In the last article I talked about how to get more money from your current customers. I talked about bundling, cross selling, and upselling. Although I did not use those terms, the processes were discussed. In this article I am going to talk about how to motivate your employees to sell more. Sales promotions for employees are not new. Many industries use them for their professional sales staff. Things like exceeding your listing this year and we will ship you on a cruise or receive a $ 500 savings voucher. But what can you do if your sales force is just a couple of internal employees? How can you motivate them to sell more?

The key to motivation is keeping it current. Set the time frame to something with a short deadline. Working with your staff toward a single goal that may take a year to reach will rarely work. But having them working towards a weekly or biweekly goal keeps it fresh in their minds and that keeps them motivated towards the goal. But weekly or biweekly giveaways are expensive, right? That’s the best of motivation. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something they’re willing to put in a little extra effort to achieve.

Let’s say you have a doctor’s office. You want to increase your customer referrals. Each staff member receives a set of reference cards with their name printed on them and a space for the customer to also put their name. You have a contest. For the employee with the most referrals over the next 4 weeks, you will host a dinner and a show. He will also pull a customer’s name from all references and provide them with a free dinner and a ticket to the show. Now you have motivated the employee to make sure the customers are aware of the promotion and also to motivate the customers.

Other ways to motivate the employee is with embroidered clothing. Starbucks does this. Have you ever noticed that some Starbucks employees have their names embroidered on their aprons while others don’t? Or have you been to Cracker Barrel and noticed that the staff have different star numbers on their aprons? This custom clothing is a reward for employees for reaching certain goals. You can offer shirts or jackets embroidered with the employee’s name when they reach certain goals or milestones. This also helps reduce churn and builds pride within the organization.

Goals are best set when they are personal to the employee. The best way to do this is with your input. Everyone is different. Motivation is different for each of us. Some like more money, some like a trophy, some like a simple thank you, some like time off. To truly motivate your employees, find out what motivates them, and then sit down and come up with a goal and reward system that is geared towards the company’s goal and your own personal rewards.

Badges, trophies, engraved pens and pencil sets, jackets, custom aprons, embroidered shirts, and hundreds of other items can be used to motivate your employees to sell more, provide better customer service, generate referrals, and generally develop your business.