Even salespeople need a little push sometimes. This is where sales incentives come into play. One of the latest sales incentive trends is SPIFF, which stands for Sales Performance Incentive Fund. (Yes, there’s an extra F in there. They’re salespeople, not wordsmiths.)
SPIFF programs are an upgrade from older incentive-based initiatives that usually just involved a sales rep’s offering a Benjamin to their retail associate who sells the most products in a month. With so many brands and products competing for attention in today’s fast-paced marketplace, those tactics don’t work well enough anymore.
Our technology-driven world has paved the way for something more intuitive, effective and trackable.
We recently launched a SPIFF program for one of our B2B clients. The client approached us with a challenge: How could they encourage associates at their dealer stores to sell more of their products?
We put our problem-solving caps on and came up with an idea: Develop a fully functional website that would track receipts, award points and eventually reward associates with free or highly discounted products for achieving high sales.
Our client’s goals included:
- Engaging front-line sales staff at large retailers across the U.S.
- Establishing a direct connection with dealers and dealer sales staff
- Encouraging new users to engage with the system, own brand products and advocate for those products by speaking to their value
While setting our sights on these goals, we remained conscious that we needed to maintain our competitive edge. After all, we were not the only brand out there using a SPIFF program.
Our team worked to build a detailed system that our client could control without having to rely on external partners. This gave them sole ownership of the relationships and communication within the system.
We put controls in place to validate true sales and prevent misuse of the discount program. The system also includes required review of educational material for users to learn more about the products, thus equipping them to effectively tell consumers about their features and benefits. The educational portion consists of a mix including text, image and video-based content and multiple-choice quizzes. Our team also developed reports to show usage, engagement data and other metrics.
For all the nerds out there reading this, here’s a look at how the website worked from the user perspective:
For everyone else who has better things to do than squint at that chart, here’s a simplified version of the process:
- Retail sales associate visits the website and registers as a user.
- Our client receives a notification and approves or denies the registration.
- If approved, the user receives a confirmation email and logs in to the site to complete a prerequisite educational module to learn more about our clients’ products.
- After the module quizzes are complete, the user is able to upload receipts and sales details to earn points.
- The system confirms the sale, and the client is notified so they can approve or deny it.
- The user is able to exchange points for a discount code that can be used to receive a free or highly discounted product of their own.
Every SPIFF program is different. Let us customize one for you. It starts with a conversation—we listen to your needs, then we get to work to create a customized strategic solution that addresses your challenges and makes sense for you and your target. It’s a tough market out there; but with the right strategies, tools and team by your side, you can reach your sales goals.
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