Rethinking sales rewards in a recession

There is a well developed body of evidence to tell us that compared to the population as a whole, those people who enjoy careers in sales and who are good at selling are competitive, to some degree, and have a liking for monetary or material rewards. So it is only natural that sales managers should use material rewards to encourage sales. Frequently such material rewards achieve something of their aim – motivating people to try a little harder, and having the winners feel pleased and proud as well as rewarded for their efforts. Of course, there are downsides: notably the will to win the competition overriding company policy, ethical concerns and so on, which can be an issue; and secondly, the effect on those who don't win, especially those who don't win consistently.

There is also a fairly well developed body of evidence referring to the so-called 'thermostat effect' in sales. This occurs when, having reached a reward threshold or target, people set about learning how to get that reward for less effort, rather than keeping up or increasing the effort to keep on increasing the reward. In one real life example the two top sales people in a direct selling organisation were making calls on prospects on two weekday evenings only, plus either a Saturday or Sunday morning, and making a handsome commission-based living. Both freely admitted that they could double their income, the leads were available, but it would have meant working virtually every evening, plus Saturday and Sunday – and neither wanted to do that.

So financial and material rewards don't always yield quite the results they are intended to. In a very real sense, rewards like holidays, trips to spas or health clubs and so on have the effect that the reward for doing the job well is to not have to do the job for a while. How would it be, then, if the reward for doing the job well was to be helped to do the job even better?

One option is to set up a Sales Leader Reward programme that offers development opportunities as the extra prizes for top performing sales people. Activities can include specially scheduled workshops, access to member-only websites, podcasts, audiences with acknowledged experts in the field, specially organised customer feedback sessions, trips to other high performing organisations – all activities aimed at developing sales skills and enhancing career opportunities in sales.

The development options are almost limitless: you could include one on one coaching or NLP sessions, the kind of psychological profiling and feedback that normally only very senior executives would get, introductions to academic and research experts in the field, career guidance – whatever would be valuable to the individuals. Whilst, and this is really the key point, adding value for the organisation too.

This type of programme, properly run, will have all the motivational effect of a well executed talent programme in incentivising high performers to drive their own development, whilst making it very clear what the organisational agenda is around development, performance, and reward. Those not doing well enough to access these rewards could opt to put themselves on a development path designed to get them to a level where they become part of the club, winning high performer development rewards through their own efforts.

For more ideas about possible Sales Leader Reward programmes, or help to run some, Contact us