Sales incentives should be a key part of every company’s sales strategy plan. When you want to boost key areas, such as gross sales or customer satisfaction, the right rewards can help you reach your goals.
So it's no surprise that over 93% of executives at top-performing companies strongly support incentive programs because they believe it gives them a competitive advantage.
In this article, we'll explore some sales incentive ideas that are working for clients and offer actionable tips for giving excellent rewards.
Historically, sales incentive programs have been used as part of a promotion, or one-off campaigns. But as the sales landscape changes in the AI-era incentivizing the meeting and sign-up process is becoming an expectation rather than the delightful surprise it once was.
Sales incentive programs reward certain behaviors by giving some kind of bonus or discount in exchange.
Companies use short-term incentive programs, also known as SPIFFs, to encourage immediate growth in a particular area, such as sales or customer loyalty.
Long-term incentive programs exist to promote a steady increase in performance or reach long-term goals.
While sales incentive programs often focus on boosting sales generall, they can also provide the following benefits:
Increase word-of-mouth referrals
Improve sales of a specific product or service
Warm up customers when cold calling
Promote trials and demos
Encourage customers to opt into your emails, etc.
Engage qualified leads
The structure of a sales incentive program depends on the organization, including its goals, target customers, and products and services.
Identifying the new rules and sales processes regarding rewards and clearly communicating them to your team is essential. You should establish your sales goals, the types of rewards, and how customers can redeem rewards.
Many companies offer a gift on sign-up, rewarding their customers for reaching with digital gift cards for choosing their service. Consider your target demographic when deciding which incentives would be most effective for your organization.
Most companies have adopted sales incentive programs in some form, but it’s not enough to simply jump on the bandwagon. You should ensure your incentive program aligns with your company’s brand, marketing strategy, and ideal customers. Your sales initiative shouldn’t be a flash in the pan. Let it have longevity and build momentum over time.
Once you get the ball rolling, you should track its progress to smooth any obstacles in its path. Rewards program software often features tracking and reporting, providing you with stats that give insights on user behavior and delivery of the rewards.
When choosing how your organization will use sales incentives, think about how you interact with your customers. Are you primarily talking over the phone, in virtual meetings, or in person at a store? What opportunities exist for rewarding your customers that would delight them and encourage them to do business with you?
Below, we provide a few simple examples of sales incentives for various situations.
Getting your customers to attend a Zoom sales meeting can be a challenge. More than likely, they have other appointments to attend with your competitors and might need an extra push to give you their time.
So you might considering sending a Starbucks digital gift card to cover their morning coffee or provide a relevant bonus item along with your products or services in exchange for their attendance.
“Even with the way prices have gone up, a $5 Starbucks card feels like, ‘coffee’s on me, a treat’s on me,’” says Giftbit Director of Business Development Matt Brossard. "You're basically inviting somebody to take a few minutes to themselves, have a treat, and get away from the stress of the office."
While rewarding your customers for positive behavior is beneficial, it can also help to give rewards when things go wrong.
For example, if a customer calls to report an issue or negative experience with your product, you could send an apology gift card to their email.
This strategy will help you maintain existing customers, which can significantly grow your business. Indeed, research suggests that a mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25 to 95%.
If you're exploring telecom incentive strategies, for example, you might use an email like this (or adapt it for your own industry).
Incentives are an excellent way to encourage more people to participate in surveys and market research.
For example, you can offer gift cards, discounts, or coupons in exchange for completing a survey or sticking with a long-term research initiative.
Pro-tip: Instead of offering a big reward to a limited number of participants (like $100 to the first ten people who complete your survey), Giftbit’s Head of Customer Success Sofia Baltasar suggests spreading that budget out into smaller rewards for each respondent. “If you don’t make it crystal clear that every survey participant is going to get something, guaranteed, then expect your response rates to be lower,” she says.
Note: Giftbit lets you offer low denomination rewards—even digital gift cards as low as $1 or even less. Learn more about micro-rewards.
Word-of-mouth referrals are a cheap and effective marketing tool, and you can use digital rewards to incentivize existing customers to tell others about your business.
For example, you might integrate your app with rewards software to automatically send a gift card or discount to customers who get their friends to sign up.
👉 This is how Quo doubled their customer reviews—read the case study here.
People representing your brand or helping you land deals will keep you top of mind when it comes to their workflow if they have some positive reinforcement in the form of gifts and rewards.
You can set up a points to rewards program for these connections, or gift them bonuses each quarter.
Giftbit makes it easy to reward customer loyalty as a part of their sales strategy. You can buy, send, and track the gift cards you give to your clients and let them choose how to spend their rewards. To learn more, book a quick call with our sales team.