SPIFFs to beat the Summer Slump

How to drive productivity with team-based incentives

DEAR STAGE 2: Between summer Fridays, crazy heat waves, our team’s vacations, and prospects time OOO… we’re feeling it. Motivation is down across the team and Q3 is getting off to a slow start. Any ideas on motivating the team or creative SPIFFs we could try? ~Living the summer slump

DEAR LIVING THE SUMMER SLUMP: I hear you! The summer slump is real and many sales teams are feeling it right now — pipeline build is slower, sales cycles are extending, and we’re looking for that extra hit of motivation. But before you go too far down the SPIFF path to remedy this dip in productivity, make sure you have the right foundations in place. Your team should:

☐ Have clear expectations by role
☐ Understand the why behind the what — why are you asking them to set 5 demos/week? How does that help them achieve their quota?
☐ Have a comp plan that aligns incentives with the goals of the company.

If you can check these boxes, then it’s time to start thinking about some short(er) term motivators. And boy do I love a SPIFF! 

Sometimes the team just needs an extra push to help each other through a tough quarter — and it doesn’t always have to be a monetary reward. In fact, experiences, especially ones that bring a team together, can be an incredible driver.

Here’s an anecdote from Stage 2 Capital LP Leela Srinivasan that will definitely get your wheels turning… 

When Leela was the CMO of Lever, they had an SMB sales team driving a substantial portion of new business revenue. 6 weeks into the quarter, the sales team was behind on their target and needed to close the gap — it was time to get creative. The leadership team went to the SMB sales team with a team-oriented SPIFF — “If they collectively hit their quarterly quota, we (Marketing) would perform a dramatic reading of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, complete with libations.”

I have to share a bit more about this story because Leela’s retelling was truly incredible. 

“The twist in the tale was… I made this promise to the SMB sales team, and they delivered. Only AFTER they delivered did I look at the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and realize it was 330+ pages long!!! If you’ve seen the stage play, they actually split it into two separate performances, usually on consecutive nights — so, five hours of theater. 

We weren’t about to do that, so I had no choice but to write a “redux” script. 

I went through the first 160 pages of the script and literally took 1 line from every page! And that was the script we performed. There were more parts than performers so we doubled and tripled up, used accents, wore hats and wigs and waved props around to indicate our characters. It must have made no sense at all! But as you can tell, it’s become one of my fondest memories of Lever!”

And yes, the team LOVED this. The moral of the story? When you’re working in an intense startup, people want to feel part of something, and can find real camaraderie in experiences. 

A few big takeaways as you consider how to best apply a SPIFF like this to your own organization:

1. There are 2 ways to approach a team-based SPIFF: Each individual member of the team needs to hit his or her number OR the team needs to hit their collective target where over-performers can cover under-performers — both work!

2. What type of experience will get the team excited?: The beauty of Leela’s suggestion is that it brought together a cross-functional team, showed a real investment of time/effort from leadership, and created a shared experience that everyone wanted to be a part of. Consider what your team and the individuals in it really care about in order to get creative in your unique environment.

Hope this helps spark some ideas. Let us know what you decide to roll out to the team. 

Until next week!