Over a decade ago, my boss asked me to really drive production before the end of the quarter because we were lacking in other regions. I rode in the field every day the final six weeks with my team and we brought in about 30% of our quarterly quota from future orders. We ended up almost 200% of our goal for the quarter and saved the Q2 reporting that year. There was no contest, no rewards – just a request from my boss.
Guess what? We had a contest the next quarter and the director of the winning region won a Rolex. Really? I just pulled all my Q3 business into Q2 to bail out the other regions and now one of them is going to get a Rolex… my Rolex. Needless to say, I haven’t liked sales contests since then, but they can work if you follow these three rules of thumb.
- Contests have to be unpredictable. If your sales team knows that every year during the holidays you’re going to have some type of contest, you’re probably going to have a slow October. Don’t reward the sandbaggers and keep everyone on their toes. When a contest pops up out of the blue, it’ll be more exciting.
- Make an emotional impact. Giving away a dinner for two to the highest grossing sales person is not a contest – its gratuity and a wasted $150. A contest needs to make an emotional impact on everyone involved, and need to be challenging but possible.
- Don’t have just one winner. If you have a contest that positions the sales people to compete against each other, you’re going to lose many of them after a few weeks if someone jumps out to an early lead. The best contests rewards the winner, but also rewards everyone that breaks a certain milestone. For example, the sales person who sells the most hosted access control this quarter wins a three day trip for two. Everyone else that sells 150% of their quarterly quota of hosted access control wins a $500 gift card to Best Buy.
Predictable, poorly planned sales contests do not work. However, holding a surprising and fun contest every now and then is a fantastic way to keep things fresh and get a nice bump is sales – just make sure you’re not hurting your top performers!
What are your thoughts on sales contests? Leave a comment below...
