Additional Thoughts on Motivating Teleprospectors
Anyone in teleprospecting appreciates a little extra incentive. It is always nice from a management perspective to have the ability to dangle an extra carrot in front your team, assuming you can eek a little bit more effort out of them. The problem is that the economy has handcuffed us a bit from being as creative as we would like. The "slush fund" that may have existed in previous years most likely isn't being tapped into these days because it doesn't exist anymore. While the president's club award to a tropical destination is most likely being put on hold this year, your team needs to know that you appreciate their effort. Do you feel you are doing the little things that leave your teleprospecting team with the impression that you recognize and appreciate this effort?
As Matt mentioned in his blog last week, money is without a doubt the common motivator for the average teleprospector. He also pointed out that there are many other things outside of their standard comp that can keep them engaged. In the past, if I were ever recognized for my performance with a cash reward, I found that it was generally applied to something lame like paying bills. As much as I enjoyed that, I would have rather have received gift certificate to play a round of golf at Granite Links.
My point is this - you should force your top performers to splurge on themselves. Their standard compensation should be used to take care of the practical stuff like mortgage, car payments, credit cards, etc. I understand there may not be a significant amount of money in the fun budget, but get creative enough to take it a step beyond cash.
My Father and brother have to be two of the more frugal individuals I know. Every year when Christmas comes around, I'll get my golfing fanatic dad a box of Pro V1s and my beer connoisseur brother a case of his favorite obscure Belgian beer - both of which they would never buy for themselves, but nonetheless are very happy to receive. Think about incenting your team the same way. A $50 gift card to use on an activity/product of their choice and a day off can go a long way. Hey, it ain't a trip to Aruba, but it's better than using the economy as an excuse to do nothing.
Another thing to consider as way to motivate the team is to individualize your incentives. The problem with some of the compensation programs I've been around is that as soon as they are rolled out, a good majority of the sales team automatically raises the white flag assuming they can't win so they are more discouraged than encouraged to produce. Customize each rep's bonus based on their individual production goal. This ensures that everyone has a legitimate chance to hit their goals and thus will be motivated.
What are you doing to incent your teleprospecting reps without breaking the bank?