Boost Sales Performance by choosing the Right Incentive & Engagement Software

Considering that the customer is the king, and the sales team – in-house, franchised, or dealer network – are typically the first, second, and the repeated points of contact for your brand, it is crucial to know how effectively they are working in creating value in the customer’s mind. In other words, not letting the customer forget ‘you.’ Are they doing their job of listening to the customers effectively, and if they are, how fruitfully is the organization listening to them!

Employers expect their in-house sales team, including inside and outside sales, remote and onsite teams, to work at their optimal best! That is fair – after all, the team is being paid to do so. However, sadly, sales representatives, in many cases, spend half their day complaining about their targets being too high, or the unjustified division of the sales territory, or being overworked vis-a-vis salary and sales incentives, being unhappy and demotivated with their commission structure and payout systems, and so on. It is a tough job and · As per a recently conducted The State Of The Global Workplace survey, sales, office staff, and construction workforce is the most disengaged employees in the workplace.

• It mentions only a 12% engagement rate for these three sections of people.
• Employee engagement in the sales team is a universal issue – at a given time, only one-third of your sales executives are engaged and motivated. On the other hand, things can be way more challenging when it comes to your extended sales team like distributors, agents, your franchised and dealer networks.

• About 73% of channel partners in an engagement program feel that channel programs are too complex.

What makes channel incentive programs complicated is that your organization does not directly employ them – they are a part of a distribution network that resells your products and services. In many cases, they are selling not just your products but that of the competitors too. For dealers and agents, customer preferences make a difference, not your sales targets and profits as much. Hence, as a brand that aims to grow, you need to have a robust sales incentive program to have middlemen selling your products heartily. While you may want to directly reward and recognize the salespeople of your extended network for their hard work, the middlemen in between can act as a big resistance to an external-sponsored incentive program. Some, however, give all their support because they are unable to afford such top-of-the-line incentive programs.

Why Incentivizing and Engaging Your Sales Team is so crucial?

The relationship is simple – the sales team is responsible for earning revenues for the company. There is enough data to prove that only a motivated and engaged team can fetch the desired results that establish that the sales team’s motivational levels and performance are directly proportional.

While many organizations do not have properly defined sales team engagement modules in place, the others use very basic incentive modules without considering factors outside their control. Many use the generic employee engagement tools to drive the performance of their sales teams and incentive them. But, is it enough?

Unquestionably, automated employee recognition and sales incentive platforms are the need of the hour. A futuristic customized performance-driven solution can boost the sales team’s excitement levels and push them meaningfully out of their comfort zone.

But, what parameters should be assessed when choosing these platforms for seamless integration and yielding the desired results? In this article, we will cover the nine top features to look for when deciding on an employee recognition platform or a sales incentive tool.

1. Choose a highly secure, cloud-based solution that is SSO certified

Broadly speaking, businesses can choose from cloud variants versus on-premise platforms. The former is a better option for multiple reasons – easy management, minimal administration and maintenance hassles, numerous flexible and scalable options to choose from, minimal upfront investment, 24×7 accessibility, remote access, and more. Cloud-based tools are good to go with, especially for a scattered sales network, including channel partners, while ensuring that these are equipped with enhanced security features and compliance. It is advisable to look for a tool that is SSO-certified. Single Sign-on options come with innumerable benefits:

• The application can be accessed from one portal with a single log-in. The user can access all the required resources from the portal or the app with a single click. Helps expedite tool access for one and all and saves time.
• Removes the risk of typing or remembering passwords every time. Helps companies in strong password enforcement.
• Both the above points stimulate end-user adoption rates of such applications making it apt for a heterogeneous sales structure.

2. Look for robust analytics and dashboards

A robust analytical dashboard helps in the rapid understanding of various pre-defined performance parameters and metrics. The dashboard aptly offers a synopsis, a true representation of how things are, offering a bird’s eye view. Besides analytical insight, such dashboards are interactive, helping managers and team leads effectively interpret the trends for deeper analysis of sales performance.

3. Insist on a native mobile app

Native mobile apps are designed and optimized for specific use and platform. Such apps are responsive, fast, and powered with robust APIs and programming languages for superior performance. One of the best aspects of native apps is the high-security features. The apps can be customized, offering the end-user a smooth and superior experience. The apps are intuitive and interactive, minimizing the end-user learning curve and fastening the adoption rate for your extended sales team. The usual complexities involved in being a part of a channel sales program get removed with easy-to-understand and easy-to-use native mobile app features.

4. Link to global rewards and fulfillment

An effective sales incentive program needs to have a power-driven and well-balanced reward and recognition scheme. The best way to inspire and motivate the team is to devise ways to reward them fairly, proportionally, aligned with their performance. While cash incentives are a great motivator, organizations can look at other global reward types. Some such options of non-cash rewards are:

• Gift cards where the team strives for a physical prize.
• Tech gadgets are another great option. With the millennial and Gen Z crowd spending handsomely on digital devices like smartwatches or tablets, offering such products as incentives can be a great motivator.
• Perks like choosing from a variety of shopping and discount cards.
• Learning opportunities where organizations can sponsor classes or workshops or training programs related to a specific hobby or skill of the best performers.

5. Explore budget management and tracking

For the sales team, targets and budgets are integral tools that help them maintain their performance. Instead of the conventional budgeting and tracking methods, it is good to consider an incentive or an employee engagement platform that helps them manage and track their budgets at a single platform.

6. Lean towards gamification and fun elements

More and more organizations use gamification strategies to coach their workforce and sales teams to remain focused on their goals. Gamification is strategies used in online games but can be used in non-game situations to inspire desired actions. The techniques used involve real-time coaching blended with fun elements and consistent feedback. The right platform will include a combo of well-designed incentives with sales contests. Focus on platforms with game mechanics for encouraging salespeople to fulfill high-value activities in the form of missions.

7. Ensure both leader and peer-to-peer recognition

Reward and recognition work best for all employees. While one cannot dispute the significance of monetary rewards, honoring people for their outstanding work or consistent performance is a good way to keep the team motivated. Look for a platform that applauds top performers on a social-media kind of a platform, posting compliments, feedback, and videos to recognize their efforts. People from all levels can use an effective platform to pat the performer, be it their team leaders, managers, CEOs, or peers.

8. Look for quick and easy setup

Complicated setup processes that require high-end technical skills can be a big demotivator. Choose platforms that can be installed within minutes and do not involve intricate processes. Simple, straightforward, easy, user-friendly, intuitive, and smart – these features are a must-have for an effective employee engagement platform.

9. Access to run programs and campaigns

Engaging employees and the sales team involves running different campaigns and programs by different teams and departments. Using a platform that offers easy access to employees at different levels to initiate, create, track and monitor specific campaigns gives a lot of flexibility to your workforce. Individual team leaders and managers who know their team members the best can design programs and implement the same to inspire their teams, being accountable for the campaign goals and the overall results.

These are nine generic ways to shortlist the best-suited sales incentive and employee engagement platforms for your organization. Businesses are different; they vary in scales and organizational goals and culture; industries differ, and their targeted customers differ. But, the common thread is the presence of inspired and motivated employees and salespeople. Since innate human nature remains constant, the way to motivate and engage your workforce, more or less, remains the same. Even though the factors that determine the right sales incentive and employee engagement platform are business-specific, these nine factors mentioned here can help you choose a robust platform that makes every team member intense, focused and persistent in their performance.