Gone are the days when traditional sales incentive program is enough to motivate your channel partners to keep up with the competition. These days, given the rapid changes and growth in the market, other than product and promotional superiority, channel distributors are now also a vital part of vendors in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage in the industry.
If your channel partners are not engaged enough with your brand or company, the chances of your product in succeeding and overcoming competing products in the market is very unlikely to happen. Given this circumstance, it is important that you reconsider your sales channel engagement strategies, and come up with a holistic approach that goes beyond your traditional and conventional channel incentives scheme.
Here are some important trends we have listed that will change the face of your next channel engagement program moving forward:
Building relationship with channel partners is mutually beneficial to both parties
Your relationship with your distributors is crucial to your business, since they are the ones engaging and interacting with your customers. If you have a good relationship with your channel partners, it will definitely reflect on how they serve and treat your customers. If you treat your sales channels right, in turn, they will also give your customers the same treatment. Consequently, this should translate to better productivity on your channel partners’ end, which of course, indicates a good return on your side as their principal vendor.
Transparency creates authentic connection between your company and your sales channels
In order for you to further connect with your channel partners, you have to ensure that you are able to communicate transparently your objectives with your distributor. This basically seals the bond between you and your sales channels, since it establishes your common goal as business partners. Hence, helps both parties to focus on the tasks at hand.
Providing a reward should be about giving memorable and meaningful one
If you are still implementing a one-size-fits-all incentive scheme then you are not doing things right. In incentivising, the first thing you need to consider is your audience. It means you should get to know and understand them fully. What are their needs? Preferences? These are some of the questions that you should ask yourself when you are deciding which incentives to give.
In essence, when you give sales reward and recognition to your sales channels, you have to ensure that the incentives that you provide are relevant and beneficial to their needs and preferences, hence, meaning and memorable ones.
Incentives still play a vital role in driving your channel partners to go the extra mile. However, other than tangible recognitions and rewards, there are still other ways to improve your channel engagement program, and solidify your relationship with your sales channels.
We, at Sodexo Philippines, can help you boost and improve your channel partners’ sales performance and motivation through our time-tested sales channel rewards solution. With our Sodexo Premium Pass hailed as the no. 1 gift certificate in the Philippines, you can now give your salesforce the reward they deserve, as well as an opportunity to enjoy our wide merchant network consisting of over 10,000 retail outlets!
