When you were in school, did you ever think it would be great to see a teacher or principal in an embarrassing situation? If so, did you ever have that opportunity? The idea of a school administrator allowing their pride to be sacrificed for the good of the school is not new. From wearing chicken suits to kissing some unpleasant animal, there have been a million gags. Recently, a principal in Texas made a bet with her students that if they scored better than seventy on their annual assessment tests, the faculty would spend a night on the roof of the school
This story and many like it are humorous and inspiring, but it begs the question – How often it is that as professional businesspeople we examine the significance these bets really have? Frank Sennett, author of the book 101 Stunts for Principals, says “Promising a stunt at the end can be a really effective way to get kids motivated.” Perhaps it’s time to take a lesson from these educators and their high-achieving students and examine your own incentive programs.
It’s no surprise that salespeople in an incentive program feel more valued and motivated and that feeling in turn lends itself to greater productivity and loyalty. They believe their company cares and they also care about their company. The workplace becomes a happier place as well because morale is boosted. This leads to less absenteeism and salesperson turnover. With salespeople more focused on their own objectives and to the company’s mission, it makes reaching their own goals much more attainable and even more rewarding once the goals are attained. Does this sound like your company? If not, it may be time to reevaluate your program.
The types of tangible rewards that should they be given should be as varied as there are salespeople. Rewards should be valued and the more in-tune you are to your salespeople and the types of things that interest and drive them as individuals, the more creative you can be to design sales incentive solutions that can achieve the corporate objectives. As the schools show, a sales incentive needs to have meaning and value behind it in order to generate the results. Just ask those teachers on the roof.