Sales contests have the power to boost team morale, encourage healthy competition, and increase overall excitement throughout teams. Implementing a contest can get your reps focused on a specific goal or metric for a short period of time to promote the right activities to achieve them.
Most would consider launching a sales contest at the beginning or end of a quarter — the beginning of a quarter is a great time for a fresh start while there’s excitement at the end. Not many people realize the middle of the quarter is where a contest can be most effective.
The middle of the quarter often feels less urgent. There isn’t immediate motivation to start anew or finish out strong like there is with both the beginning and end. Complacency and boredom can set in without much to get fired up about for a while.
A sales contest can change that, and we have four ideas to get you started.
1. Conversations in Bloom
The plants and trees are blooming, and you want to see the same with success across your team. The first step in all growth is to plant the seed. With this sales contest, you’ll make prospecting something to look forward to by having reps focus on outreach in all forms to make it to the top of the leaderboard.
Timeline: 1 week
Focus: Generating more conversations
Points: Call — 1 point
Email intro — 1 point
Prize: Garden starter kit or a house plant
2. Seventh Inning Stretch
It’s not the end of the quarter, but it’s time to stretch those sales muscles. If your team is hitting a serious mid-quarter drought, then you might consider pulling out all the stops with a contest designed to round the bases to home with 3 innings left.
Timeline: 3 weeks
Focus: Close deals
Points: Call — 1 point
Demo — 1 point
Deal won — 4 points
Prize: Tickets to the next baseball game
3. No Customer Left Behind
Sometimes customers fall through the cracks, especially when there’s a lot happening in a quarter. A sales contest can encourage your reps to keep up with customers in a way that will make it a habit. The goal of this one is to connect with customers who haven’t been touched on in the last 30 days.
Length: 2 weeks
Focus: Nurture customer relationships’
Points: Calling customer not contacted in last 30 days — 2 points
Updating contact record — 1 point
Bonus point awarded for adding more licenses during outreach
Prize: Dinner for two at a nice restaurant
4. The Big Lead Thaw
The frost is behind us and the ground has thawed, so there’s no excuse for a lead to go cold. This contest asks reps to respond to leads as soon as they come in. More points are awarded for faster responses, which is a great behavior to transform into a lasting habit using a sales contest.
Length: 3 weeks
Focus: Pipeline health
Points: Respond to lead <8 hours — 5 points
Respond to lead 8-24 hours — 3 points
Respond to lead in >24 hours — 1 point
Prize: A free vacation day to enjoy the warmer weather
Sales Contest Tips for Success
However you decide to implement sales contests this quarter, be sure to remember that the goal is to focus on behavior-changing processes. Short-term incentives can be efficient in getting started with creating successful work habits so long as you’re choosing the right activities to rally folks around.
Additional thoughts to consider for successful sales contests:
- Sales contests can be performed by individuals or you can split into teams. If you choose teams, try partnering employees with different strengths and weaknesses.
- Prizes don’t have to cost you anything — consider awarding winners with social media shoutouts or a coaching session with the CEO.
- Consider setting up a milestone that can be hit along the way to incentivize crossing the finish line.
If you need additional ideas when it comes to setting up a great sales contest, we’ve provided an assortment of contest templates for you to use. Those can be downloaded for free here. Happy selling!
