The implementation of an effectual incentive system for sales staff is a subject repeatedly requested on management training courses.

You are planning an incentive campaign for your sales team in order to win back a lost share of the market. The sales competition should give your salespeople the requisite motivation boost. The aim of the campaign (gaining at least one new client a week) and the participants have already been established.

It is widely thought that salespeople only work flat out if they can expect good bonuses and commission payments. Nowadays, however, many psychologists take the opposite viewpoint: incentives are not as attractive as their proponents maintain. Quite the contrary: psychologically incorrect incentive systems are more likely to be harmful.

Sales force motivation is pivotal to sales success and is a core subject any good management course. Recent psychological investigations yielded the following results: