Avoid these 12 mistakes with your sales incentive program

By Zach Links|5 min read|Updated Aug 9, 2024

A chart showing a decline in sales as a result of a misaligned sales incentive program.

Sales incentive programs can be powerful tools for motivating teams and driving results. A recent study suggests that incentives programs can improve workplace morale and staff retention by up to 43%.

However, incentive programs can backfire if they’re not structured thoughtfully. In other words, your sales team won’t magically perform better just because you threw some rewards their way. From creating a cutthroat atmosphere to overlooking international sales partners, there are plenty of ways an incentives program can go wrong.

Here are 12 things to avoid when launching a sales incentives program:

While it's important to recognize your top salespeople, focusing incentives solely on high performers can demotivate the rest of your team. Plus, today's average performer could be tomorrow's superstar. Consider tiered rewards or incentives for personal improvement to keep everyone engaged.

If your sales team can't easily understand how to earn incentives, they're unlikely to be motivated by them. Keep your program simple and transparent: Focus on 2-3 key metrics that directly align with your goals and give them clear milestones that can build towards larger rewards.

A set-it-and-forget-it approach rarely works for incentive programs. Be prepared to adjust your program as market conditions, company goals, or team dynamics change. You can also beef up your numbers during slow periods by increasing payouts.

You should also solicit feedback as the sales incentives program goes along to maximize your ROI.

While cash incentives are popular, don't underestimate the power of non-monetary rewards like gift cards, prepaid Visa cards, and even charitable donations. For frequent Amazon shoppers (i.e. most of us), a $100 Amazon gift card might be even more appealing than a $100 bank transfer. And you won’t be charged a fee when you send gift cards with Tremendous.

As you build your incentives program, it’s also a good idea to supplement with other forms of motivation, like salesperson of the month awards.

Ensure your incentives program supports your broader business objectives. If you’re trying to break into a new market segment, your program shouldn’t be centered on existing customer upsells.

Incentivizing only revenue-generating activities can hurt other important aspects of the sales process.

Naturally, your incentives program should motivate salespeople to close their deals and reach their quotas. But you should also ensure that your less experienced sales reps aren’t rushing through other important tasks — like logging leads in your CRM system — as they move towards their next pitch.

Sales incentive programs motivate folks to close deals. Still, you don’t want salespeople to prioritize short-term gains at the cost of long-term customer relationships. As you reward specific KPIs, be sure to reinforce the importance of CLV.

Without proper tracking and analysis, you can't know if your incentives program is actually driving the desired results. Implement reporting and analytics from the start so you have a true A/B test and adjust as you go. After a couple of months, you may find that you need to tweak the way your rewards are structured.

While competition can be motivating, too much competition can hurt team collaboration. When it comes to your in-house sales team, you want your seasoned reps to mentor new hires. Strike a balance that encourages healthy competition without creating a cutthroat environment.

If you’re rewarding reps outside of the US, make sure your incentives program accounts for that. (A gift card to one US-exclusive retailer won’t appeal to someone living in Europe.)

Accounting for all of that can be a hassle. But you can offer 2,000+ redemption options to recipients in 200+ countries with Tremendous.

It’s hard to keep tabs on personalized, physical gifts. It’s a whole lot easier to track gift cards. With a platform like Tremendous, you can easily deploy gift cards and confirm their delivery right within the dashboard.

Ever struggle to pick the perfect birthday gift for your friend? It’s a million times harder to choose the perfect incentive for someone you don’t know on a personal level.

Fortunately, you can give your sales reps exactly what they want — the gift of choice. Tremendous’ catalog offers over 2,000 options that people love, from Walmart gift cards to prepaid Visas that can be used in over 200 countries.

Whether you're incentivizing your own team or external sales partners, Tremendous can help you create a program that drives more sales without the hassle. Sign up now to launch your incentives program in minutes, or take a demo to see how it works.