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Closing the Sale for the Right Reasons
What motivates sales professionals? It's simple. Compensation. Today we'll look at sales incentives, and cover a question posed by two Wharton professors, Adam Gran and Jitendra Singh: "How do you build a compensation plan that encourages salespeople to close deals for the right reasons?"
The answer, according to their research, is to provide a unique combination of monetary rewards and non-cash incentives. They concluded that financial rewards can increase performance by 42-49 percent.
But, as most sales managers know, salespeople who rush to close sales simply to reach the next bonus level or earn more cash aren't necessarily doing so for all the right reasons.
That's where non-cash incentives come in. The majority of successful sales organizations offer non-cash incentives that reward positive behaviors that lead to positive results. These can be in the form of employee-of-the-month incentives, customer loyalty incentives, repeat business incentives, referral incentives and more.
Only providing cash rewards can lead to the following negative behaviors:
- Salespeople cutting corners
- Resentment from consistent salespeople who follow the company's selling process, while fast-talking scammers are taking advantage of the system, and/or
- Undermining the sense of collegiality, because some salespeople will only be interested in taking part in activities that will lead to them earning more bonuses. For this reason, they tend to skip meetings, ignore admin tasks and/or any other required tasks that don't directly contribute to higher closing rates.
Four ways Grant and Singh suggest sales managers reward salespeople without cash:
- Provide more autonomy for salespeople who have proven they can be trusted to manage themselves
- Offer the opportunity to earn certification, attend seminars or take sales mastery courses (for salespeople whose behavior warrants those rewards)
- Hold public recognition ceremonies, and/or
- Extend a sense of job security by offering senior positions and/or tenure for veteran salespeople who have contributed a great deal to the organization.
About the author: Anne Field is a financial writer/editor for numerous publications, including, CFOZone, Business Week, CNNMoney.com, the New York Times, and Treasury & Risk. She also runs a blog, Not Only for Profit, part of the True/Slant network, about double and triple bottom-line companies and related small-business issues.
Source: PC TODAY - 4/20/11
An Incentive that is Always Appreciated
Food Gifts are on the rise because they please everyone and can be shared. O&H Kringle is an authentic Danish pastry known for its light, tender, flaky texture and delicious filling. Why consider this delicious food gift for your company?
- Numerous Branding Touches: your logo on the box, a personalized gift card, customized insert sheet and any other insert you'd like to provide can be included
- Ships in less than 3 days
- Minimum order is only ONE piece!
- We specialize in Drop-ship Programs
Kringle makes an excellent Sales Incentive! Do you sell a good or service? Offer this to your customers with their next order of a certain dollar amount. Receive a referral? Send a Kringle with a personalized note of appreciation. Salespeople increasing their sales? Kringle is a great reward for a job well done. Want to improve employee morale? Send a Kringle to the home of each employee on their birthday with a personalized birthday card. Have a great sales call today? Send out a Kringle that same day with a thank you note.
You are sure to be remembered when you send a tasty Kringle ... the year-round gift that is always appreciated and never forgotten.
Give us a call or send an email for more ideas to get your salespeople closing the sale!
Linda, Jennifer and the LinJen Team
708.478.8222
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