Sustained Growth Part 5 - Incentives

Approximately 20% of your network will be highly competitive. These people will achieve amazing results in order to win a competition or incentive. It is therefore imperative that your incentive strategy is given the same degree of attention as your compensation plan. 

Achievable
The goal of any incentive is to drive the competitive members in your team. It is therefore essential that all members have an equal chance of achieving the goal and that you can afford to have more than one winner. If your team doesn't think they can achieve the incentive goals they will give up and you will have lost a huge opportunity to drive large scale behavior. In a future post, I will discuss incentives in great detail.

Choosing the prize
If you are a small startup, it is better to have a number of smaller prizes than one large prize. For example, you may have a 60” TV for the winner, 50” for second place, 40” for third place… and a box of chocolates for tenth place. 

Target your team
Target each group with different incentives. A Diamond will be incentivized in a different way to a new IBO. The prizes should also differ. There is no point in offering a new IBO the opportunity of international travel and then force your top leadership to compete with them. That is not fair to either party.

Design your incentives to be achieved by the target group. A new IBO will be driven by a small incentive that can be achieved rather than a trip to Hawaii that is out of their reach. Take each group, decide on what behavior you want from them and then set your incentives in accordance. In some cases, a number of small monthly incentives can be more effective that one large annual incentive. 

Training
Make incentives an integral part of your training. Each member, at every level, must understand the incentive and know what is required to achieve it. Your leadership should also be well aware of the incentive and should be trained on how to drive their team using the incentive. 

Incentive Outcome
The incentive should be published in real-time on your website to ensure that everyone knows exactly where they stand and what is required to rise through the ranks. They should be able to access the reports and receive regular notifications. Keeping everyone competing until the last moment of the incentive requires automation. If your systems are not capable of this level of automation you should look for one that is. At least 20% of your network will be driven by the incentives. It is therefore imperative that you take them very seriously.

Take a moment to evaluate your incentive strategy and give yourself a mark out of 20.