Using Incentives To Grow Your Team

A little team competition can go a long way to building team growth and connections. Incentives are not necessary every month but can be helpful if you are going for a larger team goal. 

How To Do Incentives

Layer With Company Incentives – Look for ways to layer a team incentive with corporate incentives. If the company is rewarding a specific level of sales or sponsoring activity, incent your team to meet the challenge and offer a ‘prize’ for those who achieve it or for the top achievers. 

Creating Your Own Team Incentives – If you have a team goal you want to reach, look for ways to incentivize petPros on your team to reach a little higher or accomplish a little more than they have in the past. Ideas: 

Title Promotions - When your next title promotion requires promotions within your team, offer an incentive for the first petPros to reach ‘x’ title by ‘x’ date. 

Group Volume - When seeking to reach a specific group volume level, offer an incentive for every petPro that reaches ‘x’ in PV. 

What To Offer

Keep It Affordable – Team recognition is as much about the extra recognition as it is about the prize being offered. In fact, prizes are NOT always necessary! Getting 'top dog' types of public recognition can be very powerful by itself.

If you are inclined to add an award, keep the it aligned with the value of the result. Most importantly, you are modeling behavior for future leaders. If you offer incentives that are disproportionate to the result of the activity, aspiring leaders will think it is too expensive to incent a team and model your behavior. 

Ideas To Consider – Keep the rewards you offer simple. 

• Look for items in the pawTree Pro Shop that are sold in bulk, so you can break them up and offer individual items as gifts. 
• Use the portion of a bonus or commission amount to pay for a specific income producing activity. 10% of a segmented portion of your business income is a good budgeting rule. 
  • Example: You are ready to promote to a new title. The promotion comes with a $500 bonus. Look for ways to incent your team within a $50 reward cost. 
• Small denomination gift cards are an effective option (coffee cards, movie tickets, restaurant, etc.).

Remember, it’s as much about the recognition as it is about the prize.