Incentives
When meeting with a new retail client today the subject of incentives and if to offer them came up. I was reminded of this posting from a few years ago and searched for it. Upon reading this I decided to re-post it for others out there that may not have seen it, and to serve as a reminder for those that have.
WIIFM?
Everyone filters all requests through WIIFM. (What’s In It For Me?) Once business owners and managers realize that, they tend to think differently when structuring special incentives for a specific task to be completed, like hitting a goal. Incentives do not have to be monetary, although those seem to be ones that work the best. We find that when businesses offer some % of all sales over the goal to all of those who contribute to hitting the goal, that magic happens.
You will notice a level of teamwork that before was just lip service. When people have a common goal, and work in harmony towards it, they hit it. It’s not Rocket Science. It Works!
Results Tracking And Feedback
How exciting would any sporting event be without the goal to attain, and a score sheet of some kind to keep an eye on? You may wonder, why do people always compare sports to selling?
Remember the statement made above; The proper goal will cause your people to produce more than they would otherwise, to be better than they might have otherwise been. When the goal is to cause people to do more of anything, you run the risk of encountering resistance at first, the potential for disappointment along the way, and then discouragement when things don’t happen immediately.
Keeping everyone going, when the going gets tough, is tough. Here’s where you can use your goal tracking to motivate those that are falling behind before it is too late. When you catch your friend with only one foot in the quicksand, the rescue is much easier than when the quicksand is up to the shoulders.
June 9th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Hello everyone,
“… before it is too late” jumped out at me in this post Ron, for so many times we leave things until it is too late and they are so difficult to ‘repair’ or do or whatever, that we pass them by to our great loss. Baby steps are often called for as they are the ones we all know how to take.
Way back when I worked in a store, one of my best managers was able to keep us going as a team and producing as a team by managing us as individuals and keeping us in line by getting us to better our own scores all the time. Somehow he made us all feel vital and even the person who regularly came last usually bettered his own previous performances and was just as important to us as the person who usually (and nearly always) came first on the scoreboard. There was very little, if any, jealousy. Don’t know how he did it, but he did. The team fell apart when he was promoted to Head Office! What a loss it was for our store.
Cheers
Lestie
June 9th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Most retailers really do need help in this area. Sales are taken for granted and they forget that it’s a “people business” they are in.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Most (BIG) retailers hire salespeople on an hourly basis. These salespeople don’t care about servive and assisting customers. That is the lowest priority on there list. Stocking merchandise seems to be the first. I was at a major retailer on 2 separate occasions this week. I had 2 customers approach me with the lousy service that they got from 2 employees.
One said they asked where they could find an item. The employee snaped back at her and said where she might look. But said that probably none would be left. The employee said this in a very hostile manner.
The next day I was at the same store and a customer asked me for help and said that she could not find anyone to help her. She had been in retail years before. She worked at Penney’s in the sewing department. She said that they had to go through a lot of training on different yarns. They knew there stuff for sure when it came to selling yarn. The employees today don’t get much training on merchandise in the stores. They get there training in stocking and running a cash register.
Customer service is a thing of the past at these large stores. Not one employee seems happy or content. And these stores wonder why they are not prospering in today’s economy. TRY GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING. Maybe just maybe this might help with the bottom line.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:03 am
got a sports riddle for ya…
What sport do neither the contestants or the spectators know the score or who is winning during the event until it is over????
Hint: everyone I’m sure has seen this sport on TV
June 13th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Hello all,
Oh how I agree with Ramona, it seems that specialised product training for sales staff went out around 20 years ago for me when older staff were retiring and had no one to pass on their knowledge to; when department stores started to decline and give in to boutique shopping or go ‘wholesale’ by trying to accommodate mass markets; when there was no longer the same pride in being a ’shop assistant’ ; when self service racks and off the shelf shopping started; when casual staff took over with attitudes to match; when the mighty dollar was chased at the expense of service (customers just had to take it or leave it) and when it was an item that was in, they usually just took it (the bad service) and demanded less; when sales started being held any time of the year, when discounting became a norm and undercutting your neighbour at all costs happened regularly; when online shopping started to take over (so much more to say on this topic alone) and finally when More but Notbetter Faster took over from More Better and Paced. People just don’t believe in life in quite the same way, and many times advertising is cynically rejected as just another scam . I remember that Punch joke where you see an Executive with a briefcase walking into the company Acme Advertising exclaiming or asking I suppose “So? What’s new and better and whiter today?”
As life changes; progresses, modernises, adapts etc. as it must, there is no reason why sound product training cannot still be given, where retail companies gather unto themselves the kinds of people who truly make a career out of specialist sales (Nordstrom?) and where, in schools and universities, real opportunities in retail are offered with real career options attached. Being a ’shop girl or boy’ could be something to strive towards and nit just a cop out job. Of course and always, there will be the exceptions to the rule, I know.
This is a long but hasty reply … so a lot more will need said on much but now I will get off my soap box! Thanks for reading this far if you did.
Cheers
Lestie.
P.S.Please give the answer to the riddle? Could be its rhetorical, but I am not good at riddles anyway! Thanks.
June 14th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Answer to the riddle: BOXING
January 15th, 2011 at 10:32 am
I agree with your article. I also know that I most recently need to be my own best motivation as we lack any from our direct mgr. We work alone and never see our other co-workers so I am keen on getting tasks done but do not focus on them so completely as to neglect the customer which I have seen happening with others. I LOVED when I worked in a store with a great manager and as her supervisor (having been a manager myself) being that support to encourage staff, train, direct and re-direct/commend performance and keep the train running when she was busy working on the “big picture/direction” we were needing to go in months to come with the regionals/division. I so miss that sort of team feeling and satisfaction. We have been making our goals however I don’t sense any sort of growth amongst us as an entity which is unfortunate. The owners are totally cool and that is a true bonus however.