts fresh

There is no ideal mechanism; it’s about finding the best combination to keep motivation intact all year round and for everyone.

3. The Challenge Must Always be Top of Mind for Sales Representatives

As we explained, the challenge must be sustained over time. To ensure continuous monitoring and permanent accessibility, results must therefore be constantly accessible on sales representatives’ mobile devices. For this, an interface that is both engaging, efficient, and adapted is needed. Current tools allow sales representatives to access all team dashboards to see at a glance where they stand in relation to their objectives.

These tools must also, in addition to performance monitoring, allow the sales representative to continuously adapt their strategy, work, and efforts. They must serve as benchmarks for the sales representative to stay motivated as they progress in their challenge.

Sales Challenge – the Keys to Success

4. The Challenge Must Involve Field Managers

Field managers are the effective relays for coaching and developing sales representatives in their daily work. That’s why they must be continuously involved in the sales challenge. To do this, it will of course be necessary to define, with sales managers and strategic teams, the objective, duration, budget, and rewards for this challenge. But also to implement the challenge’s activity plan, so that the means to maintain engagement throughout its duration are in place. Of course, launch events make an impression on sales teams, but the success of the challenge lies in day-to-day engagement. Performance monitoring by the manager is therefore essential, with a tool providing daily results and statistics, to visualize their team’s progress and the objectives to be achieved.

The manager will thus be able to congratulate the best performers and encourage those who are struggling. Thanks to a smartphone (or tablet) alert system, it is then possible to easily send a message to the sales rep.

5. The Challenge Must be Integrated into the Engagement Process

Involving all levels of the sales teams is essential, as we have seen. But the challenge must be integrated into the company’s overall and long-term sales strategy. To begin, it is necessary to consider – or define – the business objectives for the year. Then, one must ask what behaviors and actions will lead to these results, and finally, what metrics to measure. This will allow for the development of relevant sales objectives.

For your sales teams to feel involved in the company’s success, it is essential that they understand the link between their daily actions in the field and the organization’s strategy. For this reason, the sales challenge must be part of a global engagement process: training, coaching, highlights, launches… The challenge is then no longer a separate exercise.

6. The Challenge should be an Opportunity to Share Best Practices with the Teams

The challenge can also be an ideal support for bringing your teams closer together. Sales forces are often isolated in the field and do not necessarily have contact or an interface on which to exchange. With Incenteev, it is possible to exchange best practices and significant experiences gathered in the field. For example, you can run a three-month challenge rewarding the best sales of a product, but also the sales representative who has shared their best practices.

Besides the possibility of sharing best practices, the challenge platform must allow for information from the field to be reported. It must therefore be possible to post feedback in all formats (docs, photos, videos, etc.) with a few clicks. Thus, other members of the sales team can also react to this information by providing their advice, comments, or their own feedback.

Find the checklist and details of all the necessary steps for implementing a successful sales challenge but also check if yours is effective or motivating, by consulting our White Paper: Sales Challenge – the Keys to Success

Other articles that might interest you

• Sales Challenge: engaging your entire sales force
• Sales Challenge: Definition, Objectives, and Obstacles to Overcome
• Mistakes to avoid to succeed in your sales challenge!