Sales contests around face-to-face meetings can be game changing. Seriously.
They allowed Kelly Services to generate an additional $5.8 million in 60 days. (Get that story here.) And the Kelly team isn’t alone in recognizing this. Of all the contests our clients run to reward activities related to meetings, those around landing face-to-face meetings hold “most popular” status.
It makes sense, too. A lot of sales leaders believe in the power that comes with getting in face time with prospects and customers, and a whopping 95% of people surveyed by Virgin say face-to-face meetings are essential for long-term business relationships.
The challenging part? Getting sales teams to focus more on these meetings, considering the seemingly more convenient options they have for communicating with prospects and customers with technology. Running a few sales contests around face-to-face meetings can help.
6 Sales Contest Ideas Around Face-to-Face Meetings:
1. The Contest: “How I Met My Number”
- Goal: Use the TV show “How I Met Your Mother” as a theme while inspiring more meetings
- Duration: 2 weeks
- Teams: Divide your sales team into 2 teams
- Point Structure: 100 points for each scheduled face-to-face meeting
- Winner: Team with the most points
- Prize Ideas: Winning team gets a happy hour
2. The Contest: “[Insert the slogan of a local sports team]”
- Goal: Tap into your team’s sports pride for more meeting motivation
- Duration: 1 week
- Teams: 1 team — have the entire sales team work together
- Point Structure: 100 points for each scheduled face-to-face meeting with customers due for renewal; 500 points for the renewal (consider swapping out achieving renewals for upselling if that’s more relevant) — set a goal, and track this as percent-to-goal
- Winner: The team, if they hit X% [whatever makes most sense] to goal
- Prize Ideas: A team trip to one of the featured team’s games; or for a less expensive incentive, a themed party at work around the sports team, where everyone wears game gear, that team’s song is played, food falls into whatever theme works with your city, etc.
3. The Contest: “Face/Off”
- Goal: Get some laughs by basing a contest on this cheesy ’90s movie and ensure that your team’s not only booking meetings, but seeing them through (Note: Sometimes the cheesiest themes work best in rallying your team together; humor can do wonders for team bonding.)
- Duration: 3 weeks
- Teams: Divide your sales team into teams of 2; select teams by taking a look at the sales leaderboard from your last contest and matching the top participant with the lowest participant, second place with the second lowest, etc. (This tends to foster some good peer-to-peer mentoring.)
- Point Structure: 100 points for each completed face-to-face meeting
- Winner: Team with the most points
- Prize Ideas: Winning team gets to do a fun activity — like bowling, whirlyball or miniature golf — on a Wednesday afternoon
4. The Contest: “Come and Knock on My Door”
- Goal: Honor the popular ’70s sitcom “Three’s Company,” while landing some more face-to-face meetings (Tip: This one’s obviously better for generations that can appreciate the show.)
- Duration: 1 week
- Teams: Individuals
- Point Structure: 100 points for each scheduled face-to-face meeting, 500 points for each completed face-to-face meeting
- Winner: Participant with the most points
- Prize Ideas: ’70s candy gift pack or Billboard hits from the decade
5. The Contest: “Millennium Motivation”
- Goal: If your team isn’t quite old enough to appreciate the last idea, bring them back to the early ’00s with some fun meeting motivation (Note: Best for Millennials!)
- Duration: 2 weeks
- Teams: Divide your sales team into 2 teams
- Point Structure: Give the team 100 points for each face-to-face meeting they’ve scheduled in the last 2 weeks, and they’ll begin the contest with this score. (Note: This only works well if you’ve already been motivating your team around getting more of these meetings; then you’re launching this by rewarding the team for what they’re doing when not in the spotlight, too. The number you get here also offers a good baseline; compare it to the number of meetings you get in the 2 weeks during the contest, and you’ll understand contest impact.) When the contest launches, give the team 100 points for each new meeting booked during the course of the contest. Play an early ’00s song each time someone scores during the contest.
- Winner: Team with the most points
- Prize Ideas: Winning team gets breakfast catered in on a Monday morning, and gets to listen to their favorite millennium hits as they eat
6. The Contest: “Uptown Face-to-Face”
- Goal: Take some inspiration from Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, and go for an “Uptown Funk” theme (Bonus: Announce this contest by blasting the song, and telling everyone on the team to gather around. Making a big deal out of the contest launch will amp up your team’s motivation around it.)
- Duration: 2 weeks
- Teams: Individuals
- Point Structure: 100 points for each scheduled face-to-face meeting with a prospect or customer off of a certain list (for example, maybe prospects with a certain set of qualifications, or your largest customers); play part of the song whenever a team member scores points
- Winner: Participant with the most points
- Prize Ideas: For a week, winner gets to start off each work morning by blasting a song of their choice for the entire office to hear
