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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Refund Solutions for Higher Education – Why Use Prepaid?
Colleges and universities can now conveniently disburse funds such as financial aid, work study payments, payroll and scholarships by the use of a prepaid debit card.
Converting from paper checks to electronic funds transfer not only streamlines the refund process, but makes it more economical for the students and the institution. Students, parents and school administrators all benefit from faster, less costly and more secure distribution of funds.
Top 5 Benefits to the Institution:
- Significant cost reduction – Free to Institution
- Reduce administrative time – No phone calls and inquires about lost or stolen checks
- Easy to implement – No internal technical resources required
- Simplified payment process – Electronically send funds immediately
- Enhance “Green” Initiatives – No more paper checks
Top 5 Benefits to the Student:
- More Security – Safer than carrying large amounts of cash
- Immediate access to funds – No need to wait for check to be mailed
- Easy to Use – Can be used anywhere Visa or MasterCard is accepted
- Less expensive – No need to pay check cashing fees or to have a checking account
- Increase Financial Maturity – No more NSF’s or overdraft charges as with checking accounts
Students will appreciate the speed and convenience and schools will reap the rewards of an efficient funds disbursement process. Please let me know if you would like more information on how to use Prepaid Debit cards to help with student refund disbursements.
Dave.cook@springbokservices.com
B2B Prepaid Terminology and Definitions
If you’re new to the fascinating world of B2B Prepaid, you may get lost and confused with all the terminology. I’m here to help. I’ve identified many terms that you will come across and need to understand as you make decisions on how to run your program. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order for your convenience.
Acquirer – A bank or processor that sponsors merchants for the acceptance of credit and debit card transactions.
Breakage – The unused portion of funds on a prepaid debit card at the date of expiration.
Closed Loop – Store cards or gift cards that can only be used at a single merchant or single merchant group (such as Starbucks).
Custom Card – Cards that are customized to a given companies logo, look, feel, brand or messaging.
Embossing – The raised lettering and numbering found on most debit, prepaid and credit cards.
Faux Card – A card where the front is a printed picture of the actual debit card and with generic information. The back of the card is blank with no issuing language.
Generic Embossing – Cards that are embossed with generic verbiage such as “Thank You” instead of the cardholders name. These cards are great to keep on hand for “On The Spot Rewards” to employees or customers.
Interchange – A fee paid by the merchant to the issuer in POS (Point Of Sale) transactions. This is a source of revenue for the issuing bank and/or the processor.
Merchant Category Code (MCC) – A code assigned by an Acquirer to a Merchant to identify the merchant’s principal trade, profession or line of business. This four digit code is also known as the SIC CODE.
Open Loop – Open loop or branded cards are debit, prepaid or credit cards that can be used on the “open” networks of MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express. The term Open is used because they can be used at a variety of merchants as opposed to Closed Loop gift or store cards.
Payroll Card – A prepaid debit card issued by an employer to their employees who don’t have a banking relationship or participate in direct deposit.
PCI - Payment Card Industry
PCI Compliance – A set of comprehensive requirements for enhancing payment account data security. This standard is intended to help organizations proactively protect customer account data.
Prepaid – Also known as stored value. Cards are pre-funded with a set dollar amount and can be either single value or reloadable.
Private Label – A card program that allows prepaid cards to be restricted in their use to a single merchant or group of merchants. They do not have the MasterCard or Visa logo on them, but it rides on their network. These cards are not embossed. The cards will only work at defined locations.
Reloadable – A card that can have additional money added or “loaded” electronically.
Replica Card – A card where the front is a printed picture of the actual debit card and with generic information. The back of the card has standard verbiage and a unique number to identify the card.
Selective Authorization – The capability to restrict where a card can be used or specifically steer clients to a single merchant, merchant category or group of merchants.
Single Value – A card that has a one-time, fixed amount of money. The card can be used until funds are depleted or until the card expires.
Slippage – The money that is still on cards that are issued but not activated for use prior to the expiration date.
Transaction - An action between a cardholder and a merchant that results in activity on a cardholder account.
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