Sales Contests – Other Objectives

Mostly we think of sales contests as ways to increase sales. There are other reasons to hold sales contests, and we’ll look at some of those today.

New or Neglected Products

If you’re introducing a new product or if you have a surplus of a product that didn’t really sell like you thought it should have, then you’ve got a reason to hold a contest. You’ve also got a reason to send out a news release, but I’ll let you click that link and get the info you need on that from someone better educated than I, David Meerman Scott.

New Advertising Campaign

Do you have a new way to advertise your product ? A new display for all your dealers ? A new tie-in with another company ? If so, you’ve got a reason to have a sales contest. And you have a reason to send out a news release. See above.

How about these objectives.

Collecting bad debts. Give your salespeople .03 of every dollar they collect that was over 30 days old. .05 on every dollar that was over 60 days and .10 for all over 90 days old. I’ll bet your receivables drop dramatically within 30 days.

If you have a manufacturing facility, spend some time finding ways to create parameters that will pay the employees who reduce waste or downtime, as well.

Finding new uses for products. Is there a segment of the business world that might use your product if they knew it exisited. Ask your salesforce. Ask your customers. Ask your vendors. I’ll bet one of those segments will come up with a new list of clients in no time.

Do you struggle finding new salesman ? If so, have a contest to allow your salesforce to find you some new recruits.

Raising money for charity. Have a contest to see which part of your organization can get the most dollars donated to a charity you support.

Downtime caused by accidents. You should always have incentives for you employees to work safely. You’d be surprised how badly people want those T-shirts and hats.

Non-selling incentives. Give incentives to employees to tell people where they work. Have them get the signatures of people that they told about where they work. I’ll guarantee new sales from this. Award prizes to the top 50%.

These are just a few ways to increase profits very inexpensively and they’ll also improve morale. Which also happens to increase profits. Which normally improves morale. You get the picture yet ?

Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to our RSS Feed or sign up for our e-mail updates (in the sidebar). To leave a comment, click on the post title, then scroll down to the bottom. Thanks!