As a part of the incentive programs, a lot of companies offer is the spiff program. A spiff is a word originating from the 17th century but today it is used in a completely different way than back then.
Today it is used for rewarding a salesperson for selling a specific item. The reward can be of a different kind but what’s important here is that the employee gets something for selling things. Learn what a spiff is here.
Why is this important?
The paycheck is not the only motivation anymore. People go to work because they are used to. Employees in retail simply get tired of doing their best because at the end of the month they get the same amount whether they sold some product or not.
That’s why a lot of employers decide to do something about it. There are many different ways to motivate your workers, but this seems to be one of the best. It makes your employees try hard as the first day they got the job and on top of this your business flourishes because the people working in retail are doing their best to sell some of the products you set on the line.
The methods
The first, most successful and the easiest way to do this is to offer money for selling a particular item. For example, let’s say you own a clothes shop and some of the expensive jackets are simply not selling as you expected.
Giving your employee in the store a bonus for selling them will make them motivated to convince people to buy the jacket. This will lead to more sales and more motivated workers. Everyone wins.
If the jacket costs $200 and your calculated profit is 75$, you can set aside $20 for the employee as a bonus and still profit $50. This is way better than keeping those jackets on the raft and not being able to get in you items because those jackets are staying there forever.
Offering no-money prizes
An interesting method of the spiff program is offering a no-money prize for achieving some objective. Let’s say you have a retail store that’s 20% lower in sales than every other store you own. Something in the team is obviously not working right.
You can offer a team-building weekend retreat for the three employees that will make the most sales in the following month. This will motivate them to work better and will boost teamwork. It will increase the efforts given by every individual, thus, making the teamwork much better.
After a few months, chances are big those 20% to be diminished. The store will become in line with the others and you won’t need to be thinking about closing it.
Ask for ideas
Before taking action, you can talk to each one of them and ask them what they think about the situation in the store. You don’t have to mention your spiffing idea, or, on the contrary, you can present it as a plan but you need their opinion about it.
This can be important because more often than not, it happens your spiff program to be a failure. Why? Because the awards you’re giving them are not anything special. For example, if their salary is $2000 they won’t try too much to gain an extra $20 per month. See what employees usually mean when bonus is mentioned here: https://gusto.com/blog/people-management/employee-bonuses-mean-something
It’s wise to ask them what they think and what sum is appropriate as a bonus. If you happen to pay less than what they expect, the program won’t work. On the other hand, if you exceed their expectations, you’ll be successful.
Conclusion
A spiff program is a perfect way to tailor your retails store’s sales. Prizes and bonuses are always the best way to motivate people to work there. Think about it, why do you think these people work for you? Because they like how you look? Of course not, they work for the salary and that’s it.
Having a job at a retail store was never anyone’s dream. The first chance these people have will leave the job and go someplace else. You know it and they know it too. That’s why an occasional motivation that will make them feel satisfied is the best way to run your business.