Companies of all sizes and varying industries across the world know the value of a highly driven, high-performing sales team. When your sales force is driving revenue and surpassing laid-out metrics and expectations, your organization feels the positive impact.
When this occurs, it’s because you’ve managed to bring on talented, dedicated people who do an incredible job of selling your company to others. The question is, how do you keep that going for as long as possible?
Salespeople have an innate drive to attain higher thresholds of success which need to be supported and rewarded at an organizational level. While many factors aid in retaining talent, effective incentive programs will always be the best way to keep your sales team happy and motivated.
Here’s a closer look at some of the clear benefits of how bonuses can inspire your sales force to continually drive performance.
1. They Motivate Your Sales Force to Sell MORE.
Effective incentive programs will always give your salespeople something to chase and another accomplishment to attain. When your sales force achieves all of the goals set out for them, you always need to have another reward ready to keep driving performance.
Bonuses are the most essential part of keeping your salesforce stimulated. By nature, if your highest performers aren’t feeling stimulated to sell more, they won’t be nearly as effective and eventually take their talents somewhere else.
Doing whatever you can to effectively reward them to keep them motivated is a win-win for everyone involved.
Whatever you’re offering, make sure you have buy-in from your team. Conduct a survey to see what reward would be most appealing.
2. Bonuses Helps Retain Top Talent
As we just touched on, your best people will always know how much they drive and how much they’re worth. If they feel they’ve plateaued in their current role, they may seek a different position at another organization and presumably get hired very quickly.
Conversely, if you create new goals for them with a must-have reward, they’ll welcome the challenge with enthusiasm and raise their level.
When considering the time and effort to recruit new salespeople, properly rewarding your current high performers will help retain your culture and positively impact your revenue. Your company will be much better off in the long run.
3. They’re a Powerful Recruiting Tool
On the other hand, if you’re doing so well that you need to bolster your sales team, having an effective bonus structure will only help you bring on new and highly talented candidates.
If your team feels that they’re being rewarded for their hard work, perhaps they will refer someone in their professional network to come in and interview. It will only do good things for your reputation.
When a candidate is mulling an offer between companies, you’ll be the one they choose. Why? Because your organization clearly understands how to properly reward their high earners.
4. They Can Inspire Healthy Competition
Bonuses given through a sales contest are a phenomenal way to bring a culture-boosting competition to your sales team. If your team has a sales leader who dominates year after year, we’re willing to bet that the rest of their team is clamoring to outsell them. A sales bonus given by way of a sales contest allows them to do just that, even if it’s over a small period.
As much as Kim loves working with John, she’ll fondly remember when she won bragging rights and the $1000 Delta gift card that paid for her honeymoon flight. More importantly, she’ll feel inspired by her hard work and can enjoy her much-deserved reward.
When companies inspire their sales force to rise to the occasion through a tantalizing sales contest, they often will experience many positive results they didn’t see coming.
5. They Give Clear and Succinct Targets
When your bonuses and incentive programs are properly laid out for your organization to engage with and strive towards, you will instantly experience the positive impact of a clear mission.
When it comes to the health of your sales force, transparency is one of the key factors to making your people feel comfortable in their roles. Additionally, you help maintain their desire to grow and drive performance.
When getting together with key stakeholders at your company, you need to strategize how to best present goals for your sales team and clearly outline the rewards. When they have a clear idea of what they’re chasing, they will be more motivated to achieve the goal at hand.
6. They can Boost the Culture of your Team.
Even if the bonus is bestowed to just one individual, you will feel the cohesion of your sales force as they work towards achieving the goal you created. While winning the bonus is the destination, they will bond over their experiences throughout the journey.
With team bonuses, in particular, there are simple things your leadership can do to create positive team-building. These things include: Acknowledging wins throughout the stage of a deal, publicly announcing a won deal, and recognizing teamwork as your sales force works to attain the goal set out for them.
Salespeople are often very competitive, but even with individual bonuses, they all have the experience and know the feeling of working towards organizational goals. If they feel contests and bonuses are being facilitated positively, it will be a valuable experience for your company.
In Conclusion
While you need to make the rewards worthwhile to retain your sales force and help drive revenue, it’s also important to consider the messaging and presentation of your goals to your team. Are they transparent? How can your team best engage with them? How can you create buy-in and facilitate a winning, dedicated culture?
Make sure your sales force feels the experience of chasing a goal worthy of their efforts, and your organization will experience the benefits of their success.
Goals.com was created with sales leaders and teams in mind to give you all of the necessary tools needed to effectively manage your team and crush your sales goals. If you want to learn more, start your FREE 30-day trial today or schedule a demo with us.