“Although individual performance measures work best for some organizations,” Sheila McCarthy and Shalin Sharma recommend in an article featured on WorldatWork.org, “others can benefit from team-based plans.” The article titled, “Are Team-Based Incentive Measures Right for Your Sales Organization?” is a great reference for organizations with sales incentive programs. I would like to share the reasons these two authors were in favor of team sales incentive programs with readers this week but if you have the time, the full article is a great reference for companies deciding if their sales incentive program should include individual goals, team goals or a mixture of both.
Support a more collaborative environment
Often in organizations, a sale or order is the direct result of many different people working together to attract new business, sell a product or service and then retain customers or clients. The selling process is dependent on the efforts many people and by rewarding these team efforts as part of a sales incentive program, an organization can foster a collaborative environment that is more conducive to teamwork.
Develop goals that are aligned with business objectives
Sales incentive programs often include goals that include cross-selling, customer service and revenue-based metrics. Depending on the nature of your company and its objectives and values, the goals of the sales incentive program should be devised to motivate team members to achieve these exact objectives and abide by these values. As the organization reaches its goals, the sales incentive program metrics should also evolve.
Select the right mix of individual and team sales rewards
McCarthy and Sharma advocate using no more than 30% of the total sales incentive program be targeted towards team-based measures for companies introducing team-based incentives for the first time. By starting off with 70% of sales incentives targeted towards individuals, top performing sales people are still being recognized and rewarded consistently while the company subtly starts fostering a teamwork environment. “As the organization becomes more comfortable with team-based measures,” McCarthy and Sharma suggest, “up to 50% [of program goals should be] based on team results…” By selecting the right mix of individual and team-based sales incentives, top performers can still receive much deserved recognition while the company rewards the value other team members bring to the selling process.
By integrating team-based sales incentives, companies can effectively increase sales as all of the contributors of the selling process are recognized and rewarded. Targeting individual and team-based metrics engages your workforce to reach goals so your company can achieve bottom line results.