You have a brand new quarter, plenty of sunshine and tons of new business to go after. Can you think of a better time to throw a sales contest into the mix? It’s that spark you need to wake up your sales team and start the quarter off right!
However, you need to be cautious — a sales contest ran the wrong way could yield less-than-optimal results.
If the same reps win all the time, other team members will lose interest quickly, a tell-tale sign that you won’t be seeing maximum ROI out of your sales contest. Luckily for you, simply switching up your contests can make a big difference. I’ve got a few ideas to help you out.
3 Sales Contest Ideas to Start the Quarter off Right
- Theme: Mario Bros. – Based off the one and only childhood game, this can be a really fun way to start the quarter, while at the same time encouraging people to get on those phones.
- Length: 1 week long
- Focus: Generating more conversations
- Points: 50 points for every conversation
- Teams: Divide your sales reps into 2 teams – Team Mario and Team Luigi. **Make sure that there is a balance between your top, middle and bottom performers on each team.
- Winner: The team with the most points at the end of the week
- Prize: Losing team has to dress like a Mario character the following Monday
- Theme: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Based off of the 1986 comedy, this is a quirky theme sure to bring laughs — and more importantly, lead conversions — to the start of the quarter.
- Length: 4 days
- Focus: Lead conversion
- Points: Percent to goal. Set goals around lead conversion for each rep based on prior performance (ex: last quarter). Their success will be measured by the percent to goal they achieve by the end of the contest.
- Teams: Individual vs. individual
- Winner: Person with highest percent to goal at the end of the fourth day
- Prize: The winner gets that Friday off to explore, just as our friend Ferris Bueller would
- Theme: Detroit Pistons – Bad Boys (or if you’re not a Pistons fan, pick any sports team of your liking). This Pistons (1987-1990) team is the most successful Pistons team in history. In just a matter of years they turned the organization around with a “win by whatever means necessary“ attitude — an attitude that could be useful in sales. So, it makes sense to make this contest all filling your pipeline for wins.
- Length: 3 weeks
- Focus: Filling pipeline
- Points: 10 points for leads created, 50 for demos booked
- Teams: Break your reps into 3 groups of similar performance levels (or however many makes sense based on the size of your sales force). Within those three groups, reps will compete against each other, so you’re really building three different contests.
- Winner: On a weekly basis, the person with the highest point total from their respective group will be declared winner. Then at the end of the three weeks the individual from each group with the highest number of points for the quarter will be declared overall winner and win the larger prize.
- Prize: For weekly winners, have three small NBA trophy replicas to sit on their desks for the week. For quarterly winners, offer tickets to a local sports event.
These are just three contest ideas to get you and your sales team on the right track for Q3. Don’t be afraid to put a spin on any of them and play around with themes and prizes. You’ll be surprised at what your sales reps respond to.
[Before you start building your own sales contests make sure you check our 10-tip guide to building the ultimate sales contests.]
