Improving Sales Performance with an Effective Incentive Program

Businesses constantly aim to sustain growth and increase net revenue; and as with most, if not all, businesses, these goals are inexorably linked to sales performance.

So improving sales performance is key. To improve sales performance, you need to communicate your sales goals well, hire the best talent for the job, train them well and implement an effective incentive program.

What can an effective sales performance incentive program do?

1. It can motivate your sales staff to sell and achieve sales goals
2. It can increase profits.
3. It can increase good will within the company and reduce employee turnaround

Incentive programs, “if selected, implemented, and monitored correctly,” improve individual performance by as much as 22 percent and team performance by as much as 44 percent. They also attract quality employees and increase employee engagement. These are all from the findings of the study “Incentives, Motivation and Workplace Performance: Research & Best Practices,” conducted by researchers for the International Society of Performance Improvement and funded with a grant by the SITE Foundation,

To successfully implement an incentive program:

Work towards omnipresence – According to “Motivation and Incentive Strategy: The Key to Making Your Workplace Exceptional,” “the best incentive programs in the world are integrated across all arms of the organization.” For big companies and organizations this can be done easily with an online platform for rewards and incentives.

Be in it for the long haul – Programs that are designed to run longer typically produce better results than short term programs, according to “Incentives, Motivation and Workplace Performance.” Results of the same study show that incentive programs that were implemented for at least a year produced a 44 percent performance increase while those done for at least six months posted a 30 percent increase.

Make it measurable and quota-based – To track improvement, set expectations and meet goals, there should be specific figures to target for a particular period. One of the key findings in the Incentives, Motivation and Workplace Performance research is that incentive measures that use quotas work best. “Programs that reward performance based on meeting or exceeding goals generate the most positive results. Piece-rate programs, for doing m o re of something, also provide positive results, according to the research. Least effective (yet commonly used) are tournament-based programs; i.e., closed-ended programs that reward a pre-selected number of winners, as opposed to open-ended, quota-based, or piece rate programs that give everybody a chance at success.”

Communicate the program effectively – The same white paper emphasizes the need to get the program’s message across the entire company. This includes letting everyone know all about the incentive program and communicating effectively that the award is transparent, objective and consistent. Also part of the corporate communication process is recognizing the top performers, letting them know why they are being given the award, “airing (the) recognition across the whole business” and creating a “celebration (that) inspires performance improvement and excellence organization wide.”

Private reward and public recognition – An extension of communicating the ideas of the program effectively is making sure that the award has a private and public component. There should be a direct interaction from management to the awardee regarding the award and there should be a public celebration of the award.

Resource:
Amia Trevisan is a HR specialist that manages employee incentive programs to increase sales performance. On the other hand, if you need help in payroll services, you can also consult The EI Group. They can give you a hand.