What is sales incentive software?
Sales incentive software is an automated platform used to manage, communicate, track, and report on an incentive program.
Imagine this scenario: you have been tasked with motivating your sales channel to drive revenue for a new product line. You may start with a commission or a fixed SPIFF for every sale of the new product, but you’ll soon notice that this strategy loses momentum quickly and won’t keep up for long. Instead, you want to offer non-monetary awards, including travel, merchandises, and gift cards that have more trophy value and leave a lasting impression on the sales rep.
To add some gamification to the sales incentive, these awards are redeemed with ‘points’ that reps earn with each sale or new lead. However, you quickly discover the administrative burden of tracking points and fulfilling rewards is becoming a 2nd full-time job. Sorting through emails, updating a tracking spreadsheet, validating each sale, calculating points, fulfilling rewards, and tracking overall results has become a giant time drain – and on top of that, a few core job responsibilities are slipping through the cracks.
This is where a sales incentive software platform, like Ignite, becomes your all-in-one solution. It’s not just the software that provides value; sales incentive software providers are full-service partners that guide you every step of the way and help create custom solutions for your unique program and team. These providers are incentive experts that not only help with the technology behind managing your program but the sales incentive itself as well.
Incentive software providers help you with:
• Creating a custom website designed specifically for your sales incentive program
• Registering participants with secure data collection processes
• Tracking sales and progress on an individual level
• Providing online claim forms for reps to submit each sale (or automatically upload all sales data for easy mass migration)
• Calculating points, including multipliers and multiple payouts, splits, and tiers
• Keeping a detailed transaction history of points earned and rewards redeemed
• Empowering participants to redeem from an online catalog of travel, merchandise, or gift card options
• Fulfilling all award redemption immediately, just like ordering off Amazon
• Tracking everything through a backend reporting dashboard with an easy-to-understand interface
Take an in-depth look at the top 10 features every incentive software platform should have
What’s the difference between incentive software and employee recognition software?
In your search for a solution to managing your sales incentive program, you may come across similar platforms branded as “employee recognition” software. These platforms may seem to have the same base functions but they differ greatly in practice.
Recognition platforms are typically used by HR departments for rewarding employee behavior. There is an emphasis on recognizing peers and rewarding all employees; not just sales. However, because they cast a wider net, there is less customization and generally, offer lower reward values.
Sales incentive software is used by sales & marketing departments to reward fewer people (focused on sales) with higher value rewards. Additionally, it is more customizable and can be adapted to fit any program logic, such as multipliers or split payouts. The customization piece is the true value of sales incentive software compared to recognition software, especially when it comes to motivation and program cohesion. Here is an important piece of incentive industry knowledge: most incentive software will deliver 80% of the required functionality that’s common to all programs, but 20% typically requires customization, especially with claim forms.
To better familiarize yourself with sales incentive software, feel free to request a demo of the Ignite platform. Our incentive experts we’ll walk you through how it all works and what the best solution for your program would look like, no strings attached.
I love that you talked about the importance of rewards to your employees for them to feel appreciated. My cousin told me last night that he and his friend are planning to have a sales incentive program for their employees to motivate them to perform at the highest level, and he asked if I have any idea what is the best option to do. Thanks to this informative article, I’ll be sure to tell him that they can consult a trusted incentive travel service as they can answer all their inquiries and will provide the help they need.