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promotion. This strategy was very important to me. Many top performers
achieved the promotion in as few as seven months. For others, it took over two
years. I had no problem with that. Frankly, I never understood why tenure was a
factor for promotion in so many sales organizations. Sales is such a measurable,
meritocratic function that I simply left tenure out.
Using Sales Contests to Motivate the Team
“Mark, I need to get our sales activity up. My salespeople just won't make
enough dials. What should I do?”
Run a contest.
“Mark, my team is terrible at forecasting. They do not take it seriously. They do
not follow our best practices. What should I do?”
Run a contest.
“Mark, we just launched a mission-critical product into the market this quarter.
However, our sales team is stuck in their old ways of selling. What should I do?”
Run a contest.
“Sales contests are an effective tool to drive short-term behaviors and build
team culture within the sales organization.”
If the sales compensation plan is Batman, the sales contest is Robin. Contests are
almost as effective as the compensation plan when it comes to motivating the
sales team and driving the desired behavior. Contests bring a fun, dynamic
aspect to a sometimes mundane daily routine. Contests can be aligned with
desired behaviors and, unlike commission plans, can be temporary and short-
term focused. Contests can even be used to build team culture.
For these reasons, I ran a sales contest almost every month, especially in the
early years of team development. Here are the six best practices I found most
effective for sales contest design.
1. Align the contest with a short-term behavior change desired for the majority
of the team. Like sales commission plans, sales contests are a great way to
drive home desired behavior. For example, you may fear a summer slump
and want to boost activity in June. This desire would be difficult to pull off
through the commission plan. However, an activity-based contest in June
