An effective Channel Partner Incentive Program can increase sales significantly, but to make it effective you need to be regularly reviewing it.
An effective channel partner incentive scheme can increase sales by as much as 40 per cent, according to research conducted by Model N. Effective is of course the crucial word here - a program that doesn't work as it should will ultimately just see you lose money.
That doesn't mean you should steer clear of introducing a Channel Partner Incentive Program altogether, however. Instead, you simply need to review your program on a regular basis to ensure you're making it as effective as possible. There are several aspects you should consider when conducting your review:
1) Return on investment (ROI)
ROI is the key metric for the success of any business initiative, and it's no different for a rewards or incentive program. Before you launched your Channel Partner Incentive Program, you'll have considered how much money you're putting into the program and how much you expect sales and other returns to increase by. It's essential you regularly assess your actual ROI against what you predicted in order to see whether your program is on track.
ROI is the key metric for the success of any business initiative, and it's no different for a rewards or incentiveprogram.
To do this, look at your sales figures before and after the program started, and measure those against the amount of money you're spending on the program itself. You can also look at sales figures for products covered by the program and those that aren't to see whether there has been an increase.
2) Other aims for the program
An increase in sales is usually the most important aim for a channel partner incentive scheme, however there will always be other things you want to get out of the program.
For example, one of the key issues with channel partners is that they're not in your direct sales team, so you can't enforce product or sales training in the same way you could with your direct employees. Channel Partner Incentive Programs will therefore often seek to reward people for undertaking product demos or other educational activities.
You can track how many demos or training sessions your channel partners are completing, and whether this has increased since the program was put in place. You can also see whether there are any product demos or training sessions that your partners aren't completing very often. If there are any that you think they're neglecting, you can change your incentive program so that you're providing extra incentives when they complete those sessions.
3) Which partners are most engaged
You'll also be able to see which channel partners are really engaging with the program and which ones aren't. Once you've seen which partners aren't using the program, you can change up their scheme to see if it will encourage them to sell more of your products. This could involve communicating with those partners more often, offering improved rewards, or providing extra incentives for training programs so they feel more comfortable selling your products.
4) How quickly they're getting rewarded
Many incentive schemes fail because once the partner completes the desired action, they then don't receive their reward for weeks or even months. Rewards must always be as timely as possible - otherwise the partner will forget what action they're being rewarded for, and may even begin to harbour resentment towards the scheme and by extension towards you. So it's essential you review how quickly partners are being rewarded to ensure this doesn't happen in your program.
Channel Partner Incentive Programs with Power2Motivate
Power2Motivate has years of experience creating effective Channel Partner Incentive Programs that stand the test of time. We have comprehensive metrics and reporting functions so that you can easily review your program, and our online global rewards gallery means your partners will receive incentives that they really want. For more information, contact us today or request a demo.