Without a doubt, you are convinced that travel incentive contest programs hold the key to unlocking your business’s success, and you are eager to dive in. Embarking on this journey is undeniably exciting, but it’s also natural for it to feel overwhelming.
It is undeniable that travel incentive programs supercharge your business — but where to start? We are here to guide you through the start of your own travel incentive contest strategy. Let’s kick things off by delving into the essential process of defining your contest criteria.
Establishing incentive contest criteria that will help you accomplish the goals that drive your business
While it is common to fixate solely on boosting sales figures when structuring a travel contest strategy, it is imperative to broaden your perspective beyond a singular goal. By solely presenting a sales quota for potential winners, you limit your program’s potential impact. Instead, craft a strategy that engages with your comprehensive business objectives in a multifaceted manner.
So, how can you achieve this? Imagine implementing a strategic point system where points are weighted based on your different targets. Then ask yourself:
What makes my company money & what costs my company money?
Once you have the answers to these questions, you can begin to identify the necessary behavior changes required to achieve your specific strategic objectives with tangible results.
Defining your primary goals
What is strategically important to the success of your business? Consider these examples:
- Are you determined to increase your staff retention rate?
- Is the drive to boost your sales performance at the forefront?
- Are you committed to building stronger channel partnerships?
- Is your team launching a new product?
- Are you forging new environmental, social, and governance initiatives?
Remember, these goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Like all great strategic goals, your contest goals should not only drive growth, but also foster inclusivity and equity in order to drive true success across your organization.
What are your top-priority goals?
Following this, you can determine which audience is most closely associated with these core objectives.
- Is it your dedicated frontline employees or your dynamic sales team members?
- Perhaps it’s your cherished loyal customers or your invaluable strategic supply-chain partnerships?
- What about your investors or executive leadership? Or could it be a combination of several of these?
Which audience is most closely associated with your core objectives?
Finally, you can uncover the behaviors that truly impact your bottom line.
- Is it the upsurge in sales calls to potential customers?
- Prolonging the tenure of your staff, thereby curtailing turnover costs?
- Effectively positioning new products in the market?
- Current customers making referrals?
- Intrapreneurship and innovation that drives development of new services?
- Or maybe, the renewal of lapsed contract agreements?
What behaviors impact your bottom line?
Once you’ve established your contest goals, identified your audience, and pinpointed the crucial behaviors that drive revenue, you can begin motivating what matters.
While motivation tactics will defer from goal to goal, audience to audience, here are some unique ways you can incentivize the achievement of your objectives.
Build a Unique Point System to…
Inspire Customer Referrals
Is your business development strategy harnessing the potential of your satisfied customers to expand your customer base? Have you contemplated the impact of referral incentives on your business? Explore the opportunity to not only maintain your customers’ satisfaction but also encourage them to become advocates, referring other like-minded customers who can enjoy the same positive experience you provide.
Celebrate Customer Satisfaction
Is enhancing customer satisfaction a key factor in your business’ success? Why not incentivize happy customers by celebrating outstanding customer feedback and high ratings. You can allocate points to individuals who consistently deliver positive outcomes when resolving customer complaints, offering one point per resolved case. This not only acknowledges exemplary customer service but also motivates the team to maintain high satisfaction levels.
Maximize Profit Margins
Do you have certain high-margin products that have higher profit margins and can supercharge your earnings? If so, give more points to these lucrative profit powerhouses. This not only boosts revenue, but also ignites a game-changing approach to driving a more profitable sales strategy.
Motivate Excellence in Safety and Compliance
Is maintaining an impeccable safety record fundamental to your operational excellence? How about ensuring compliance with all industry regulations and standards? You can motivate individuals accountable for maintaining exceptional quality standards in their work or product quality, by awarding points for positive quality assessments from clients or passing rigorous quality control audits. If you offer trainings, you can further “gamify” them — awarding points to the highest scorers.
Champion Community Involvement
It’s not just about embedding community impact within your travel incentive trip; it’s also an opportunity to honor and celebrate the active involvement of your team members in the community. You can recognize their contributions by awarding points for every hour spent volunteering or participating in community outreach activities, with additional points for successfully spearheading community service projects. Additionally, don’t forget to celebrate other remarkable well-being achievements, such as reaching significant fitness milestones.
Foster Staff Tenure and Retention
We are all too familiar with the substantial costs associated with losing a valued team member. You can recognize and reward long-serving employees by commemorating significant milestones in their years of dedicated service. Those who have consistently demonstrated loyalty and unwavering dedication to the organization can earn a well-deserved spot on your upcoming incentive trip.
Embrace Organizational Values
Have you considered honoring those participants who wholeheartedly embrace your company’s core values? If continuous learning is a pivotal organizational value, consider attributing points based on participation in learning initiatives and events. Is diversity and inclusion a cherished value within your organization? Recognize it by awarding points to individuals actively involved in promoting and participating in DE&I efforts. Is teamwork among your top company values? Acknowledge it by giving points to those who’ve been lauded by managers for their outstanding teamwork contributions.
By placing your company values at the forefront of your contest, you create a unique opportunity where all team members can strive to earn their place on your rewarding journey, aligning their actions with the principles that matter most to your organization.
Recognize Above-and-Beyond Efforts
Irrespective of the criteria you establish, you will always have participants who exceed expectations and set new standards for excellence. Recognize these exceptional individuals by offering them additional perks throughout the incentive experience. This could include personalized excursions, extended stays, or special awards. By doing so, you can continue to inspire and reward your standout team members, even after they’ve surpassed their objectives.
Your Turn
Depending on your organization’s goals and values, you can tailor the criteria to align with your specific needs and objectives. Your travel contest should be carefully crafted to reflect your company’s distinct priorities and culture, and there is no one better suited to lead that charge than you.
Now, it’s your turn — how will you motivate and reward your most important stakeholders to achieve the goals you have laid out? Once that’s decided, you are well on your way to establishing your very own travel incentive contest program.
When partnering with Achieve, you unlock easy planning, increased savings, and seamless execution. Reach out to us to discuss your personalized travel incentive contest strategy and how we can partner together to reach your business goals.
