There is an argument to whether sales incentives should be incorporated into sales. Incentives commonly known as “spiffs,” are a great way to help sales managers drive sales reps to align with specific objectives. Furthermore incentives are often brought into the picture to motivate and reward. Recently a sales manager voiced a concern on this topic saying “I feel that we are spending a lot of money on incentives without a return. We simply are not getting the type of motivation or mind-frame that we are looking for with the incentives we’ve tried this last quarter. How do we make our people appreciate these incentives, and more importantly accomplish the corporate objectives we’ve set forward?” Here are a few things that are critical to effective incentives:

• Keep your incentives simple
• Avoid long term incentives (1-3 days max)
• Make your incentives easy to achieve
• Reward for good sales practices and metrics
• Plan your incentives around your average sales reps

Sales people are most driven to achieve objectives when the incentive is introduced, and right before it ends. Incentives typically peak performance in two stages:

1. After the introduction of the incentive
2. The last day of the incentive

Short term incentives allow for optimal results because of the constant repetition of these two stages. Make your incentives easy to achieve, remember that incentives are used mainly to motivate people. Avoid incentives that only are achievable by your top performers. Create incentives that reward sales people when they accomplish good sales practices. This will help your sales people get into the habit of winning. It also is a way to reward sales people for improvement, which will increase performance on a larger scale. The key towards scaling a sales force is the ability to turn average sales representatives into superstars. Outline key steps necessary in order for those reps to improve their performance and create incentives around those steps.

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