Tom Bates has competed in Survivor, Fear Factor, and the World Poker Tour. But he isn't a reality-show contestant trying to prolong his 15 minutes of fame by jumping from one television network to another. He's simply a salesperson who works for a creative management team that uses themed contests to inject some fun into the workplace.

Bates' managers at Canvas Systems, a provider of IT servers and equipment based in Norcross, Georgia, are experts at using sales spiffs (an acronym for sales performance incentive fund, or special performance incentive for the field force) as a strategy for meeting very specific sales goals and creating an environment where every rep—not only sales stars—can win.

"The sales contests create a teamwork atmosphere and camaraderie," says Ed Flachbarth, vice president of sales at Canvas. "A rising tide raises all boats. When there's a lot of energy out there, everybody feeds off of that."

Experts agree that companies need to employ some motivation strategies with across-the-board appeal. Rewarding the same employees over and over sends the message that only a handful of people are responsible for a company's success. "This is critical: [Spiffs] should appeal to multiple groups," says Tom Morrill, lead principal for the marketing and sales practice at PRTM, a consulting firm based in Waltham, Massachusetts. "If top producers are always going to get an incentive, that alienates other groups. Segment it by the group you want to motivate, and set goals that would be relevant to them."

Otherwise you risk demotivating your future stars. In a recent survey by reward solutions firm Maritz Incentives, 68 percent of 1,002 workers said that more award opportunities would further motivate them in their jobs. This sentiment was especially high among those under 34, with 79 percent of younger employees agreeing with this statement.

Getting Creative
At Canvas, there are always short-term goals to be met, and it's up to the management team to constantly think of new ways to promote these goals. Lately, quarterly spiffs have been inspired by popular television shows. In one recent quarter, the company held a Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament (much like what is featured on Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" or the Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour") in which salespeople were awarded a poker card for moving specific product lines or selling high-value products. The player with the winning hand won a weekend getaway to Las Vegas.

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Another spiff was inspired by the stunt-based game show "Fear Factor": Reps competed for adventure prizes, such as white-water rafting and skydiving trips, by going on a city scavenger hunt and eating not-so-appetizing foods (although baked beans and cranberry sauce were served in lieu of bugs and animal intestines). Another contest was modeled after "Survivor," in which salespeople who didn't meet weekly quotas for equipment leases were "voted off" by tribal councils. The sole survivor received a $5,000 gift certificate to Tiffany & Co. jewelers.

Flachbarth says these spiffs have always been a part of the corporate culture. Not only do they spur short-term sales (he estimates that the "Survivor" contest increased lease business by 20 percent), but they keep the fires going. For instance, Bates, a senior account executive who has driven a leased Porsche for the past three years for being a top rep, still gets motivated by the smaller spiffs. One contest held last year didn't have many lavish prizes, but it created heated competition. Whenever reps would move old inventory, they would win scratch-off tickets for prizes ranging from stress balls to DVDs to a mini refrigerator. "People were still duking it out to get prizes as simple as stress balls and Wiffle Ball sets," he says. Maybe the contest was a little too successful—Bates says his Wiffle Ball sets were confiscated because they were being used for other things. "Friday afternoons, we were having a little too much fun in the sales area."

On Point
The extensive efforts that companies like Canvas go through to create and promote spiffs are key to any incentive program's success, experts say. "Marketing is so important," says Brooke Bryand, senior events manager for The Castle Group, a Boston–based company that customizes reward programs. "The company should always be at the front of the mind" whenever reps win prizes, she says.

Especially if the audience you're trying to motivate is channel partners, who often sell multiple companies' products. One of The Castle Group's clients, Sophos, a Boston–based provider of security software, instituted a points-based program for channel partners about two years ago as a way to stay in front of resellers. "I've always done large events, but you only get bang for your buck for the last three months," says deMarie Malnar, Sophos' channel marketing manager. "When I came to Sophos, we had about eight hundred fifty partners, and none were of the caliber where you would be running that kind of [huge] incentive," she says. "This was something we could do year after year and leverage in a lot of different ways, and it gave immediate gratification to sales reps."

Malnar says the rewards program, called the MVP Zone, increased Sophos' product awareness with partners and has lengthened the life span of partnerships. In fact, the program was so popular that Malnar recently extended it to her direct sales force. Among her channel partners, the program is used for monthly goals like pushing new products, increasing upsell or gaining new customers. For her direct reps, she instituted rewards for non-sales activities like getting customers to agree to be interviewed as case studies and press references.

Malnar credits the popularity of the program to the experiential nature of the rewards. Some of The Castle Group's prizes include a personal session with a yoga instructor or cooking lessons with a celebrity chef. Items like gift cards also are packaged as an experience in monthly e-mail blasts that promote new rewards. A $500 gift card to Home Depot, for instance, is an opportunity for employees to revamp the home; a $1,000 gift certificate to Macy's is the ultimate shopping spree, complete with one's own personal shopper. "The internal sales force has a large, [annual] overachievers' trip, but this is a way to keep the motivation and momentum going," Malnar says. "Each rep has individual control over how he wants to reward himself

On the Fly
Sometimes the most gratifying incentives are the unexpected ones. Spontaneous rewards, especially when given publicly, can be a great way to provide recognition and a reward at the same time, PRTM's Morrill says. In his first sales job, his managers would carry around American Express Gift Cheques and present reps who did something noteworthy with $500 at a sales meeting. And Canvas surprised its employees at its fourth-quarter company-wide meeting by letting everyone pick an envelope off a money tree—envelopes that held anywhere from $50 to $250 dollars. All told, the company handed out $16,000 to share the fruits of a successful year with its employees.

Sandra Fathi, president of Affect Strategies, a New York– based marketing communications firm, says past experiences prompted her to offer spontaneous rewards for her seven account executives. "I really had some classic megalomaniacs as bosses who did not have appreciation for their employees, and felt as if everyone was disposable," she says.

So when Fathi started Affect Strategies, she made sure off-the-cuff incentives were regularly incorporated, even though her employees already received bonuses for bringing in new business. For instance, she has offered Starbucks or Banana Republic gift cards to people who get the best media hits that week. And when her account executives worked late nights on a successful client proposal, she gave her all-female team free manicures. "They are definitely surprised [by the incentives]. These are bonuses that I share with them," Fathi says. "It's about being able to express that I recognize the value of their contribution." This page is protected by Copyright laws. Do Not Copy