Many sales and marketing managers often scratch their heads wondering how to get their employees to contribute a little more, go the extra mile or take that last phone call. Is it difficult to find new ways to motivate your sales team? Don’t lose hope! Reaching your target goals for the quarter or year may be easier than you think. Through simple steps, you can have a more vibrant and creative everyday life for your employees, and at the same time increase the productivity of each individual salesperson.
So, what is the secret and tool all sales managers should have in their back pocket? Sales competitions! And the carrot that you dangle in front of them: daily prizes and / or an incentive trip to an exciting destination. Such awards are talked about in advance, followed on social media along the way, and bragged about afterwards. And best of all: if you achieve the sales goal, the trip is already funded!
We spoke with Sondre Hov Ulsaker, Sales Director at EiendomsMegler 1, to hear more about their experiences with holding internal sales competitions:
1. Why do you choose to use internal sales competitions in EiendomsMegler 1?
First, brokers are motivated by competition, and this creates an extra "drive" throughout the company. We use these competitions to strengthen the performance culture internally, through, things like training on how to meet with our customers in the best possible way and working on implementing the right work methodology.
2. Do you have specific data showing that the competitions have contributed to achieving sales goals for the company?
There is no doubt that competitions trigger, and help most people do a little extra to strengthen their own or the team's performance. We have chosen to have fewer competitions that last longer, to get some continuity in the competition itself. This is because it takes a few weeks to change behavior, and through these competitions one of the goals is for brokers to improve the behavior in their own performance. The result we experience is a strong improvement in both behavior and performance for the duration of the competition.
3. What synergy among the employees do you experience by having a creative sales competition?
This has a positive and motivating effect on the employees, who experience more "bells and whistles" during the competition period than in a normal everyday life. Many experience a feeling of mastery by breaking barriers, and more unity on the team through joint training and individual as well as team goals. At the same time everyone is working hard on bettering themselves, there is a lot of good laughs and friendly competition.
4. Why do you choose incentive trips, rather than more traditional bonus schemes?
We know well that team building trips are something many overextend themselves for and also promote a good unity between brokers and the leaders of the various departments. In addition, we have professional educational content with motivational presentations, group assignments and various team building activities. The feedback from the participants is that they appreciate that they also get some professional replenishment and development as well.
Many sales managers feel it down deep when budgets are not reached. It's easy to just stand there without any new ideas and try to keep going. This is where an internal sales competition can be the solution. Motel Agency AS is happy to help you with the competition mechanics, and of course planning and implementation of the incentive trip after the competition is over. We help you create a playful and creative universe. This is a nice tool to have in the sales director’s pocket. It holds the team accountable, encourages them along the way and motivates them, until goals are reached.
Feel free to challenge us - there are many opportunities here!