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Organizations are always offering contests. When I was a manager, whenever we needed to pick up sales or revenue, we would create a contest to get the ball rolling. There is nothing like a good contest to get people involved, excite employees, and offer great prizes as a result. Right? I say contest schmontest, you need to create a movement. A contest is something you run for a month, but a movement can cover a whole year! Contests come and go but movements may go on forever...depending on how committed the company is to the movement.
To start a contest you must contact the sales team, or service sales team, but to establish a movement you need EVERYONE in the organization to change their way of thinking about contests, and you need to get EVERYONE involved. Not just the service or sales teams. Sure a contest can help your sales increase for a quarter, but what if revenues increased the whole fiscal year. Now that would be an accomplishment.
Right now you are asking yourself, "how the heck do I get the whole organization involved in a movement? That's impossible!"
Wrong. It's not as difficult as you might think. You simply have to get all of the factions of your business working together. Success in business is about people, and getting them to work together towards a common goal. If you can do that, your company is bound to be successful However, in order to create a movement you have to do a lot more planning. Below I've listed a few key components that you need if you want to create a successful movement in your organization.
1. Omnipresent Awareness - When you have a contest, the people who stand to benefit the most are usually the only ones focused on the results. Subsequently, all the people supporting those sales or service people are alienated. In fact, they might even be a bit resentful that they aren't being included. In order to effectively infuse your whole organization with a movement, ALL YOUR EMPLOYEES, need to be aware of your goal and how they can help the organization over achieve. Do you think Zappos got to be so big because Tony Hsieh created a contest? Heck no. He changed the entire dynamic of the company. Make sure that there are visible markers everywhere your employees can see them, and that your progress towards a goal(s) is visible. If you're going to create a movement, it should be shared in the hallway, in the bathroom, in the cubicle, even in the break room refrigerator. If you walk through your business, everyone should feel it hanging in the air.
2. Monetize Efforts - One year while I was still working at Cintas, we decided to have another sales contest. Whoop de doo! Another time for service and sales partners to ostracize production people. I was a bit frustrated because if production didn't help support our efforts, then we would all fail miserably. Our solution was to monetize the efforts of our production people. They were included in the contest(s) all year and they loved it! We didn't pay them commissions, but if the sales or service team they were supporting did well, then all of them received a little bonus. Believe me, we didn't break the bank with payouts, but they felt included which was much more important. They felt like they were part of something special and that is the whole point of a movement. Inclusion.
3. Recognize and Reward - Role plays are a normal part of sales training. Actually, let me rephrase that... they are an annoying part of sales training. I can remember having to do a role play in front of 300 people, and doing very well, but hating every moment I was in the spotlight. However, after I finished, the training coordinator came over and said I was too funny and needed to be more focused on the new selling technique. Seriously? No pat on the back for a good effort, just criticism. I can tell you that I was so demotivated, I didn't even want to participate in the training sessions. I was done with the "new selling technique". If you want to create a movement, you need to reward and recognize people for making a great effort, even if they aren't perfect. It's not a participation trophy, it's motivation for the future. You can't create a movement without participants and the best way to include people is to recognize and reward them.
4. Visualize The Goal - People learn in many different ways. In fact, there are 7 different ways to learn and process information. However, I have found that with the advancement in technology that people are extremely visual nowadays. Therefore if you want to create a movement, you have to visualize your goal(s). For example, have you ever walked into a work place and saw that board which reads "___ days without a lost time accident". This is an example of visually making people aware of a goal. Why not create a sign that reads, "___ days of continual process improvement", or "___ days of increased sales revenue". Why do we focus on accidents in order to visualize our goals? Why don't we visualize all of our goals? If people see, then they can start to believe.
5. Little People Need Love - I listed this last, because it seems that the little people who help support company efforts are always the ones who are last to benefit, if they benefit at all. Despite the fact that they make the products, or provide the service, they seem to be lost whenever it comes to recognition. Often they receive no love from the "C suite", which is a travesty. In many of the companies I've worked with, once they understand the importance of their "little people", they are able to include those employees in their movements and garner even more success. The thousands of employees who help support organizations are a powerful force and united they can help build pyramids, but if ignored they can help tear them down as well. You have to include even the little people if you want a successful movement.
The next time someone suggests you have a contest, tell them that's "old school". You want to make an impact on your top and bottom lines...create a movement. You'll be glad you did.
SFTD
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