A Q&A with Brian McHugh, VP Client Solutions
We’re past Labor Day and now hyper focused on ending the year with gusto. For many of our clients at Motivation Excellence that means looking at how to meet (or beat) Q4 goals and set themselves up for a running start to the new year. A short-term incentive program can be a highly advantageous way to spark momentum and cross the finish line with energy to spare.
Our VP of Client Solutions, Brian McHugh, answers questions below about why they work, how they work and the program structures that bring the best results.
What do you like about short term incentive programs?
They make noise. A short program, or “spurt,” is a marketing event with a budget (and hopefully bang) behind it. For six to ten weeks, you have a reason to be in somebody’s inbox with something they want to open. There’s excitement and intrigue. In a channel where every vendor is fighting for the same rep’s attention, that’s worth almost as much as the sales lift.
You get a read on your channel quickly, too. In a few weeks it tells you who responds, which distributors actually push, and what your audience cares about. Even a mediocre one is cheap tuition for your annual planning.
And the money is usually sitting right there. Q4 is when unspent co-op and MDF hit their expiration date. A short-term incentive is one of the few things you can stand up quickly, put to work and see results.
What’s the best structure to maximize results in a short amount of time?
1, Pay on growth, not volume. Set each person’s goal off their own prior-year Q4, adjusted for where the market is heading, because a flat prior-year goal demotivates everyone in a down market and pays for the tide in an up one. Flat-rate programs in Q4 mostly reward big accounts for the seasonal curve they were going to deliver anyway. One caveat – this assumes you can see sales at the participant level. Plenty of manufacturers can’t see below distributor sell-in, and then you’re running a claims program and the rules need to be built for that from day one.
2. Keep it simple enough to explain at a counter. IRF’s new channel research found reps are juggling 10 to 50 vendor programs and engaging with maybe half. You win by being the one they understand in sixty seconds. One behavior, one goal, one number.
3. Pay during the program, not after. If the reward lands in January, you ran a rebate with extra steps.
4. Treat communications as half the program. Theme it, put it on a calendar, mix product education in with the standings. Promotion emails get opened at rates your regular marketing never sees. That’s a good chunk of time where you attract attention, so use it to sell why they should buy from you and let the rewards message ride along.
5. And skip the points bank. A ten-week program needs a prize people can picture on day one. That’s the fit for our MAXRewardsYourWay lifestyle upgrade packages – curated bundles at a set value with sourcing and personalized concierge-level attention included, and nothing for your team to manage.
Can spurt programs be part of long-term incentive programs?
Yes. The easiest version is a bonus earn-period inside a program that’s already running. Same audience, no relaunch, a multiplier on one product line for eight weeks.
The other version is the on-ramp. Run the Q4 promo, capture enrollments, and start a year-long incentive program in January with a participant list and a baseline instead of a blank page.
Just watch the cadence. Run one every quarter and people stop selling between promotions. Two or three a year, tied to something real, keeps it honest.
What verticals do best with a short-term incentive?
Anything with a counter. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, auto aftermarket, building products. Fast transactions, brands close enough to swap products, and a person in the middle who has direct influence with the buyer. That’s where ten weeks is enough time to change behavior.
Direct sales works too. Q4 is when insurance and med device teams are chasing year-end numbers anyway, and the design question there is what you do for the rep who has already clinched or already lost the year. Those are the people who stop being engaged in November.
What’s the best short-term program you’ve ever run?
Years ago, I ran a Surprise Bonus Week for an electrical products manufacturer during the deadest stretch of their year: August. No advance notice. Partners opened their email one Monday and found the best earning opportunity of the year – bonus rewards for getting claims in that week. Communications ran hard the whole time.
The no-notice part had a purpose. Announce an upcoming bonus week and people sit on claims waiting for it. Surprise them and you get the attention without the hoarding.
We weren’t chasing net-new behavior, and we knew it going in. It paid extra for claims most people would have submitted eventually. The job was mindshare in a dead month, and it worked. Claims up, redemptions up, and a bunch of dormant users logged back in to see what the noise was about. We went into Q4 with an audience that had just been reminded this brand shows up for them and sales built from there.
Which is my caveat on everything above about paying for growth – know which goal the program is going after. A growth play gets judged on incremental sales. A mindshare play gets judged on engagement and what it sets up. That week would have looked like a waste on an incrementality spreadsheet, and it’s one of the best programs I ever ran.
Aren’t these just “do this, get that” promotions?
That’s how most get built, which is why most underperform. Your incentives explain your outcomes. Whatever you’re paying for right now is the behavior you’re getting, accidents included. A rebate that pays on volume is a strategy that says volume is all you want.
The best channel programs pay for the behaviors that produce the sale: demos, ride-alongs, training on a new product’s financial story, deal registrations. IRF’s 2026 research found best-in-class programs put 40 to 50 percent of budget toward pre-sale behaviors, and a short window is the right place for them, because behaviors are controllable in ten weeks even when revenue isn’t. Ask a rep to close 20 percent more and you get a nod. Ask him to run twelve demos by Thanksgiving and he runs them.
How much lift can be expected by a short-term incentive program?
This is a highly personal question that no one can answer until they know the program goals, current data and target audience. Be suspicious of any company that makes promises of success without a consultation session and follow-up research.
Potential lift depends on your baseline, your contract mix, and how much discretion the audience really has. The programs that produce real lift pay on growth and behavior changes, communicate to people every week and have measurable results based on performance metrics.
Thanks, Brian, for sharing your expertise on this flexible B2B incentive variation. If you’re a company looking to rev up some excitement through a spurt incentive, now is the perfect time to reach out to our team for a free consultation session. We’re also in the perfect time period to talk about your overall growth and loyalty plans for the next year. With more than 40 years of proven success in the internal sales and channel sales incentive industry, we look forward to being a partner that helps you meet your goals year after year!
