Channel Incentive Program

Why Do You Need Digital Rewards for Channel Partners’ Program?

The world is becoming more digital. Digital has gained an influential position with consumers of almost all sorts whether it is business-to-consumer goods or business-to-business transactions. Businesses must embrace digital to keep up with the market trend and consumer growth. This includes not only posting their information online but also digital engagements in the form of rewards to aid in the success of their incentive programs.

What are Digital Rewards?

Digital rewards are incentives delivered via an encrypted link or QR code to motivate behavioral outcomes and increase engagement with a specific audience. Digital rewards provide incentive program managers with a variety of delivery transfer options as well as real-time reporting and analytics.

This type of reward is typically available instantly, is simple to use, and the redemption process is encrypted to ensure a secure transfer to the qualifying participants.

What is the purpose of a digital rewards platform?

A digital rewards platform is one way a company can adapt to the digital age. It differs significantly from traditional rewards marketing, which employs physical rewards such as vouchers or coupons. Physical rewards are limited in versatility and convenience, and they can be misplaced, torn, or lost.

A digital rewards platform improves customer retention as well. It provides a reason for customers to be loyal, and loyal customers are good news for any business because they spend up to 67% more than new customers. It even allows for referrals, as customers can be rewarded for telling a friend about your company.

When to Use Digital Rewards Platform?

Consider what your company could accomplish with a digital rewards platform. It is beneficial not only to cultivate customer loyalty, but also to anyone with whom your company is involved.

If your company has:

– Distributors located across the country, hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart, can be easily rewarded when they meet their targets.

– If you have a large number of branches or thousands of employees, you can instantly reward them on their birthday or working anniversary.

– With many clients spread across the country, you can reward the VIP client group.

Why Are Digital Rewards Beneficial?

Everyone in your channel partner incentive programs has one thing in common: they don’t want to wait to be rewarded. Your incentive program participants will have to wait, sometimes for several weeks, from the time they redeem their reward to the time they receive it. This is typically the case with merchandise, mailed prepaid cards, or checks.

Virtual gift cards and virtual prepaid cards do not have this issue. Considering the demographics of your channel partners you can choose the appropriate reward options for them with RewardPort. Few of the popular reward options are:

• VacPac for vacation packages
• AirPac for air travel benefits

• Sweepstakes with multi category rewards
• Cine Rewards
• Free Bucks for direct cash benefits

To offer digital rewards properly for your channel partner incentive programs or others, you will need a few things, including the right reward options, a good reward management system, and incentive management software.

How Can You Put Digital Rewards to Use?

Digital rewards are frequently used in incentive program schemes such as instant win games, sweepstakes, point accumulation, and code redemption programs. They are intended to persuade customers to perform an action or engage in a qualifying behavior. After completing the action, the participant receives points, a token/code to redeem in a game or a reward product. It’s straightforward and effective.

• Review participant engagement regularly to ensure that they are reaching their full potential
• Change the mechanisms for delivering rewards based on program and participant preferences
• Be careful not to appear spammy by being overly enthusiastic in communications and notifications

• Ascertain that your program has well-thought-out scripts and touchpoints

The rewards available through this digital process include name/brand gift cards, prepaid cards, merchandise, and experiential opportunities. The participant begins the process by receiving a text, email, or completing a scan or form. The digital component of the process connects the reward to simplified reward issuance and real-time reporting.

When it comes to engaging your participants, the possibilities for types of rewards associated with the digital process are limitless and working with the right technology provider ensures a frictionless redemption process. What incentives does your company have to offer?

A Guide to Manage a Channel Partner Network Perfectly

A channel partner is a person or organization that collaborates with a manufacturer or producer to promote and sell their products, services, or technologies. Channel partners include a variety of organizations such as distributors, retailers, vendors, consultants, system integrators, technology deployment consultancies, managed service providers (MSPs), and value-added resellers (VARs).

To put it simply, a channel partner is a business-to-business (B2B) relationship in which a smaller company collaborates with a corporate manufacturer to market and sell its products, services, or technologies. Channel partners devote a significant amount of time and effort to developing personal relationships with their clients.

A channel partner can assist a manufacturer in bringing a new product to market, increasing brand visibility and sales. A channel partner enables businesses to enter new markets at a lower cost and with a lower risk factor.

Benefits of a Channel Partnership

A channel partnership can be advantageous to both the vendor and the partner. It is critical for vendors to select the right group of channel partners to maximize their returns on investment. Vendors can gain access to the partner’s existing customers through channel partnerships, increasing their sales exponentially.

The channel partner, on the other hand, can increase revenue by cross-selling a new product to its existing customers. They may even gain new customers who are interested in the new offering.

Look at some of the key advantages of channel partnership:

Access to a broad range of products and services

Channel partnerships enable partners to offer a wide range of new products and services from a variety of vendors. This enables channel partners to provide a diverse product portfolio to their customers to meet their specific business and technology needs.

Advantages of a Recognized Brand

Small businesses can benefit from large vendors’ established brands and reputations. Using established brands in sales and marketing materials lends immediate credibility to the channel partner’s reputation by allowing small businesses to convey to potential customers that the partner has a business relationship with a well-known manufacturer.

Additional knowledge and resources

The additional expertise and resources can benefit channel partners. They may be able to use a vendor’s human and financial resources, such as product and market training, technical support, MDF (Market Development Funds) or co-op funds, campaign templates, and other resources.

Leads

Many vendors continue to market their products and services on their own to generate leads, which they then pass on to channel partners for follow-up.

Amplified margins

Based on the number of products sold, additional discounts and revenue opportunities can be obtained.

A quick way to contact customers

Building channel partnerships is the quickest way for many manufacturers and vendors to gain market share and work with a partner who already has their target customers as customers. Channel partners spend a great deal of time and effort building personal relationships with their clients. Their recommendations on new products or services carry a lot of weight with customers.

Reduced sales costs

Establishing an indirect sales channel rather than employing an in-house sales team allows manufacturers to save money on employee salaries and benefits, as well as other expenses such as travel costs to visit prospects, time spent on unqualified leads that never convert to sales, and so on.

Gaining access to new markets

Several channel partners have a strong presence and reputation in specific market segments. This benefits manufacturers and vendors because their channel partners with deep knowledge of various industry verticals can deliver new customers in a fraction of the time and cost.

Methods for Managing a Channel Partner Network

Select the right partners:

It is critical for vendors to select the right channel partners to build a perfect channel partner network. To create an ideal partner profile, it is critical to focus on cultivating the right relationships. The question now is, who is your ideal channel partner? So, for each potential partner, you must ask the following questions:

• Are they prepared? Do they have the funds to invest in the collaboration?

• Do they want to? Will the collaboration help them achieve their objectives?
• Do they have the ability? Is there technical compatibility? Is there a skill match?
• Do we share the same values?

All these questions, along with some thorough research, can assist you in selecting the best channel partners.

Make introductions easier

It is critical to invest in relationships after defining goals and commitment. A dedicated resource, such as a partner manager, can facilitate team introductions and foster relationships. Knowing your partners can help you build trust with them. Furthermore, partners can provide valuable product feedback. Connecting with them for feedback can thus be extremely beneficial.

Enablement

Companies must empower their channel partners in a variety of key areas, such as technical training, building industry expertise, and sales training.

Technical education

Partners must be knowledgeable about your products. They must be able to use the product for free to understand what they are selling. Once the partners have been trained, ensure that they are kept up to date on the products. Also, give them timely access to new functionality. So that when it does hit the market, they will be experts from the start.

Industry Expertise

Sharing timely and important industry information with partners can give them a significant advantage over the competition. To do so, businesses must stay informed about what is happening in various industries, keep their eyes open, and inform their partners about the trends.

Sales Training

Because B2B tech partners are now selling to business leaders, a strong business training component is required in a partner enablement program. It is critical to provide appropriate consultation to partners on how to improve their businesses and establish new service offerings.

Conclusion

A channel partnership that is properly built and managed can undoubtedly yield fruitful results. Successful partner marketing programs can increase a brand’s visibility, ability to enter new markets, and overall sales.

Importance of Corporate Travel Incentive Program

Incentive awards signal recognition of good performance from employees, which leads to more of the same behavior in the future. A well-planned incentive travel program connects business objectives to personal motivations and aspirations. Eligible program participants are motivated to achieve their objectives for the benefit of both the company and themselves. With challenging but achievable goals, incentive planners must design program that are more meaningful, motivating, and memorable.

The incentive program must be carefully planned so that participants can enjoy activities from start to finish and return to work with high motivation and productivity.

What basically is a corporate travel incentive programme?

Every employee deserves to be recognized by the company for their efforts. Offering cash incentives to employees, on the other hand, appears to be a thing of the past.

A business travel incentive programme is a type of incentive structure in which top-performing employees or teams are given all-inclusive paid trips as a token of appreciation for their efforts.

An effective business travel incentive program adds a personal touch to employee rewards, providing employees with memories to last a lifetime. It is a one-of-a-kind way to show your appreciation to your employees.

How can a company create an effective business travel incentive program?

Businesses can benefit from keeping employees motivated while they work because they are more likely to be constructive and produce a higher work output. Many businesses use incentive program to motivate their employees to complete tasks in exchange for rewards and recognition.

The following are the steps you can take when developing and implementing an employee incentive program:

1. Include the appropriate individuals

Before you start planning an incentive program, meet with the people who will help you strategize and implement it. Members of the management team and volunteers from the finance and HR departments are frequently included. You can work together to make decisions about why the company wants to implement the program and how much money the company can allot for incentives.

2. Set program objectives

Set parameters with the team for what goals the company wants employees to achieve in order to qualify for the incentives. Create simple, specific, and measurable goals, such as increased sales or improved attendance. Choose up to three goals for employees to strive for after discussing the options.

3. Determine the incentive audience

Consider who you want to reward so you can decide who will participate in your programme. For example, if you set a goal of “increase sales by 10%,” only members of the sales team will benefit from it. Establishing your target audience can help you determine the types of incentives that will motivate them to achieve your goals.

4. Increase participant participation

Before deciding on programme rewards, ask some participants what would motivate them the most. You can also solicit their feedback on potential rules or steps involved in achieving the goals. This can increase employee engagement and overall interest and involvement in the programme.

5. Assess the incentive program’s success

Take time after the program has ended to assess its effectiveness. Determine whether it met the program’s objectives. Based on the data, you can determine whether the program motivated employees to participate and work toward your desired goal. Assessing various elements can assist your team in developing parameters for the next incentive program and deciding which components to include.

What perks do corporate travel incentive programmes offer?

Corporate travel incentive program are inexpensive ways to reward top performers. They help the company by promoting revenue growth, customer acquisition, and sales growth.

1. Improves motivation and cooperation

Travel incentives are a fantastic way to show your appreciation for your employees and give them well-deserved credit for their efforts. They can inspire and foster idea-sharing as others seek to emulate the success of top performers, in addition to increasing employee motivation. As teams work together to win the prize, impressive incentives can improve communication and collaboration.

2. Excellent incentives lead to increased job satisfaction and employee retention

Having goals to strive for and being recognized for our efforts is critical to our sense of purpose. It can make our work less repetitive and increase our satisfaction with our role within a company. Linking targets to a fantastic prize is a tangible way to show appreciation for your employees’ efforts and is a perk they will be reluctant to give up.

3. Envy-inducing benefits make it easier to recruit qualified candidates

When looking for a new job, savvy candidates will carefully consider the advantages of choosing your company over a competitor. There are numerous opportunities for a potential candidate to evaluate your organization’s company culture in the age of social media and sites like Glassdoor. Sharing inspiring images from your corporate travel incentives is a sure way to attract qualified candidates.

4. It provides you with a competitive advantage

Managers now have a new way to assess the productivity of their teams thanks to an incentive travel program. Perhaps a team will meet their goal earlier than last year to ensure their spot on the getaway, generating a slew of new statistics to impress current and prospective clients alike. A company that is ambitious is always appealing. Seeing your team’s desire for success is contagious, and it may tip the scales in your favor.

Why is incentive travel such an important part of running a successful business?

Incentive travel is a tool for stimulating employees with an activity designed and planned to motivate and reward employees who have met certain company goals. Its goal is to strengthen the team and foster a unique environment in order to boost both the team’s and the company’s performance.

• Healthy Competition Incentives instils a sense of healthy competition in employees. In order to earn their incentive, they strive to work harder and better.
• Travel is an extremely cost-effective incentive. In fact, it is far superior to providing monetary incentives. Incentive travel can boost an employee’s ego while also saving employers money.
• Goal Achievement and Performance Enhancement is a great way to meet your sales goals and one of the most effective ways to improve your company’s performance. It helps to boost employee morale, encouraging them to work harder in order to meet their goals.
• Loyalty and dedication make your employees happy when you reward them. This would increase their dedication and loyalty to the company. This results in lower employee turnover as well as a better and more positive business environment.
• Incentive travel tends to strengthen team relationships. When a group travels together, they share their experiences and memories. This facilitates their bonding. This also provides a good forum for people to discuss business issues in a relaxed setting. They
• can understand each other from a completely different perspective, which will help them work better together in the future.
• Travel provides a significant stress relief for your employees. Some time away from work will help them to relax and re-energize. It will also assist them in increasing their creativity and productivity when they return to work.
• Going on vacation can help an employee’s physical and mental health. This translates to a healthier employee who will take fewer sick days. This would result in increased productivity and profits for your company.

Perfect Loyalty Program for Channel Partners Checklist

Every company must cultivate brand loyalty among their channel partners (distributors and all kinds of resellers). Loyal channel partners are not only a source of recurring revenue for you, but they also act as brand advocates. Channel partners can act as a reliable grapevine with positive word-of-mouth marketing to end customers.

Excellent channel partner loyalty programs are those that provide both transactional and emotional value. To consistently improve channel partner performance, an effective loyalty program should be able to provide meaningful rewards at each milestone.

And, if you want to have a loyalty program or channel incentive for your partners or distributors, as long as it is done correctly, your program will be successful in retaining and rewarding top distributors while maintaining stable revenue streams.

A Checklist for a Successful Channel Incentive Program

One of the most effective loyalty programs for companies that rely on supply chain distribution is channel incentive. It is designed to motivate and reward employees of manufacturers and vendors, such as distributors, resellers, and dealers, for their efforts.

Most large consumer goods manufacturers rely on these partners to sell their products in fact, 76% of industrial marketers sell their goods to the end consumer via an intermediary.

A checklist of things you can do to create an excellent and effective channel incentive program for your own business

To begin, you must select the type of channel program that will be most beneficial to your company. This will give you a better idea of how to reward your partner, the rewards, the mechanism, and so on.

There are two major goals of channel loyalty programs that you should consider pursuing:

• The breadth goal is to broaden the channel to increase the total number of products sold. The goal is to broaden your channels and bring on more partners.
• The depth goal is to increase market share in existing channel partners to avoid channel partner turnover. As a result, unlike the previous goal, the idea here is to get the best results from your current channel partners.

When considering implementing a loyalty program, it is critical to identify qualified channel partners who can help you grow your business. To find qualified partners, consider gathering the following information from them:

– Are they well-versed in your products?

– Do they know enough about the service or product you offer?

– Their level of dedication to your product

– The average number of items sold per month or year

– Current interactions with your competitors

Once you have a better understanding of your partners, consider how you can increase their value in your ecosystem. Determine how much incremental profit you want to see for each partner because “one size does not fit all.”

A wholesaler, for example, maybe more interested in a flat tariff scheme or bulk order discounts.

Better selling tools, such as customized marketing promotion for younger people, shop branding, and so on, will be appreciated by a retailer.

Following the type of channel partners, you desire; you should assess their training requirements. You must, however, first answer the following questions:

• Are your partners providing comparable products or services to yours?
• Do they have their marketing and communication plans?
• Do they review their sales figures regularly?
• Do they review their sales figures regularly?

If most of the answers are no, you should reinforce training or conduct a product knowledge quiz as a way for them to earn points and better understand your products.

• Your objectives must be clear to ensure the success of your loyalty program. These should be SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
• You can also think about which KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to highlight to better measure the goals of your program. An example can be:
•  Rate of registration: The number of new partners who join your distribution chain. They are critical for generating new revenue sources, particularly for the breadth goal mindset.

How to calculate the lifetime value of a channel partner?

Channel partner lifetime value = average order value multiplied by the number of iterations per year multiplied by the average retention time (years)

The retention rate of your channel partners is important. The formula for calculating it would be:

RR = (CE-CN)/CS * 100

CE – At the end of the period, the number of channel partners

CN – The total number of channel partners acquired during the period

CS – The number of channel partners at the beginning of the period

1. lifetime value of a channel partner

The redemption rate is calculated as the number of coupons redeemed divided by the number of coupons issued. The data will paint a complete picture of how important the program is to your partner.

2. Repeat purchase rate

This metric is critical for determining consumer loyalty. You can also estimate your sales volume.

This metric is calculated using the following formula:

The repeat purchasing rate is calculated as the number of channel partners who have shopped more than once divided by the total number of channel partners.

3. Net promoter score

This metric computes your clients’ satisfaction with your company. You must create some key questions using a 0-10 scale. Ask your partners those questions, and once you have their responses, sort them into the following groups:

Promoters: Partners who are extremely likely to recommend your products.

Passives: Partners who are pleased but will not recommend your products.

Detractors: Dissatisfied partners who could harm your company’s reputation.

Working with a loyalty platform is critical, particularly if you have a medium to large enterprise with thousands of partners across the country.

• Communication is an essential part of any channel loyalty program. Our recommendations are as follows:
• Create a unified and proactive communication strategy: what messages do you want to communicate to your partners and how frequently do you want to communicate with them?
• Segment your partners: By segmenting your partners, you can tailor your communication to make your message more relevant.
• Direct communication: To build a stronger relationship, it is also necessary to communicate directly or online.

How to Find the right time for a channel partner loyalty program?

Running a channel partner program can be a faster way to capture new customers and expand the brand footprint. However, there are other benefits of a channel partner program that you need to consider. The first of these is retention. According to a 2015 study by Aberdeen Group, channel partners have a 17% higher customer retention rate than non-channel partners.

You should also consider the costs of acquisition versus retention. A customer you acquire through a channel partner is likely to offer a higher LTV than a direct customer.

With the constant proliferation of new marketing channels, it’s essential to work with partners in a collaborative way. Striking that balance between business growth and rewarding the channel partners can be challenging.

What is a channel partner loyalty program?

A channel partner loyalty program is a program designed to encourage loyalty among a company’s channel partners. Channel partners are companies or individuals that help promote and sell a company’s products or services.

Loyalty programs are a way to thank channel partners for their help and to incentivize them to continue working with the company. Typically, channel partner loyalty programs offer rewards points that can be redeemed for discounts, merchandise, or other prizes.

The goal of a channel partner loyalty program is to motivate partners to sell more of a company’s products or services, and to help build long-term relationships with its channel partners. By offering rewards and benefits, the program helps partners feel valued and appreciated, and encourages them to continue doing business with the company.

Why you need a channel partner loyalty program?

There are many reasons why you need a channel partner loyalty program. For one, it helps to build trust and loyalty among your channel partners. This, in turn, leads to improved communication and collaboration between you and your partners.

Additionally, a loyalty program can help to increase sales and grow your business. Channel partners who feel appreciated and valued are more likely to sell more of your products and services.

Finally, a loyalty program can help to improve your brand image and reputation. By offering rewards and incentives to your channel partners, you are showing that you value their business and are willing to invest in their success.

How to build a successful channel partner loyalty program?

A channel partner loyalty program can be a great way to build long-term relationships with your partners and keep them driving for growth. Here are a few tips for building a successful program:

1. Define your goals

What do you hope to accomplish with your program? More sales, more repeat business, more referrals? Make your objectives clear from the start.

2. Choose the right partners

Not all partners are created equal. Look for partners that share your values and are committed to your success.

3. Offer incentives that matter

Your partners are motivated by different things, so offer a variety of incentives that will appeal to different partners.

4. Communicate regularly

Keep your partners updated on your program and let them know how they can participate and benefit.

5. Be flexible

As your program grows, be open to making changes and adjustments based on feedback from your partners.

How to execute your channel partner loyalty program?

There are a few key things to keep in mind when executing a channel partner loyalty program:

1. Keep it simple

The program should be easy to understand and easy to join.

2. Make it valuable

The program should offer partners something that they value, such as exclusive access to new products, early access to promotions, or increased margins.

3. Promote it

Make sure your partners are aware of the program and what they need to do to participate. Use email, social media, and face-to-face interactions to get the word out.

4. Be responsive

Be quick to answer any questions partners have about the program. This will make them feel appreciated and supported.

5. Celebrate successes

Be quick to answer any questions partners have about the program. This will make them feel appreciated and supported.

When partners reach certain milestones, make sure to celebrate their achievements. This will keep them motivated and engaged in the program.

Become the Pivot for Channel Partners

A channel partner loyalty program must solidify your partnerships, make them last longer, and reduce churn.

Building a channel partner loyalty program is not an easy task. There are several factors to consider before starting a program, and each channel partner and program will be different.

A loyalty program is not just a program that gives your customers rewards when they purchase your products. It’s more than that, it is a way to enhance your relationship and build trust with your customers.

Loyalty programs are a great way for companies to reward their customers for their continued patronage. Customers are usually enticed to participate in a loyalty program by the prospect of earning points, miles, or other types of rewards that can be redeemed for tangible prizes. These programs usually come with a set of rules that govern how and when rewards can be redeemed. The rules can vary from one loyalty program to the next and understanding those rules will help you determine the best time to launch a loyalty program.

How Covid 19 has changed the channel incentive strategies

The Novel Coronavirus has impacted almost everything, right from people’s lives to businesses to economies. According to the IMF, the global economy is expected to shrink by over 3 per cent in 2020 – the steepest slowdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. These are indeed unusual times. Despite all this, there are brands who have accepted the events and taken it all in their stride. These brands are doing amazingly well with their channel strategies too.

Let’s look at what changes are recommended to be done in your channel incentive strategies due to this pandemic, and how you can benefit from them.

• Your channel partners, customers and employees are most likely distressed.
• Don’t let their morale go down.
• Create an ecosystem to uplift them.
• Try to meet their needs.
• Guide them about the safe and best practices that can be implemented to ease the operations.
• Let them know that the brand is with them in this together.
• Hold joint webinars, virtual events to motivate them.

Brands should consider suspending all non critical events and sticking with only the necessary ones, through digital medium, preferably.

“According to research conducted by Qualtrics, nearly 70 per cent of people in India believe it is important for brands to take care of their employees and customers and they should not take advantage of the crisis to maximise profits.”

Keeping short term targets is a good strategy during this crisis. Brands should work in conjunction with their teams and partners to understand their priorities, both core and short term functions. These should not be imposed on them instead should be suggested by them. These functions should be easily achievable. The completion of such functions will itself enable a sense of achievement among all the involved  members.

Sticking to channel incentive strategies based on performance would not be such a good plan for now

Brands would need to be flexible, and sensitive towards their channel partners and employees. Also they should not limit the benefits to only performers, this is the time to be inclusive and empathic towards everybody.

Design tailored initiatives for small and medium sized partners

These initiatives could contain solutions such as digital assets, guidelines for safe engagements, tutorials to educate them some digital techniques and suchlike. Brands who are doing so are being praised for passing the initiatives to their channel partners and employees, and needless to say are winning minds and hearts.

Maintain regular communication with the partners and the employees

The study by Qualtrics suggests that Indians want brands to communicate with them. Around 50 per cent of the respondents said their trust in the brands they regularly engaged with has increased. The sound of the communication should not be tone-deaf but empathic.

Drive positive engagements and seek continuous feedback

The engagement practices have changed now. There are rewards which can be used at home, aka At-home Rewards. Rewards like Digital Entertainment vouchers, online learning vouchers, online shopping vouchers, and so on are getting quite hit now.

RewardPort specializes in loyalty marketing programs, corporate loyalty card, dealer incentive programs, dealer loyalty, channel incentive, distributor incentive program, B2B loyalty programs, customer loyalty cards & marketing partner programs. Get a free consultation today.

Effective Channel Incentive Ideas for 2019

Driving indirect or external sales teams can be quite tedious and difficult. The difficulty lies in holding your employee’s attention and with being constantly flooded with products and programs from other parties, it gets tougher especially when it comes to making your agenda align with their requirements! To capture their engagement, vendors offer a variety of channel partner incentive programs. Why does it work? It’s because incentives have always been a driving force for the generation of results in every field. Based on research from the Incentive Research Foundation, it was found that incentives can heighten performance by up to 44 percent. Actual incentives are most commonly performance-based and aim to improve productivity or yield your partner base. Channel incentives are used to reward partners for modifying their behavior and are likely to be null once the behavior is modified or changed.

This blog is intended to provide a new structure for considering sales incentives that can help you with a tangible improvement and the efficiency of your incentive investment can pose to create a competitive advantage. To further explain effective channel incentive ideas, it is necessary to understand what a channel incentive denotes. A channel incentive campaign is an offering made to channel partners which motivates, promotes, and encourages a desired or specific type of behavior. It is most often focused on a specific product based on a specific period. The form of such an incentive is usually a bonus or reward that is offered in the form of monetary or some other kind of medium.

Here below are some of the most effective channel incentive ideas to deploy in 2019 for a successful brand:

1. Channel loyalty through layered incentives

The advantage of tiers and thresholds is their prime focus which is always on growth. The agenda is to track not only how a reseller has performed with a single product in a single transaction, but how they have performed with it through a quarter, months, or years for a better understanding. Ultimately, once a firm reaches a particular threshold, it can become a reliable partner and can leverage that status to increase its rewards.

2. Alignment

A channel incentive program is referred to as an extension of your business’s sales and marketing strategy. It is meant to reflect and drive the venture, communication, and performance that you initially set out to achieve. There are different requirements for every channel loyalty program and a channel referral program must project the qualification criteria which may be applicable.

3. Automation

It is essential to make sure to approve claims and issue rewards promptly. Your channel partners are likely to have a stringent eye on how quickly you respond and initiate matters, so considering making your schemes automated can aid in the seamless and fast flow of data in both ways.

4. Marketing Development funds

It is essential to make sure to approve claims and issue rewards promptly. Your channel partners are likely to have a stringent eye on how quickly you respond and initiate matters, so considering making your schemes automated can aid in the seamless and fast flow of data in both ways.

5. Insight and ROI

It is important to understand that every channel incentive scheme has to be designed in a way that garners detailed customer information which can further help in improving your marketing strategy at large.

It is hence, important to realize that design and launch are very essential for the success of your channel sales incentive scheme as it is responsible for defining your ability to run it productively and enabling you to learn and understand what may work for you and what might not!

ICICI Securities Limited – Success Story

How Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Can Beat Ecommerce Price Advantage

The online ecommerce juggernaut may seem invincible, but players like Flipkart, Snapdeal, or Amazon have a major Achilles heel. Research shows that exceptional customer service is the number one factor influencing how much a consumer trusts a company, and 75% of consumerssay they have done business with a company because of positive customer service experienced in the past and the experience with buying process

Retailers hoping to fight online giants will have plenty of ammunition at their disposal if they use this insight to up their in-store game. Brick-and-mortar retailers can counter razor-thin margins offered by ecommerce sites through superior customer service. But first, they have to listen to what shoppers need and want, and use this data to propel their customers beyond the lone factor of low prices.

Here are 6 strategies that may help conventional brick and mortar store owners compete with ecommerce sites:

Know your customer:

It is now more important than ever for retailers to take a genuine effort in understanding their customers. I’d suggest that you initiate programs that help you know your buyer and his preferences. Some effective ideas include capturing customer data through CRM practices, a loyalty program, social media strategies, etc. Online companies score over conventional store owners, because they know so much about their customers. But with a little imagination and ingenuity, this information can be collected and used effectively. In fact, large retail companies have already started to implement strategies around this idea.

Engage customers:

Large retail companies have data but they have to use this information to communicate and personalize their relationship with their customers. Personal information about buyers is probably the biggest weapon in their arsenal that could help them handle competition from online companies. Retailers, large and small, can use this data to send information about offers, receive feedback and engage customers. With tools like email, SMS, missed call, apps, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, implement such ideas would be a cakewalk.

Blend the good aspects of online and in-store shopping:

Imagine you are the owner of a retail store and a customer checks in asking for a particular material of cloth. Being an earnest businessman, you inform the person that although the material isn’t in stock, you can get it for him in two days time. Problem solved, you’d say? But wait! There’s more that you can do. You can direct this customer to your Facebook page and tell him that he can choose a color of his choice and inbox the preference to your page. You, in turn would see to it that the chosen color is set aside for the customer. This can then continue as a tradition wherein your customer can order from home and yet assure the quality of the product before buying. Another instance where online and offline shopping can be integrated is when retailers blend in-store shopping and online payment. Apple has already marched towards this end. iPhone customers can scan bar codes of products and purchase them through their Apple Pay app.

Enhance the Shopping Experience:

Installing mobile charging pods, keeping children entertained with a separate kids’ play area, matching the customers pace, etc. can go a long way in enhancing customer experience. The last aspect is particularly important. It is more than likely that your in-store customer has already researched about the product before entering your place. He is already aware of the different models available online and has probably chosen your store because yours was the lowest price of all and also because he’d like to be sure about the quality of the product. Understanding such customers and creating a positive experience for them is important.

Service first then sales:

I recently had the misfortune of purchasing a product through a teleshopping network. Whilst everyone in the company was happy to sell me their product, none of them shared the same enthusiasm when I had to complain about the product quality. If I had taken the pain of shopping through a conventional brick and mortar shop, I could at least visit the place and get the problem sorted. But it’s been a month now, and I am yet to speak to a ‘customer relations person’ who could own up to the problem and offer a solution. This is where brick and mortar shops can easily outshine their online counterparts. By demonstrating to your customers that their complaints matter, you’ve not only earned their trust, but also given them the satisfaction that there lies a solution to their problem.

Webrooming:

Webrooming refers to the process of researching products online and then visiting the store to purchase them. A report by Merchant Warehouse estimates that around 69% of customers with a smart phone, webroom. And to put this trend into numbers, Forrester Research estimates that this trend is likely to result in $1.8 trillion in sales by 2017. There are several reasons why customers prefer webrooming as against showrooming. Merchant Warehouse says, 47% of them don’t prefer paying for shipping, 46% wanted to touch and feel the product before buying, 36% of them wanted the store to match the online price and around 37% wanted it to be easy to return the product back to the store if they didn’t like it. So have a great presence online and on social media and run good offers there incentivizing the customer with coupons to use it offline.

Even in the age of online shopping, consumers want to be able to trust retailers before they buy a product. Retailers can take advantage of this factor by keeping customer engagement at the heart of their strategizing.