sales-incentive-program

Developing a Sales Incentive Program: Ideas for Compensation

A company that possesses top sales talent and doesn’t reward the people that comprise the talent in a meaningful way is living on borrowed time. If top sellers feel that they are underappreciated and/or unrewarded, there is a good chance they will seek employment elsewhere, and target companies that have an excellent rewards structure, as they conduct their search.

The good news is that your company can prevent this from happening by deploying a sales incentive program that entails an escalating series of rewards over the course of the year to help keep top talent motivated.

Weekly
Professional sports organizations hand out “player of the week” awards to honor the exceptional performance of an athlete within a given week. Implementing the same type of award for your sales team is a good idea for the same reason: It pays tribute to commendable performance that should be recognized because it differs sharply from the norm.In most cases, there isn’t money attched to the reward, but notice of top performance is still quite rewarding. Honoring top performers weekly creates an incentive for these employees to keep up the good work.

Monthly
Salespeople who perform the best within a single month usually don’t do so by a stroke of luck. They possess elite sales talent and know how to transmute it into generating quality leads and closing sales for nurtured leads. Because sustained, monthly success is inherently more valuable to the bottom line than weekly success, consider offering monthly top performers a moderate financial reward, such as generous gift certificate to a five-star restaurant in the area.

Annually
Annual sales success should be rewarded the most generously because it demonstrates the most benefit to the bottom line. We recommend that you offer top sales associates a travel trip that is unique in terms of travel, destination, lodgings, and activities. Such trips give employees something to look forward to all year.

Contact Incentive Travel Solutions
If your company needs to develop a sales incentive program for top performers on the sales team, we can help you plan the ultimate, annual reward for sustained excellence in sales: A travel trip to an exotic destination that features unique entertainments after you arrive at the destination, and lodgings that make the trip feel like one that could not be easily accomplished on a personal travel budget.

To get started on planning the ultimate reward for your sales incentive program, call Incentive Travel Solutions at (704) 540-1482, or refer to our contact page. We look forward to helping you plan a trip that your top sales performers will remember forever – a trip that will motivate them to work hard and qualify for the next trip to receive an unforgettable reward. The more you motivate your sales team, the better results you can expect from the sales process.

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Floating Over Napa Valley is an Ideal Way to Spend a Work Day

incentive-tripHot air balloons are antiquated forms of air travel that are still popular in the modern age of sleek, high-powered jets that can zoom you from coast to coast in a matter of hours. The reason why is obvious: Nothing is quite like traveling high above the earth in a luxury hot air balloon.

Sure, you can get a nice view of the earth below by gazing out a jet window, but you don’t experience the panorama of scenery that stretches for miles in all directions like you do when you ascend thousands of feet in the air in a hot air balloon that gracefully drifts to its destination.

This is one reason why scheduling a hot air balloon trip is a great idea for companies that wish to reward their hard working employees with an unforgettable experience that helps them bond as co-workers, makes them feel important to their employer, and helps motivate them to perform at the highest level in anticipation of the next, awe-inspiring incentivized travel opportunity.

If you would like to provide a hot air balloon trip for your employees that strive to improve your company’s bottom line, Incentive Travel Solutions courteously recommends taking them on a hot air balloon trip over one of the most scenic wine regions in the world: California’s Napa Valley. As you contemplate the trip, consider the following, unique trip options that we can arrange for you to make the journey as unforgettable in reality as it sounds in this blog.

Let Professionals Guide the Air Balloons
Air travel always involves the consideration of passenger safety. At Incentive Travel Solutions, we will coordinate for your company’s hot air balloon trip to be guided by only the most experienced air balloon pilots. Let the pilots take control of the reigns as you and your employees enjoy the breathtaking scenery of beautiful vineyards that expand in every direction. If you love wine vineyards, see them in a way that you have never seen them before!

Make a Famous Winery Your Destination
What would a trip over Napa wine vineyard topography be without making a famous winery your air balloon destination? Napa wine vineyard territory has an ample supply of fields that separate one vineyard from another. With our assistance, you can make a famous winery the destination of your hot air balloon trip. After the exciting, scenic experience of hovering above lovely vineyards, descend near a famous winery and taste what the fields of grapes have to offer.

Make it a One-Day Trip or a Multi-Day Journey
We can arrange incentivized travel arrangements that last for as little as one day and as long as several weeks. If your valued employees are in line for a major reward, why not treat them to several hot air balloon trips that are a part of a singular travel plan? We can arrange impeccable hotel and resort accommodations throughout the Napa Valley area that turn you and your employees into intrepid travelers of one of California’s most scenic, famous wine regions.

Schedule Other Forms of Travel for Your Journey
Scheduling a hot air balloon trip over the Napa Valley region needn’t limit you to air travel. There are plenty of memorable destinations throughout the area, from five-star restaurants to upscale shopping boutiques, that you can easily visit by traveling on wheels. If this sounds like something that you would like to offer your valued employees, we can provide everything from luxury rental cars to professional limousine service to take you to your destinations in style.

Want to Offer Your Employees a Memorable Journey?
If so, put scheduling a hot air balloon trip over Napa Valley on your list of considerations. Everyone enjoys wine, so to speak, but few people enjoy the opportunity of gazing at length on the scenic topography of California’s Napa Valley wine region. If you are rewarding your employees for their hard work, this is the type of incentivized travel solution you want to offer.

With the assistance of Incentive Travel Solutions, the only thing you have to decide is who attends the trip and and what the journey should entail. We handle all the details, from ensuring that you travel in the newest, safest air balloons to making sure that you receive the five-star treatment you expect at each destination. For assistance planning your next incentivized travel opportunity, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out the contact form on our website.

We look forward to helping you create a trip that your talented employees will always remember!

invest-in-your-people

Business Travel Programs – Do These Motivators Really Work?

Business travel programs are a unique way to reward executives and workers who go above and beyond the call of everyday business. However, most companies don’t offer the trips without desiring something in return. They want trips that comprise business travel programs to motivate employees who take the trips to mirror their great performance in the coming year, with qualifying for the next travel trip serving as a primary motivator for maintaining success.

Statistics for Business Travel Programs

Lots of companies have anecdotes about how business travel programs motivate performance. However, before you implement a travel program, it’s a good idea not to put too much stock in another company’s story of success, and look at statistics that provide a broad view of how business travel programs work for companies at large. Below are recent statistics from the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) that point to the success of business travel programs.

  • Providing non-cash rewards creates revenue increases three times higher than average.
  • Companies with the best customer retention and sales growth offer travel as a reward.
  • Travel rewards can increase sales by 18 percent and produce an ROI up to 112 percent.

These statistics are only averages, but they matter a great deal considering how many companies offer incentive travel trips to reward top business performance. The IRF study referenced above also states that nearly 50 percent of U.S. businesses use incentive travel as a performance reward, and that businesses in the U.S. spend $22.5 billion a year on incentive travel trips.

Creating the Best Business Travel Trips

As positive as the statistics above may seem, they are underpinned by something that is essential for experiencing the success they quantify: Planning trips that are highly rewarding from beginning to end. These types of trips are typically facilitated by a company that specializes in planning and executing incentive based trips, such as Incentive Travel Solutions. With us working as your trusted travel planner, you receive the following benefits, among others.

  • Trip planned within travel budget
  • Travel to a unique destination
  • Pre-arranged travel and lodging
  • Travel itinerary of exciting activities
  • Travel staff that help manage the trip

The IRF study also found that incentive travel budgets per person now average as much as $3,440 person. That is a significant amount of money to invest in a trip that doesn’t achieve its intended effect of motivating top business performance in the coming year. That’s why we recommend that you contact us before plans for your next incentive travel trip are finalized.

Contact Incentive Travel Solutions

At Incentive Travel Solutions, we specialize in helping companies make the most of their business travel programs. To kick off the travel planning process, please call us today at (704) 540-1482, or use our contact form, to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to helping your company plan a trip that is unforgettable for all the right reasons and motivates your workforce to qualify for the next unforgettable trip at year’s end. Start planning today!

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Tips for Using Travel Trips as an Incentive Program Idea for Sales

Companies that realize the value of human resources for achieving sales goals are naturally inclined to offer incentive programs that keep top sellers in the fold instead of letting them defect to other companies within the same market space. If your company is looking for an incentive program idea for sales for rewarding top performers on the sales team, we strongly recommend that you consider using incentive-based travel trips as a reward. Below are helpful tips for how to do it.

  1. Make the Award Annual

One of the most important aspects of using travel trips as an incentive program idea for sales success is to make them seem truly special, part of which involves taking the trips at long intervals, such as once a year. You could always reward your best sellers with trips based on quarterly performance, but the excursions naturally wouldn’t seem as special as if they were held annually. Furthermore, holding trips annually makes them more financially feasible.

  1. Limit the Award to Few

Employee oriented companies are always looking for ways to reward diligent workers for commendable performance, but it’s important to provide awards that are commensurate with the level of achievement. Due to their considerable cost and unique characteristics, using travel trips as an incentive program idea for sales success should ideally be a strategy that targets the top performers (e.g., the top 10 percent of sale closers). Offer your best sellers the best reward.

  1. Focus on Unique Travels

Regardless of the destination (as long as it isn’t dangerous), travel in itself can be rewarding. The mental associations that people make with scenes in their native environment — for better or worse — are gone when they set their eyes on new sights. But that isn’t what makes an inventive travel trip unique. To score high on the uniqueness scale, you need to choose a unique destination, coordinate unique activities, and offer unique travel and lodgings.

  1. Use a Travel Trip Planner

Using an experienced incentive travel trip planner to plan and facilitate your incentive-based trip for top sellers is similar to using a corporate attorney to negotiate business mergers: Why not trust professionals when you need them in the capacity in which they specialize? In addition to planning your entire trip based on your wants and needs, an incentive travel trip planner will send a dedicated support staff to you on your journey to ensure everything goes as planned.

Contact Incentive Travel Solutions

This is the level of service you receive from Incentive Travel Solutions, when you make us your trusted provide of incentive opportunities. We arrange trips that truly feel like a reward for top sales performance — from selecting the most enjoyable means of travel, to arranging luxury lodgings, to planning highly unique activities at your destination — all according to your wants and needs.

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Sonoma Provides Unique Stops for an Incentive Travel Trip

sonoma-incentive-tripsSome wine vineyards are like luxury cars; they promise the experience of luxury, but there isn’t much luxuriousness to be found. As wine vineyards go, Buena Vista Winery in California is the exception. Founded in 1857 by Agoston Haraszthy, and located adjacent to the San Francisco Bay, Buena Vista Winery has been one of California’s premier wineries for over a century. It is also a great destination for an inventive travel trip for your company’s hard working employees.

Sprawling Vineyards
The winery’s sprawling vineyards whose vines hang heavy with plump grapes are almost as pleasing to experience as the wine they produce. Impeccably maintained, the vineyards feature great weather that is both balmy and cool from the gentle winds that blow from San Francisco Bay. This makes them a great sight seeing location for wine lovers, who would like to get an up close look at how vineyards actually grow, as distinguished from fields that hold other crops.

Superior Reds and Whites
Some vineyards specialize in harvesting grapes for red wines that are preferred in the cool season, while other vineyards primarily emphasize in growing white grapes to create summer wines. Buena Vista Winery has a holistic focus to winemaking that includes producing some of the best red wines and white wines found in California and beyond. When it is time to order libations, try glasses of the winery’s delicious Caneros Chardonnay and Caneros Pinot Noir.

First Class Service
Fine wine is synonymous with luxury and leisure, but some wineries fail to offer much of either. As the Sonoma area’s longest-lived, premier winery, Buena Vista Winery has over 150 years of experience in defining a first-class wine experience. Offering the best service begins with producing the best wines and extends into the wine tasting area, where customers are vigilantly attended to like they are first-class guests, because that is precisely what they are.

Ready to Plan an Incentive Travel Trip?
At Incentive Travel Solutions we believe that group travel award programs must inspire winners with unique and memorable destinations as well as creative itineraries.  We help clients “raise the bar” year after year so their top performers will continue aspiring to achieve the highest levels of performance. We look forward to making a trip that your employees will remember for years to come, and motivates them to work hard for your company’s next incentive travel trip! Call us today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form.