5 Tips for a Motivation-Boosting Rewards and Incentives Programme
30 January 2018
President Eisenhower called motivation “the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it”. That may sound simple, but keeping a sales team motivated can be one of the greatest day-to-day challenges that sales leaders face.
A positively charged, motivated team is a stable team that delivers results. A demotivated team’s morale and results will suffer, and retaining key talent and accounts can become difficult.
But motivation is something that you can take control of – using a focused, results-driven rewards and incentives programme to drive big wins, and to improve staff loyalty, happiness and retention.
Talk to Us About Your Rewards and Incentives Programme Now
1. Embrace & Create Competition
Sometimes organisations shy away from the idea of promoting internal competition, afraid of tension, bad feeling and low morale on the sales floor. In reality, the complete opposite is generally true – gamifying results with open, honest competition between reps can be a huge motivator.
Be transparent about expectations for team/personal quotas, closely link targets and the rewards for hitting them, and keep everything clear and open so reps can compare performance with their peers.
2. Treat Rewarding Excellence as an Investment
For organisations under pressure from analysts and stakeholders, a rewards and incentive programme may feel like a gamble. Finance may respond with cost-control tactics, limiting available budget or restructuring a rewards and incentives programme to keep costs down.
But rewarding staff should be thought of as an investment – a high-impact rewards and incentives programme can enhance staff satisfaction (87.5% of respondents to a recent SITE survey said that incentive travel made them feel appreciated) and retention (80% said that incentive travel increased their loyalty towards their employer), and drive significant ROI.
3. Forget About Cash Rewards
Cash bonuses are terrible motivators. Extra money gets quickly absorbed into day-to-day household running costs, mortgages etc.
This, along with an increase of unique-experience-hungry millennials in the workforce, is driving large-scale organisations away from cash rewards.
Celebrating top performers with an always-on, points-based rewards programme and once-in-a-lifetime incentive trips and events can deliver significantly improved ROI over a cash rewards model.
4. Experiences Resonate Long-Term
Incredible incentives and events will motivate attendees, but recent research has shown that they also inspire non-attendees.
A well-structured rewards and incentives programme will contributie to a corporate culture where employees feel appropriately valued and rewarded, inspiring them to improve personal performance so they can attend future incentive trips.
A survey of UK employees found that 76% of incentive travel attendees found the trip motivating or extremely motivating… and so did 62% of non-attendees. That’s how a rewards and incentive programme should work.
5. Maximise Your Rewards and Incentives Programme Budget
With budgetary pressure from all sides, working with an established company with a proven track record for creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences on time, on brief and on budget can make a huge difference.
Whether you’re looking for a jaw-dropping, far-flung adventure on the other side of the world or something closer to home, Inconnection has the experience, the expertise and the buying power to deliver the exceptional.
Talk to Us About Your Rewards and Incentives Programme
We can help you to imagine, create and manage an effective, affordable and scalable rewards and incentives programme. Get in touch now via the Contact page or call 0161 498 3311 for an informal chat.