It’s summertime! You and your team have just wrapped up Q2. Now the sun is out and the weather is nice. Summer is such a pleasant time for living….. But not for selling.

Summer can be a slow season for salespeople because:

1. Prospects are on vacation.

2. Every email a rep sends seems to gets an automated out of office reply.

3. Calls go unanswered.

4. LinkedIn connection requests remain pending for days.

Even your sales reps daydream about a pool day instead of focusing on the pipeline growth. This is the time when everyone’s hearts turn toward vacation and a much-needed break. So, it can get very hard to continue to fill the funnel with new business.

This is what is called summer sales slump. And, one of the best ways to get over this slump is to conduct some interesting and fun sales contests. Creating and running short summer sales incentive programs will help greatly in engaging your employees in their work and getting over the slump.

Below are some of the famous summer-themed sales contest ideas that will make your sales reps summer exciting:

1. Race for Sales

Goal: To encourage reps to book more meetings (first-time, follow-up, closing, or all. You choose.)

Duration: 2 weeks

Teams: Individual

Points: 2 points for the first-time meeting, 1 point for follow-up, 3 points for closing

Winners: The person who books the most meetings by the end of 2 weeks wins the competition. Have first, second and third winners.

Prize: Take the winners out for a day at a race track (Be it race cars, rallycross, dirt bikes, horses, dogs, or something else). Races are a great place to have tons of fun and build team spirit and great memories.

Competition Theme: Run a horse race or car race-themed competition. Put up a car race-themed leaderboard where you represent each rep’s progress with a car. Give the participants an option to choose their own car on the leaderboard from the list of different kinds of cars. Now, the car of the salesperson who hits the target first, surpasses the other cars and wins the race.

2. Cabin Weekend

Goal: This contest aims at increasing the number of meetings booked across teams.

Duration: 2 weeks

Team: Team-based contest

Points: One point per meeting booked

Winner: Team with the largest cabin (most total meetings booked) at the end of 2 weeks.

Prize: Winners get Friday off work for a long weekend. If it’s within your budget, maybe rent a cabin or create a fun camping trip for the winning team. Use this opportunity to create team-building exercises, leadership development or skills coaching.

Competition Theme: Build a cabin for each team on a leaderboard. The cabin size should increase with the increase in the number of meetings booked by that team. At the end of the contest, the team with the biggest cabin wins the competition.

3. Summer Treasure Hunt

Goal: To motive your reps to increase the number of offers they send.

Duration: 3 weeks. Reward the winners during week 4.

Teams: Individual

Points: There are no points in this contest but with each offer sent, the reps get to pick a treasure box that has a hidden gift.

Winner: You can have as many as you would like. This competition allows an unlimited number of people to receive one gift each.

Prize: Whatever you’d like to put in the treasure chests for your reps to unlock. Examples include wine, chocolates, sports or movie tickets, lunch, company apparel, ipads, and anything else you would like to give away as a random prize.

Competition Theme: Run a pirate-themed contest and give the participants pirate hats and costumes. Put up a leaderboard that has the pirate theme and shows what each rep has earned in the treasure chest.

4. United Sales of America

Goal: To make sure your team reaches out across different locations. Base this contest around conversations with a lead from each state.

Duration: One-to-two days, depending on how long it takes for someone to reach a prospect in every state.

Teams: Individual contest

Winner: The first participant to connect with a person from each of the 50 states wins this competition.

Prizes: A mini stand-up American flag for a desk trophy and bragging rights.

Competition Theme: Have the contest theme as America. Offer the participants caps and jerseys of the USA. And, have a leaderboard that shows the progress of the sales reps and who has covered leads in most of the states.

5. Sailing for sales

Goal: To make the most total revenue in a month.

Duration: One month

Teams: Individual contest

Points: One point per every ten dollars made.

Winners: The individual with the most total revenue at the end of the month

Prize: Winners get to have their office decorated in summer style with inflatable palm trees and surf posters. Also, gift them Hawaiian shirts and a Luau-style lunch.

Competition Theme: Run a boat-race themed competition for a period of one month. Have a leaderboard that shows boat race with each boat representing the progress of a salesperson. The boat of the salesperson who makes the most total revenue by the end of the month surpasses the rest of the boats and wins the competition.

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