Your salesforce -- and the revenue it brings in -- is the lifeblood of your business. When sales are up all is rosy; when they're down businesses wither and sometimes die. If your business relies on a team of salespeople to generate revenue, it's worth your time and effort to understand what motivates them.

One effective way to motivate salespeople is with an incentive program, but devising one isn't as simple as defining a series of goals which, when met, reward people with a monetary payout. If money were the only ingredient for an incentive program, salespeople would simply sell more without additional incentives. Therefore, begin by understanding what each salesperson is hoping to achieve: Is to be the highest-selling person for the quarter? To best a personal sales record?

A good incentive program must be understandable, measurable, and achievable. Any program that doesn't include all three of these critical components will quickly become confusing and therefore counterproductive. As a business owner or team manager, it's your job to state the sales incentive program in clear terms and put it in writing. Hold a meeting to make sure each member of your sales team understands it in its entirety.