Case Histories Sales meetings > Employee recognition > Trade shows > Community events > Golf outings > Customer loyalty >

FORE! Challenge/Opportunity A software company was bringing in their sales teams for an annual review and meeting. New sales had been slow, the sales team seemed to be only focused on the current customer base and expanding their use, but little effort was being put into cold calling new and fresh accounts. Goal Implement an incentive program that would drive interest, excitement, and recognition for reaching new customers. Implementation The key here was to drive excitement within the team and emphasize the importance of cold calling new customers. In an internal survey, more than 95% of the reps indicated

that they play golf on a regular basis or would like to. A program titled, "Find Our Unknown Resource: FORE!” was developed and implemented. The program provided a golf shirt, a set of six golf balls -- one for each new customer each rep would bring to close by the end of the year, a keychain with eight golf tees-- representing each of the eight principles in cold calling customers that was to be presented in a seminar, and a golf umbrella to protect the rep from the “shower” of rewards he would receive from bringing in new customers. Result By connecting seminars, incentive products and the golf outing, the company was able to reinforce the plan and the goals with the sales reps for two days, as well as establish a positive reinforcement and follow-up plan all centered around the golf theme.