Closing the Technical Sale

Rewarding your service specialists for their selling efforts

By Maggie Rauch

About five years ago, Ingersoll Rand, which manufactures Bobcat construction equipment and Club Car golf vehicles, had pretty good salespeople and competent, technically knowledgeable customer service employees. But the Montvale, N.J.–based machinery manufacturer wanted more. It wanted to turn those mechanical experts into advocates for the products who could help build customer relationships, up-sell and feel more responsible for the company's success. The company turned to incentives to make sales goals a part of the culture for its mechanical support team.

"They were fixing the problem and getting customers off the phone, doing a great job of what we'd asked them to do," says Julia Zelenock, program manager for Ingersoll Rand's stores. Three out of every five employees at the 31 company stores are tech specialists whose job is to help customers troubleshoot complex mechanical equipment. But the company felt those folks could prove to be effective sellers. "We wanted to bridge the gap between their technical knowledge and their ability to close business," she says.

With the help of Signature Worldwide, a training consultancy based in Dublin, Ohio, Ingersoll-Rand rolled out the incentive program in 2003. Employees can earn rewards points one of two ways: Either by participating in training or by scoring perfectly on a "mystery shop" call placed by Signature. (The mystery calls are for rewards and never used punitively.)

Employees can redeem their points for various prizes from a catalog. They also earn entries in an annual raffle, where one person wins a big prize. In past years, Ingersoll Rand has awarded family trips to Disney World and Cancun, Mexico. Second and third place winners get a merchandise award, such as a Bose Wave Radio.

The program not only rewards workers, it also keeps the dispersed store managers in contact with their peers, Zelenock says. "Signature created an online portal for our group, where managers can go and communicate with each other about what's working in their store," she says. The Web site posts a running tally of stores' performance metrics, fostering accountability and competition. The program also encourages collaboration and best practices exchanges among stores. "Managers will call another store that's a top performer and learn how they earned the award," Zelenock adds.

"[The program] sends the right message to employees—when that phone rings, we try to do what we can," Zelenock says. And, she adds, "what gets measured gets done."