Time for an Incentive Trip?

July 18, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

In previous posts, we’ve talked a lot about compensation plans. In this one, we’ll address one component of the other side of field compensation – recognition.

Field compensation should include both money paid through your compensation plan and recognition. Incentive trips are one category of recognition for both party plan and network marketing companies.

Planning Your Trip

In designing an incentive trip for your direct selling company, consider the following:

1. Decide in advance how much you will spend on the trip. Your budget should be set based on a percentage of last year’s total annual sales volume (if you were in business last year) or using this year’s expected sales volume if your company is new.

2. Decide how many people you want to earn this trip. Also, decide on the number of corporate staff members to attend. Add these numbers together.

3. Divide the total number of people into the budget to arrive at the budget per person.

4. As for destinations, it all depends on the time of year and your budget per person. Florida is expensive in January but cheaper in summer. You may need to decide between having a higher class trip to a less glamorous location, or vice versa.

5. Someone will need to manage the travel details. It can either be you, an employee at your company, or a third-party travel company. Be aware that travel planning companies typically have minimum fees per trip. If your business is relatively small, this trip may cost too much to have a travel company manage the process for you.

Top 3?

Should you award the trip to the top 3 or top 10 performers, or should you set the requirements so that anyone who meets them will earn the trip?

Remember that in the Top 3 incentives, there are by design exactly three winners and many losers. How would you like to be the fourth top performer? Don’t predetermine the exact number of winners. It’s better for your independent representatives to know precisely what they need to do to earn the trip.

Get Going

For help constructing your next trip incentive, give us a call at Sylvina Consulting at 503.244.8787.

Jay Leisner, the President of Sylvina Consulting, is a top compensation plan and direct selling expert, a trusted adviser to new and established network marketing and party plan companies. For more than 30 years, Jay has enjoyed assessing and improving network marketing, party plan and referral marketing companies across the globe.

Jay Leisner and Victoria Dohr authored the top-rated book for new and young network marketing, referral marketing, and party plan companies, "Start Here: The Guide to Building and Growing Your Direct Selling Company".

Available in English and Spanish. This startup guide contains 250 pages of wisdom that will guide you through the right steps to start and continue on your journey to build a successful direct selling company.

You will save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of your time using the information you will read in our book.

In 1986, Jay began his career in direct selling by working for a major direct selling software provider. First as a software developer and later as a project leader and a business analyst, Jay worked closely with new and established network marketing and party direct selling companies to provide them with software solutions to meet their unique requirements.

Jay contributed in many ways to the success of large implementation projects for many companies. Jay also worked with dozens of smaller companies to assist each of them in various capacities to provide them with the systems they needed to help their businesses to grow faster.

Along the way while working with them, he learned the secrets of successful direct selling companies and the challenges faced by them. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Jay’s decision in 1999 to start Sylvina Consulting as a direct selling consulting company was driven by what he saw was a need for answers, advice, and solutions.

In 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, and 2018, Jay gave presentations on compensation plans, recognition, and field leadership development at conferences held by the US Direct Selling Association.

He traveled to South Africa in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to conduct workshops on compensation plan design and recognition programs for member companies of the South African Direct Selling Association.

In 2017, Jay spoke at the Canadian Direct Sellers Association Meeting on the importance of recognition.

More than just a compensation plan expert, Jay is exceptionally skilled at advising new and established companies on business strategies. Before offering advice or solutions, he asks important questions to understand each client’s specific concerns and goals.

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