Sales Contest Ideas to Launch the New Year Strong

Sales Contest Ideas to Launch the New Year Strong

It’s hard to believe that we’re already a few weeks into the New Year! Hopefully, your resolutions are taking shape, but with that being said, how’s your sales team’s production? Are they off to a good start or are they in need of an extra push? A sales contest can be an effective solution to light a fire behind your sales team. You can ultimately boost production, morale, and results. Here are a few sales contest ideas you can use today to launch the New Year strong!

1. Referral Contest

Whether you’re in insurance, finance, or any other industry, all sales departments use referrals from current customers or even a fellow coworker to generate sales. You know that referrals are some of the hottest leads you can acquire. Why not incentivize the commitment to generating them? Create a referral sales contest within your sales team with the winner receiving a monetary bonus or prize of your choice. Stress to your team to tap into as many means as possible to generate them. For example, instant web form leads from social media or email can all make referral lead generation easier than ever. May the best salesperson win!

2. Team Contest

Everyone has quotas they need to achieve but every couple months or so, quotas can be missed for various reasons. Consider creating a team contest one month that has slightly higher individual monthly goals than normal. This can help make up for missed individual goals later on in the year. Also, when there’s a prize for the team at stake, it requires all sales team members to work together to achieve the common goal. Not only does teamwork make the dream work, but it also builds morale and trust between team members. As a reward for the contest, make sure it’s something all sales team members can enjoy like a team dinner, sports outing, or cash prize!

3. Cold Call Contest

Many salespeople dread cold calling. It’s tedious and comes with more rejection than compared to warm calls. This causes productivity to take a dive. However, with the right mindset, tools, and incentives in place, cold calling can become one of your sales team’s most anticipated activities! A compliant auto dialer with customizable scripts allows your team to get into a calling rhythm and boost outbound call productivity. Every day you can monitor their call results and even add them to a cold call board for all to see! Then, at the end of each month, reward the employee who made the most calls. Also, reward the individual who closed the most sales from the cold calls.

4. Overtime Sales Incentive

Although this one may not classify as a ‘sales contest’ it’s still a great idea to implement:

For those on salary, salespeople often work longer hours than what’s asked in order to close the sale. Other salespeople leave at the same time every day because they value their time more than their commission. One way to encourage salespeople to stay late is to offer higher commissions for sales made after scheduled hours or even allow extra time-off. Staying late to close a sale also shows your company’s loyalty to their customers. Overtime incentives are a win-win for everyone!

5. March Madness!

Break the monotony of the sales team and implement a week by week elimination style bracket competition! Create a head-to-head matchup between sales team members and at the end of each week check your sales opportunities to see who won. Have winning salespeople in one bracket and losers in the other. Then have the winners of the winners and losers bracket face off to be crowned champion. The winner can receive a prize of your choice and you could even have a trophy for the winner to take home! Be sure to offer some kind of incentive for all of those who participate regardless of who wins so everyone’s motivated. Ideally, for this sales contest, you’d want to do this in March to be in theme with NCAA March Madness, but any time of the year you see fit is fine too!

Final Tips

• Make the sales contests fun! Be sure to recognize team members throughout sales contests to boost morale and motivation.
• Sales contests that encourage team collaboration ensure learning amongst team members so everyone learns and makes more sales.
• Pick your sales contest prizes wisely. Make sure it’s a price everyone is motivated to work hard for. Or, let team members decide what they want their prizes to be.
• What to see firsthand how your sales team can close more deals today? Click here to schedule a free demo of Blitz Sales Software!