The Benefits of Cash
-by Scoop
June 18, 2010 — I’m going to go out on a limb here by suggesting that the colossal financial calamity that swept through our industry recently may have ended, across the board, the motivational sales and marketing stimulus of daily SPIFFS as cash-strapped developers sought corners to cut.
Being cost efficient is a good thing but there is hardly anything that motivates a sales and marketing rep to push the sales envelope more than knowing they’ll be rewarded for a ‘job-well-done’ with a fat cash SPIFF and to be paid that in front of all the other reps which, in turn, motivates them, too.
Daily SPIFFS were so popular at one time in the ‘biz’ that the top ‘writers’ could live off them each week (daily expenses such as lunch, gas, ‘happy-hour’ etc.) and ‘bank’ their checks. It was a great system for the developer, too, because their reps worked even harder for the ‘wadski’!
One of the all time greatest SPIFFS to ever hit the industry was when Stephen J Cloobeck of Diamond Resorts International fame told his staff some years back that if they hit the ‘magic-number’ he’d rent a passenger jetliner and fly his team from Vegas to San Francisco (and back) for a night of ‘activities’– and indeed they did, and he did too!
I’m not suggesting each developer needs to match what Cloobeck accomplished, but they really do need to bring back (cash) SPIFFS and I’m not talking about the ‘chump-change’ variety but in bundles of c-notes and start paying those out each morning during the sales meeting!
By doing so, and again, I’m going out on a limb here, they’ll not only charge up and excite their entire sales and marketing teams (far more than any words of ‘enlightenment’ during the meeting) they’ll likely increase their closing ratios and VPGs and equally important, they’ll send a loud and clear (and needed) message to their ‘folks’ that the bad times are behind them all and those ‘happy days are here again…’
Obviously they should wait until the rescission period is over, but following the morning on that date, it should be ‘ka-ching’ time every day thereafter!
Scoop
Email Scoop: scoop@insidethegate.com
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