A sales contest is a competition between sales teams. It’s a great way to recognize the top performers, identify those who need extra support, and increase sales performance. It’s also widely used to get the entire team into the spirit of selling.
Let’s explore great ideas to start a sales contest within your organization in this post.
Why You Should Hold a Sales Contest
Human beings love competition.
If you’ve ever watched a sporting event or even just played a game with friends, you know we’re hardwired to compete and win. That’s why sales contests are so effective—they tap into what makes us tick as humans.
Apart from that, a sales contest is effective in showing off your company’s values and culture while fostering a sense of community among your workers. It encourages teamwork and helps your team members get to know each other better.
Sales Contest Goals
You can hold a sales contest to achieve the following goals:
- Identify high-performing sales reps and show your recognition
- Boost your team’s overall productivity
- Inspire low-performers to improve their skills
- Enhance team morale
16 Ideas for Sales Contests
1. Daily Prize
A daily prize is a common sales contest. It’s effective in keeping your sales team engaged throughout the day.
Here’s how you can hold a daily prize contest: Each day, one sales rep will win a prize. It could be a gift card, an extra day off, or something else that’s fun and useful.
You can choose multiple winners based on your product type or customer segments. For example, one winner among those who sell physical products and another among those who sell services.
2. Raffle
If you’re looking for a way to incentivize your sales reps and motivate them to achieve short-term goals while winning a more lucrative prize, a raffle is a perfect solution.
When you reach a specific sales goal, you get a ticket. The more tickets you have, the higher your chances are of winning a larger prize.
3. Salesperson of The Month
The Salesperson of the Month award recognizes one team member each month who has exceeded their quota and performed above and beyond expectations. You can establish this award to show appreciation for your reps’ hard work and dedication to your business.
4. Buddy Up
Buddy up is a sales contest that’s all about teamwork. In this contest, top sales reps pair up with the lower performers and help them improve their ability to close deals. The top sales team gets rewarded at the end of the month, and each member of that winning team gets to choose a buddy who will receive a surprise gift.
5. The Poker Game Sales Contest Idea
Poker is a game of chance, strategy, and skill. So why not use the same principle to motivate your sales team?
Every day that someone hits a certain number of closed deals, calls, or meetings scheduled, they get to pick a card from the deck. The person with the best five-card poker hand at the end of the month wins a prize of your choosing.
6. The Most No’ Ideas for Sales Contest
We all know reps have to deal with nos all the time. Sometimes it can be hard for them to keep their head up. That’s why showing your understanding and empathy can significantly impact their productivity. You can do that by introducing the Most No’ contest.
The idea is that the rep who gets the most nos in a month wins. It’s great to inject some fun into your sales process and remind your team that there are always ways forward—even when someone says no right off the bat.
7. Leave Early Fridays
You can give your sales reps a challenge (for example, hitting sales targets earlier) and a reward by holding the “Leave Early Fridays” contest.
This contest is great to show your team you’re invested in them reaching their goals, but it also allows them to have a relaxed start to the weekend. It’s also an excellent way to create an environment where employees can trust their managers and take risks.
8. The Most Improved
This contest is about recognizing and rewarding the sales reps who have improved the most. You should look for those who had made a big jump in their sales volume or put in a lot of effort when they weren’t seeing results and are now seeing success.
9. The Team Trophy
The Team Trophy is a sales contest for pairs or groups of reps who are new and have a lot of experience.
It’s simple: each pair or group will be given a product to sell, and they must work together to sell it. The winner is the pair or group that sells the most products.
10. Sales Bingo
This is a fun way to set different targets your teams have to hit. You can use this for all sales-related goals, from overall revenue to the number of new leads or clients.
11. Client Reviews
Create a contest where your sales reps can win prizes based on how many clients reviews they receive. The more reviews they get, the better their chances are of winning.
This is a great way to motivate your sales team and help them develop better relationships with prospects and clients.
12. Lunch With Management
In this contest, sales reps can win lunch with the CEO, COO, sales leader, or another executive. The winner will be selected based on the highest sales volume for a given period.
13. Closing Race Idea
The concept is simple: you give your reps a list of leads, and they must close as many deals as possible in the next X hours or days. At the end of the day, you’ll compare performance and see who closed the most deals.
14. Sales Leaderboards
Each week, you set up a new leaderboard with sales reps and their performance for that week. You can rank them by total sales volume or by the percentage of quota. You can set up leaderboards for each of your teams and then assign points based on how well they do in their goals.
15. Double Commission Day
This is a great opportunity for us to reward our hardworking sales reps and create friendly competition among them. The top seller will receive a prize and a bonus, like an extra day off or a surprise gift.
16. Creative Pitching
Let your sales reps share their most creative sales pitch anonymously in a creative way. Then, ask your team to vote on their favorite pitch and award prizes to the top three (or five, if you want).
How to Start a Sales Contest
Here are three simple tips to help you hold a sales contest the right way:
1. Set Rules
Your contest should have a clear set of rules. This will help you avoid confusion and keep the contest fair for everyone involved. Make sure to include the following:
- How many salespeople are allowed to enter the contest
- What kind of product or service must be sold to be eligible
- How much revenue must be made during the contest period
2. Decide a Prize
Your sales contest needs to have an enticing prize to get people excited and want to compete. The award doesn’t have to be expensive; it just has to be something that will motivate your team members. You can offer cash rewards, merchandise, trophies, or recognition in company newsletters.
3. Collect Contest Ideas From Your Team
Ask each person on your team for their top three ideas for contests or sales activities that could help them reach their goals. You might want to offer some prizes for the best ideas, but it’s not necessary—just having everyone contribute will be enough to get the ball rolling.
The best part about collecting contest ideas from your team is that it helps you understand what types of contests would work best with your sales team. This will make it easier for you to create a compelling contest that aligns with your business goals.
How Revenue Intelligence Software Can Benefit Your Sales Contest
Sales contests are a surefire way to get employees excited about selling. What if you could combine the idea of a sales contest and combine it with data analysis?
Imagine you can see, in real-time, which parts of your business are seeing the biggest growth. Or you can discover new opportunities for growth by looking at historical data.
This is what revenue intelligence software can do for you. It allows you to see all critical information in one place, so you can make better decisions about how best to invest in your salespeople. It also helps keep your sales team motivated by giving them insight into their performance and what they can do to improve their productivity.
Ready to implement revenue intelligence software? Sign up for a 14-day trial of Revenue Grid and start using it to hold a sales contest for your sales team.
