As a business owner, maximizing profit is always top of mind. Finding creative ways to increase sales and revenue is essential to the success of any business. One effective strategy to achieve this is through a gift card sales contest. By incentivizing your employees to sell more gift cards, you can boost your business and increase your profits. In this article, we will explore the benefits of a gift card sales contest and how it can help you take your business to the next level.
What is a gift card sales contest?
A gift card sales contest is a competition among employees or teams within a business to sell the most gift cards during a specific period of time.
How does a gift card sales contest benefit a business?
A gift card sales contest can boost a business by increasing gift card sales, bringing in new customers, and creating a sense of competition and motivation among employees.
What are some tips for running a successful gift card sales contest?
Some tips for running a successful gift card sales contest include setting clear goals and rules, offering incentives and rewards for top performers, and providing ongoing training and support.
How can gift card sales contests be tailored to different industries?
Gift card sales contests can be tailored to different industries by customizing the types of gift cards offered, promoting specific products or services, or targeting specific customer demographics.
What are some common mistakes to avoid when running a gift card sales contest?
Common mistakes to avoid when running a gift card sales contest include setting unrealistic goals, not providing enough support and training, and failing to recognize and reward top performers.
In conclusion, a gift card sales contest can be a powerful tool for maximizing profits and boosting your business. By offering incentives to your employees and customers, you can create a sense of excitement and engagement that drives sales and increases revenue. Additionally, gift cards are a highly effective way to generate repeat business and build customer loyalty, which can have long-term benefits for your bottom line. So if you’re looking for a smart and effective way to grow your business, consider implementing a gift card sales contest today.
A recent study indicates that gift card rewards are more effective than cash to encourage sales employees to boost their performance. We conducted a study at 54 independent home furnishing retailers to test the performance effects of gift card rewards compared to cash rewards. The findings suggest that companies may want to consider using gift cards rather than cash as rewards in sales contests because gift cards are particularly effective at motivating poorer-performing sales employees. Sales employees competed in two consecutive three-month sales contests in which the top salespeople won a reward. At some retail locations, sales employees competed for cash rewards. At other locations, employees competed for gift cards of their choice from a list of local restaurants and retailers. At the end of each month, sales employees received feedback, including their own total sales and their relative ranking in the competition up to that point. Winners were announced shortly after the end of the third month of each sales contest. While we found no difference in sales revenue in the first contest between sales employees pursuing cash vs. Overall, incentivizing sales contest winners with gift card rewards compared to cash rewards led to higher sales revenue over the course of both sales contests. These employees were less likely to give up in the second sales contest when pursuing gift cards rather than cash rewards. Put simply, gift card rewards were more effective at sustaining the motivation of the poorer-performing sales employees. The study was inspired by the competing perspectives offered by traditional economic theory vs. The economic intuition behind the conventional wisdom for using cash rewards is straightforward Sales employees should value cash rewards more than gift card rewards because there are no constraints on how cash can be used. Psychology theory offers two complementary explanations for why employees might work harder to earn gift cards than cash rewards. Employees tend to comingle cash rewards and salary because the two are often paid to the same account and are typically used first to meet important needs such as living expenses. This in turn makes gift card rewards more vivid and memorable than cash rewards. Additionally, psychology theory suggests that sales employees value a potential reward not in absolute terms but, rather, relative to other similar financial outcomes. As a result, the larger the value of those other financial outcomes, the less valuable a reward will appear. In our study, since sales employees likely consider a cash reward to be a financial outcome similar to cash salary, its perceived value will be less than the perceived value of a gift card reward. The second explanation for the effectiveness of gift card rewards relates to the emotion they generate. A big challenge with sales contests is that poorer-performing employees sometimes give up competing when they believe that they can no longer win the contest. Yet people tend to disregard the low likelihood of winning a contest when the outcomes from winning will lead to a positive affective or emotional response. As a consequence of anticipating a positive emotional response from winning a contest, poorer-performing sales employees eligible for gift card rewards are less inclined to give up compared to poorer-performing sales employees eligible for cash rewards. The evidence suggests that employees are less inclined to view gift cards as additional salary and are more likely to disregard the low likelihood of winning a sales contest when they are performing poorly. So when thinking about how to motivate your sales employees, consider challenging conventional wisdom by offering gift card rewards instead of cash. It will describe recently published management accounting research studies from top academic journals and summarize them for the benefit and use of practitioners. From Controller to CFO. Strategic Risk in the New Normal. Advancing Digital Transformation. Facing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. You may also like. When Less Frequent Is More. Taking the Lead on Sustainability Efforts. Is Experience the Best Teacher for Employees? Add Data Analytics to Intro Accounting. January Subscribe To SF Magazine.
In our State of Sales Survey , we found out that we arent the only ones partial to sales gamification. Seems that competitions are becoming increasingly engrained in successful sales culture. To help you keep your contests fresh, affordable, and aligned with metrics that matter, were bringing some fresh contest inspo read on! They have control of how many times they pick up the phone much more so than revenue booked. Our survey indicated that visibility into numbers was an even bigger motivator than incentives. Move outside the box to engage more of your middle. Fantasy competitions are great for this. Get people fired up and make sure the winner gets their incentive real-time.
