Reviews not only influence consumer decisions but can strengthen a company’s credibility. They can help gain customer trust and encourage people to interact with the company.
Customers are talking and listening, and online reviews potentially make the most powerful, mutually beneficial tool – your presence on Gartner Peer Insights is a testimony to that.
It is a no-brainer that the quality of reviews matters. So does the quantity. However, did you know that customers also look at the recency of the reviews very assertively? Customers look at the whole package – Quality, quantity, consistency, and recency.
One of the best ways to create a process to ask for reviews from your customers is to leverage the best tool that got you the customers in the first place – Your Sales team. Not only is your Sales organization the face of the company, but they can personalize the ask for the review as they are your direct-to-consumer channel.
Contests have been a long go-to tactic for Sales teams. Contests and other fun employee incentives can be a great way to bring your team together to motivate them to get more reviews submitted for your products.
Here are a few ideas on how you can drive your sales team to get more reviews:
Salesperson of the month – Salesperson of the month is a straightforward way of rewarding great work on getting reviews on an ongoing basis.
Raffle Prizes – Ensure all your employees have a chance to receive awards while still getting reviews throughout the month and recognizing those that work hard to get reviews. Each salesperson can obtain a raffle ticket for every review that they bring in throughout the month. Then at the end of the month or quarter, draw the raffle for a larger prize.
Winner’s Choice – Let the winners decide. Initiate giving an award to the person who gets the most reviews each month or quarter, then outline a selection of potential awards. Some reward ideas we’ve seen include a gift card for a custom suit, a $250 dinner credit for them and a guest of their choice, the ability to skip a scheduled role play, etc.
Guaranteed Cash – Depending on your budget towards spiff campaigns like these, offer a cash bonus for each review published from their link or a tiered bonus approach. For example, at five published reviews, they get a prize at tier #3. At ten published reviews, they get a prize tier #2, and at 20 published reviews, they get a prize tier #1.
Win a Favor from the Boss – Offer a more personalized prize for the person who gets the most published reviews. Let them win a favor from you! This could be a day off, help on a presentation, etc.
Boss for a Day – Set up a sales contest where the winner gets to take your place for a day. Let them run a meeting, choose where to take the team for lunch, and even set up shop in your corner office.
Flash Fridays – Everyone loves to leave early on Fridays. Because this reward is so powerful, use it as an incentive to boost the review volume. You can tell each salesperson that sources 5+ reviews from their customers that they can leave early on Fridays from the time they hit the review minimum through the end of the quarter.
Hit snooze – Allow the individuals who meet and exceed review targets to hit snooze on a day when they want to take it easy.
Creative pitch – Have the sales team members share their favorite creative pitches anonymously on how they reach out to their customers to get reviews. Then, have the team vote on the best one. You can then give the winner a prize.
So, how do you track how many reviews are submitted for each salesperson if all reviews are anonymous? By leveraging the Review Sourcing Links!
The Review Sourcing Links track the total number of reviews submitted and published from each unique URL. See more information on reporting and maximizing conversion here.
To track how many reviews are submitted and published for each salesperson, please create a unique Review Sourcing Link for each individual. List the name of the person as the name of the link to quickly identify reporting for each person.
When you launch your sales competition, you will provide each salesperson with their own individual review link. This way, you can quickly see reporting per person and determine any “winners” appropriately, without jeopardizing the anonymity of your customers.
Example Link Set-up:
Pro Tip: When creating the links, use a common naming identifier. For example, above, we used “Q3 2024 FIRST LAST.” This allows you to download reporting for the links and easily filter and identify the review sourcing links part of the Q3 push.
Happy sourcing!
If you have more ideas on your mind, we’d love to hear those. Please reach out to your Program Manager or email us at PeerInsightsVendorSuccess@gartner.com with any questions or comments.