SALES CONTESTS 1. Contests.—The love of a game is inbred in all of us, and in a closely knit, harmonious selling organiza tion anything that makes a game out of business and enables its members to indulge in friendly rivalry is welcome. The sales contest does this, and at the same time sets a standard for the salesman to attain, and thus promotes his selling efficiency.
Contests may be announced at the opening of a, year, at the annual convention for example, and may run thruout the entire year. Others may be for monthly or quarterly periods and may be announced in the house organ. A contest extending over the months of June, July and August may be planned toikeep the members of the selling organization work ing at maximum efficiency during these ordinarily off months. One big concern doing a national business fought off "dull times" talk in the early part of 1914 by announcing that the board of directors had come to the conclusion that the time was ripe for rapid expan sion of the company's business, and by inaugurating a series of contests for prizes to be awarded in ac cordance with percentages of increase over corre sponding months of previous years.
It will be found that the annual contest is good for a long pull and may be likened to a distance foot race. The shorter term contests or quota races will corre spond to the sprints. They will inspire bursts of speed, as do the special short distance prizes offered to the rid-ers in a six-day bicycle race.
2. Giving all a chance to win.—It is a fundamental principle of sales contest planning, that each man in the organization be given more than a fighting chance to win. The rules should be such that every salesman in the organization, irrespective of the volume of his production, will start out optimistic in regard to coming out at the top. A contest under whose rules only a few top-notch producers in the organization can compete attracts little attention and creates no enthusiasm among the rank and file of the organiza tion. Such a contest will be no incentive to them to increase their sales.
Calculating standing in the contest according to the percentage of increase over a previous period is a method which gives every salesman a chance to win.
It has the disadvantage, however, of allowing the poorest producer of a previous period the best chance of winning. This in turn may be guarded against to some degree by establishing a minimum upon which increases will be calculated. In order that the top notch producers of a previous period may have an op portunity of winning a prize also, there should be one or two prizes for total sales in addition to the prizes based on increases.
The principle here is the same as that which governs handicapping in athletic events. Just as a crack run ner, unless handicapped, would win easily without putting forth his best efforts, so the big producer in a selling organization, if he is not handicapped, will carry off the honors without a struggle. The men may be handicapped by assigning quotas, and deter mining standing in the contest by the percentage of quota which has been attained. It will thus be pos sible for salesmen whose respective volumes of busi ness vary widely to have the same percentages of quota and consequently identical standings in the con test. The contest standing may be figured on a point basis. In this case a certain amount in sales consti tutes one point, and this amount may vary for differ ent men or different territories. Consistent effort is sothetimes recognized by rewarding those who take orders on the largest number of days, irrespective of the total of orders taken.
3. Making quality of business count.—The quality as well as the quantity of business taken should enter into the figuring of standings in the contest. Differ ent totals of sales of different articles mav be made to represent a point if the contest is figured on a point basis. One point may be allowed for every five dol lars in sales of an article which shoi,vs the larger profit, or which it is desired to push, while a sale of ten dollars or even fifteen dollars will be necessary to earn a point in another class of goods. Articles may be weighted by assigning them various numbers indicating their importance. Then the points allowed on each class of goods will be multiplied by the weight numbers, the results added, and the total divided by the total of the weight numbers.