CONTESTS CAN BE a fantastic way to encourage your team. I don’t recommend big, month-long contests, but rather daily or weekly opportunities for everyone to win.
The best contests are structured so that everyone can win. The last thing you want to do is set up a contest where the same person wins over and over again. This is just demoralizing for the people that don’t win. So, to structure it so any salesperson can win, set the contest up based on percentage of improvement over their individual statistics or based on hitting pre-set milestones.
For example, try this add-on contest: A certain amount can be given for each percentage point of improvement over their current statistical average, or each person that sells a set dollar amount of add-ons wins the contest.
A couple of other examples of contests based on familiar games include:
- HORSE – Like the basketball game where you get a letter for missing a shot that another person made, you have to accomplish similar challenges in sales made.
- Blackjack – Salespeople get a playing card for accomplishing a sales or customer service objective. If you get 21, then you win; if you bust, you start over again.
The goals of the contests can be varied. You could use closing ratio and award a set amount for each percentage point of improvement. You could reward add-ons, converting a turnover into a sale, converting a repair into a sale, most items per sale, improving the average sale, capturing contact information (with permission for follow-up) on a customer profile card, or selling a piece of dated merchandise.
People love playing games and contests, and they love to win. Give your people an opportunity to win. The prize doesn’t have to cost a lot. You can give away gift cards for gas, coffee, restaurants, etc. A $5, $10 or $20 bill goes a long way toward inspiring and motivating people to win a contest. All of this make the work week a little more fun for your team while also incentivizing their individual improvement. So go set up some contests!
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