Sales Incentive Games

Salespeople who earn commissions have built-in motivation: the more they sell, the more they earn. But not all sales jobs work that way. Some sales reps earn little or no commission. Even commissioned salespeople sometimes have a hard time getting their juices flowing. Sales incentive games provide motivation for commission and non-commission-based employees in your small business.

Before employees tackle incentive games, let them brush up on sales knowledge and techniques. For example, a game like "Features and Benefits" lets them practice the art of selling. In this game, one employee plays the customer and explains the type of product he wants to purchase. Remaining employees focus on the customer's needs and try to sell the item. The first seller provides a product feature; the next seller offers a benefit that the feature provides. The third seller provides another feature, and the fourth seller discusses a benefit of that feature.

Instant cash serves as strong motivation for employees to make a sale. In "Digging For Dollars," fill a large jar with $1 bills. Employees take a bill for each sale they make during the regular workday. The employee collecting the most $1 bills wins. For "The Floating $20 Bill," choose one product you want to sell the most of during a day. Give a $20 bill to the first employee who sells one of the items. Each time an employee sells one more of that item than the previous bill holder, she takes the bill. The employee holding the bill at the end of the day keeps it. If the competition occurs during a busier sales period, use a $50 bill.

Have employees focus on selling a set number of items and tracking their accomplishments on Tic-Tac-Toe and bingo cards. Divide the average number of an items sold per day by the number of employees participating in the game and set the sales goal one higher than the average. For instance, if a restaurant averages 80 appetizers a day and 10 servers are competing, each server must sell at least nine appetizers so the overall team goal is 90 appetizers.

For both Tic-Tac-Toe and bingo, multiple items can appear in one square, with varying quantities. If a goal is nine of one item, you can put four in one square, three in another and two in another. Contestants mark the spots on their cards when they reach goals in either game. Employees win prizes when they score three consecutive X’s or O’s in a row (Tic Tac Toe) or cover a whole row in any direction or mark out each corner (bingo).

Your team might prefer to work toward a common incentive that will benefit each employee. After stressing the importance of customer service, have your employees strive to reach a specified customer-satisfaction goal. After a period of time, survey your customer base. If the satisfaction rating is strong and meets or exceeds your goal, and your company shows a profit for the period, give your employees cash bonuses or prizes such as gift certificates, merchandise or paid days off. Alternately, set a company sales goal for a quarter and give each employee a prize if the company meets the goal.