Your sales team helps drive revenue and growth to your company. To show recognition, implementing sales awards can help improve team morale and increase strong engagement among your sales reps.
Sales awards can be given for several reasons, whether it’s because of increased performance or timely sales competitions like a “Summer Sale Extravaganza.” But what awards should you include? In this post, we’ll cover why sales awards are important, give you ideas for awards to give out, and provide award ideas that go beyond a trophy. Let’s get started.
Why Sales Awards Matter
Sales awards are important because they help celebrate your team members and incentivize them to improve their sales. By recognizing your sales team, you’ll increase their motivation and grow your business.
Sales awards can also improve your employee loyalty and company culture.
A survey by O.C. Tanner shows that “when leaders are mentors, actively advocate for employee development, and proactively connect their employees with meaningful opportunities, employees and leaders feel more successful, become more deeply connected to one another, and contribute to a stronger workplace culture.”
And when you have sales awards, your sales managers will work with their teams to develop their skills and help them improve their retention rates or close rates. It’s a win-win. So what awards should you use? Let’s go over some ideas below.
1. Top Performance Sales Award
The top performance sales award is given to the team member with the most sales for a given period. This type of award is helpful because it recognizes your top performers and incentivizes those competitive sales reps.
What we like: This award incentivizes sales reps to sell as much as possible and bring in as much revenue as possible. Healthy competition is always helpful for a strong sales team.
2. Growth Award
A growth award is given to the sales reps who show the most improvement. It can be titled the “Growth Award” or something like “Most Improved Sales.” This helps motivate the members of your sales team who don’t always bring in the best numbers.
What we like: We like this award because it recognizes members of your team who are committed to improving their sales, even though they might not be your top performers. These reps are just as important as your consistently high sellers.
3. Leadership Award
A leadership award will be given to your best sales managers. Those with the highest-performing teams or who help develop their best teams. Your sales reps could even vote on this.
What we like: This award is a good idea to implement because it recognizes your managers and reps. And it helps motivate your sales managers to develop their team and help them reach their best numbers.
4. Achievement Award
An achievement award can be goal- or career-based, like a “Lifetime Achievement Award.” A goal-based award would be like “Salesperson Who Met All Their KPIs” or something like that. And a lifetime achievement award would be about your tenured sales reps who have contributed the most overall revenue to your company.
What we like: We like this award because it recognizes those who are setting and meeting their goals and those who are longtime members of your team.
5. Top Closer Award
If you’re in sales, you know that closing a sale is the most important thing about your job. The “Top Closer Award” will recognize the sales rep who has the best close rate.
What we like: We like this award because it recognizes the sales rep who closes the most sales. This might not be your top performer, but the person who knows what sales to go after and how to effectively sell to those customers.
6. Exceptional Salesmanship Award
This award will be given to someone on your team who uses innovative sales strategies and has the best relationships with their prospects and customers.
What we like: This award is important because it recognizes the sales reps who always try new strategies and work on their relationships with customers.
7. Best Team Player Award
A team player award will be given to the sales rep who is always helping other members of your team. They’re the ones who volunteer to help train other sales reps or who cover for reps who call in sick.
What we like: We like this award because it’s important to recognize the team members who are actively involved in your team. It rewards strong engagement, which only helps incentivize reps to get involved and help one another.
8. Team Morale Award
Team morale is incredibly important in sales. Like we said above, it contributes to your overall workplace culture, which is vital for a sales team.
A “Team Morale Award” will reward the person on your team who brings positive energy and optimistic vibes to your office. This person always encourages others, cracks jokes, and makes everyone feel welcome — and like they’re having a good time on the job.
What we like: This award recognizes the team member who ensures you have a positive workplace culture. It’s important for your team members to have a good time while they’re at work, and this team member helps make that happen.
9. Best Customer Retention Award
The “Best Customer Retention Award” will reward the team member who makes the most recurring sales. Their customers buy every month and are typically loyal to their sales rep.
What we like: This is a great award because it recognizes the team member who has built solid relationships with their prospects and customers, which is vital in sales.
10. Sprint-Based or Competition-Based Awards
You can also implement a sprint-based award or a competition-based award. For example, maybe you have a quarterly sprint and then give an award every quarter for those who perform best in that period. Or you can have your sales team work on a competition for those who can sell most during a “Flash Sale” or “Summer Sale Extravaganza.”
What we like: This award focuses on a specific time and promotes healthy competition among your team members.
Your sales awards don’t need to be only trophies or plaques and certificates. You can also include other incentive-based awards. Below, we’ll review some ideas for sales awards that go beyond a trophy.
Going Beyond a Trophy
1. Cash Bonuses
Monetary incentives are probably the most straightforward award you can offer to whip your sales reps into shape. Responding well to cash bonuses is a near-universal constant among sales reps. Successful sales efforts often rest on money motivation — above all else — so, naturally, there's something to be said for the value of using money as a motivator.
2. New Gadgets
Most consumers love flashy new gadgets — that's why people camp outside of Apple stores for every new product it releases. People find new tech exciting, and sales reps are no exception. The latest iPhone, a new laptop, or any other fresh electronic commodity can be a powerful incentive to get more out of your team.
3. Professional Development Opportunities
This one is a win-win for both your sales org and the reps who win your competition. Many reps are looking for opportunities to bolster their sales skills and set themselves up for smoother professional development.
Suppose you offer your exemplary salespeople incentives like tickets to sales seminars or tuition reimbursement for relevant continuing education classes. In that case, you can drum up and sustain some serious effort from your team.
4. Personal Development Incentives
Suppose you offer your exemplary salespeople incentives like tickets to sales seminars or tuition reimbursement for relevant continuing education classes. In that case, you can drum up and sustain some serious effort from your team.
5. Vacations
A company-covered vacation is one of the most traditional awards for exceptional salespeople. People love taking some time off for themselves or their families, and doing that on the company's dollar makes it that much sweeter and worth extra effort.
6. Additional Vacation Time
If you can't spring for a full-on vacation for your highest-performing sales reps, you can help them out by giving them a little extra PTO. The salespeople who work the hardest should be rewarded with additional time to rest.
Plus, you won't have to spend too much to make this one possible.
7. Entertainment Tickets
Is there a big concert coming to town sometime soon? Or a blockbuster movie about to hit theaters? People respond to experiences like those, so offering tickets or passes to see them firsthand might be an effective way to get your reps fired up.
8. Celebratory Dinners
Incentivizing reps with some fine dining can be an effective avenue for boosting your org's collective performance. Everyone enjoys a good meal with all the fixings. Being willing to take your most exceptional reps out for one can get the whole team working that much harder.
9. A Prime Parking Spot
This one can be a big-time motivator for larger businesses with bigger offices. If it takes a long trek to get from your company garage to the building itself — particularly without reserved spaces — a guaranteed spot right out front can be a powerful incentive.
10. “The President's Club”
A “President's Club” trip is an interesting incentive. It's a group-oriented extension of the “vacation” point on this list — a trip for a broader base of your highest performers.
It also comes with a certain level of prestige that other points on this list don‘t. Making your organization’s “President's Club” can be an impressive resume booster for your top reps, and tacking on a trophy or plaque can be an enticing prospect for your team.
Rewarding Your Team
Your best-performing sales reps deserve recognition and tokens of your appreciation. Offering awards can do just that. Whether they’re actual trophies or more abstract and prestige-based, providing these kinds of incentives is a better way to get extra effort and dedication out of your team.
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