Most sales reps are motivated by larger paychecks – money talks! At the same time, sales motivation truly originates from your sales commission program’s structure. When supplementing cash-based incentives, non-cash rewards can prove equally – or even more effective in terms of motivating your sales force!
Examples of non-cash rewards
Here are just a few examples of non-cash rewards you can use to motivate your team:
- Dining: fine dining, private event, wine club, etc.
- Events: comedy show, sporting events, etc.
- Gadgets: latest cell phone, new watch, new laptop, etc.
- Memberships: sailing club membership, golf club membership, etc.
- Travel: travel voucher, weekend getaway, cruise, etc.
- Health: massage, spa, beauty salon, etc.
- Recognition: preferred parking, lunch with the CEO, etc.
- Learning: cooking class, sales conference, coaching sessions, etc.
- Points: accrue points and earn special rewards
- Badges: display special badges on reps commission dashboard
Delivering non-cash rewards
The best way to deliver non-cash rewards is to:
- Personalize them. Make sure that the reward makes sense to the recipient. If they don’t drink, don’t get them a wine club membership!
- Keep them fresh. For non-cash rewards to be effective, they must feel exciting. If everybody already has had lunch with the CEO, it’s no longer a perk.
- Prepare them. Do all the prep work ahead of time so that your reps don’t have to lift a finger – and feel truly special.
- Customize them. Entry-level reps may appreciate cash-based rewards a lot more than non-cash awards. Make sure to design incentive plans accordingly.
Your return on investment
Besides creating more sales motivation and employee loyalty, your non-cash rewards can lead to additional (small) returns on investments in the form of:
- Making your sales reps more efficient (ex: new cell phone)
- Helping your sales reps connect (ex: golf membership)
- Increasing your team’s knowledge (ex: sales conference)
- Improving relations with other top reps (ex: private events)
- Improving your employee’s health (ex: spa)
- Increasing employee loyalty (ex: invite their spouse)
- Helping with recruiting efforts by being different
Challenges with non-cash rewards
There are a few challenges associated with non-cash rewards you should be aware of:
- Your finance team may push back as they are harder to track and audit
- Additional work is required from your admin team to plan and deliver rewards
- You need to keep innovating and regularly update non-cash rewards
- The same cash reward may be valued differently by different reps
- Cash rewards are more visible – reps may start comparing with others
- You need to make sure your cash reward is not offensive or misunderstood
Conclusion
Make sure to use an SPM solution which lets you deliver and track non-cash rewards. With this in place, non-cash rewards give you an opportunity to make your sales environment both unique and exciting.