So you’re building a team. Congratulations! What an exciting time for your direct sales biz.

Motivating your team as a direct sales leader is so important. And when you want to kick the motivation up, challenges are a super fun way to accomplish that! Challenges provide a little friendly competition among your team while infusing energy into your group and providing one focus for your team to rally around.

I like to run team challenges once or twice a month and structure them in a couple different ways. Keep reading for some great challenge ideas that I’ve seen success with!

1. Drive Sales!

One of the easiest challenges to run is a sales challenge. I’d suggest you pick one type of item and then encourage your team to see how many they can sell during a set period of time! I usually keep it to less than a week duration to keep the engagement up. Make sure to set a goal, have prizes and promote excitement. (The three key ingredients to a successful team challenge!)

Lay out the challenge clearly so it’s really easy for your team to understand.

Say you set a team goal to sell 100 of a new release. You can award each team member a point for each time they sell one. And then award a prize for the person that earns the most points,  but also have a random winner. That way everyone has a shot to win (and get involved) not just those that are your TOP sellers. Or, you could award prizes once the team reaches a certain number of items sold collectively. For example, we’ll giveaway prizes at 20 widgets sold, 40 widgets sold and 60 widgets sold as a team.

One way to help get everyone excited and involved is to get a thread going in your Team’s Facebook group page and ask your team members to comment each time they sell one of the items.

For prizes I’d suggest gift cards, business supplies, personal development books, cash and free items.

Another variation on the sales challenge is to have a goal based on total sales dollars and award 1 point for every $25 / $50 / $100 in sales. (You can decide what amount makes the most sense for your team.)

Sales challenges can be really fun, and make a huge difference in your team reaching their goals, but it’s not the only type of challenge. Let’s explore some others!

2. Get those parties–booked!

Another really successful challenge is a booking challenge. The whole point is to get parties booked on the calendar which leads to MORE sales and opportunity for your team to build relationships.

For a booking challenge I award points for asking AND securing a booking. For example each ask could earn 1 point, where a secured booking could earn 10 points.

Just like a sales challenge, make it really exciting with fun prizes and a thread in the group for your team to share how they’re doing. This also creates an opportunity to share what’s working. I usually respond by commenting and asking my team what they said or who the hostess will be or how they approached it to share learning across the group.

3. More team members!

You can also utilize a team challenge to help grow your team. Make it super easy for your team by awarding points when they invite potential team members to an opportunity event. You can award 1 point for asking someone to attend, 5 points if that person does attend, and an additional 10 points if that person joins the team!

This works especially well if you’re focusing on promotion or have any specials for joining your team.

4. Take ACTION!

One last idea for a team challenge would be asking team members to do something–take an action–to be entered into a random giveaway! What does your team need to work on? Here are some ideas, but get creative!

• Go live challenge: If you go live in the group you get entered into a raffle (This builds confidence)
• Share your why challenge: If you share your why in the group you get entered into a raffle (This helps people feel more comfortable sharing their story)
• BINGO: make a bingo card with a lot of different things your team can do and see how much they can accomplish. Make each space an action: send a thank you note, $200 in sales, etc. When someone gets a BINGO they win a prize. (This is a great momentum builder!)

Get motivating!

These are some ideas to help motivate your team and boost sales–and they’re fun! I have seen challenges work wonders for my team. Not only does it tap into your team’s natural competitive drive, but by giving rewards and also recognizing those winners you’re making your team members feel special too.

You may even consider a team prize if you set a collective goal and the team works together to meet it–that helps the team spirit and collaboration. This is a great strategy when you’ve recently seen a lot of growth and have a lot of new members on your team.

Are you ready to do a team challenge? Which one are you going to try first? Or if you’ve done a team challenge in the past, I’d love to hear what was most successful for you! Share in the comments.

If you’re looking for more on being a successful direct sales leader, you’re in luck! Check out Lead Your Dream Team, a 7-module course guiding you through your role as a direct sales leader.