Each year, millions of people pour into the offices of vacation travel planners with the hope of planning a scenic, relaxing trip to a place that lets them leave their cares behind for awhile. Would these planners also serve as a good option for creating a group incentive travel trip to reward your company’s top performers?
In most cases, the answer is no. Both work in the travel industry and can help you plan amazing journeys, but vacation travel consultants and incentive travel consultants are birds of different colors. Below are four things that incentive travel planners offer that so many vacation planners don’t.
- Custom Designed Trips
When you use an incentive travel consultant, you typically don’t choose a pre-planned travel package. Instead, you work with the consultant to plan a trip that’s totally unique. As for what constitutes “unique”, the sky is the limit. The consultant’s goal is to facilitate an original travel experience that perfectly suits everyone’s tastes and surpasses expectations — two things you often don’t receive when planning a group trip through a vacation consultant.
- Trips That Incentivize Performance
Because incentive travel trips incentivize top performance in the workplace, they should consist of more than a nice destination and travel arrangements that glue the trip together. Rather, they should deliver what we call the “wow factor” — a sensation travelers experience when they reach an epic destination and enjoy fabulous activities while there. Leaving the cares of the workplace behind is a part of the trip, but motivating future business performance is a part of it, too.
- Hassle-Free Trip Planning
Unlike the average vacation planner, incentive travel consultants will literally plan your group trip from start to finish, scheduling all of the travel arrangements and handling all of the communications that ensure arrangements go as planned. All you do is choose a destination and activities with the help of a consultant, provide payment for the trip, and then prepare to travel to an amazing destination and enjoy yourself — it’s that simple.
- Dedicated Travel Staff
When travel arrangements don’t go as planned with a traditional vacation, it’s often up to you to make the situation right. When you use incentive travel consultants that offer a full line of elite travel services, you have the option of traveling with dedicated travel staff, who move swiftly to address any problems that arise, if indeed they do. Moreover, using travel staff helps you enjoy the trip without worrying about any of the arrangements that support it.
Ready to Plan an Incentive Travel Trip?
If so, contacting our incentive travel consultants is your next move. Unlike most vacation planners, we do more than help you choose a great destination and a travel package to get you there. In addition to helping you select intriguing destinations that have an overwhelming “wow factor”, we can perform airline contract negotiation, execute hotel contracts, supply on-site travel staff, provide flawless web registration, and more.
To get started on planning a trip that rewards your hard workers and motivates them to qualify for the next trip, contact us today at (704) 540-1482, or use the contact form on our website. We look forward to helping you plan a journey that’s like no other and creates lifelong memories.
Motivating Sales: Private Incentive Travel Trips Vs. Performance Bonuses
/in Incentive TripCompanies that have a sales team spend lots of time and effort searching for talented salespeople. After these workers become employees, companies motivate them to use their talent to the fullest degree by providing them with lucrative, exciting rewards for doing so.
Two common examples of rewards that are offered to top performers on sales teams are private incentive travel trips and performance-based bonuses. Which type of award is more effective for motivating sales throughout the year? In the experience of many companies, private incentive travel trips are more effective than bonuses for the following three reasons, among others.
Practically every top performing salesperson receives an annual bonus for his or her success in bolstering the company’s bottom line. Consequently, adding an additional, performance-based bonus to the bonus that will already be received is redundant. In terms of motivating top performance, this is why adding an incentive travel trip to the reward structure is more meaningful than tacking on another bonus, especially for workers who already receive top pay.
When private incentive travel trips are planned with the help of an incentive travel trip planner, the goal is to make the excursions as memorable as possible to motivate the sales team to perform at the highest level. Special bonuses can motivate great performance, too. However, because bonuses aren’t as unique as well-planned travel trips, they don’t entail the “once in a lifetime experience” factor that can motivate employees in a way that monetary rewards can’t.
Top performers on the sales team know that they’ll receive an annual, performance-based bonus, but exactly how much the bonus will be is impossible to predict until all of the sales numbers are tallied. Incentive travel trips are different. Salespeople know exactly what they will receive for performing at the highest level, and can constantly envision the reward as they develop quality leads, perform lead nurturing process, and turn prospective clients into clients.
Need Assistance Planning a Travel Trip?
If your company is looking for a new way to motivate salespeople to perform their best, offering private incentive travel trips is a great option for the reasons listed above. However, if you want an incentive travel trip to be so exciting that it provides your sales team with more motivation than a special performance bonus, using the services of an experienced incentive travel trip planner is strongly recommended. This is where Incentive Travel Solutions enters the picture.
For years, we have helped companies plan private incentive travel trips that are once in a lifetime experiences, and thus help to motivate salespeople to perform their best. Rewarding top talent with performance bonuses is important, too, but just as a travel trip can’t take the place of a bonus, a bonus can’t take the place of an awesome travel trip. To get started on planning a trip for your sales team, give us a call today at (704) 540-1482 to schedule a free consultation.
5 Employee Incentive Programs That Work
/in Employee MotivationMotivating their employees to perform at the highest level has always been a challenge for companies. In most most cases, employees perform well, but how do you get them to go the extra mile and maximize their capabilities? One way to provide this motivation is to implement a performance-based reward program that compensates employees who reach important business goals. Below are five great examples of employee incentive programs that work.
Salary Increase
Most employees enter a profession with an idea of how much salary they expect to earn, as they gain experience and attain higher positions within the company. Providing employees with meaningful annual bonuses both satisfies them presently and motivates them to work harder to realize the dream of business success that they have envisioned achieving for many years.
Performance Bonuses
Every company knows that the business performance of employees is tied to financial compensation. As honorable as a company’s mission may be — and as enjoyable as the work environment is — money still makes the business world go around. The nice thing about performance bonuses is that they aren’t set in stone. The harder employees work, the more they can expect to receive in performance bonuses. In terms of productivity, this is a winning situation.
Valuable Special Gifts
Rewarding excellent performance with a special gift is another way to keep employees motivated from quarter to quarter. Naturally, the nicer the gift, the more motivation it inspires. For example, there is a big difference between offering a top performer a gift certificate to a salon and offering him or her a new BMW. If you want your employees to strive for new business heights, put your money where your mouth is, and offer them a truly valuable, special gift.
Opportunity for Promotion
Failing to be promoted after they have demonstrated business excellence is one of the main reasons employees leave a company in pursuit of better opportunities at companies where they would expect to feel more appreciated. Human resources are the most valuable resources, as the old saying goes. In order to put the principle into practice, you need to reward top performers with lucrative promotions. Otherwise, they may become bored and feel poorly paid.
Qualifying for an Incentive Travel Trip
When it comes to employee incentive programs that work, giving top performers the opportunity to qualify for a travel trip that entails a highly desirable destination and travels filled with unforgettable experiences, is the most unique incentive presented here, but it is also one of the most effective, especially for well-paid employees who are near the top of the career ladder. The exceptional uniqueness of the trip naturally motivates such employees to qualify for the next one.
Ready to Plan a Travel Trip?
If your company is dedicated to retaining top talent and compensating top performers with meaningful awards, it should consider making incentive travel trips a part of the reward structure. With the assistance of Incentive Travel Solutions, the trips you offer will be ones that create lasting memories, help employees form stronger bonds as co-workers, and motivate them to work diligently to qualify for the next incentive-based travel trip.
How Do Incentive Travel Consultants and Vacation Planners Differ?
/in Incentive TravelEach year, millions of people pour into the offices of vacation travel planners with the hope of planning a scenic, relaxing trip to a place that lets them leave their cares behind for awhile. Would these planners also serve as a good option for creating a group incentive travel trip to reward your company’s top performers?
In most cases, the answer is no. Both work in the travel industry and can help you plan amazing journeys, but vacation travel consultants and incentive travel consultants are birds of different colors. Below are four things that incentive travel planners offer that so many vacation planners don’t.
When you use an incentive travel consultant, you typically don’t choose a pre-planned travel package. Instead, you work with the consultant to plan a trip that’s totally unique. As for what constitutes “unique”, the sky is the limit. The consultant’s goal is to facilitate an original travel experience that perfectly suits everyone’s tastes and surpasses expectations — two things you often don’t receive when planning a group trip through a vacation consultant.
Because incentive travel trips incentivize top performance in the workplace, they should consist of more than a nice destination and travel arrangements that glue the trip together. Rather, they should deliver what we call the “wow factor” — a sensation travelers experience when they reach an epic destination and enjoy fabulous activities while there. Leaving the cares of the workplace behind is a part of the trip, but motivating future business performance is a part of it, too.
Unlike the average vacation planner, incentive travel consultants will literally plan your group trip from start to finish, scheduling all of the travel arrangements and handling all of the communications that ensure arrangements go as planned. All you do is choose a destination and activities with the help of a consultant, provide payment for the trip, and then prepare to travel to an amazing destination and enjoy yourself — it’s that simple.
When travel arrangements don’t go as planned with a traditional vacation, it’s often up to you to make the situation right. When you use incentive travel consultants that offer a full line of elite travel services, you have the option of traveling with dedicated travel staff, who move swiftly to address any problems that arise, if indeed they do. Moreover, using travel staff helps you enjoy the trip without worrying about any of the arrangements that support it.
Ready to Plan an Incentive Travel Trip?
If so, contacting our incentive travel consultants is your next move. Unlike most vacation planners, we do more than help you choose a great destination and a travel package to get you there. In addition to helping you select intriguing destinations that have an overwhelming “wow factor”, we can perform airline contract negotiation, execute hotel contracts, supply on-site travel staff, provide flawless web registration, and more.
To get started on planning a trip that rewards your hard workers and motivates them to qualify for the next trip, contact us today at (704) 540-1482, or use the contact form on our website. We look forward to helping you plan a journey that’s like no other and creates lifelong memories.
Incentive Travel Organizers: Tips for Creating a Successful Travel Program
/in Incentive TravelAn incentive travel program that rewards top business performers with exciting travels begins with developing standards that let employees qualify for the excursions and assists them in doing so. Companies put their own spin on what workers must do to earn incentivized travel, but there are basic building blocks of the reward structure that every company should implement.
Four Building Blocks for Success
According to Incentive Research Foundation (ISR), there are four items that create a successful incentive travel program in terms of using the program as a motivational tool for stellar business performance. In the following sections, we take a brief look at each one, and explain the importance. For additional information, feel free to contact our incentive travel organizers.
Designing a Program That Creates Excitement
As experienced incentive travel organizers know, a travel program needs to generate excitement about the upcoming trip to motivate employees to qualify for it. You need both an intriguing destination and exciting activities to do when you get there, but that isn’t all. Through research, ISR has found that including “leisure time” for travelers in the trip also adds to the excitement that precipitates taking the journey.
Selection Criteria Tied to Business Objectives
Because the main goals of incentive travel trips are to reward exceptional performance and motivate it in the future through offering additional trips, the selection criteria for trips should be tied to business objectives. Objectives differ for each company, but one thing is certain: Incentivized travel is meant to reward a specific level of success, not simply to commend good performance, as some other types of awards do.
Clear Communication About Employee Progress
Most companies plan incentive travel trips based on the performance of employees throughout a calendar business year. Consequently, it’s a good idea to give employees feedback about their progress toward qualifying for the trip on at least a quarterly basis. It’s basically the same kind of information presented in company meetings that review business progress. The only difference is that the information specifically applies to qualifying for the trip.
Detailed Records That Quantify Productivity
According to ISR, a company that uses incentive travel should keep “detailed records that prove the productivity of the earners and their contributions to the company’s financial performance.” Not only does the information tell employees exactly why they qualify for the trip; it also provides a quantifiable record of success that eliminates notions of favoritism or leniency when selecting trip participants, which helps a company be a good steward to its employees.
Ready to Put Your Travel Program in Motion?
If so, our incentive travel organizers are here to assist. We start by helping you choose a fantastic destination and exciting activities that wow your travelers. Then, we make taking the excursion hassle-free by providing services such as airline contract negotiation, securing hotel contracts, flawless web registration, and providing on-site travel staff to address unexpected needs.
To put your company’s travel program in motion, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or use the contact form on our website, to set up a free consultation. We look forward to helping you plan a trip that rewards top performance and encourages it in the future through upcoming trips.
What are the Benefits of an Incentive Travel Trip?
/in Incentive TripIncentive travel trips are a popular way to reward employees for excellent performance in the workplace. As reported on the website smartmeetings.com, according to a recent study from the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF), “At least 46 percent of U.S. businesses use incentive travel”. Furthermore, “U.S. businesses spend $22.5 billion a year on incentive travel.”
Benefits of an Incentive Travel Trip
Companies that shell out thousands of dollars for each employee who qualifies for an incentive travel trip do so out of more than good will. They also offer the trips hoping to receive a tangible return on the investment, particularly in the form of great business performance in the coming year. To this end, companies can benefit from incentive-based trips at least four crucial ways.
The IRF says that companies with the highest customer retention rate provide group travel to reward annual sales goals. When an incentive travel trip has the desired effect on business productivity by motivating employees to qualify for the next trip, a high rate of customer retention can result. Incentive trips are well-known for helping companies retain talented employees, but they can also help companies retain customers through the efforts of these employees.
The IRF also lists sales growth as a benefit of using incentive travel as a business reward. Specifically, companies with the highest sales growth offer group travel to reward year-end business goals. In addition to helping their employers retain customers, employees who are motivated to qualify for incentive trips help add new names to the customer roster. The IRF notes that “Incentive travel programs can increase sales productivity by 18 percent”.
Growing the customer base is a benefit of incentive travel trips that yields yet another benefit: increased revenue. According to the IRF, companies that offer non-cash rewards experience revenue increases that are three times higher than the national average. Every company wants the bottom line to look better next year than it looks this year. An incentive travel trip can help make the dream of a significant revenue increase a reality.
The return on investment (ROI) for incentive travel trips differs in each case. However, the IRF reports that, on average, “well-designed and well-executed incentive travel programs can produce an ROI of up to 112 percent.” The keys to realizing such a profitable ROI, of course, are offering a trip that is “well-designed and well-executed,” which is why many companies entrust the trip planning process to a provider of incentive travel services.
Let Us Plan Your Incentive Travel Trip
The experienced travel trip planners at Incentive Travel Solutions are here to help you plan a well-designed, well-executed travel trip. In creating the trip, we take several measures to ensure its success, including: planning the trip within your budget, selecting unique destinations and activities that are unforgettable, and sending travel staff with you to handle any loose ends.
To learn about additional benefits of incentive travel, give us a call today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form, to set up a free consultation. We’ll assist you with creating a trip that helps deliver the four benefits above and others. Contact us today to get started!