How many times have you been to a meeting and the subject was ‘We’re behind in sales versus plan this quarter. Let’s brainstorm actions we can take to drive short term sales?” I have been to many meetings like this across multiple companies and sales leaders.
One action item that always seems to make it to the list, is “run a contest or spiff”. For some reason, upper management loves spiffs. Perhaps it’s because they’re easy to explain and something tangible. When asked “What are you doing SVP sales to get back on plan right now?”, they can respond with “An exciting sales contest starting tomorrow, sir”.
In general I am not a Spiff or Contest fan because I don’t feel that in the majority of cases, they drive a true and measurable lift in sales productivity. They are often a band-aid, when what’s needed is a thorough root cause analysis and more complex solutions.
I have seen time and time again, that the employees who win the prizes are the same ones who are already your top performers. These are the ones who would have met or exceeded quota without a contest.
On the flip side, when lower performers win there is often a reason, not tied to sales productivity, especially if the prizes are very lucrative. This could mean sandbagging sales, enteering sales before they’re fully baked and pulling in sales early- from the next quarter. I’ve seen every scenario occur.
I do support running a very short term spiff or contest from time to time. One that lasts an hour, a day or a few days, can help improve employee morale and add fun to the working environment. If your employees are happier, they’ll likely stay longer and continue to hone their sales skills for your company.
One last thought on spiffs/contests is.. they need to be easy to measure. And, management needs to provide timely updates on who’s in the running during the spiff and announce the winner of the spiff within 24-48 hours of the spiff ending. If the Spiff results come out weeks after the Spiff ends, this could negatively impact morale, versus provide a needed lift.
Here are some additional articles on sales contests you may find helpful:
- 10 Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Contest Themes
- 7 Steps To Sales Contest Design (Free eBook)
- 50 Sales Contest Themes Free PDF
- 12 Sales contest Ideas For Your Sales Team
- Get up and Go – Sales Contest Ideas
- The Right Way To Run A Sales Contest
Wrapping Up… A short term sales spiff or contest can be a way to keep your employees motivated and improve employee morale. However, long term spiffs lasting months or quarters, costing significant dollars.. do not often drive a measurable lift in sales productivity. Instead, they take leadership staff away from looking at the root causes of the sales problems and implementing long term, impactful solutions.
Marci, great post. The absolute BEST reward you can give a sales rep, particularly an inside sales rep – is time off. Some of our clients run spifs in the summer and the winner gets to take a Friday afternoon off. Doesn’t sound like much does it? But, boy do they compete to sail out the door on a beautiful sunny day and leave their peers staring after them. Just thought I would share….
trish bertuzzi[Click to quote this in your comment]
Trish: an entire day off, eh? You Saint, you! While I am cynical, I suppose these sales reps are not selling a very high dollar amount of product, or else something better than one whole day off could be coughed up, particularly since many sales people I know don’t make much of a wage (ie: the day off really doesn’t cost the employer much) when their commissions / spiffs are no longer factored in.
While i do partially agree with Marci regarding top performers’ likeliness to dominate Spiffs and take some of the oomph away, should we likewise stop rewarding mid / upper management with nice fat bonuses since they are likely top performers already (hence their promotions and larger paychecks) ?
paul j[Click to quote this in your comment]
Hello….you mentioned how most of the people that win the contests are people that sell a lot anyway…That’s true, but that doesn’t mean everyone else who didn’t win didn’t improve their sales. Plus…let’s say you have a dog product sitting in inventory you want to move out. Making a contest to move it helps get it out the door. And don’t tell me that the company should analyze why they have dog products instead of trying to move them..trust me every good company has a couple because you can’t always be 100% something’s going to sell well when you bring it in.
R[Click to quote this in your comment]