Brooke Sommers, CMP, CMM, owner of Strategic Conferences & Events LLC, has been planning meetings for more than 20 years and is currently focusing on Strategic Meetings Management and the value of meetings and events for corporations. Brooke left Sun Microsystems after more than 12 years, nine of which were with StorageTek prior to their acquisition by Sun. The events team at StorageTek managed 300 meetings and events per year. At Sun, Brooke project-managed the sales events for North America. www.strategicconferences.net
According to Wikipedia, an incentive is something that motivates an individual to perform an action. In the case of our industry, that is fairly true. Typically we want to incent a group of people to perform at the very top of their performance structure. We want them to be the over-achievers, sales drivers, leaders of the pack.
I believe that an incentive should be a trip of a lifetime, something that you wouldn’t do on your own, going somewhere that you may not go on your own. It should also be with a group of your peers. Direct peers. Never a cash award — that is what a bonus is for.
Most sales organizations have quota-bearing individuals who have some sort of incentive built into their sales goals. If they achieve a certain percentage of their quota, whether it is over a certain threshold or the top designated percentage of the sales organization, then they are invited to an annual trip.