Is Your Sales SPIFF Program Stale?
Filed under: Channel Incentives, Consumer Promotions, Employee Incentives, Prepaid Resources
- Image by Giuliagas via Flickr
How’s your SPIFF’s? Performing or stale? SPIFF’s are the mainstream program used by manufacturers and companies to incent a salesperson to sell a specific product…hence the name. Sales Performance Incentive Fund – SPIFF (not sure why there is a second F).
Companies that wish to push a certain product through their sales network, retail and distributor channels will offer a set dollar amount for each unit sold in an effort to incent the salesperson to drive that specific product. Currently, companies will cut a check or add money to the payroll of the salesperson. This can be effective, but many times, especially for distributor sales people that participate in multiple manufacturer SPIFF programs, the value gets lost and sometimes they are not even sure what they did to receive the extra money.
Why not make your SPIFF program stand out? After all, the only reason you’re running one is to move your specific products, so the more you pay out, the more product you move. Pretty simple. The key to making this successful is to make your SPIFF program stand out and to communicate the program so it is first and foremost on the sales staff’s minds. A great way to do this is to use a Custom Branded - Reloadable - Prepaid Debit Card. Co-brand a Visa or MasterCard with your logo and give one to all sales people in your program. As they qualify for the SPIFF, simply electronically load the dollar amount onto their card. Set up program messaging so that an email or text is sent immediately upon a new load that reinforces your program. “Hey Bob, excellent job this month selling the Widget 3000. $500 has just been loaded onto your Widget, Inc prepaid card. Keep up the good work.” Now that would turn a stale incentive program into a vibrant winner.
Benefits to using a Prepaid Debit Card for your SPIFF program?
- Brand Awareness… put your brand, not your competitors, in the pockets and minds of your sales channels.
- Save Money…no need to write, distribute and mail checks.
- Save Time…no need to hassle with payroll or sales people calling in asking if they received their SPIFF.
- Immediate Recognition…electronically load the cards for immediate delivery of funds. Salespeople absolutely love this.
Please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information about using Prepaid Debit cards in your SPIFF programs.
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Top 5 Reasons to Replace Checks with Prepaid Cards
Filed under: Consumer Promotions, Employee Incentives, Payroll, Prepaid Resources
Does your organization have recurring payment or disbursement programs such as: Consumer Rebates, Customer Refunds, Insurance Claims, Affiliate Commissions, Student funds or Government payments?
Are you still issuing these with paper checks? If so, you’re wasting time and money.
Use prepaid debit cards instead of writing checks and here’s the top 5 reason why:
5. Much lower issuance and administration cost – Eliminate the cost and time of handling lost or stolen checks
4. Reload the cards anytime online - For recurring disbursements, completely eliminate the cost of mailing a check
3. Manage your entire program easily with online reporting tools - So much easier than manual processes
2. Great branding opportunity - Person receiving the funds is now carrying your billboard in their wallet
1. Get with the program…it’s 2010 not 1965. People want prepaid cards, not checks!!!
Photo from www.creditcards.com
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Amaze Your Customers and Employees: Virtual Prepaid Debit Cards
Filed under: Consumer Promotions, Employee Incentives, Health and Wellness, Prepaid Resources, Uncategorized
Are you looking for a very cool way to implement your next employee or customer incentive program? Take advantage of a whole new way to run marketing promotions, one that attracts and rewards participants quickly and cost-effectively.
Virtual Prepaid Debit Cards
How does it work?
A prepaid account number is established and issued to an account holder. No physical card is issued. The virtual prepaid account is loaded with funds, and a standard 16 digit prepaid card number, expiration date and security value (security number on the back of the card) are emailed to the recipient. The recipient may then make purchases online or over the phone using this information.
Benefits to You:
- Easy to Implement – Immediately deliver your incentives and rewards to employees, dealers, channel partners, sales associates and affiliates.
- Speed of Delivery – Capture opportunities that are frequently lost when customers and employees have to wait for rewards to appear in the mail.
- Cost Effective – Improve ROI by avoiding the fulfillment costs associated with prepaid cards.
- Positive Impact - Instant gratification combined with strong branding will maximize your online promotional efforts.
- Endless Opportunities - Match online promotions with instant, online rewards and incentives.
Use Virtual Prepaid Cards for online surveys, consumer rebates, on-the-spot employee recognition, cross promotional tie in’s with online marketing, channel sales spiffs and much more. Imagine how successful your program will be when you amaze your recipients with instant awards.
I’d love to hear if you have every used a Virtual Prepaid Card in any of your promotions so please leave comments below. For more information feel free to contact me.
Incentive Programs: Guest Blogger – Katy Tynan
What Pigeons Can Teach You About Your Incentive Program
Why do psychologists spend so much time watching pigeons? While they don’t look much like people, a pigeon’s brain learns much the same way ours does. So the scientific study of motivation usually involves teaching pigeons to earn treats by behaving in a certain way. If you want to teach a bird to jump over a stick, you start by giving him a treat when he approaches the stick. Sooner or later he will climb on the stick, and you reward him for that. Before long he’s an expert stick jumper. In theory incentive programs in the workplace are structured the same way. Your team members achieve goals that benefit the organization, so you reward them with praise, money, or other incentives. Unfortunately the typical office is a far cry from the structured environment of the lab, and if you are not careful with the application of your reward strategy, you can end up with something called “Superstitious Conditioning”.
The story goes that a researcher automated his lab completely and then left for the weekend with the pigeons happily pressing levers and getting treats. When he returned on Monday he found his pigeons acting nutty. Some were turning in circles, others were banging their heads against the side of the boxes, and still others were pulling out their feathers. Stunned, he went to investigate and discovered that his automation had gone haywire and treats were being distributed randomly. Whatever the birds happened to be doing when the treat popped out, they started repeating and this increase in frequency made it more likely that they would be doing just that thing when the next treat appeared. Take that principle and apply it to people and you find the process that makes someone feel like they can’t close a deal unless they’re wearing their lucky hat.
As a manager you have many tools at your disposal to condition your employees to do their best. Rewards might come in any form from cash and gift cards to more intangible benefits such as flexibility or recognition. Whatever method you employ, the key to a successful strategy is consistency. If you give one person a week in Paris for landing a big client and then offer their colleague a $10 gift card, you will be buying nothing but trouble. So how can you make sure you are rewarding effectively and consistently? Here are some tips to streamline your incentive program:
1. Know Your Limits – Before you give out your first “atta-girl”, find out what type of reward structure your organization allows. Does HR have a stack of gift cards or travel vouchers you should use? Can you give vacation time if your team members put in extra hours or achieve certain goals? Make sure you don’t rock the boat by promising things you can’t deliver.
2. Tie Rewards to the Team Vision – Every team should have a stated vision that encompasses the key success metrics of the group as it relates to the success of the organization. If a team member goes above and beyond to hit a target that ties into your team vision, you should make sure to recognize it.
3. Praise in Public – Regardless of whether you are going to offer an additional tangible reward, you should make a point to recognize a team member whose actions you wish to reinforce. Send a message to the team letting them know that Bob pulled an all-nighter and saved a big client. This helps your team know what behaviors you like and want to see repeated.
4. Keep a Log – Before you reward an action, record it in a log. Include the date, employee’s name, their good deed, and what reward you gave them. This allows you to line up each incentive alongside other times you have recognized great work in your department so you can easily see whether you are being consistent or not.
At times you may want to implement specific rewards over a short period of time. For example if you have a new sales target to hit which requires every person on your team to complete five extra meetings each month, you may want to give a special gift to each team member who achieves this goal for the first three months. If you are creating an incentive program with limits, make sure you document the requirements and communicate them in advance. Rewards, especially monetary incentives, must be specific and consistently applied or you will tank your team morale instead of boosting it.
It goes without saying that if you have consequences for behavior you DON’T want to see, those should be applied with an equivalent level of fairness.
About the Author: Katy Tynan is a management coach with Personal Focus Coaching (www.personalfocuscoaching.com). She is also the author of Survive Your Promotion! The 90 Day Success Plan for New Managers, which will be released in February of 2010.
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