Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Incentive Ideas for Your Inside Sales Teams

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you another guest entry from one of our BDRs, Jill Ryan. 

Out of the 12 month year, these next 3 months are going be the hardest for inside sales reps. Sure, all year long our friends and family that are Firefighters, Nurses, Police Officers, EMTs, bartenders and servers have envied us for our guaranteed weekends off.  Now the tables have turned, I know some of us were wishing we could catch a mid week beach trip, but we have a job to do. I am the first one to say that AG has a culture like no other and we are lucky to have such a good time at work, but let’s face it, cold calling while its 85 and sunny out isn’t the best.

I am the kind of person that cares about my performance all the time. I am obnoxiously competitive and work the best under pressure, so go figure, I love contests. What better way to honor the cube dwellers during the next couple of months then to roll out some new incentives. Here at AG, we are lucky. We have an incentive in place that if we exceed production standards for the week, we can have a half day on Fridays. A lot of businesses are gone early on Fridays, so it makes for an effective work week. But what else can we do to spice it up during the summer?

1. One thing I know my coworkers and I enjoy is time off. A monthly incentive to get some time off is most definitely something people will work towards. Everyone has trips they would like to take over the summer, and a chance to bank some days for the beach or lake is an expense most organizations can manage, and people would appreciate.
2. Team contests! In sales, we all do a lot for each other in a pinch, why not have contests within your teams to boost the spirits and give each other that extra push. Some of the previous contests that have been great were a mix of meeting inside sales related benchmarks with a fun skills contest to cap it off.  For example, our last contest combined meeting certain goals with a putting contest – the teams who had the best results towards these goals, putted from a shorter distance.  These contests get people to work hard to meet the goals and have fun in the process.
3. Something affordable but fun for the entire group. Whether that be a summer party, a day to head to a Pawsox game, or just the beach. Make it something the management can budget for and the company as a whole has to work hard to obtain, whether that be through lead goals or call expectation.

Let’s face it, we all work hard, but it can get difficult to stay focused in the summer when nothing changes in the routine. Summer is a time to throw the routine out the window, get outside, be active and enjoy each other. Why not continue that theme within the office to keep everyone on their feet, willing to work hard to play hard.