Why Run A Sales Contest ?

by Mike Sigers

Last week a new vendor visited our office for the first time. One of his first questions was, ” How many people work here ? ” As resident smartass, if felt it my duty to say, ” About half of ‘em !

It wasn’t true, of course, but it’s a good lead-in to what I want to share with you today.

It’s true that a lot of salespeople don’t work as hard as they can at all times. I know I don’t. I spend a lot of time….er, thinking ! Yeah, that’s it ! Looking at the big picture !

The world is awash in averageness and mediocrity. I’ve done posts about average and in case you missed them, let me give you my thoughts on being average.

” You’re just as close to the bottom as you are to the top. “

One way to get your salesforce working agian is a Sales Contest.

Sales contests are a good thing for several reasons, that I can think of. Here’s my short list :

1. Humans would rather play than work.

2. Humans will play harder than they’ll work.

3. Men/women are kids at heart. and love prizes.

4. It changes up the routine and gets salespeople out of their monotony.

5. Most of us like a good fight and will try like heck to win one.

6. You can use it to reward an employee that goes ‘over and above’ on a regular basis.

7. It normally increases sales for most of it’s duration.

Next, we’ll look at each of those 7 points and try to come up with a scenario that proves each one is true.

Rather than have me do all 7, maybe you guys can help me out and leave a comment that proves a point listed above.

Help ol’ Mike out and do all the work…I mean, leave a comment with your thoughts.

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