Sales Incentives Basics

How sales incentives work to help increase your business

If you're looking to increase profits, there are two main types of sales incentives you can use. Customer sales incentives drive more business by bringing in more traffic, and employee incentive programs motivate your customer service representatives and sales teams to work harder to convert customer interest into completed sales.

There are a few things you need to remember before attempting to initiate any kind of sales incentives. You don't want to do anything that will potentially bring you more risk than reward.

1. Rule out customer incentive programs that will cost you too much money to implement. Sure, free samples will bring in customers, but it's not so smart when your product costs $50.

2. Make sure your employee incentive programs are actually motivating. Giving an employee a free sticker or key chain for bringing in a new account won't work as well rewarding him or her with an extra vacation day or a gift card.

3. Use purchase incentives for items that are not selling well on their own only. Otherwise, you're basically handing out free gifts with no return.

 

Research sales incentive programs that have proven effective

Start is with some online research. You will find that a lot of companies have published details of sales incentive solutions that worked well for them.
Try: Maritz, a well-known marketing company, has a good list of client case studies you can start with to get a sales incentives overview. Another good place to look is on Incentive Magazine's website.

Ask employees what sales incentive ideas will motivate them best

Hold a meeting or teleconference to encourage employees to share their biggest motivators. Instead of letting them pull ideas out of thin air, give them some sales incentive basics to start with. This will keep the meeting constructive.
Try: Order catalogs from places such as Corporate Rewards and World Incentives and have employees look through them and select their favorite items. Choose one or a few of the top ranked incentives and incorporate them into your incentive plan.

Use consultants to develop custom reward incentive programs

There is no shame in asking for help, and a consultant will have good experience in what works and what doesn't.
Try: Attend trade shows in your line of business to connect with marketing companies that will have consultants available. TSNN.com has a good search engine you can use to find events and also get information, such as price quotes on promotional giveaways. Find a consultant through the Incentive Marketing Association. Contact them to find members in your area.

 

• Always assess and reassess your programs, whether they are retail sales incentives or employee incentives. If one incentive stops working well, have another one waiting in the wings.

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