Incentive Building Blocks - Training

A recent study by the Incentive Research Foundation found that a majority of companies surveyed run their own sales incentive programs. Sadly, we see that many of these companies fall short of outstanding sales results because management neglects to effectively integrate the Incentive Building Blocks that lead to maximum program success. One of the Building Blocks that often gets neglected is training, so let’s focus this month on “training” as it relates specifically to your online incentive or loyalty program.

Yes, training = boring for a lot of us in the sales business. But the importance of training is underlined by the EMPA’s National Benchmark Study® which shows direct causality between higher organizational training scores and higher EBITDA. It can be argued that effectively weaving training initiatives into your next incentive program could be the difference between good and great program results.

As Dan Cronin, Vice President of Incentive Services, Inc. notes, “When launching a loyalty program, a key to training is to get your team on the same page. That means you need to take your managers and your sales reps and clearly educate them on the goals of the program. You then need to clearly layout what is expected of each manager and sales rep to make the program a success. Then, tie analytics to each participant so that you can hold each team member accountable for results.”

While you likely already have training programs in place, adding new training tools to your incentive process can leverage sales results in several ways, regardless of whether your channel includes direct sellers, reps, or indirect distribution. That is because:

Incentive programs offer a natural motivational draw to participants and as such, offer a new and different venue to focus sellers on critical product and/or selling information.

You may use points or other rewards to motivate participants to use training tools.

Incentive technology platforms allow you to use new or different media in an interesting, engaging fashion.

Incentive training ensures that all sales channel participants understand their roles, program parameters, sales performance expectations, and use of the internet platform that supports the program. In addition, training can leverage managers’ recognition skills, improve seller’s sales skills, and reinforce participant knowledge around products and services included in the program.

Incentive Building Blocks - Develop the Campaign: Chapter 4

A typical incentive campaign has five components, each with a specific call to action:

- Prelaunch Teasers – Usually includes one or several teaser messages before the program launch to pique curiosity and interest. We will usually start prelaunch messages about a month before actual launch communications. Prelaunch teasers can be handled inexpensively with email blasts, sales intranet postings, and quick flash videos. The call-to-action is to pay attention to the program launch materials and get excited about the program to come.

- Launch Communications - Launch communications are absolutely critical to grabbing the sales audience’s attention and so, typically include a multimedia approach. This means mixing e-communications such as eblasts, social media and flash videos with printed materials. It also means that any type of personal touches that may be built into the launch effort should be included. For example, a program may be kicked off for employee salespeople, VARs or dealers through meetings with national or regional sales managers. Distributor sales programs can be launched with face-to-face meetings hosted by salespeople or by distributor managers who have been “trained” by salespeople. The call-to-action is to engage immediately in the program to achieve sales success and reap great personal rewards.

- Ongoing Touches – Now that the audience’s attention has been grabbed, it needs to be held with a mix of touches. If the life of the program is short, say 3-4 months, participants need to be touched 2-3 times per month. If the program is mid-term, 6-8 months, 1-2 touches per month are appropriate. If the program is annual, target several touches a month, early and late, with monthly communications in between. Even if an incentive process allows participants to roll points from year to year, it is critical to maintain monthly touches and change up the theme or subtheme on an annual basis to keep things interesting. The calls-to-action are typically entreaties to keep on pushing and reminders of the great awards that await top sales performers.

- Program Conclusion – A program needs to be closed out professionally and every participant needs to be contacted, regardless of his or her level of success. A personal message of congratulations or thanks for participating is appropriate. Rather than an email, we suggest a letter written and hand-signed by a top-level manager. Social media may be used to share outstanding performance with the rest of the sales channel. The call-to-action it to appreciate the relationship that is being built between the sponsoring company and the sales performer.

- Post-Program Recognition – Recognition is the memory anchor that locks in appreciation and spurs future performance, so if your channel allows for recognition of top performers, it is critical that sales managers take advantage of that opportunity with a local recognition ceremony or at least the delivery of a recognition award with a personal note of thanks. The call-to-action is to engage in the next promotion and shoot for even higher sales next year.

The story here is that sales managers must take the communications piece of their incentive and loyalty program just as seriously as the rules and rewards deliverables to give their program the best chance for sales success. Challenge your incentive provider to push the envelope with multiple media, social media and new strategies. In this of all years, your communications campaign may make or break your incentive program.

Incentive Building Blocks - Use Multiple Media: Chapter 3

A successful campaign will use a variety and mix of media to get participants’ attention, the choice of which will be driven to a great degree by the nature of the channel.

- Traditional Media – Though static, traditional media engage participants in a visual and tactile way. Included are printed pieces such as post cards, sales tips, brochures, flyers, etc. Also proven successful are inexpensive promotional products which may be included to reinforce the program theme.

- Electronic Media – Provide a good deal of “bang for the buck” and include flash videos with words, voiceovers or clips of managers’ talking, html emails, and voice mail blasts which may include generic or celebrity sound-alike voices.

- Interactive Media - Can be effective and “sticky” ways of engaging a sales audience because they require participants to go online and engage in activities that reinforce the campaign messaging. Examples include online games such as bingo, races or spin/win and “personal” URLs - PURLs. A PURL is a web tool that allows participants to receive a personalized message such as a post card, or an HTML email that pushes the participants to a website that is also personalized and interactive. A PURL hits home with program messaging and also quickly gathers participant information that may be helpful in future promotions.

- Social Media – Twitter, Facebook and blogs are, as William Whitmoyer of TMK Marketing points out, social networking tools that provide a dialogue where information can flow out from company but also in from the sales channel. Social networking means that sales management now has many more avenues to communicate with sales channels, and in turn, members of the sales channels may now communicate more easily with sales management and each other. Done well, social networking allows sales management to multiply the effectiveness of the incentive communications campaign, and certainly Millenials are most at home with social media.

Incentive Building Blocks - Communications: Chapter 2

With the growth of social media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs, sales managers need to include these tools in the campaign due to the benefits they offer for interactivity and instant communications.

Let’s look at the key steps in a communication campaign:

Analyze the Target Channel and Audience: Employee salespeople, independent representatives, VARS, dealers, contractors and distributor sales representatives are at varying degrees of proximity to the sponsoring company, with employee salespeople being the closest and DSRs the furthest. This means that the tone of communications may be familiar with salespeople closer to home and gradually more arms-length as a program audience moves further down the channel.

Demographics may play a part in the message, as heavy male or heavy female audiences (say in beauty versus janitorial-sanitation markets) provide an opportunity to craft a message that will be best received by the target audience. Also, the average age of the audience can be considered if it leans significantly towards one age group, as Boomers and Millenials, for example, are strikingly different in the way they use and assimilate media. If there is no significant sex or age skewing, it is best to steer a neutral course.

Set the Budget: Rules of thumb in the incentive business suggest that 5-10 percent of program budget be devoted to communications.

Create the Campaign Brand and Message: Based upon analysis of the channel audience and demographics, your incentive agency or communications department will create the theme that will best drive the message. A key factor in a successful campaign is to emotionally engage the audience, either through the message or by highlighting the rewards to be earned. We typically present 7-10 possible branding themes to a sales and marketing team to get the broadest consensus and it is uncanny the way our clients will zoom in on the right idea. After the theme is chosen, let the copywriters develop and broaden the message.