Contests help to focus the efforts of an entire team around a common goal. However, that goal can vary from team-to-team and business-to-business. As situations evolve, business leaders need to know how to align their internal contests to meet the present needs of their organization, while still making it fun and engaging!
Here are five examples of specific business needs, and contest that can address them:
Scenario #1: Your Sales Team Isn’t on Track to Meet Your Q2 Quota
Sales managers know, not hitting quota is a big deal, and anything you can do to meet or surpass that all-powerful number is priority No. 1. If you’re in the final month of Q2 and worried you might not hit that mark, a sales contest could be the ultimate cure.
Create a contest for your sales team focused strictly on closing deals to hyper-focus their attention on that all-important number. However much time is left in the quarter, make sure the contest lasts up until the very last day to give your team the best shot at meeting their goal. Also, consider allocating a bit more budget to this contest, due to its importance. Since Q2 carries your team into summertime, consider a small summer getaway for the winner, or some well-deserved PTO hours.
Scenario #2: You’re on Track to Meet Your Yearly Sales Quota, So Your Team Gets Complacent
Success doesn’t come without its challenges, as being on top can create a sense of complacency. While you don’t typically need to coach a team that just made you look like a rockstar, if opportunities to close deals are being missed this needs to be addressed.
End-of-year budget surpluses present a prime opportunity to remind your clients how well your solution has worked this year and that they will need more licenses or product next year. Also, consider revolving the contest’s incentive around the holidays (e.g., a yearly Ski Pass or PTO). With the right contest structure, you can get the most out of your sales team to close the year while other companies are snoozing from too much holiday turkey.
Scenario #3: Your Company Needs More Customer Reviews
In today’s digital age, customer reviews are playing an even larger role in the purchasing process for many buyers. In fact, approximately 90 percent of people look to online reviews to influence their buying decisions. So if your company doesn’t have enough online reviews — whether they live on iTunes, Yelp or the Salesforce AppExchange — you aren’t likely to win as much business. [1]
Luckily, it’s likely that many of your customer service reps and account executives already have plenty of opportunities to get reviews, they just forget to ask for them. To address this, create a contest that reminds them to request them by attributing points for every new review. Advise whichever teams you want to involve — sales, customer success and tech support are likely candidates — on the best practices for quickly and respectfully requesting reviews from customers. Then, pick a universally desired prize, like an Amazon gift card, to motivate what matters!
Scenario #4: Salesforce Accounts are Missing Key Data (‘Salesforce Hygiene’)
From time to time some of your Salesforce data might start to look incomplete or mismanaged. While a few missed fields aren’t a matter of life or death, this problem can cause companywide disorganization and misinformation when it becomes the norm.
To refocus your team on your “Salesforce Hygiene,” create a contest that focuses every team on cleaning up their accounts, awarding them points for each data field or account they update. Also, if you want to get creative with the prize and theme for this contest, you can award the winner a free car wash for “cleaning the most accounts.” Not only will this immediately clean up your entire org and ensure it never gets too sloppy, but it will also reinforce the importance of keeping a thorough and error-proof routine.
Scenario #5: Your Sales Reps Are Not Hitting their KPI Goals
When your sales reps aren’t hitting their goals for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it will ultimately affect your entire business’ success. So if your KPIs are trending downward, it could be that your sales team needs some added motivation to boost morale around what may sometimes seem like an onerous task.
KPIs tend to vary by organization and team. Some teams may care about the number of dials a rep makes every day. Other organizations may care about the number of new opportunities created in a given week or pipeline that will close in the next two months. Whatever your KPIs are, as a Sales Leader it is your responsibility to make sure you’re driving the right behaviors to achieve your desired outcomes.
To address this issue, create a sales contest that focuses on the KPI that your team is behind on and award points as the relevant items are updated in your CRM. Pick a prize that will generate excitement, like an extra day of PTO or an iPhone X. Also, consider the contest structure, as you can make it a two-team exercise (best for comradery) or every man for himself affair (best for rewarding top performers). In addition to improving your KPIs, this contest will give you a chance to observe who is struggling in this department and coach them accordingly.
If you’re interested in learning more about the different KPIs that modern sales teams are using, check out LevelEleven’s Annual KPI Report.
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Want to discover more sales contest ideas? Click the image to the right to download our free e-book with 102 Inexpensive Sales Incentive Ideas!
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[su_spoiler title=”References:” icon=”plus-square-1″ anchor=”References”][1] https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-and-lifetime-customer-value/[/su_spoiler]
