Posted by
Jason King on Fri, May 31, 2013 @ 11:53 AM
By: Jason King
In a previous post I had alluded to a future article that would include some ideas on how to save money while still executing highly effective sales incentives programs. Today is that day and we're going to look at some changes you can make to have a meaningful impact on the budget of your next campaign. These are changes that scale well, have low cost to implement and will reduce your expense on all future campaigns.
Go Paperless and Automate
Specifically, find a software platform such as the 360 platform to build and manage your programs. Quite simply, when you digitize your campaign you are effectively removing time from your process - time to fill out forms, time to mail, time to collect and open mail, time to input data, time to handle checks.
You want to give your customers/RSAs a web portal to log into to enter their claims - the data is entered once by those most familiar with the details of the transaction in the first place - the retail sales associate in the case of spiffs or the consumer in the case of rebate programs. Each claim then becomes a digital file that moves through your system without anyone touching it and with the original, accurate data remaining intact.
When you remove some of these people steps and shorten the time to payout on your claims, you are also reducing the chance of breakage between your brand and claimants, thereby reducing friction against future opportunity with these important folks.
We are going to get into some serious savings around this when we talk about payments, but for now, let's have a quick look at just the costs of having print collateral for a consumer rebate campaign.
What is the intended reach of your campaign, in terms of numbers of people who will need to physically fill out and mail a piece of paper to you? What is your cost to print this paper? Try some quick math:
(Intended reach of campaign ÷ 1000) x Price per thousand for printing = ?
Now how many physical locations does this print collateral need to be available in? Let's assume it will cost you $45 to package and ship the materials to each location:
locations x $45 = ?
Of course, this elementary math makes no allowance for the amount of waste invariably created by this way of doing things and so it becomes important to look at the optics of being perceived as a wasteful company, or one who is simply not building the kind of front line engagement that successful companies worldwide are winning market share with.
Automation Bonuses!
By automating and digitizing your sales incentives programs, your dramatically reduce the timeline to visibility into your programs and their effectiveness - you have your data in real-time, months quicker than the old way and can adjust (remove) incentives when they are not required, which becomes another opportunity for saving.
Additionally, instead of hoping that one day someone in consumer marketing will enter the data from all your rebate forms and start marketing to these folks, you end up with a very clean database to work from with the data keyed in by the prospects themselves. Make sure your process includes an opportunity for these folks to opt-in to future messaging from your brand!
Make Backup Documentation Mandatory
If your company is going to be good enough to give someone money in the form of a sales incentive or loyalty program payout, the least that they can do to earn that money is have their paperwork in order. On the surface, it may seem like you are creating an extra administrative burden for yourself by gathering the store invoice or delivery slip to support the claim, but if you are using the proper software platform this will not be the case.
Most of our clients see an 8-9% reduction in total claim volume within the first 90 days of launching with us and the reason for this is simple - 100% of the claims being processed through our system get audited and therefore 100% of the claims require a copy of the documents related to the claim. This 8-9% number can be directly attributed to fraudulent claims being entered into the system. When fraudsters see that their claim is on hold pending the addition of supporting documents (which they naturally do not have) the claim drops out of the system. A client executing against a quarterly marketing spend of, say $20M sees huge value in adding this extra step.
Pay Out Electronically
Here is where the cost difference actually gets insane. If you or your fulfillment provider are generating and mailing out paper checks, it is time to really have a serious look at electronic payout methods.
This calculator, provided by a large Canadian bank, shows high and low average figures associated with what the real cost is for an organization to generate a check. There are many studies on this, and the generally accepted figure is around $15 per check. Multiplying this figure by the number of incentive payouts you are fulfilling in a month will quickly show you the opportunity for savings by moving to electronic payout.
As of this writing, prepaid cards are the least expensive, easiest and most scaleable solution and they have the bonus of being able to be branded with your company's logo and messaging.
Obviously this is the 30,000ft view and all great sales incentives programs require great strategy behind them. If you'd like to really get into the weeds on this information, let's book a call!
Have a great weekend.
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+ 360 is changing the world of incentives. To find out how, book a call with us now!
Posted by
Jason King on Wed, May 29, 2013 @ 03:48 PM
By: Jason King
"Habit 5 - Seek first to understand, then to be understood." - Dr. Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
We had a very interesting revelation in the 360 office late last week when it came to our attention that we may often wax enthusiastic our software as a service (SaaS) platform without taking the time to first make sure that those we are speaking to understand the value of SaaS or even making sure they know the answer to the question "what is SaaS?"
What Is SaaS?
SaaS refers to a way of providing software wherein the application is centrally hosted by the provider and actually lives in the cloud, making it accessible from any Internet-enabled device. Therein lies one of its primary virtues: accessibility.
No Install
In the old world of software applications, the program would need to be installed on each machine where it needed to be used and this came with all the usual sort of challenges associated with any location-dependent type of work. If those machines running the software needed to operate from a shared database, this would only complicate things further and sometimes even became a gross negative disqualified for potential users.
As the entire world becomes more dependent on wired and wireless devices to help them with their productivity, the on-demand aspect of of cloud-based delivery isn't just a feature; it has become table stakes.
Versioning
If there were pains associated with having to install your old software across all your company's computers, these were only heightened by the challenge of ensuring that all machines were running the latest version of the software. This software, remember, would be delivered by mail on floppy discs and, later, CD ROMs and would need to be installed across a company's entire network to ensure that all data was being properly preserved.
With a SaaS model, you are always running the latest version of the software when you log-in. Companies are free to fix issues in real-time and iterate frequently making for a better user experience by virtue of the fact that there is an implicit expectation that they will feel pressure to always be adding more value for their customers.
Not OS/Browser Specific
Ever try to install the latest version of your company's expensive, proprietary application on your computer, only to find that it wasn't compatible with your operating system? Again, in the old world of software, it was nearly impossible for developers to connect all the dots and account for all possible operating scenarios. Many times companies would shell out for new versions, only to find out that they were also in for a big spend to upgrade their OS version if they wanted their business to continue to function as usual.
With virtual hosting, most SaaS applications are not even browser dependent and can be run on all machines, from thin clients to tablets, with 100% of their intended functionality.
Security
Do you happen to be an expert on data security? I am certainly not, nor can I speak for other providers, but I know that with the 360 Platform, the burden of data security is taken off the customer and rests with 360, the service provider. Data travels through an encrypted channel and is protected centrally on our servers and back-up servers. Security measures are extreme for protecting the data both from virtual attack and physical damage to the servers where it is actually stored.
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+ 360 is changing the world of incentives. To find out how, book a call with us now!
Posted by
Jason King on Thu, May 23, 2013 @ 09:19 AM
By: Jason King
Occasionally at 360 we get the privilege of really starting from scratch in helping clients build out new programs to market both to their channels and consumers. Invariably we talk about the never-ending "cash vs. other rewards" debate but another thing that often comes up is trying to quantify the outcome difference between a sales spiffs and a consumer rebate program.
As with any other big business decision, the answer depends on many variables particular to your company's goals, market conditions, agreements with partners, so in the absence of data particular to the reader's company, today we will simply answer the question "why rebate?"
Help Your Retailers
The great thing about rebate programs is that your retailers can apply them however they like; they can apply the entire amount to a consumer discount or they can share in the rebate and help maintain their margin.
Perhaps one of your partners is a regional chain who is struggling with a significant quantity of one of your SKUs. If you are in the consumer electronics business, a great deal of that struggle these days comes from intense price competition, amplified by the fact that consumers have access to price comparison shop via their smartphones.
In order to compete in this type of marketplace, your retailers need to know that they have the flexibility to engage this type of price-sensitive shopper and still be doing viable deals on their showroom floor.
Consumers Love Them
Speaking of price-sensitive shoppers, put yourself in this shopper's shoes for a moment: let's say that you are in the market for a new set of tires for your car. One manufacturer offers a low regular price on a set of tires which your research tells you would be 'good enough.' Two other manufacturers who are known to make the best tires for your particular need have a higher price, but they are offering rebate programs that put the final price a bit closer to the 'good enough' tires. "Great," you think, "now I can get a good deal on the better tires!" But since we're on the topic of using a rebate to close the deal, let's add one further wrinkle.
Let's say that both manufacturers are offering rebates that put them at effectively the same price for very comparable goods. But let's further assume that one is offering a mail-in rebate program and the other is offering an instant rebate where you get the discount right at the cash register and the work of claiming back the rebate money falls on the retailer. Which set of tires are you going to buy?
There is a ton of valuable research being published these days about behavioural economics and how rewards can enforce long-term behaviour (think salespeople) vs rewards that encourage short-term behaviour. So, to circle back, it is critical that you design each new program with clear business goals in mind: if your goals are short-term (such as driving sales on slow-moving stock, or creating a sales spike to meet some short-term fiscal goals) then an instant rebate program may be just the thing.
Although it is still a new service, 360 has created what we refer to as an Express Rebate program which is a bit closer to the traditional mail-in program, but with the notable difference that the consumer has the option to slightly reduce the amount they are being paid out in favour of receiving their claim payout faster.
As an example, in April 2013 we had a consumer call in to our office to compliment the manufacturer on how quickly they had delivered on their promise. She had made a significant purchase which entitled her to a rebate for in excess of $1200, and so naturally the large rebate value had figured prominently into her buying decision. The Express Rebate option made it possible for this consumer to enter her claim into our system on April 13th with her rebate cheque clearing her bank account on April 18th. Now she is not only thrilled with her purchase, but she is also hugely pleased with how that particular brand delivered on their promise to her.
Naturally, the data on the effectiveness of Express Rebates is still new and still being collected, but anecdotally we have learned that it has tended to help close some larger deals right on the front lines. Their is more detail on this in our e-book Leveraging The Consumer Rebate.
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+
Posted by
Jason King on Tue, May 21, 2013 @ 03:57 PM
By: Jason King
At its core, the whole value of leveraging technology in the business world is how it enables us to do so much more with our existing resources. When it comes to marketing techniques such as instant rebate campaigns, today's technology allows us not just to continue marketing to our existing customers but to in fact leverage the power of their contacts and even their contact's contacts.
Historically with an instant rebate program, a brand's channel marketing dollars are going into the sales incentives pool with the simple goal of helping their retailer close the sale on the showroom floor. Obviously this has immediate and tangible value to the brand, but how can we stretch that value out further, out into the buyer's network as mentioned above and into the buyer's purchase habits years down the road?
Speak Clearly To Those Who Need To Know
A great instant rebate program should have one guiding light during the entire planning process and that is to provide an amazing experience for the customer. Make sure there is no friction at the front lines - this involves great communication to your partners and their sales folk. If deals are going to be getting closed based on your instant rebate offering, you want to make sure that the people closing the deals know what they are talking about. One of the top complaints that retail sales associates (RSA's) have with instant rebates is simply that they find it challenging to keep track of all the programs and their various parameters, so do keep that in mind.
Keep An Eye on Customer Experience
We are going to assume that you have asked the customer to opt-in to receiving your marketing messages at the time of receipt of the instant rebate. If you have not done so, this is a critical point if you expect to get more from your campaigns.
A great first touch in your follow-up campaign is to ask the customer about their experience with the sale. The great thing about email and other digital technologies is that it enables you to reach the customer while the transaction is still fresh in their mind and thus, it helps you with gathering valuable information about who your buyer personas are and what they want out of your products.
Review Integration
If the consumer is engaging with you online, why not offer them an opportunity to leave a positive review on Yelp/Google for you and/or your retail partner? Based on the results of the aforementioned survey, you can funnel the people who had a great experience right into this next phase of your campaign and let their good feelings begin to spill out in a more public way.
Create A Community And Grow Your Reach
Your rebate process could have as many follow-up touch points as you like with the consumer, just make sure that each contact from you has a point to it and is offering some valuable outcome to the consumer. Assuming that you are keeping this in mind, consider how to marry this goal with your own goals: perhaps you'd like them to opt into your ongoing email campaigns, follow you on Twitter or like your brand on Facebook?
Who knows: perhaps you will be the one who creates some pioneering new way to use existing or future platforms or social media to re-invent the way the rest of us do our marketing?
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+
Posted by
Jason King on Thu, May 16, 2013 @ 02:57 PM
By: Jason King
One of our most popular posts so far this year has been last month's 3 Top FAQ’s In Incentive and Loyalty Programs. As the title implies, it answers three of the top most frequently-asked questions we hear during our sales and implementation process with our clients.
The thing is, we obviously receive way more than three questions in the course of doing this work, so here we go with three more. If you can think of any other questions you might have that we would have the data to answer, I invite you to leave them in the comments below.
What is the best way to validate claims?
Without question, the best way to validate is by gathering and analyzing 100% of the documentation from the front line transactions. For example, in the case of a sales spiff claim for retail sale of a set of tires you would want the salesperson to provide a copy of the store’s invoice, along with the customer details of the person buying the tires. If your goods have a unique serial number on them, the absolute most effective thing that you can do is collect the serial number associated with each piece sold. Ask yourself, “Has this number been claimed before? Was this piece even ever sold to the store it is being claimed from in the first place?”.
To make this data collection effective, you absolutely need to be comparing it to all the past data you have from previous claims. This is why we audit 100% of all claims we process through our platform. Using software to generate different reporting views helps you spot trends and, most importantly, exceptions in your claims which gives you the best visibility into where your sales incentive spend is going.
Another powerful tool for accurate validation is to allow retailers to make claims by uploading a POS export file right out of their software and in to yours. This eliminates tons of keystroke errors and other compliance issues.
How can we cut down on fraudulent claims?
We have an e-book available (for free, of course!) which gets into much more detail than we have space for here, but in the interest of a quick, top-level view, I will present a list of the best ways to build fraud protection into your incentive and loyalty programs:
- As above, collect and compare serial numbers
- Collect a copy of the store invoice
- Compare store invoice numbers from the same store
- Collect customer zip code/postal code
- Compare variances of same names (e.g. Jason King, Jay King, J.King)
- Make sure your field sales reps have visibility into where claims are being paid out
Again, it is super tough to give these the space they deserve in a blog post, so I would encourage you to download our e-book, Fraud: The Most Overlooked Opportunity It explains these and more principles in greater detail and also contains a worksheet to help make sure you are reducing fraud right from the planning phase of your sales incentive programs.
What do other people do?
This is kind of a toughie; obviously it is incorrect to share anyone’s “secret sauce” so I will simply share the number one thing(s) that we have observed in client programs that have made a huge difference to their programs.
For sales people: Pay them fast and regularly. If you can create a predictable cycle of quick payments on your sales incentives program, every salesperson we have interviewed assures us that they appreciate it and that it motivates them appropriately. On a subconscious level though, it provides ongoing engagement with your brand and also (in most cases) builds affinity between the rep and the brand.
For rebate programs: Make it easy. If people have had a great a great experience with your brand up until the point of purchase (and let’s assume they had, since they became a buyer), you must consider the lasting implications of how rebate fulfillment is handled. Often, these programs are the last touch point your brand has with your end customer until next time they have a need so let the word of mouth from their experience be all positive.
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+
Posted by
Jason King on Wed, May 15, 2013 @ 01:33 PM
By: Jason King
We live in a time of incredible technological advancements and as a result, we live in a time of unprecedented competition in business. The upside of this is that the consumer marketplace has become full of high quality, comparitively low-priced goods. The downside of that, of course, is that when companies are no longer competing on quality, they begin to compete on price.
Manufacturers have had to become very hands-on about this price competition at the front lines and this is reflected in the increased experimentation with sell-through allowances (STA's) as sales incentives.
The challenge with this however, is that historically STA's have been very unpopular with retailers. The reasons are numerous, but for this article, we are going to focus on two main complaints that companies have with STA: retailers end up unsure of what the final value of their inventory was at the time of sale and the manufacturers often have little visibility into the claim and reimbursement process and therefore suffer from being out of touch when determining pricing in their marketplaces. These two factors, combined with an increased HR drain to administer the programs, have kept STA from having what is perhaps its rightful place as an extremely valuable and win-win sales incentive.
The Retailer's Dilemma:
Tony Scaffeo, former VP of retailer Soundsaround, now with Future Shop, sums up the retailer's visibility challenge succinctly in a video interview with Marketnews.ca:
“ If your inventory is not valued properly, you really don’t know what you’re selling it for. You think you’re selling a TV below cost and that you’re getting the money later on, but you have to be real careful that your money is coming in properly or you’re really going to be upside down on your P&L statement.”
Retailers who finance their inventory using a floor plan based on bad P&L data are in for trouble and, as such, have traditionally had a problem with sell-through programs.
The Manufacturer's Muddle:
Manufacturers, for their part, really need to be able to measure the results of their sales incentive programs, but it is also important that they track where the pricing of their goods are going.
Alright Technology, Get Me Outta This...
If technology is what got us to this marketplace, let's look at how technology (specifically the right software) can make it all better.
Look at your entire process with an eye for what could be automated and start with the way your dealers enter their claims. If a dealer or chain can upload a file exported from their POS system directly into your sales incentives software platform, many problems are solved right out of the gate including the usual time burn by a member of the retailer's staff. The resulting benefit for you is that a lot of your admin challenges are sorted out because there are fewer discrepencies associated with keystroke errors, non-compliant paperwork, etc. Your team, especially your terriroty managers, can spend less time sorting out issues with your programs and more time selling and building relationships in the field.
But This Is About Visibility...
Speaking of technology, the right software will also give everyone (you and your dealers) real-time visibility into what the final sale price is for each piece of your inventory. Your retailers can use this reporting to make sure their P&L statements are in order for their lenders but the real visibility advantage is to you, the program operator. With your enhanced visibility into your sales channel, you can keep an eye on data such as transactions and run rates in real time.
You and your team can now measure program effectiveness (again, in real time) and, more importantly, you can track who in the marketplace is leading the way with price adjustments. You can then react quickly and appropriately. You rock!
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+
There is a growing number of manufacturers who are launching multiple micro-incentives
programs that are more targeted and to a smaller group then they have ever run before. This type of tactic stands out monumentally next to the all powerful nation-wide program or even the 3-4 regional programs that have been the cornerstone for traditional channel incentive strategies. This growing trend is changing the way that Channel Marketing Managers and Sales Managers are allocating their budgets, in fact it is allowing them to increase their ROI because of how granular they can make their programs, right down to a specific town or store location if they wanted.
Using technology to create programs that are agile and customizable allow the Marketing Managers to:
1. break into a local market that is dominated by a competitor with very generous programs while maintain your current baseline programs in the retailers that are directly surrounding your new market.
2. conversely if you are dominating in specific region, why not test scaling back your marketing incentives so that you can find the sweet spot that leaves your sales unaffected but frees up some budget to put in other areas.
3. easily implement programs that coincide with product launches that are being launched in a number of territories scattered around the country.
4. customize programs to each dealer based on their needs (compensation structure, your competitors they carry, intensity of competition in the surrounding area, etc.)
5. quickly react to dramatic and unexpected changes in the socioeconomic environment such as natural disasters, competitive landscape, interest rate changes, etc.
At this point complete program flexibility is in the infancy of the trend cycle and is a
currently being leveraged as a competitive advantage for many of the manufacturers that have harnessed this kind of technology in their loyalty and incentive programs.
The problem with trends is that at some point they change from being a trend to just being. They become the norm and at that point those things no longer give you any edge because they are just price of entry and everyone is doing it. There is no better time to start to leverage completely customizable incentive programs to give that bring that competitive edge to your channel marketing efforts.
Travis Dutka is a communicator at 360Incentives.com who likes iced espresso. Connect with Travis on LinkedIn here.
By: Kevin Martin
Here’s the problem with a lot of channel marketing incentives; they unintentionally end up creating adversarialism between business partners who truly need each other to succeed. In recent years, sell-through allowances (STAs) have been a hot button issue of this type.
Very similar to STAs, you have instant rebate programs. On the surface they are very different because the retail price of the item is reduced right at the till and they have the front-facing appearance of the entire incentive being given to the consumer (which it often is).
What makes these two similar is that both instant rebates and STAs create the same problem for the retailer: they are out of pocket until they get paid back by the manufacturer or distributor.
To complicate it further, in the appliance world, for example, the manufacturer typically only pays 70-80% of the rebate to their partner and even then, on a very long payment cycle which could be quarterly or even longer.
So, as a channel marketing professional, here’s your challenge: you have a program that creates a bit of friction between you and your partners, but you still feel compelled to offer instant rebates because consumers love them.
What’s good for driving consumer purchases should naturally be good for your retailers too, so let’s have a look at how to fix this.
Create a quick, consistent pay cycle.
Change the way that your claims get entered, processed and paid and you will benefit from a simple principle of behavioural economics – your partners are engaged with your brand more often, therefore you are top of mind with your partners and therefore they sell more of your products. When you create a culture of more frequent claim entry and payment, you obviously benefit by having happy partners but where you can benefit even further is by the increased visibility into the performance metrics of your own campaign. Watch how it’s working and where it’s working and make little tweaks on the fly. See? You’re crushing it, now!
Consider user experience.
Your retailers don’t want to be doing a big burn of human resources in order to be entering claims more often, but they do want to get paid more often.
So, set program parameters to include more frequent claim entry, but make that claim entry as simple as possible. Then, re-examine it and simplify again. Offer them simple ways to enter claims via the Internet, either on a per-transation basis or via the uploading of an export from their POS system; whichever is easiest for them.
Provide these individuals with visibility into what they’ve been paid.
Just as you benefit from having real-time reporting into your campaigns performance, you also benefit from providing real-time claim payment data to your partners. They can find information quickly and easily creating less of a time-drain on them and you.
Pay fast.
I know we say this about all programs, but it’s simply because it’s equally true for all programs. You are trying to change people’s behavior, you need to show the way by changing your behavior. If you pay your sales incentives out quickly, you fix one of the main issues that retailers have with instant rebates by getting the money back into their pockets faster.
So here’s the big idea: change the behavior of your partners’ frequency of submitting claims, which enables you to change payment frequency and put yourself top of mind with them.
When you pay quickly, you will change their behavior.
Fast filing/reporting equals shorter path to valuable campaign metrics. Want to discuss this in more detail? Let’s talk.
Kevin Martin is a Sales Channel Incentive Specialist at 360incentives.com. Connect with him on LinkedIn right here.
Posted by
Jason King on Wed, May 08, 2013 @ 02:07 PM
By: Jason King
It would be really tough to come right out and say which element of a company’s sales incentives program is the single most important to focus on. In fact, it would be complete folly; building successful sales incentives programs requires synergy of many elements and there are common principles that weave them all together.
This was point was really hammered home to us last week during our week-long tour of client and user interviews. Having said that, one of the elements that weaves through and connects the experience of everyone involved in successful loyalty programs is visibility.
Visibility For Your Brand
Naturally, raising the profile of your brand and its products is the number one driver of all your actions as a marketer, whether you are in channel marketing or any other role. Why then would you pass up any opportunity to make your brand more visible? We certainly believe in this at 360, but it was great to have one of our clients, a distributor of one of the world’s largest electronics brands validate this point for us. His company takes every opportunity in their loyalty programs (in this case, sales spiffs) to make sure that the people receiving the incentive remember who the check-writer is. They pay out their sales spiffs to their channels via a reloadable card branded with the company’s logo. As he says,
“We have a debit card with our logo on it, so every time (sales associates) use that card, it reminds them that they got the money from us.”
Making sure that your brand stays top of mind, even when paying out incentives for sales already completed is a great way to stay top of mind when it is time for more sales to happen.
Life is hectic and retail sales associates (RSAs) have a lot of people and a lot of brands vying for their attention. You can use a branded card, you can make sure that the portal where claims are entered is properly branded and you can brand all communications to the salespeople, but whatever you do: stay visible.
Visibility Into Program Effectiveness
Here is the stuff that really counts, as evidenced by the amount of traffic we still get to our blog post, The 4 W's Of Spiff Program Management which discusses whether or not spiffs even work. At most of our client companies, there are many people in many roles who all have their own reason to constantly be monitoring channel marketing campaign effectiveness. It is great to see that spiffs or rebates are being paid out because it tells you that your program is being used, but it doesn’t really tell the full story.
When you are setting up any sort of loyalty programs, be it sales spiffs, rebates or others, make sure that the reports you have access to can tell you the following:
- What is the sales lift I am getting from this program? Year-over-year? Month-over-month?
- Am I gaining significant market share? In which marketplaces?
- Am I gaining significant mindshare with the sales force of my channel partners?
- Who are my supporters? Who are my champions? Are there any new stars?
- How fast am I paying out? Can I improve upon this?
- Is my spend versus my sales lift in line with my goals?
- Where should I spend more? Where could I spend less?
Visibility For Your Payees
The RSAs told us this in every town from Newark to LA – “I want to be able to know what’s going on with my spiffs,” but really this is a fundamental of doing business with others. People should not have to worry about whether or not they’re going to get paid – it distracts them from the important work being done, in this case that work refers to selling your goods. While every salesperson we spoke with was ultimately most fixated on doing right by their customer, they appreciate the sales spiffs they are offered by their suppliers and many of them rely on those spiffs for over 70% of their income. You do not want this person wondering whether or not you are keeping your promise to them. Here’s what they want to see:
- How much am I being spiffed and on what items?
- Did you receive my claim?
- Are there any problems with it?
- If so, what are the problems/how can I fix?
- When can I expect my money?
Make sure they have ready access to the answers to these questions and you will have an army of happy, engaged sales partners.
Speaking of your front line salespeople, we are presenting a free webinar on May 28th that I would highly recommend. Jack Daly is one of the best sales trainers we have ever seen here at 360 and he is sure to deliver. Make sure you sign up right away as space is limited, but just as importantly; share it with your salespeople - everybody wins!
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+
Posted by
Jason King on Tue, May 07, 2013 @ 08:51 AM
By: Jason King
Our team has just returned from a week-long research roadshow where we were fortunate enough to speak with presidents, vice presidents, sales managers, territory managers, inside sales and outside sales (you get the picture) people from all walks of the appliance and consumer electronics industry. Our tour took us literally from coast-to-coast of the USA and we were really fortunate to be able to talk to some super sharp, knowledgeable folks.
As luck would have it, in our first interview of our first day, one of them really challenged me with a way that 360 could add value to our offering to him as a distributor of luxury appliances.
He said:
“I think that the incentive business has really changed into the entitlement business and that is that all brands are now giving and paying sales incentives. Therefore as a distributor of appliances, we’re trying to be competitive in the business, but at the same time we’re always trying to reduce our costs. If 360 could help us be more competitive and help us reduce our costs, that would be valuable.”
‘Lucky me,” I thought to myself; “I have a whole week to tour stores, speak with the people who are making the final sales to the consumers and ask them exactly how to help solve the problem of how to make sure your sales incentives aren’t getting lost in the crowd.” I will cover the cutting costs part in another post; here are six learnings, straight from the front lines:
Make it easy for them.
This touches on two roles that someone might have who is entering sales spiff claims for your brand. One is the salesperson herself: when that person isn’t on the sales floor, they are not selling and that situation doesn’t really work for either one of you. Your program should be simple enough that they don’t have to set aside massive amounts of time to dedicate to entering claims because whether they’re doing it during their work hours or their off hours, they would definitely rather be doing something else.
The second role is that of someone inside your customer's business who enters claims on behalf of the entire sales staff. In the case of this person, they have the demands of their whole in-house team on their shoulders and they need to know that your brand is doing everything possible to make their job easier and saving them as much time as possible. If your claims are too much of a drain on their resources, this could lead to trouble.
Offer them visibility into the redemption process.
Nearly every salesperson we spoke with stressed that if there is an issue with their claim, they want that issue pointed out to them and they want to have an opportunity to correct it right on the spot. What they don’t want is to have claims partially paid or put on hold with no explanation of why.
Have an answer for them.
A salesman in Memphis said it best: “if there’s an issue with my claim, I don’t want to have to call my district sales manager, and maybe that takes 2 days, then he’s got to call the right person and they’ve got to look into it and before you know it, the whole inquiry takes a week or a week and a half.” This is tied to both of the above points – if your front-line sellers know that they have a strong contact point who can resolve any claim problems fast (preferably on the first call) then they are going to be continue to see your brand in a more favourable light.
Pay them fast.
100% of the salespeople I spoke with on the tour, when we asked them what they like most about their favourite programs said that they like when they get paid quickly. This just makes sense, doesn’t it? You perform an action due, at least in part, to the anticipation of receiving an incentive. Once you have completed your end of the deal (the sale) you are looking to receive the other end (the payment) as soon as possible, period.
Offer something special to your big shooters.
If your current sales incentives programs don’t offer a bonus for the super performers, you are missing an opportunity to bring out the best in people who are highly motivated simply by knowing that they are at the top of their game.
At the end of the day, all of these people are going to work to make a living but the great thing that we saw on this trip is that the will to do truly excellent work is still alive and well out there.
So, offer some secondary bonuses on top of your programs; whether it be top rep at a store, in a chain or in a territory. As they told us in Little Rock, “it doesn’t even have to be much; it’s just nice to know that you’re appreciated for doing your best.”
Pay them cash.
There is no shortage of debate on this issue within the fulfillment industry but the folks at the front lines let us know loud and clear that companies can keep their points systems, travel rewards and branded goods. As our new friend Mike in Nashville said, “People come to work to earn a living, not an inflatable boat.”
360 sent our team on the road to gather data from as many different users of our system as possible in order to ensure that we are doing the best job we possibly can for everyone. In the process, we gathered a ton of useful, actionable data about sales spiff programs that we will be sharing in upcoming posts and reports.
Jason is the Content and Community guy at 360Incentives.com Connect with Jason on Twitter @JayKing71, LinkedIn or Google+