There are two types of rewards in any incentive program. One is expected rewards, given out for achieving sales goals or completing projects. The other is unexpected rewards, given spontaneously for on-the-spot accomplishments. Both types have their place in any healthy sales incentive program, but unexpected rewards are often pushed to the wayside by program leadership that either forgets all about them, or isn’t sure how or when to distribute them. This is a shame, because unexpected rewards can have hugely underestimated effects on the success of your sales incentive program—here’s how! Why Surprise Sales Incentives Are Important for Your Sales Team In 1973, psychologists seeking to understand the effects of rewards on activity performance asked a question: how does the expectation of a reward affect productivity? Gathering together children between 3 and 5 years old, the scientists stipulated only that the children must enjoy drawing for fun. They divided the children into three groups: those who were promised a reward on the condition that they draw a picture, those who received the same reward for the same action but weren’t told before taking part, and a control group who received nothing whether they drew or not. After the initial experiment, the children’s drawing habits continued to be monitored. What the psychologists observed was surprising: the children who had grown to expect rewards lost interest in drawing and spent less time doing it overall. The children who had received rewards unexpectedly, on the other hand, notably increased their time on drawing. Although it was conducted decades ago, this study can still frame how we think about sales incentive programs. When people know that they will receive a reward as compensation for a completed task—even if it’s something they enjoy doing—they become significantly less likely to do it without the continued reward. Spontaneous, non-repetitive rewards, on the other hand, serve as positive reinforcement for desirable behaviors. There’s so much more to talk about when it comes to unexpected sales incentives—take a look at our slideshare below for more about the effects of surprise rewards and how to implement them into your incentive rewards program.

1. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL POWER OF
UNEXPECTED SALES INCENTIVES

2. Scientific studies
have shown that
unexpected
rewards tap into
parts of the brain
connected to
learning and
motivation.
Let’s take a look at ways you
can use surprise as a
powerful sales motivation
strategy.

3. WHAT MAKES UNEXPECTED REWARDS SO EFFECTIVE?
Psychologist B.F. Skinner
observed that, when he tested
mice’s behavior response to
rewards, random rewards
triggered the most dramatic
changes in their actions.
The mice would press a lever and sometimes they’d get a small treat, other times a
large treat, and other times nothing at all. Unlike the mice that received the same
treat every time, the mice that received variable rewards seemed to press the
lever compulsively.
(Source: http://boingboing.net/2014/11/03/why-your-brain-loves-rewards.html)
More recent studies have revealed that humans have similar reactions to surprise
rewards. A pleasure center of the brain called the nucleus accumbens is much more
active when study subjects receive unpredictable patterns of rewards, regardless of
the subjects’ personal preferences for rewards.
(Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=116829&page=1)

4. WHAT MAKES UNEXPECTED REWARDS SO EFFECTIVE? cont.
In short, surprise incentive
rewards are so powerful because
they’re universal. They’re
chemical. They transcend gender,
age, preference, job title, etc.
You can use them as a tool of
instant engagement to make the
reward experience more
meaningful, motivating sales
teams more effectively.
In theories of basic learning,
this degree of unexpectedness
or surprise is important
because it represents the new,
unforeseen information that
the brain must somehow
incorporate into its model of
“what happens next.”
(Source: http://www.dana.org/News/Details.aspx?id=42964)

5. HOW CAN YOU USE THIS INFORMATION
SPECIFICALLY IN MOTIVATING SALES TEAMS?
COMBINE UNEXPECTED
REWARDS WITH TRAINING.
An unexpected reward tells the brain, “Hey, this is
important! Pay attention,” and that’s a great time
to impart some crucial knowledge
During a training session, for example, you might
call on randomly selected salespeople to
regurgitate information and give them an
unexpected incentive reward if they’re able to.

6. MOTIVATE SALES EMPLOYEES WITH
UNEXPECTED, ON-THE-SPOT REWARDS.
The subjective value of reward
decreases with increasing delay to its
receipt.
(Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036802/ )
Use unexpected on-the-spot sales incentive rewards to recognize sales employees
when they go above and beyond. Not only are you leveraging the power of surprise,
but you’re also solidifying the brain’s connection between action and reward.
Immediately rewarding behavior has a much stronger impact—and is more likely to
motivate salespeople to repeat that behavior—than delayed rewards.

7. AVOID “OVERJUSTIFYING” WORK WITH REWARDS.
Psychologists Mark R. Lepper and David Greene
conducted a study on children’s motivation to draw. The
study found that children who were told beforehand
they’d be rewarded for drawing were less inclined to
draw—even when they already enjoyed drawing.
(Source: http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/10/how-rewards-can-backfire-and-reduce-motivation.php)
Even children understand that, when they’re told they’ll
be rewarded for something, it’s usually something they
wouldn’t normally do or enjoy. When someone hears that
they’ll get a reward for something they already do, they
question whether they should enjoy that activity on its
own, without the reward.
Tie unexpected
rewards to inner
fulfillment. Sales
employee rewards
shouldn’t be about
manipulating
salespeople, but
making stronger
connections between
their jobs and their
intrinsic motivations.

8. MAKE SURE UNEXPECTED REWARDS ARE JUST AN
ELEMENT OF THE BIGGER INCENTIVES STRATEGY.
Spontaneous rewards are excellent as small sales
incentives or an element of a larger program. But if you
plan on investing in an incentive program that acts as a
long-term sales and marketing tool, be transparent
about the program and your intentions. Leave some
room for program participants to be surprised by
spontaneous rewards, but make sure they understand
the big picture and purpose of the incentive program
and how it ties in to company and sales goals.

9. There’s a whole world of interesting elements to
motivation psychology and the impact that rewards
have on how people, think, feel and act. Unexpected
rewards are just a small piece of the picture, but— we
think—an interesting one. The more you observe how
your team responds to sales rewards and motivation
strategies, the more you’ll learn about incentivizing
them.