In many industries, Trade Loyalty Programs have been functional for years now and their execution is more or less taken for granted. Programs are launched, announced and executed almost on an autopilot mode. But there is one very important action that many companies fail to take which can have the most impact on the success of the program. It is integrating the program into the Sales Call being made by the Salesman to collect orders from the outlets.
Loyalty programs are essentially a platform designed to incentivise the channel partners for continuous and growing business. In most cases, the structure of the pay-outs is based on target achievement. This can be in the form of bonus when target is met or slab structure where the pay-out share increases as one achieves higher and higher slab.
Programs structured in either of these forms are powerful levers that can be used to increase the sales to these outlets. Especially during the all-important month or quarter closing times, if the salesman prompts the outlet by showing the shortfall from target or the next slab. Many a times outlets miss out on target bonuses or higher slabs by less than 5% which could have been covered if the information was available during the order.
The way to bridge this information gap is through two major channels. First is through SMS and Email communication to partners and the Sales team about the current status. This however has limitations on the content that you can send. Second is through providing detailed reports which can be used to drive the conversation between the Salesman and the outlet in a more fruitful direction. These reports can be enabled through Emails or Excel based tools or through an SFA platform.
In an ideal sales call, Salesman should tell the outlet the current points status, inform about the shortfall from the target or next slab, speak about the desired reward and how many points are needed per month to achieve it, look at the history and devise an order which will enable the outlet to achieve the target/slab/reward. By providing enablers on each of these points output of Sales calls can be maximised. The outlets would also be grateful as they need not do the required calculations to achieve their maximum pay-out. What can be a better way to drive loyalty among trade?
We keep these points in mind when designing new programs and communication plans around them. We develop the required technology backend to enable this level of communication. To let us help you run a successful channel loyalty program, please reach out to us through the form in the below link.
https://www.channelplay.in/india/loyalty-programs#contact-us
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