Here is a relatively simple question: Do you want to see an increase in your sales revenue?
Here’s an even simpler one: Does anyone NOT want to see an increase in their sales revenue?
Obviously, your cash flow, and the steady increase of it, is critical to the health and future of your company. You’ve invested time and money into charts and graphs and strategies and workforce to enable its incline.
We recently took a financial company and 400 of its partners to Sea Island, Georgia for a week of celebration and collaboration. The company uses this annual owner’s convention to shift their sales performance bell curve forward toward improved productivity for everyone.
What programs do you have in place to ensure consistent growth?
Maybe you already have an artfully curated compensation plan to motivate your sales team. Cash rewards, gift cards, the usual financial incentives that keep your employees content and moving in the right direction. This strategy likely works well for your top performers and they hungrily eat up the dessert tray of “carrots” placed before them every year. They remain consistently motivated, never wanting to drop below their impressive sales average.
But what about those employees in the middle? Are they accepting of their status quo performance, knowing that the top sellers on their teams will always reap the benefits? Accepting the status quo means doing the same thing every day, not necessarily concerned with increasing revenue. They don’t have to exert quite as much effort, but they can still live comfortably. Pushing harder isn’t really necessary, especially when they have no motivation to do so. In short, they’re not going to win the bonus anyway.
This is not the formula for financial success in the long-term.
Despite it all, the middle performers are a very important bunch and, with just a tiny shift, could bring about a significant increase in your company’s annual sales.
Jack Spartz, a well-known performance improvement strategist and author, claims “the greatest untapped value in business is grounded in moving your middle performers”. If your top performers make up about 20% of your sales team, your middle performers make up somewhere between 60-70%.
So where does that leave you? Probably wondering if you need a new, more inclusive strategy to motivate that middle road. An incentive program that feels comprehensive to all members of the sales team will encourage more than the top 20%. Can you imagine what even the tiniest boost in sales per member could do? Especially when that base makes up almost 70% of your team?
That’s where Incentive Travel Programs come in. Instead of bonuses and financial rewards gobbled up regularly by the top 20%, why not consider a program that includes everyone on your sales team? It’s a win win! Your salespeople are happy, they’re raking in great profits, and everyone feels like they’re working toward a tangible end goal that is actually attainable.
So now for the pitch. There is a real, detectable upside to weaving vacation travel incentives or corporate event travel programs into your benefits program. That upside is a financial one.
6 Ways Travel Rewards Can Increase Sales Through Employee Motivation:
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Travel Evokes an Emotional Response
This one requires a quick experiment. Open a new tab on your web browser and pull up a picture of a spectacular place: Amalfi Coast, the Rocky Mountains, the African Bush, a serene Caribbean Island. Close your eyes, picture yourself there, and notice what happens. Odds are, something moves inside of you. Maybe your heart beats a little faster, your blood rushes, you feel a sense of exhilaration. Now, imagine you’re an employee working toward a targeted goal, and this place was the targeted goal! If you knew that by increasing your sales efforts, you could actually, physically be there…wouldn’t you at least try?
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Travel is What People Want
To follow that up, and to be perfectly blunt, travel is what your employees want. Well, at least 93% of them, according to a survey by USA Today. It is almost a guarantee that your sales team will increase its performance levels with hopes of a corporate incentive travel experience in the near or not too distant future.
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It Helps Bond Your Team
Teams that travel together, work better together. The perks of an incentive travel program extend beyond the trip itself. It leads to new friendships, new skills and a positive association with your company’s brand. A close team that works well together and openly shares their successes and failures will ultimately lead to better profits. Plus, with that feel-good energy, employees will tackle tasks with more passion and determination.
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Your Sales Team is More Likely to Stick Around
Top salespeople are like gold, they never go out of style and they’re always worth the investment. Who knows this better than anyone? Your competitors. Poaching is real and it’s not going away. Your best salespeople will always be both highly desirable and sought after within your industry. Keeping them happy is crucial, lest they woefully decide to go elsewhere. One of the best ways to combat this nuisance is by incentivizing your salespeople to stay with a creative, unforgettable travel incentive program. Employees can get cash incentives anywhere. Vacations? Not so much.
Another thing to note: it’s significantly less costly to keep your employees than to hire new ones. According to a 2019 Gallup study, “the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary — and that’s a conservative estimate.” When it all adds up, employee turnover is costing businesses in the US alone $1 trillion annually.
Your best salespeople are likely your go-to problem solvers and reliable innovators. Shifts in teams, especially when the shift is within the leadership sector, can influence morale (and not in a good way). So beyond the financial cost of losing your top players, there is a performance cost as well.
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Bonuses Aren’t That Motivating
Let’s be real. If your sales team members are comfortable with their annual income, an unattained bonus isn’t really that big a deal. Why? Because cash bonuses are hardly ever spent on anything special. Worthlin Worldwide Research conducted a survey to see where people allocated their cash bonuses. 29% said it went to bills, 18% don’t remember what they did with the money, 11% spent it on household items. Less than encouraging! Something new and fresh, like a few days in a sunny, exotic destination, is a far more stimulating target.
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It Increases ROI
Finally, the words you wanted to hear. Travel incentive programs are proven to increase your company’s ROI. According to Aberdeen Research, “Organizations that provide non cash reward/recognition had an average year over year annual corporate revenue increase of 9.6% versus 3% for all others.”
The Incentive Research Foundation concludes that “Properly designed incentive travel programs increase sales productivity by 18% and produce an ROI of 112%”. There are several explanations for this, but the most convincing by far is the pre and post-vacation incentive program “high”. Employees are motivated for the months leading up to the group incentive trip and are in good spirits long after the trip. The impetus remains ongoing throughout the year!
“We find Ascent Performance Group’s professionalism and attention to detail to be unmatched by any of our previous partners. They have become an integral part of our revenue growth strategy from year-to-year.” – The E. W. Scripps Company
2022 is a very particular year. At a time when many companies are slashing budgets and cutting costs due to economic difficulties, the question of proper investment and strategy comes into play. Is this the right time to budget a vacation incentive program?
If the above list hasn’t already motivated you, let this serve as a reminder: the lower the revenue, the more sales a company needs. If your profits are dropping or your costs are eating noticeably into your profits, this is definitely a time to increase your level of sales. The cutting of rewards programs and incentive benefits will likely cause employees to look elsewhere for employment. How can you keep your employees close? Ensure that they feel safe. They want to know they are in good hands with your company. A group incentive travel reward will redeem their trust and make them feel that they matter.
In short, travel incentive programs guarantee dedicated employees, a happier, more bonded work environment and, most importantly, a noticeable increase in sales.
Want to hear more? The team at Ascent Performance Group is always ready to talk about your options.
Our goal is to create a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both you and your team that will help to build a strong culture for your business and your brand. Let’s talk about what’s best for you, whether that is a corporate group travel service or a travel incentive program!