Innovative Incentives Introduction
The word ‘incentive’ from the Latin incantare and incentivum, to charm and set the tune or incite respectively has been used throughout the ages, but in this blog, we look at how innovative incentives schemes for sales teams drive motivation and improve performance.
Incentive programmes for sales teams by their very nature tap in to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, be that through rewards, healthy competition, behavioural alignment, retention and morale and/or continuous performance improvement. Using a variety of incentive tools can make a significant difference to any sales team’s performance. Afterall who doesn’t want a week in Morocco?
At FMI, we’re not into the hard sell, we like working with our corporate clients to find out more about their challenges and how a tailor-made incentive solution can help to meet their objectives. We have a wealth of experience with a variety of clients all with their own ambitions to maximise their sales teams’ potential. Identifying their goals and creating an innovative incentives programme to reach them is what FMI are known for.
Our experience is broad, spanning multiple sectors. From large telecommunication contact centres in India, to Distributor led fuel card sales to Dealers of large capital farm equipment, we really do cover a broad range of incentive schemes for sales teams from a wide variety of industries. All with proven successes for driving sales performance.
Do your sales teams feel motivated, recognised and rewarded? Are they keen to learn more, earn more and represent the brand? Do you feel there is missed potential and opportunities? The real question here is how to incentivise sales staff?
FMI are here to listen and find out more, we can put together tiered suggestions in a proposal, to meet your ambitions. Getting the most out of your sales team may take time, but building the foundations and bringing them on board will pay dividends as the incentive scheme develops.
Why traditional incentives don’t always work
Some traditional incentives, for example bonuses, employee of the month or strict achievement ladders don’t always align with what motivates people in today’s work environments. That desire to feel valued or fulfilled is potentially greater than a £10 gift card, though a £10 gift card can be good too!
Traditional incentives sometimes have a more ‘one-size-fits-all’ feel to them, assuming all employees are motivated in the same way. For example, the application of blanket rewards for everyone who achieves 5% over target – but clearly that’s not the case and personalising the experience will lead to more positive and productive outcomes.
In today’s world as well as peronsalised incentives, employees value genuine recognition, meaningful feedback, time, flexibility, mental health support, meaningful work, being rewarded for collaboration, purpose, autonomy and mastery. To encourage long-term sales team engagement, we need to look beyond the quick financial reward for your sales teams and think about a tailored solution that meets their needs and your goals.
Innovative sales incentive ideas
Over the last few years there has been a shift towards more human centric reward and motivation models, that are flexible, and purpose driven. Plus, ultra-accessible, mobile optimised incentives are part of the modern solution, the need for them to be available from anywhere from the shop floor to the farmers field with data available in real time.
It might be that your sales team want to be awarded with experiential rewards, days off or learning opportunities, the idea being people are motivated by different things, a travel trip to Marrakech for one person might be perfect, whilst another wants nothing more than a free day to volunteer at their local food bank. Gamification can be highly effective, but any reward should be personalized; an innovative game play token might motivate Ash in the call centre, especially if the prizes are personalized to him and his hobbies.
From a business perspective, there is still the need to manage any incentive schemes for sales teams, with real-time reporting, visibility on the return on investment, ensuring its results driven. FMI offer tailored incentive programmes for sales teams that provide the messaging and delivery to both the sales team and also to the leadership team. Allowing them to assess performance, engagement, satisfaction etc. We want you to feel confident that your investment is working, your sales teams are motivated, and performance is improving. FMI can help companies deliver this to their sales teams.
As you have read, the reward doesn’t have to be financial, FMI have a host of ideas for non-monetary incentives, you can find out more here. We offer a suite of gamification options that can be tailored around campaigns and messages, delivering instant rewards for actions, or game play credits for those who are looking for something more.
Implementing your incentives effectively
Here is our guide to implementing innovative incentives:
What are you trying to achieve?
Any incentive to nudge or change behavior needs a goal – what does success look like? Is it collaboration, retention, knowledge, performance, innovation etc. Defining a clear goal is an essential first step.
Who is your audience and what motivates them?
Is it just the sales team you’re motivating / engaging with or are there other teams or individuals that will be part of the wider community that need to be included. Once you know this, you can find out what motivates them. You could run informal open discussion sessions, a quick survey, ask them to make suggestions. Do they want recognition, financial rewards, time, experiences, learning opportunities, flexibility or a mixture.
How are we going to achieve our goal with this audience?
Looking at what you want to achieve, your audience and what motivates them, a solution can be designed that meets your specific needs. Be that growth, staff retention, recognition, customised rewards and much more. We all understand ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, and it’s important to include incremental steps to bring your staff on board, keep them engaged, grow the proposition, create brand advocates and deliver on the challenge.
Ensure any programme is achievable, fair and measurable.
Communication is key here; recognisable, impactful and understandable comms are important when launching and running any incentive scheme. Do your colleagues understand how the incentive works, do they see it as being fair and equitable, do they see themselves meeting the criteria – is it achievable?
Check back
Clearly, the key to success here is to develop a programme that delivers for you. Bearing this in mind, you still need to check in and check back, is it working as intended, are your colleagues engaged and enthused, do they understand what’s expected of them? Do they know why Alberto and his team are off to Caicos Islands? This is important, sometimes programmes need to be tweaked, maybe an assumption has proven not to be quite right, or we’ve underestimated how much time is valued vs monetary reward or vice versa. Managing improvements is part of the process, it’s important the programme continues to be assessed, is it fit for purpose, is it working, what are the results, can we improve it? Let’s make it even better!
Recognition – who knows who’s done well
Lastly, but very importantly, we need to ensure those who achieve, who meet the criteria, who embrace the brand, work collaboratively, support their colleagues, understand your EDI and CSR policies, or any other behavior you’re encouraging are recognised and their colleagues know about it. It’s time to ensure visibility of the wins, big and small.
FMI’s innovative incentives
By this point, you have grasped how to implement and most importantly structure your incentives appropriately. Understanding that it’s about goal setting from the start, knowing who your audience is and what motivates them. Your measurements are in place as is your plan for continuous assessment and improvement planning. But we are under no illusion it can feel a little daunting, and this is where an agency partner can come in.
As your agency partner we will help to deliver an innovative incentive, and as part of this we will communicate effective business messages to your audience. We are great at connecting with people and motivating audiences, that in turn supports your business objectives and goals. Engagement with your audience will come from partnering with an agency who specialise in providing the right incentive solutions for the right audience.
We’re proud to be trusted to support many global and local brands – we have implemented sales incentives within the telecoms sector that have been recognised within the industry as award-winning programmes, often seeing sales uplift of 200% or more. Similarly with one of the world’s leadings TV manufacturers we conceived and implemented sales incentives in their independent retail channel to support their leading UK market share.
Work with a team of skilled engagement professionals who will enable success and improved business performance through the sales incentives. Your business deserves an agency partner they can trust, who are agile enough to flex and adapt to your sales and business needs. Focused on insight and results, the team at FMI are passionate about doing an awesome job to support you in your role. We work with top brands. Brands who are ambitious, innovative and striving for success. We help them build positive connections with their audiences, local and global, that deliver return on investment.
FMI have a proven track record, with case studies that demonstrate our tailored approach and superb performance results. From FMI’s Huawei Channel Sales Incentive aimed at Three call centre staff to our Kubota Dealer Engagement Programme, not to mention Nomad Foods Europe Employee Reward & Recognition Programme to name but a few.
Contact us using the form below detailing your ambitions and challenges and we’ll help you reach your goals through thoughtful, tailored and innovative incentives for your sales staff and wider teams.
