What is your opinion on spiffs??

Here at my workplace we do spiffs. It's fun being competitive, and talking BS to each other. However do you think it helps people perform better, or just do whatever to get to the spiff goal even If the opportunity it shit?

📬 WR Feedback
🎉 Wins
💪 Motivation
15
BCD
Politicker
2
BDR
eh on $piffs, half the time the points aren't legit and the same person always wins 
softwaresails
Politicker
2
Sales Manager
Spiffs never helped me preform better. The commission and real paycheck is what kept me hustling. 

However, I have learned from managing different teams that spiffs can be motivating to some teams more than others. For our org, spiffs work more for BDRs. 

However, spiffs also add a layer of competition that I feel is healthy in a sales org. 
Annonny
Big Shot
2
Account Executive
Yes, great thought and I agree does tend to help BDR's more than AE
sfdc
Catalyst
2
Sales Manager, Enterprise
Just give me a comms plan that makes sense and we won’t need spiffs. Comms plan should encourage all the right behaviour, we shouldn’t need a spiff to plug that gap. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
2
🦊
It's extra money. I will always like extra money. 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
2
☕️
Spiffs are a great motivator, but you have to police the shit out of the metrics sometimes to ensure you don't have gamers.
Annonny
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
Yes 100%
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
2
Bravado's Resident Asshole
I like money
HoldemCaulfield
Politicker
1
Sales Training & Enablement
I think they're important for motivation, but need to be used sparingly and with great caution because of the behavior that the encourage.

Here's what I mean from experience as an inside sales manager:

At one company, we ran a lot of spiffs. I'd say only 1/3 of the team actually cared because my Sales Director's goal was to just sort of throw money or gamification at reps to get more Opps, Demos, and Deals. It actually had the adverse impact where I had reps messaging  me saying, "Can we please stop so many spiffs? I can't keep up with them, and they are a distraction." 

Also, I don’t recall anyone ever really going above and beyond in their effort or quality of work based on these spiffs. I think running spiff after spiff loses its luster and even less people care. Sure, it’s fun to win but the behaviors leading to the win don’t really change. There are several factors that motivate people, but if you’re in sales I’d hope earning a solid paycheck, a transparent and healthy culture and benefits, and a clear career progression with stellar training is high up there. 

In my current company, I know that spiffs are generally run by the Sales Ops team and on a quarterly basis and segmented by BDR or AE (depending on vertical/segmentation here too). That said, sales leaders have found that some of the spiffs actually encourage incorrect outcomes and bad behavior. For example, in trying to get more sales on a new product, they offered a trial spiff. However, this was for ANYONE doing a pilot. The problem: many of those trials ended up not converting, and the reps still were paid.

So overall, they can be good, but I think they need to be well thought out with coherent guidelines to motivation reps and enhance a winning culture (just know that reps will sometimes find any way to game the system in a lot of instances).

a) are they really necessary?
b) what outcomes or behavior are you trying to encourage or change?
c) could this be done without a spiff?

Hope this helps.
Annonny
Big Shot
2
Account Executive
Yes that helps a lot and tend to feel sometimes they do get overwhelming and can say myself included I just wanna work and not deal with the competition and just focus on what's at hand. Thanks for the feedback great info
Smithy
Politicker
1
Director of Sales
I am not a fan really. Had some decent ones, but normally the prize offered doesn't move the needle.

Telehealth_2the_Moon
Notable Contributor
1
Director of Business Development
Oh I clicked thinking we were gonna talk about spliffs...
SaaSguy
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
Can be fun.
Indakitchenwhippin
Politicker
1
Channel Sales
Personally wasn't a fan, feels super infantile and feel like I'm back at summer camp. Just pay me/promote me quicker if you want to motivate me, could care less about a fucking 20 dollar gift card or whatever 
Annonny
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
Hahaha I get that 100%
ChicagoCloser1717
Politicker
0
New Business Development Representative
Spiffs have to be done correctly. Hopefully if they are done correctly it will help both. If not or management doesn't know what they are doing, people will tend to do what they need to get those spiffs.
Annonny
Big Shot
2
Account Executive
Agree!!! 
8

GOAL INCENTIVES. What does your organization do for hitting personal / team goals? [POLL]

Discussion
13
Does your organization offer incentives for hitting goal?
31% No
34% Yes but only for personal goals
11% Yes but only for team goals
23% Yes for team and personal goals
35 people voted
8

Quota and Achievement : Team Vs Individual - which one will be more effective and why?

Question
16