Do you want to know how to create a sales incentive plan? The sales team is one of the most important pillars on which a company is based. Therefore, you must find the best way to reward your work, since it is the department that will be able to cause a direct growth impact for the future of your business.
En GumsUp as experts in developing incentive plans, to motivate your workers so that they arrive at work every day with a smile on their faces. Therefore, we want to give you some guidelines on how to make a sales incentive plan adapted to your company.
5 steps to make a sales incentive plan
A sales incentive plan is a strategy designed to motivate and reward the sales department of your company, with the aim of boosting its performance and achieving the specific goals that you have set for yourself. These are the key steps to achieving an effective sales incentive plan!
Previous research and analysis
Before designing any incentive plan, you must study your market in detail, your products, your services and the sales structure of your company. You can make a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) to identify the key areas you will need to focus on.
You can also look at the past and look for a shining moment of your sales team, to try to understand what motivated them. In GumsUp we discover you different sales marketing examples so you know how to focus your strategy.
Definition of objectives and goals
To create a sales incentive plan you must also set clear and achievable goals for your sales team. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, and important to them. Additionally, you will need to determine how much time you offer to get them.
Make sure the goals are difficult to achieve, so that they are a challenge for them, but at the same time realistic and aligned with the objectives they have achieved so far.
Incentive design
The time has come for Choose the type of incentives you think will work best for your sales team. A good option could be to combine monetary, non-monetary incentives and recognition. For example, you can offer your workers commissions, gifts, trips or promotions.
Try to ensure that the incentives are related to the objective they must achieve, so that they feel motivated to achieve it.
Communication and presentation of the plan
When you have designed your incentive plan and have analyzed the pros and cons of each of your decisions, it will be time to present it to your team. Explain the goals they must reach, the incentives and the rules of the program in a clear and concise way.
Let the sellers ask you any questions they have and make sure they understand exactly how the plan works. Besides, constant communication with your team, From that moment on, it will be essential for it to have good results.
Implementation and monitoring
Finally, to make a sales incentive plan you must carry out the implementation of the plan. You can use a system or a platform that allows you to track the process and results of your team. In addition, workers must also be able to access this monitoring in real time and in a very transparent way. In GumsUp we offer a free demo of our software, which can give you tools to motivate your workers and analyze the results obtained.
We recommend that you can evaluate the results from time to time, to determine if the plan is working correctly or, on the contrary, you need to make some adjustments. Always publicly recognize the achievements that sales team members achieve!
Objectives of a sales incentive plan
The second step that we have explained to you in the previous section, talks about the objectives that has to comply with your sales incentive plan. We believe this is one of the most important points, since without clear direction, you will not achieve the results you are hoping for.
It is important that choose well the objectives you want to achieve, We give you some examples that can serve as inspiration:
- Increase sales: One of the main objectives of a company, when making a sales plan, is to boost the growth of its sales. This can increase the company's total income, make you able to sell more units of each product, and bring new customers to your portfolio.
- Meet sales quota: Another objective is to ensure that the sales team reaches the minimum number of sales that your company needs, in a specific period, to function well. If they exceed that number, much better.
- Retain customers: It is essential that current customers feel satisfied, to foster their loyalty. Therefore, a good goal could be to drive additional sales to current customers or reduce churn.
- Sell certain products more: Your team can only focus on a certain range of harder-to-sell products. However, if your goal is to focus solely on them, you might get some extra sales.
- Establish a positive work environment: The sales incentive plan can also serve to create a motivating and positive environment at work, inspiring salespeople to give their best. Here we give you the steps to create a positive work environment.
- Improve the quality of customer service: Not all sales come from new customers, but many times success lies in taking care of the people who have already trusted you. Therefore, if customer satisfaction is the priority, your incentive plan should include objectives related to customer service and retention.
- Be the best on the market: Another objective you can strive for is to become the most competitive company on the market. The incentive plan will motivate your sales team to fight for the first position and gain a good market share from competitors.
Examples of successful incentive plans
Now that you know how to create a sales incentive plan, let's give you some examples. Throughout history, many companies have implemented a sales incentive plan in your company and the results have been unbeatable. We present some of them to you!
IBM Sales Incentive Program
The computer company IBM uses an incentive plan that includes commissions, gifts and recognition for its salespeople. Workers receive rewards based on the value of the sales they make, and top salespeople receive prizes and trips.
Salesforce Sales Incentive Program
Salesforce is another IT company that offers commissions and gifts based on the sales quotas its workers achieve. Additionally, they are also rewarded for every new customer they manage to make. This motivation has caused the company to grow rapidly.
Google Performance Bonus Program
The company Google could not be less and has developed a program in which its employees receive annual rewards, taking into account their contribution to the overall success of the company.
Microsoft Employee Recognition Program
Microsoft has opted for a recognition program in which it provides prizes, gifts and public recognition to those employees who have demonstrated effort in the areas in which they work.
Now you know how to make a sales incentive plan that is effective for this department of your company. Take a look at our website and try our free demo!
