We did an interesting incentive plan in Sep 05 thought I should share it. Not something I invented (it was used many years ago when I began working as a front-liner) but someting I found working really well.

Banco

This is basically an over and above compensation program. Works mainly as a short-term (I used it only for One month) contest-incentive.

Product: Post-paid mobile connections.
Sales channel : Direct selling Feet-on-street channel of Associates.
Period: 1st -30th Sept 2005.
Applies to: 275 Front-line sales people working for our DSA's.
Objective: Create some excitement for the quarter ending, increase sales and improve morale. Also to build some momentum in the channel to motivate the channel partners to increase the field-force.
Target: Increase sales in the month by 15%.

Scheme details: Create a pool of Rs. 1.50 lacs. this is to be shared between the top 30 Sales people pro-rata according to the number of mobile connections sold. Paid out as cash at the end of the month.

Communication: We had built up an automated program which dipped into the mobile-activation data-base calculated the top-30 winners, split the Booty and sent out sms messages to the entire sales force every-day in the morning.

In addition complete lists were printed and displayed prominently in all DSA offices one a week.

The scheme created a lot of excitement among the players and we managed to get an upside of nearly 50% in sales during the month.

Obviously we supported the sales team with aggressive product discounts as well.

All parts worked well and gave us the desired results.

We also then took the results to the DSA organisations and asked them to increase the sales force for long term sustenance.

It all began a month ago when Rajesh Srivastava sent me a mail about the program. There was initially the usual cynicism about 'education' programs but speaking about it to some other people gave a slightly mellowed perspective and I was reasonably anxious when I reached the campus.

It was indeed a great experience for me. I thought the context of Indian business environment was missing but if we were to look at the program at a conceptual level I found it extremely rewarding.

I will try to write more about the program per se in future notes. The other part of the program which I enjoyed was meeting successful professionals from other organisations and hear about perspectives from vairous industries and organisations. The challenges that all of us face in sales, marketing, organisation building are the real learing touchstones.

This blog I thought could become a good posting point for our future experiences and serve as a platform for exchanging notes. It could be a good way to be in touch in a meanigful manner. I am hoping Prabha would also from time to time pop-in and share his views on issues posted or on new things he has published/researched.

Do look in from time to time and contribute to build this community.

Regds

Shankar
+919811918600