Giving people money sounds like a good solution for some companies that want their personnel to feel more motivated. This simple function gives employees a one-shot reward for effort and diligence, as well as forcing them to work harder to receive these bonuses in the future. The problem with this strategy is that it often doesn't pay off in the way that businesses need in order for it to be a successful endeavor. In the end, sales incentive compensation has to offer a more complex and enticing set of rewards for employees so as to get them operating at maximum efficiency.

Managing benefits
When it comes to getting people engaged and invested in corporate tasks, businesses have to ensure that they're offering rewards that people actually want. As Business Insider wrote, there's far too much reliance on the carrot-and-stick model of sales compensation, wherein personnel are offered money for better performances.

The problem is, these kinds of incentives offer little fulfillment and generate equally lackluster output from personnel. The source stated that what people really crave is attention and validation from their leaders, as well as opportunities to advance their careers. Instead of focusing on giving employees one-off rewards for hard work, companies should look into launching or cultivating sales incentive compensation programs that offer options more along those lines.

Seeing as a person's life is strongly determined in many ways by the kind of job path they achieve, it's important that businesses value their workforce in much the same way.

"Motivation is much less about external prodding or stimulation and much more about what's inside of you and inside of your work," Clay Christensen of the Harvard Business School told Business Insider.

Learning the trends
Some companies have not yet caught on to these notions and continue to use monetary solutions for their sales incentive compensation. QSR Web reported that Dairy Queen just announced it was initiating a gift card rewards program to get its staff members to work harder. The cards allow for bonuses between $5 and $250 and are redeemable at over 150 different retail and service outlets.

While this program may help the ice cream franchise get its sales clerks to work harder, this kind of rewards opportunity may not generate the long-term engagement and retention that businesses need in order to foster strong relationships and increase loyalty among workforce. It's important that companies recognize that workers want to be valued as more than just monetary objects. To do so, organizations need to invest in the future of personnel with proactive sales incentive compensation.