Rewarding the best doesn't ensure the best performance.

Unfortunately, it is a widely held belief that rewarding the best will produce the best performance. However, although it is a healthy value for the company, competition can be a great source of demotivation for your teams. Here are 4 tips to consider when setting up your challenge.

1. "It's a foregone conclusion!"

An incentive program that only rewards the best can have a demotivating effect on all salespeople, and produce the opposite result to the one we expect.

Because even before the challenge, everyone often knows who will get the gift in the end. It's the best salesperson... who didn't wait for the challenge to be the best salesperson: because he or she may have the best territory, the best customer portfolio, the best product catalog, the greatest talent... and he or she wins the challenge every year. In short, in this configuration, your challenge is at risk and can be very counter-productive. Hence the importance of having a technological solution capable of implementing personalized objectives and speaking individually to each member of the sales force.

2. "These are not our values!"

A motivational program based on competitive values may not necessarily be consistent with the values of the company and its sales force, even if it rewards multiple winners.

This is often the case in the world of mutual insurance companies, for example, where the aim is to inculcate performance values without putting people in competition with each other, as competition between individuals who have to work together is ultimately very badly perceived. Hence the importance of having a technological solution capable of implementing collective objectives and speaking in a segmented way to each of the teams making up the sales force, depending on their progress and results.

3. "I forgot there was a challenge!"

Too many incentive programs are satisfied with a grand launch, with no other day-to-day communication. Without any animation plan.

However, we too often forget that a motivation program is first and foremost a relationship program, before being a reward program. Because, like everyone else, good resolutions and motivation fade away in everyday life. The famous New Year's resolutions are not enough. Your sales force is quickly called back to their comfort zone. And it's not a gift that will make them change their mindset, if you don't give them the energy they need to overcome the inertia of their daily lives. Hence the importance of having a technology solution that can implement regular communication and goals, both individually and collectively.

4. "The pressure makes me lose my temper!"

Competitive values or daily communication that is not adapted to the profile can be a great source of stress, and become very counterproductive.

The individual story-telling, i.e. its communication and reward plan, must therefore also be adapted to the listening time of the future beneficiary. Because a good sales force motivation plan must ultimately produce only beneficiaries on all your sales forces and raise each one in its results. Hence the importance of having a technological solution capable of talking to the person individually at the right time, even in the context of collective objectives.

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In conclusion, the purpose of a good motivation program is to federate the maximum of your direct and indirect sales forces. Because, quite simply, it is better to increase by 10% the sales of the soft underbelly of your sales force, than to increase by 10% the sales of your best salesperson, who already knows he is going to win, even before the challenge. It will be much more profitable for your company. But of course, we cannot give the bonus to the "average" or "weak" without rewarding the "best". Hence the importance of having a technological solution capable of motivating and rewarding everyone according to their profile, their team, their context and their results