DISTRIBUTOR INCENTIVE PROGRAM

Situation:

A large wine company approached us with a very specific objective: incentivize its distributors to open new on-premise accounts, using specific brands within their portfolio. They allocated dollars to each objective: new accounts, repeat sales, and multiple brands sold to the same account. They needed an incentive program that could track this and award points as well as provide the means to redeem the points.

Execution:

We developed a store with multiple leader boards that tracked their objectives by person, team and location. The internal competition and trash talking among employees that ensued was unprecedented. There were weekly bonuses for the top producers and top teams. In many incentive programs, only the winners get a prize. But in this case, everyone who participated earned points. In our post-program survey, it was clear that this was why we saw such success. Each person redeemed for name-brand retail products such as electronics, jewelry, sports equipment, home décor items and more.

Success:

The six-month program blew away all expectations. The distributor told our client that they had never seen its employees so competitive and wanting to be on top of the leader board. They opened more new accounts in the first month than they had expected to open in the entire six-month period. The program has been used by our customer with different distributors around the country, all with similar success.

Well-planned and executed incentive programs can significantly change behaviors and give customers results. The incentive must be worth the change in behavior and the program must be well communicated and well executed. We have worked closely with several customers to design and implement many different types of programs.