Why Do Sales Incentives Fail?

When sales incentives fail, the most common reason for the failures is that many of the company's salespeople lack key talents required for sales success. When salespeople lack these talents, no amount of incentives will cause them to suddenly sell more effectively. A more likely outcome is they will start to press harder to close sales and suffer a decline in sales performance!

In other cases sales incentives fail because the contest is "stacked" in favor of certain salespeople. Look closely at your sales team and your company's sales incentives and contests while considering the following questions:

* Do the same salespeople consistently win all of the contests and incentives?
* If some salespeople service larger or more productive accounts, are your contests and incentives structured to enable all of your company's salespeople to have a fair chance of winning?
* Are the incentives generating incremental sales, or are they simply rewarding salespeople twice for results they would have produced without a special contest or incentive program?