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Sales are no wonder one of the important pillars for the business's survival and growth. For the best sales to happen, the best sales team is essential. However, sales processes can be mundane and boring when there is no presence of engaging and meaningful sales rewards. Establishing a creative sales reward system with the right rewards for sales team will keep your team focused and energized throughout the year.
Sales managers should ensure that the established sales incentive ideas are working and meaningful to the sales reps. Be it any target, or any task, money isn’t just enough to keep your sales team motivated. Here the sales rewards act as a driving force to keep sales reps engaged and effectively achieving targets throughout the year.
But what is a sales incentive, and is it important for your business? Continue reading to gain more insights regarding sales rewards and their types.
What is a sales reward?
A sales reward is an incentive, money, bonus, or any prize offered by the companies to their sales team for achieving certain targets, meeting deadlines, improving sales, or fulfilling any pressing tasks. Sales rewards can be broadly classified into two types - Monetary rewards and Non-Monetary rewards.
As already emphasized, monetary rewards alone do not have enough power to motivate the sales reps fully. Cash rewards are those rewards that are given apart from the normal commission when the specific sales target is reached. However, the importance of cash rewards cannot be understated as they are essential for the sales team to perform their intended job.
Here is where the non-cash or non-monetary rewards come into the picture to not just make sales reps do their job but to effectively and efficiently make them perform sales tasks. Unlike traditional rewards, non-cash rewards are fun, engaging, and motivating to your sales team. However, it is the sales manager's task to create creative, fresh, meaningful, and practical non-cash sales rewards to keep sales reps’ morale high.
Significance of sales rewards
Here are some of the significance of sales rewards that you must know.
Direct and implied motivation
Sure, the sales rewards provide direct motivation to keep sales reps engaged and effectively fulfilling their tasks. Additionally, the sales reward system also brings a fun and healthy competitive environment that enables the sales team to meet objectives, achieve targets, and contribute significant value to the entity.
Sales rewards indirectly motivate salespersons and increase their morale as they are recognized for their potential to meet targets early and are rewarded accordingly.
Increased engagement
As the sales team is awarded sales rewards, this makes sales reps improve their focus and engage more in performing the tasks, which in turn results in an early meeting of targets. Breaking down the sales tasks into specific and achievable targets also helps the sales team to enjoy the process.
From this increased engagement, not only do sales reps get their sales rewards, but they also learn valuable sales skills and improve their knowledge, skill, and productivity.
Improved value
When the sales reps question themselves, ‘is this job worth doing’? then the recognition brought by the sales rewards works its magic here. Sales rewards give adequate recognition of the sales rep's performance and award them accordingly.
The recognition of work by higher officials and sales managers makes sales reps value their work more, which increases respect toward job and work satisfaction. Sales rewards also bring the scope for growth to the sales reps. Here we are talking about both the cash and non-cash rewards that have the potential to encourage and motivate the sales team.
However, the sales reward system does not need huge budgets and cash allocations to improve the sales reps' performance. With the right implementation of a functional sales incentive plan, including creative sales rewards, sales managers can also incentivise the sales team's performance with reasonable budgets.
Luxury sales reward ideas
Here are some of the luxury sales rewards ideas that sales reps can use:
1. Gift cards
It’s still money but fancy and practical. Gift cards are the common non-cash rewards used by employees for various purposes. Sales managers can level up these gift card rewards by making them personalized and tailored for the reps’ specific needs and interests.
Providing personalized gift cards is a driving force to motivate each employee for what they value. You can also introduce a “choose your own reward” gift, which increases enthusiasm among sales reps.
2. Grand lunch with CEO
A great and luxurious way to improve employee engagement and develop connection, recognition, and a sense of belongingness is to arrange grand lunch with the CEO. This enables employees to get to know their CEO and connect professionally with higher officials.
3. Premium memberships
Be it any genre, software, online learning platforms, music, movies, food, health, gym, sports, books, groceries, gadgets, etc., provide a monthly or annual premium subscription to the top sales reps. The more personalized, the better.
4. Wall of fame recognition
The daily motivator and driving force. Dedicating an aesthetic wall to the best sales rep performers brings immense recognition and encouragement to the sales reps. This also enables daily motivation for the sales team to perform better each day. A decent wall of fame recognition should contain the proper photos of the winners, their names, and their work designation.
5. Family staycation
The most needed reward for every employee. Offering quality family time with staycation can make up for an exciting reward every employee would strive for. A staycation is a vacation but in a local city or town. This incentive is budget-friendly, practical, and most loved by employees.
Physical prizes & recognition ideas
Here are some of the physical prizes and recognition ideas that sales reps can use:
6. Wine club membership
The luxury feeling of tasting premium wine feels fancy and euphoric. Wine club membership attracts reps with interest in wine and similar stuff. However, you can also provide other memberships such as golf, gym, yoga, and much more customized to the sales reps’ specific interests.
7. Latest tech gadgets
Latest and top gadgets for the top performers. It’s not uncommon to have a desire to possess the latest tech gadgets right after their grand release. The latest technology, the trending iPhone, a new model of LED TV, the latest release of smartwatch or laptop model, a fancy speaker system, etc., makes a fascinating reward for the best sales reps. These can be quite expensive, but it’s worth it.
8. Entertainment tickets
Most enjoyable and engaging. For the sales reps who love entertainment just in a while, entertainment tickets are the exciting rewards. These tickets are reservations made by the company in advance pertaining to various locations such as concerts, performances, musicals, plays, theme parks, sports events, drama, movies, etc.
9. Office work essentials
It's no wonder that for the best performance, the best equipment is essential. With an organized and decent workspace, employees' focus and productivity increase as they spend a lot of time at their workspace achieving the targets.
Get the office desk, ergonomic office chair, extra storage cabinets, file organizers, office stationery, professional office workwear, etc. You can also check out the employees' Amazon Wishlist to know the office essentials they are eyeing for a while. Or something from Wishlist also fulfils the sales rep’s goal to buy the desired product.
Intangible sales rewards ideas
Sales managers can also use these intangitle sales regards ideas.
10. Fine dining
For employees who believe in good food and a good mood, this fine dining incentive makes wonders. This incentive is both a prize and an experience that is hard to forget and can strongly impact the sales reps.
Offer fine dining experience in premium hotels or restaurants that are usually hard to get in. Choose the restaurant spot that can cater to everyone’s individual tastes in the sales rep team.
11. Paid offs
Nothing like a paid day off after working intensely for the whole week. The normal work week consists of 8-9hrs of work time each day and 40hrs of the work week, and overtime and extra hours to achieve daily targets.
Sales reps need the day off after working a full week, making this incentive a win-win situation. But make this a paid-off to show your respect and recognition for the sales team's contribution and hard work.
12. Work from home days
Some employees will be quite productive when they can work remotely rather than in the office. Some days need work from home to maximize sales team productivity certainly when in situations like traffic, extreme rain, etc.
13. New cabin space
A peaceful and decent workspace brings wonders to the sales team's productivity and focus. The fresh and new cabin space motivates employees to work hard by providing the right environment for their growth in the office. Provide new office space for top performers to enable top performance in the long term.
14. New parking space in office
This can probably decide the mood and focus of the employee in the case of a physical office work scenario. A poor parking space can take a toll on sales reps’ productivity for the day. Provide a dedicated and private parking space that is hassle-free and functional for the best performers. This motivates them to do more and saves them a lot of parking time.
Personal development sales rewards ideas
15. Paid training
The best way to add more value to the organization is to improve the skill set and knowledge of the employees. Companies can provide paid training to the best performers. Not only paid training but also paid online courses work too.
Customize the reward to match the sales rep interested courses and let them enhance their knowledge, thanks to their best performance.
16. Paid trips and conferences
Paid office trips to enable the employees to learn more and do more by not worrying about the budget. Provide the top performers with paid office trips or, in some cases, with non-office trips like camping trips, adventure trips, etc.
Paid conferences boost employees’ knowledge and skills and they can gain more insights through office conferences. If the company is conducting any summits, provide the opportunity to represent the firm at summits which can bring responsibility, recognition, and a sense of belongingness to the sales reps.
17. Language or hobby classes
Generally, the English language is not a strong suit for some of the employees. Here, you can provide language lessons in the English language, which helps employees to improve at communication and also at their work.
Any other desired language class also works as an attractive incentive. Some of the employees might have an interest in certain hobbies like music, skating, sports, etc. Provide hobby classes that are more customized, the better.
Tips to gift the best sales incentive
It's crucial to implement a reward system that is meaningful to the sales team, each sales rep on the team, and the company’s vision and mission. Here are some of the workable tips to gift the best sales incentive for the top performers.
1. Understand what motivates the team
The primary step in implementing the engaging reward system is to understand what motivates the sales team. Conduct a simple survey to figure out the common motivators of the sales team and the driving forces of each sales rep.
Based on the feedback, design a reward system that will be truly meaningful and encouraging to the sales team.
2. Offer meaningful rewards
Providing meaningful rewards that are useful to the sales team is a crucial part of the incentives plan. The sales team should find the sales rewards useful, engaging, and motivating for the reward system to be successful.
Design achievable and reasonable sales team targets where each sales rep enhances their individual skills by simultaneously contributing to the overall team goals.
3. Determine metrics of rewards
Sales managers should ensure the sales rewards are easily measurable. Rewards should be easily identifiable for tracking progress, such as daily targets, weekly objectives, monthly quotas, quarterly goals, and yearly performance and progress.
Here SMART strategy can also be followed for determining the metrics of rewards. Design the objectives to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
4. Combine monetary & non-monetary incentives
Mix and match cash and non-cash sales rewards for catering to a wide range of diverse interests and motivators of your company’s sales team.
Offer different incentive reward plans each month or quarter to keep the sales reps motivated and high on morale. You can try providing gift cards and premium memberships for one month while offering entertainment tickets during the next month.
Gift vouchers for best sales performers
As mentioned at the start, gift cards and vouchers make up an attractive incentive that can be used in day-to-day life and is also practical. Here are some of the best gift vouchers for best performance that can be provided by the company to sales reps for various categories as follows:
1. Food & restaurant gift vouchers
For the sales reps who love food, provide these vouchers, which make their tummy happy. Some of the popular food vouchers from Xoxoday include KFC, Domino's, Starbucks, Zomato, Subway, and McDonald’s.
2. Fashion & Lifestyle Gift Vouchers
Consider these gift vouchers for fashion aficionados and lifestyle gurus. Well-known fashion vouchers include Armani Exchange, Tommy Hilfiger, Myntra, PUMA, Woodland, and Superdry.
3. Health & Wellness Gift Vouchers
These health and wellness vouchers carry pivotal weight in the era of significant work-life balance. Some widely used health and wellness vouchers are Apollo Pharmacy, DocsApp, Himalaya, Health & Glow, Mamaearth, Lakme Salon, and Kiehls.
4. Sports Gift Vouchers
These sports vouchers work for fitness fanatics and health-consciousness employees. Widely used sports vouchers are Cultpass and Decathlon.
Conclusion
The creative and engaging sales rewards ideas shared above are the most practical, functional, and easily implementable without any requirement for the huge budget allocations for the sales reward system.
Still overwhelmed with how to implement the feasible sales reward system? Try Compass now! Most of the sales reward systems fail due to mismatched incentive amounts, delays in incentive payouts, and various other reasons. In this digital era, it’s about time to automate your incentive programs.
Compass is one-of-a-kind advanced sales incentive compensation management software to turbocharge your salesforce. Compass software can accommodate every business's needs from small start-ups to huge MNCs. Used across varied industries such as finance, logistics, outsourcing, consumer goods, SaaS companies, etc., Compass simplifies your most complex incentive programs.
