Gone are the days of the trophy and a handshake to the top salesperson; it’s about improving performance for everyone on your team or channel in a way that motivates each individual.
Participants want to choose their own rewards, they want to see their progress towards their achievement, and they want to self-manage their own fulfillment with as little red tape as possible.
Luckily for you, incentive software platforms are becoming easier, smarter, and faster. We’ll cover what a true incentive software platform should do for your program and how it makes your job easier.
Imagine this scenario: you have been tasked with motivating your sales channel to drive sales of a new product. You may start with a commission or a fixed SPIFF for every sale of the new product, but then you notice this strategy loses momentum quickly and is not keeping sales up for long.
Instead, you want to offer non-monetary awards, including travel, merchandises, and gift cards. These awards that can be redeemed with ‘points’ that sales reps earn with each sale or desired behavior, such as learning or deal registration.
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 reward choices, 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.
Sales Incentive Platforms
Used by Sales & Marketing departments
Rewards fewer people (in Sales only)
Higher value awards
Motivates channels and sales teams
More customized
Recognition Platforms
Used by HR departments
Rewards all employees
Lower value rewards
Recognizes peers
Less customized
There are very few off-the-shelf software platforms available for companies to manage an incentive “DIY” (do-it-yourself). Most incentive platforms are provided by full-service incentive companies who offer software technology – plus consulting expertise, promotional communications, program administration, and award fulfillment.
Here’s an important piece of incentive industry knowledge. Most incentive platforms will deliver 80% of the required functionality, which is common to all incentive programs, and 20% typically require customization of claim forms, data captured, and point calculations for the unique nuances of every company’s go-tomarket model.
No matter what platform, the process will start with creating a website that administrators use to promote the incentive contest and participants use to submit sales, review progress, and redeem awards. Where the great platforms separate themselves from the rest is the ability to implement custom-designed theming and professional graphics.
Many platforms say they are customizable, but that might mean merely changing the color of the menu bar or a limited frame to upload a graphical header. In today’s world where sales reps are using smartphones and tables, the web technology must be responsive web design (RWD) to dynamically adjust the layout and features of a website depending on the access device.
TIP: Ask your incentive software provider how many things can be customized on your website. Are there only pre-built templates to choose from or can you create your own? Can you adhere to your company’s brand guidelines (font, exact color match, graphics, etc?).
The last thing you want is for a participant to arrive at your incentive website and wonder if they’re in the right place before entering their personal information. Good platforms will include secure forms to capture social security numbers (or international tax id numbers) and other “PII” (personally identifiable information).
Having an autonomous process to register and properly assign your participants is vital to your time management. Using your custom program site, participants can input their data securely and without error while you’re free to focus on the big picture instead of getting bogged down with manual entry.
TIP: There is always some concern when entering personal information on any website. Ask about how your incentive software provider will protect participant data from common threats, such as phishing attacks.
Often, the main reason for the website is for claim forms to capture eligible sales or desired behaviors, especially for channel partner incentive programs where the reps are not employed by the sponsoring company.
In two-tier sales models, the company sponsoring the incentive knows what partner, dealer, reseller, or distributor made the sale, but they don’t know the specific rep. A smart claim form design will be flexible to capture whatever information your program requires, including custom and conditional (if/then) data fields.
TIP: While this key feature seems like a given, you need to be sure the software you’re using allows for conditional fields. This is especially true if you have different teams or offices that are participating.
Most sales incentive software will have the capability to assign and sort every field of information on the claim form, but we recommend having the solutions provider walk you through the process during a demo to be sure.
Having an interface to upload large amounts of sales data via spreadsheet or an API (application programming interface) with your CRM (such as Salesforce) is crucial to making sure you don’t get boxed into doing massive data entry whenever there are major updates to sales, participants, or points.
TIP: Mass upload is another feature that some providers might offer, however, be careful and read the fine print on how much you can upload, file format limitations, and if it automatically detects spreadsheet headings as form IDs.
This is one of the most requested key features for those moving from a spreadsheet-only tracking system to a full incentive software platform, so be sure it accommodates your specific needs.
No two companies’ incentive programs are exactly the same. A powerful database and flexible scripting logic are important for calculating incentive offer points and to promote particular products or services. The point scoring engine, called scripting logic, is often the most complex element of any incentive program.
Make sure your sales incentive platform can automatically calculate points with multipliers or tiers, so your program design doesn’t go to waste. “Multiple Payouts,” or “Splits,” also allow for multiple participants to earn points on the same transaction; an important feature for those with teams that work together on complex sales.
TIP: Multiple payouts is a feature that is often hard to come by in the current incentive software marketplace. If your program allows for multiple salespeople to team up and split a sale’s points or if sales are distributed evenly between the team, this is an important piece to your program’s successful integration with a platform.
Empowering participants to view their current points and transaction history gives them all the information they need to eliminate emails from flying in to your inbox, reduce administrative support demands, and keep the program running smoothly.
Allowing for full transparency gives participants the opportunity to have constant connection to the program. When they see how many points they’re earning for their sales and what they have used them on in the past, it drives the longevity of the program and the overall adoption rate.
TIP: If the only thing your participants see upon logging in to the program site is their current point total, their experience and connection to the program takes a dive. Being able to optimize their time and effort with thorough details allows for a better understanding of the program and increases willingness to participate.
Offering a high-quality catalog of awards that include something for everyone has a profound effect on the engagement and longevity of your incentive. “Awardneutral” travel, merchandise, gift cards, and even Visa prepaid cards mean having awards that are not squarely categorized for one demographic or biased toward the incentive companies preferred product. It makes sure every individual sees something that motivates them!
TIP: Something to look out for; some companies claim to be incentive companies, but they recommend the same award type for every business need. Those are incentive fulfillment companies and not full-service incentive providers.
It’s worth investigating what kind of award options can be included in the catalog. If the answer is a narrow selection of gift cards or merchandise from a handful of brands, it’s time to look elsewhere.
Robust incentive platforms will have all the digital backend connections to automatically fulfill participant redemptions without a need to compile award reports and email fulfillment partners.
Shopping carts offer more than a convenient holding area before checkout. The ability to calculate and fulfill multiple rewards in one transaction reduces hassle for the participant and the administrator by limiting the tracking required.
TIP: Imagine if you had to buy products on Amazon one at a time! The utility of a shopping cart feature on your program site is no longer a quality of life upgrade; it’s expected.
Ask yourself this question with every platform: “can this software grow with my program and protect the data within it?” Imagine the headache from having to switch platforms once your program has too much bandwidth, or worse, experiencing cybersecurity threats from having participant data attacked.
We advise that data be kept secure at capture and at rest – with secure online forms and encrypted databases.
TIP: Unfortunately, it’s not enough these days to protect against spam. Protecting from malicious attacks and threats to your participants’ data needs to be a top priority for your solution provider.
The same level of attention to security needs to be paid whether it’s for a program with 100 participants or 10,000. This is a key factor that needs to be fully researched before ultimately deciding on an incentive software platform.
A program administrator’s best friend, the reporting dashboard, gives the relevant metrics to track the results and trends of your program, all in real time. Keeping your f ingers on the pulse of your program with live reporting could be the difference between long-term success and short-term failure.
TIP: There’s an important distinction to make on what’s reported on. First, site analytics (such as pageviews, time on page, bounces, etc.) can be viewed via Google Analytics or a similar application. Then, program analytics (or operational analytics such as sales, enrollment, and claims) allow you to track more than just site activity.
Custom reporting should allow for the ability to see important metrics like which award options are being chosen, what sales activities are earning points, and overall participant enrollment.
Now let’s see an incentive example with these key features in mind to see how the entire process works within a sales incentive software platform, step-by-step.
Design
The top 20% are your best performers (A performers). They will continue to perform no matter what you do. It’s in their DNA. They are already performing under the current circumstances.
Enroll Design
The top 20% are your best performers (A performers). They will continue to perform no matter what you do. It’s in their DNA. They are already performing under the current circumstances.
Achieve
Now that participants have seen the site and enrolled, they’re free to begin submitting their eligible sales on the smart claim form. They input what products were sold, submits the claim with any additional participants for shared
sales, and the incentive software does the rest (being sure to calculate the 2x multiplier for new product sales!)
Award
Participants enjoy monitoring their point activity via their own portal, and they like the freedom of choice to redeem points in an award-neutral catalog of top-notch options. As soon as they redeem their award, fulfillment begins automatically – whether it’s the latest electronics or houseware shipping immediately or an e-gift card delivering to their inbox.
Support
If there is ever a hiccup in the website technology or a design adjustment needs to be made, a good technology provider should be there to handle it quickly. Whether it’s a design update, protecting data from cyber attacks, or a software edit to the point scoring logic, providers with an in-house development staff can support you.
Measure
Use your reporting dashboard to keep track of your program. How is new enrollment trending? Are sales on target? How many points are being earned on what product line sales? Which channels have the strongest and weakest activity? What are the most popular award redemptions? You should have full visibility and control to determine the outcome and success of your incentive program.
When we say ‘incentive software platform,’ more often than not, we are actually talking about a full-scale incentive provider. There aren’t any cookie-cutter program templates, so these service providers are using the incentive software to build your incentive program for you.
You can Stick with an Excel Spreadsheet
Time to Implement Incentive Software
Participants
<100
>100
Total Awards
<$25,000
>$25,000
They provide software and professional services. People and code (and databases). There is much to consider, not just the features of the software, but those who will create and support it as well.
Every incentive program manager in need of a technology solution usually finds that 80% of the features they need are included, but the other 20% requires custom work from their solution provider. Making sure you select a service partner that has the flexibility to customize affordably is necessary. There are also times when your program may not justify the investment in an incentive software platform.
Keeping in mind that incentive software is not just a SaaS platform, but a full-service solution with professional services, we recommend using a company that has your program in mind and keeps in close contact to make sure your expectations are met on a daily basis.
At Brightspot, our job is to make your job easier and make your program a success. We embody the advantages above using our proprietary incentive platform, Ignite. If you have questions about incentive software (not just ours) or would like a no-strings-attached demo, feel free to contact us. We’re happy to help with no expectations or pressure!
Brightspot created the Ignite Software Incentive Platform and manages full-service incentive & recognition programs, and employee engagement campaigns for enterprise clients – with incomparable creativity, flexibility, and commitment to delivering results. Incentive Magazine has awarded its Motivation Masters award to Brightspot’s clients’ programs multiple times and Meetings & Conventions magazine recognized Brightspot as one of the Best Places to Work in the Meetings Industry.
Feel free to reach out if you have a question or comment about this or any other publication! We’re happy to hear from you and eager to learn about what we can do to make your job easier and help you become a bright spot in your company!
