Distribution Network Incentives: Tips for Development and Simplification

Distribution Network Incentives: Tips for Development and Simplification:- First, let us agree that if there is a science of motivation, it is not an exact science. It is certainly difficult, but with good planning, you can increase participation rates in your incentives and get the ROI needed to achieve your business goals. One of the best advices you can give is not to skip / skip the planning stage of your incentive program for your distribution network. A program that works for all distributors and all stakeholders takes time to plan. It involves doing surveys, getting information, segmenting, determining the budget and putting in place an action plan that uses all the levers of motivation.

Distribution Network Incentive | 7ips to Remember

One must think about your upstream distribution network incentive programs and not just merely assign gifts for sales that would or would not have occurred without incentive. The question is how to help your distributors improve their relationship with your organization. The starting point of your program must be the development of an action plan that starts by clearly identifying the objectives.

Your success and the success of your distributors in the program depend on a well thought out plan with a clear goal. You have to understand what problem you are really trying to solve. Simply saying that you want to increase sales is not a real goal. The real question is how to increase sales? What should be done differently in this new program? Do we need additional training? Are your network managers sufficiently focused on helping your distributors succeed? Or are hundreds of unmanaged commercials not participating, and without them you cannot reach your growth goal?

Network Incentives: Do not Reward that the best

Once you have identified the real issues of your incentive program and you have specified its goals, you can move on to the actual planning of your program. The priority points to be checked during the organization of a motivation program are listed below. Incentive of a distribution network: the 7 key points

1. Your incentive must comply with current tax regulations

Find out more about legislation for the taxation of incentives in your country.

In France, the tax treatment of grants was clarified by inter-ministerial circular dss / 5b / 2012/56 of 5 March 2012. For example, wage and employer costs are due on 46% of the amount of the grants paid to your own employees.

2. Look after the rewards of your incentive

Your rewards must depend on your goals and the structure of your program. Are you addressing a population of low-income telemarketers for whom a challenge is primarily used to earn gift certificates to fill the caddy? In this case, prefer gift vouchers.

But in general the gifts that have the most impact are experiences (trips, stays, tastings).

3. Develop a strategy for your incentive

The strategy to adopt during your incentive program may vary depending on the overall motivation strategy of your company and the participants.

Participants should be defined and segmented according to region, hierarchy, participation in other programs of the company.

4. Your network incentive must be supported by good communication

Too many motivational programs fail because they cannot get the participants involved. It is about building a communication that touches all the participants as often as possible and that is relevant and personalized.

This involves the development of a detailed communication plan that specifies who publishes what and when.

It is a question of guaranteeing a continuous flow of communication and animation throughout the duration of the challenge and to ensure that the enthusiasm continues. That’s how the program will have a real impact on your business.

We also advise you to delegate the animation as much as possible to the field management, who knows its business better and who can really personalize the animation.

5. The success of a network incentive depends on quality content

As with any marketing operation, it’s about producing regular and interesting content to keep participants interested and get them back for more content.

Suggest videos, FAQs, Success Stories, quizzes, testimonials…

A challenge is the ideal opportunities to offer training content that will help salespeople achieve their goals. Look at what is the most successful content and offer more of this type.

6. Intelligently integrate the tools of your incentive

Use single-sign-on (SSO), which means that a salesperson must be able to log in with the same username and password to all corporate services. And ask what other tools it would be useful to integrate to introduce from the first day of the challenge a simple and practical program for all.

7. An incentive is an opportunity to draw inspiration from competitors

Your distributors are probably involved in incentive operations for your competitors. See how this happens.

If your distributors have gotten used to functioning in some way go in their direction. Inspire yourself from the best ideas of the programs to which your distributors are subject. The points to be checked are: How are the rewards awarded, how the registration, who can participate, is and how is the training done.

Developing an action plan to set up an incentive in a distribution network means taking tax and rewards into account, developing an adapted strategy, ensuring that its tools are well integrated and Is to learn from its competitors. And how do you manage incentives in your network? What difficulties do you encounter?

How to Simplify Distribution Network Incentives?

Anyone who works in a distribution network will tell you that it is difficult to develop, manage and grow their distribution network. Objectives such as growth in turnover, margins and the increase in the number of distributors (and their satisfaction) may thus be contradictory and encounter budgetary obstacles. Your ability to balance these factors will help you ensure your network’s success and reputation. Simplicity is a key: according to KPMG, 94% of business leaders say that managing complexity is a key to the success of companies (and distributor networks).

Knowing that according to INSEE, in networks account for 84% of turnover, it can be said that distribution networks play a crucial role in the success of the manufacturers they represent, and that it is therefore fundamental that incentives in your distribution network are as simple as possible. That being said, here are three ways to simplify the management of your incentive programs for your distribution networks.

1. Make easy-to-use incentive programs for your networks

How easy are your programs to be? Do distributors need to call technical support to change their age or challenge? Of course not! A complicated platform will simply not be used by the majority of business partners. One of the keys is SSO: Single Sign On, a single password and username for all company services. Having an intuitive interface is also important: do not have to organize trainings at your distributors, just to learn how to use them! The commitment and loyalty that you will create at your distributors depend very much on the ease of use of your tools.

2. Offer extensions of functionality in your incentives

How many other suppliers do your distributors work with? Everyone expects their partners to connect to their tools and manage the program for the benefit of the provider, which can be extremely discouraging if there are many suppliers. If you want to simplify the life of your distributors you have better to offer them a single platform that has all the functions they need to reduce the tools. Incentive combines in one tool everything your distributors need to manage the distribution of your products (on-line training, live KPIs, collaboration and exchange spaces).

3. Provide integrated programs for your incentives

Do you exploit the full potential of your distributor’s data? Integrating information from other databases will improve the user experience and help you control the costs of maintaining your program. The idea is to have a single platform that is scalable and integrates all the data your distributor partners need for optimal efficiency and successful message targeting. It may be useful to have an Account Manager whose job is specifically to ensure the integration of your tools with those of your distributors. Incentive integrates with all the tools of your distributors, including Sales force.

So to simplify the life of your distributors and improve the results of incentives your network three points are essential. Your tools should be simple to use, as versatile (and few) as possible and integrated into the tools of your distributors. And what are your tips to simplify the life of your distributors? What difficulties do you face?