Has your organization been looking for ways to boost partner performance and engagement? Are you tired of the same, old promotional gimmicks? If so, it’s time to try something new. Consider investing in B2B channel incentives.
Channel incentives are customized reward programs designed to do more than just show token appreciation for the job your partners do day in and day out. They are designed to go above and beyond in a way that truly motivates performance and engagement.
Designing and implementing channel incentives is what we do here at Motivation Excellence. We work with you to learn about your business needs and derive the best goals to meet them. It’s a consultative approach that we back up with the detailed dedication needed to run an engaging, successful and totally custom-created program.
Channel Incentive Elements
Channel incentives come in all shapes and sizes, so to speak. We appreciate variety because it gives us an opportunity to customize every incentive program down to the finest detail. The elements are flexible and include:
- Goals – being specific here is important to the design of the program
- Budget – will this come from incremental sales, vendor buy-in, a budgeted line-item, or a combination
- Rules – these lay the groundwork for success and expectations
- Performance management and tracking – data analytics are important to track for management and participants
- Rewards – travel, lifestyle upgrade packages or award points, to name a few
- Marketing – engaging participants is a special skill set and critical to the overall success of the program
We work with our clients to make sure their goals are met within their budget while meaningfully motivating the people who mean the most to the success of their business. A great channel incentive maximizes results and minimizes risks.
Channel Incentive Benefits
There are a lot of reasons to run an incentive with your distribution channel. One of the biggest is differentiation. If you’re in a market that’s saturated with competitors, running an incentive can be the way to gain attention and new customers. Channel incentives with motivating rewards can increase B2B customer loyalty, which can begin a lasting relationship well into the future.
Cost effectiveness is another benefit of running a well-designed channel incentive program. When we design a program, we like to see the program pay for itself, and then some, through incremental sales. Programs that run year after year can continue to bring in incremental gains as participants work to outperform their activity from the previous period.
Channel incentives can be very flexible too. They can run for a short period of time, like a quarter, or longer stretches. They can coincide with a new product launch. Incentive programs can include rewards for completing training, making your B2B customer an expert (and advocate) on your product versus the competition. The flexibility options are nearly endless!
Channel Incentive Management
This part is really important. A channel incentive that is launched and not managed after that will die a quick and quiet death. Management includes participant engagement. It includes regular metric checks. It might mean the program gets tweaked from time to time to maximize results or avoid costly hiccups. Working with a skilled partner, like our experts at Motivation Excellence, is the best way to ensure success and minimize risk. We recently published a blog reviewing how we handle performance management and tracking within our B2B loyalty and incentive programs. It includes a detailed Q&A with our Client Performance Manager, so if you have questions about what it entails please check it out. In the meantime, here’s a quick list of some of the ways we work with our clients to manage their loyalty or incentive programs:
- Regular client review sessions set up at intervals that make sense for the program and client
- Marketing support like emails, postcards, texts and gift mailings
- Data-driven performance websites that give management and participants one place to get instant program updates
- In-house customer service for participants redeeming award points or registering for a group travel reward
Channel incentives are a must in today’s highly competitive market. They are critical to boosting performance and increasing engagement. For more information about how we develop and deploy channel incentives, give us a call or shoot us an email today. We’d love to give you a free consultation anytime!
