Sales Incentives: How, Why, and ROI - Motivforce

Sales Incentives: How, Why, and ROI

2 / M O T I V F O R C E – I N C O N J U N C T I O N W I T H H M I P E R F O R M A N C E I N C E N T I V E S

Introduction

The fact is, businesses are already spending a lot on their sales forces, and for good reason. Salespeople make up nearly 12% of the entire full-time labor force in the U.S., leading to firms spending over a trillion dollars annually on sales force expenditures. This of course includes things like salaries, expenses, sales training, conferences, etc. But a not-insignificant piece of this sales pie is directed towards incentives and non-cash rewards.

According to the Incentive Research Foundation, 60% of all U.S. businesses use non-cash sales incentives, with conservative estimates at around $23 billion

spent on rewards alone. If you’re in the sales incentive business, this is a good sign. It means that a majority of U.S. companies are starting to see sales incentives for what they are: an

organizational investment and a valuable motivational tool for their sales teams, not just an “add-on” to an existing compensation plan.

If someone were to suggest that sales were a vital component—perhaps even the vital component—to a company’s success or failure, the response might be something like, “Okay, thanks Captain Obvious.” Saying that sales are important is like saying the sky is blue.

And yet, when the subject shifts ever so slightly to the concept of sales incentives, suddenly little pockets of resistance pop up, with some choosing to hedge on the importance of this sales tool by arguing that it’s superfluous—a useful, but expensive and unnecessary luxury item in the sales process. However, to say that incentives are superfluous for sales is sort of like saying shoes are superfluous for walking. No, technically we don’t need them… but they sure do help.

60%

PERCENTAGE OF ALL U.S. BUSINESSES THAT USE NON-CASH SALES INCENTIVES

S a l e S I n c e n t I v e S : H o w , w H y , a n d R o I / 3

A majority of executives from top-performing firms believe that incentive programs provide a competitive advantage, serve as effective recruitment tools, and are critical to managing the performance of the company.

Even more telling is that a majority of executives from top-performing firms believe that incentive programs provide a competitive advantage, serve as effective recruitment tools, and are critical to managing the performance of the company.

This is in direct contrast to executives from average-performing firms, who report being more skeptical and offering less buy-in to their organization’s sales incentive programs. This leads to a chicken-and-egg dilemma: is this lack of support a result of their firms’ average-performing status, or a cause? And what has led them down this path of skepticism? Is it simply a matter of dollars and cents, or is the issue more ideological?

With all of these questions in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to take a deeper dive into the world of sales incentives, including what they look like, how they work, and why they’re effective.



What is a sales incentive, and how does it work? For starters, it’s important to distinguish sales incentives from commissions or bonuses. A sales rep might receive a commission or a bonus for making a sale or selling a certain amount, but this is almost universally dispensed as cash. It is, essentially, a structural element of an existing compensation plan. In other words, commissions are fixed payouts that are triggered once a certain threshold is reached.

Chapter 1 Anatomy of a Sales Incentive

As such, they create a sense of routine expectation that is fundamentally different from the psychology of earning an incentive.

Sales incentives, on the other hand, are specifically designed to stimulate certain behaviors while also remaining separate from those behaviors. They are dynamic and malleable and can be shaped to achieve a variety of business objectives.

David Gordon, President of Channel Marketing Group, sees sales incentives as both motivational tools and recognition vehicles. “The core function of a sales program,”

says Gordon, “is to improve sales focus, sales team motivation, and targeted goal-achievement.” This suggests that sales incentives, unlike commissions or bonuses, possess an intrinsic value that extends beyond their monetary worth.

In the past, the line between these two types of rewards was more blurred, with organizations typically focusing on a particular sales objective, like “reach x amount in sales this year,” and then rewarding salespeople for achieving it. However, in recent years there has been a shift away from this single-minded



pursuit of incremental sales increase, with more and more organizations broadening the scope of what they reward for and, more importantly, what their goals are.

For example, while the primary objective of most sales incentive programs is still “increasing overall sales,” many organizations now see the benefits of moving beyond this singular focus and instead pursuing multiple sales objectives in the form of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). To achieve this, they may seek to stimulate any number of core or non-core sales behaviors, examples of which might include:

• selling of a specific product • growing market or mind share• expanding into new verticals • completing training modules• demonstrating product knowledge• acquiring or retaining customers• helping to move deals down a sales

pipeline• achieving high levels of customer

satisfaction• obtaining referrals

This ever-changing catalogue of highly targeted objectives is increasingly becoming the norm as companies seek to find more efficient ways to improve sales efficacy. But even when the primary goal of a program is tied directly into a sales quota of some kind, it’s still rarely one-size-fits-all. An organization might establish different “classes” or tiers of participants—whereby a sales force is segmented based on past or expected success—with each tier being

offered its own set of rules and rewards.

Alternatively, the sales goals themselves may be tiered, enabling all salespeople to “level up” to a higher stage of rewards if they increase their overall performance. A third option might be to tailor sales goals specifically to individuals based on their prior sales—for example, rewarding individuals for achieving a 10% increase in sales compared to what they sold the previous year.

These are just a few of the most common sales incentive structures, and there are certainly others. However, whatever the structure of a program looks like, to be successful all must have a few essential components.

Challenging, Achievable Goals

First, the goals that a company identifies for its salespeople must be achievable without being too easy. You can get creative with how you do this—by shortening or lengthening the achievement window, rewarding for a range of performances, setting up performance tiers, etc.—but the point is, from a psychological standpoint, if you want your salespeople to continue to improve their performance, they need to feel that the goals you’ve set for them are always within reach. Along these lines, some programs even allow participants to select their own goals from various criteria, providing even more buy-in and motivation.

Communication

Another key component of a sales incentive program is communication. This doesn’t just mean a welcome message at the start of the program and a congratulatory one at the end. Communication in a


program should have its own lifecycle.

To begin with, you obviously need to attract the participants to the program in order for it to be a success. It’s easy to take this part of a communications campaign for granted. As the program designer, you’re happy to assume that every single one of your salespeople will gladly join your initiative. But if this were true, every sales incentive program would have 100% participation.

The truth is, while some of your salespeople will indeed be excited about the program, others will either think the rewards are beyond their reach, or else fall prey to the inertia of their status quo. The opening salvo of your communications lifecycle should seek to convince them otherwise.

Once you’ve attracted your participants, you’ll need to onboard them into the program as efficiently as possible, providing clear and concise directions for registration, program rules, etc. When the program is finally up and running, keeping participants engaged is essential. Obviously, the longer your program extends, the more frequently you may want to communicate. This could include providing leaderboard updates, performance reports, or announcements regarding upcoming promotions. Finally, as the program winds down, sending out motivational marketing communications about program rewards will help keep participants pushing all the way to the finish line.

Non-Cash Rewards

Speaking of rewards, in our experience the most effective sales incentive programs offer some form of non-cash rewards. Now, we’ve written at length about the cash vs. non-cash rewards argument, and multiple studies by independent organizations have

also reached similar conclusions: namely, that non-cash rewards are far stronger motivators than straightforward cash.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, cash is transactional by nature and tends to be interpreted primarily as compensation. On the other hand, recipients view non-cash rewards as celebratory, generating a greater sense of excitement and appreciation. They are more emotional, rather than utilitarian (want versus need).

As a result of this, non-cash rewards tend to be more memorable than mere cash, which recipients often simply deposit into their bank accounts and therefore end up using on things like rent, groceries, gas, and other day-to-day purchases. Additionally, there is a social aspect to non-cash rewards that can’t really be matched by cash alone. People are more reluctant to brag about cash, whereas a non-cash reward might be discussed or displayed, offering more visibility and greater recognition for the recipient.

One final wrinkle in the non-cash rewards discussion involves how these rewards are chosen. Research has shown that when rewards can be self-selected by participants, they are much more likely to generate significant performance growth. Presumably, this is because we are more likely to grow attached to—and therefore find ourselves motivated by—prizes we ourselves can choose. This notion runs parallel to the famous “IKEA Effect” experiments, in which participants were found to value items more when they made them themselves.


In any case, although it may not always be financially feasible to provide multiple reward options for participants to choose from (for example, in the case of a grand prize incentive travel reward), when possible it’s best practice to provide some element of participant choice.

Reporting and Analytics

The other important piece in the sales incentive puzzle involves reporting and analytics. These are two components that are interrelated and often lumped together, but it bears mentioning them separately here. Reporting is essential for goal-based sales incentive programs, as it’s the main mode of performance tracking. This is useful not just for program administrators, but also for program participants themselves, as it offers them a window into how far they’ve come and how far they still need to go.

Reporting can be accomplished in a few different ways:

• Through static, regularly generated reports• Through a specifically designed program

portal that administrators can access •Or via more customized reports that can be

tailored to segment and measure specific metrics.

According to a 2015 study conducted by the Incentive Federation, larger firms are more likely to have robust reporting tools that include both earning and/or redemption reports and participation reports. However, roughly half of all the firms surveyed generated only static, regularly scheduled reports of participant performances, whereas just a third actually provided a reporting portal that offers

administrator accessibility. Interestingly, over a quarter of the 234 respondents admitted they don’t even have access to reporting and analyses, a surprising factor considering the enormous emphasis that is increasingly being placed on data and analytics.

Without reporting, there can be no program data, and without data, analysis of the program’s efficacy will remain limited. There are certainly qualitative tools that can help measure the success of sales incentives, such as participant surveys and feedback reports, but these can’t really provide the hard dollars-and-cents KPI and ROI figures clients typically look for.

Furthermore, program analytics provide other functions that can enhance efficiency, such as diagnostic “health checks” that offer monthly or quarterly glimpses into how the program is doing relative to your expectations. This is especially useful if you’re looking to run a multi-year campaign, are interested in renewing a recently completed sales incentive initiative, or want to compare the effectiveness of various quarterly promotions. This type of quantitative analysis not only enables program administrators to monitor program success more closely, but it also offers the ability to identify gaps in participant engagement and potentially fill them for future iterations of the program.

…QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS NOT ONLY ENABLES PROGRAM

ADMINISTRATORS TO MONITOR PROGRAM

SUCCESS MORE CLOSELY, BUT IT ALSO OFFERS THE

ABILITY TO IDENTIFY GAPS IN PARTICIPANT

ENGAGEMENT AND POTENTIALLY FILL THEM

FOR FUTURE ITERATIONS OF THE PROGRAM.


Chapter 2Types of Sales Incentives

Thus far we’ve discussed some of the nuts-and-bolts features of sales incentive strategies—namely the establishment of achievable goals, a robust communications lifecycle, non-cash, self-selected rewards, and the ability to report and analyze sales data and measure program success. But the challenge with all of these features is that the extent to which they’re implemented often varies depending on the type of sales incentive being employed. Therefore, it’s important to identify some of the more common strategies that are used in order to better understand how these features fit into them:

Rewarding top PerformersAn incentive strategy that rewards a company’s top-performing salespeople is probably the next most common type of sales incentive. These are often referred to as President’s Club, Chairman’s Club, or Diamond Club programs. They are designed as status symbols for those who participate in them. In this way, they function more like recognition programs, serving to reward high-achieving participants for who they already are, instead of motivating them to be who you want them to be. Leaderboards and high-end travel rewards are two of the most common ways to help this group keep their eyes on the prize.

SPIFsA Sales Performance Incentive Fund, or SPIF, is the simplest and probably the most common form of sales incentive, and it’s really not a sales incentive at

all. SPIFs can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but in general they’re offered as cash bonuses for the sale of specific products or during a short time period. (Fun fact: another word for SPIF is “spiv” which is a word for a well-dressed conman).


Rewarding the Middle 60%The majority of your salespeople won’t be your best performers, and there’s a reason for that: this core group—what we like to call “the middle 60%”—just isn’t motivated in the same way, or by the same things, as your top dogs. But while they might not be the first target when considering a sales incentive program, maybe they should be. The middle 60% boasts a higher growth potential than does your top performing group, simply because the sheer size requires less of a sales bump to actually move the ROI needle.

Sales of Specific ProductsMaybe the goal of your incentive program isn’t to motivate a particular group of salespeople.

Maybe the goal is to more effectively move a specific product, whether it’s something new that you want to generate excitement for, a particularly high-margin item, or simply a product that’s been lagging and in need of a jolt. In these cases, short-term sweepstakes or special promotions are sales incentive tools that are effective at creating short bursts of excitement and engagement among a wide variety of salesforce populations.

Growing MindshareAn indirect salesforce might have a number of different options to choose from as they decide which products to push in their channel. How do you get them to more consistently sell yours? This requires an increase in mindshare—the amount of awareness your company creates relative to your competitors—and a sales incentive that helps promote your brand amongst your channel partners is the key to getting it.

Sales enablementIn some sales channels, rewarding for steps-to-the-sale behaviors can be just as effective as rewarding for the sale itself. Rather than a straightforward “sell this, get that” strategy, a sales enablement program typically targets indirect sales behaviors that, nevertheless, have a significant impact on the actual sale. These can include preparing sales materials, completing training modules, or earning certifications. Such a program can lead to a much more knowledgeable, engaged, and loyal group of brand ambassadors.

team SalesAs sales channels and processes become increasingly complex, we’re starting to see more and more programs rewarding multiple team members for one or more sales activities. In some cases, these team members can even include non-sales personnel, especially for those organizations that rely heavily on the contributions of these individuals during the sales process.


Chapter 3Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Sales Incentive

One of the big challenges in administering a sales incentive is determining its level of effectiveness. In other words: how much ROI did the incentive program actually generate? To find this out you need to figure out whether or not your sales increased as a result of the incentive, if so, by how much, and then subtract the overall cost of administering the program.

Now, this is actually harder to do than it seems. For starters, if salespeople know that an incentive program is about to begin, they may delay making an upcoming sale until the program window has opened. This would allow them to earn points or other reward program benefits that they would have otherwise missed out on.

There are also other potentially disruptive variables that need to be taken into account when trying to effectively measure sales program ROI. According to the IRF, price cuts, increased advertising, improved market conditions, and other factors all could play a role in a sales increase that occurs during the program. In other words, it can be difficult to determine whether or not the increase was the direct result of the salespeople’s efforts alone, or to what degree other factors had an effect. “For these reasons,” the IRF suggests, “measuring ROI must take into account how other activities or conditions may have

influenced results.”

Two methods in accounting for these variables are field tests and post-hoc measurement. Both of these methods involve segmenting your salesforce audience into at least two groups: an experimental group and a control group.

In both cases, the experimental group of salespeople are those who are actually participating in the program. The control group are those salespeople who are not. In both methods, the performances of these two groups are compared relative to one another, with the assumption being that most of the possible variables mentioned above are more or less equivalent for both groups, leaving the sales incentive as the sole differentiating factor.

The primary difference between these two methods is that the field test method requires segmenting your salesforce beforehand and managing the potential variables, whereas a post-hoc measurement requires more retrospective analysis of program data in order to arrive at an accurate figure. For most firms, field experiments are likely too costly and cumbersome, and so are rarely used outside of research circles. On the other hand, post-hoc measurements can be accomplished if an organization possesses enough data on their program and has access to sophisticated analytical resources.

A third option, and one that is sometimes coupled with post-hoc measurements, is an outcome-based

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measure. In this method, before the start of the program, a company identifies particular outcomes they wish to measure or achieve, such as inventory turnover rates, productivity (i.e. items produced), revenue, market share, customer acquisition, or, unsurprisingly, sales. These outcomes are then tracked throughout the course of the program, and modified if necessary, based on market factors and other variables.

Alternatively, some firms have found that a more formalized methodology can help them more precisely understand the benefits of their sales program. One such method, for example, is the Phillips ROI Methodology Model, which can be used to weigh the full costs of an incentive program and compare them to the cumulative tangible and intangible gains produced by that program. This is a much more rigorous program evaluation tool that is essentially broken down into four main sections:

•A thorough needs analysis that determines organizational objectives•Robust data collection during and after the program•Complex analyses of program costs and effects, including intangible benefits•A comprehensive report that articulates overall results

This sort of method has the added advantage of measuring intangible factors that may play a role in ROI, such as sales activities, training, absenteeism, attrition, and the cost of losing or gaining a new customer. The downside is that it requires significant buy-in from leadership and most likely would need to be implemented by a third-party incentive company.

Finally, while the above ROI measurement methods are primarily quantitative, qualitative tools such as participant surveys are also commonly found in sales incentive programs. These types of tools might not capture the full extent of a program’s financial success, but they can provide a snapshot of its perceived value and the extent to which salespeople are motivated by it. This, coupled with a small-scale quantitative analysis, could end up providing most of the ROI data program managers and executive leadership are looking for.

data analysis

Develop Objectives of

Project

Develop Evaluation Plans

and Baseline Data

Collect Data During Project

Implementation

Collect Data After Project

Implementation

Isolate the Effects of Project

Convert Data to

Monetary Value

Calculating the Return on Investment

Identify Intangibles

Capture Costs of Project

Develop Report and

Communicate Results

evaluation Planning data collection Reporting

• Input/Indicators

• Intangible Benefits

1 Reaction and Planned Action

2 Learning

5 ROI3 Application and Implemantation

4 Impact

The Phillips ROI Methodology Model

The 10 steps in the ROI methodology are logical and systematic, often labeled the enhanced logical framework.



Chapter 4Do Sales Incentives Work?

All of this leads us to the final, most important question: do sales incentive actually work? Do they provide a significant enough return on investment for them to be worth an organization’s time, effort and resources?

We recently wrote a blog about this very question, and came to the conclusion that, yes, a sales incentive is a worthwhile investment to make. Perhaps this is unsurprising, given that we’ve built an entire business around just this sort of idea. However, the results that we’ve found in our programs

support it. On average, our sales incentive programs see an ROI in the range of 50%-500% depending on the type of program, audience size, and program length. Figures can also vary enormously depending on the industry being targeted.

One example of the typical ROI generated from a sales incentive program comes from Motivforce, a company that specializes in loyalty and incentives. In a channel sales program they recently designed for a multinational technology company, participating firms generated over 500% more

sales revenue than non-participating firms, sold over 4 times more SKU types and over 50% more total products, and contributed 46% of total sales despite making up just 14% of the overall population buying this company’s products.

This is just one example. Additionally, there have also been some independent studies conducted by the IRF that have assessed the value of typical sales incentives programs, and these numbers tend to more or less reflect what we have seen in our programs.



A 2004 post-hoc measurement study looked at a program targeting salespeople and dealer principals for an office equipment company. The study concluded that the company saw $7.44 million in incremental profit as a result of the program, and a more than 112% ROI on the program overall.

Similarly, an IRF case study of a Fortune 500 computer manufacturer found that a 7-month program focusing on direct sales and customer acquisition generated an ROI of over 114%.

More modest gains were produced for a Fortune 500 manufacturer and distributor of computer hardware over the course of a 9-month channel sales incentive program. Incremental sales increased a significant $747,800, but due to the large size of the program, this represented only a 23.4% ROI.

KPIs, the New ROI

One thing to also keep in mind with these figures is that they don’t always tell the whole story. Remember, these days sales incentives tend to be multi-faceted, designed to target multiple KPIs that are both directly and indirectly related to sales. What’s more, we find that achieving these KPIs often leads to greater ROI, pointing to the fact that the two are inextricably linked.

This notion is supported by Dr. David Cox, CEO and Founder of Motivforce, who suggests that “ROI should cover all of the KPIs a client seeks to target. Programs are becoming more complex in their objectives, and as such, ROI now needs to include things like frequency, recency, customer service, referrals, bundle solution selling, steps to the sale, learning and

client Strategy RoI KPI

Motivforce’s technology client

Multinational channel sales that doubled as a learning and enablement program

Generated over 500% more sales revenue than non-participating firms. 4X more SKU types. 50+% more total products. 46% of total sales despite making up just 14% of buyers.

When participating firms actively engaged in learning, ROI figures increased significantly.

Participating firms when learning was accounted for:

• 660% vs. 520% more sales revenue

• 41 vs. 30 average SKU types sold

Office equipment company

Sales incentive targeting salespeople and dealer principals

$7.44 million in incremental profit. 112+% ROI on the program.

Sales personnel were more product knowledgeable and more likely to recommend the company’s products

Fortune 500 computer manufacturer

Sales incentive and customer acquition program

Generated an ROI of over 114%.

increased its customer base by 35%

Fortune 500 manufacturer and distributor of computer hardware

9-month channel sales incentive program

Incremental sales increased a significant $747,800. 23.4% ROI, due to the size of the program.

Increased the VAR market share above 30% in 9 of 12 territories.


skills development, and other factors in addition to sales performance.”

We see this in the program results. For example, Motivforce’s channel sales program also doubled as a learning and enablement program. When participating firms actively engaged in learning, ROI figures increased significantly. Furthermore, in addition to the 23.4% ROI generated by the computer hardware manufacturer and distributor, the company also increased their VAR market share above 30% in 9 of 12 territories they were targeting.

The Fortune 500 computer manufacturer also increased its customer base by 35% as a result of the sales incentive, and the participants in the office equipment company’s program remarked that the program had made them more product knowledgeable, more likely to recommend the company’s products, and had a positive impact overall.

To bring this point home, a 2007 IRF case study of a major hand tools manufacturer found that when business processes other than pure sales impact were taken into account—processes that included accounts receivable, finished goods inventory, procurement, and finance—the ROI projections for the company’s sales incentive program jumped from -92%

to 84%. This suggests that the effects of a program can be felt well beyond the incremental sales bumps incentives are typically designed to generate.

But even despite the ROI numbers and other organizational benefits a sales incentive can provide, there will still inevitably be some who remain skeptical about their impact and doubtful of whether they can truly achieve a worthwhile return on their investment. One way to address these potential concerns is to implement a growth-funded program.

While usually employed in customer loyalty programs, a growth-funded sales incentive is designed in such a way that a company only pays when their salespeople or channel partners actually hit their sales goals. In our experience, we tend to see greater ROI in these programs when they target the middle 60%, as this group has more potential for overall growth.

THIS NOTION IS SUPPORTED BY DR. DAVID COX, CEO AND FOUNDER OF

MOTIVFORCE, WHO SUGGESTS THAT “ROI SHOULD COVER ALL OF THE KPIS A CLIENT SEEKS TO TARGET. PROGRAMS ARE BECOMING MORE COMPLEX IN THEIR OBJECTIVES,

AND AS SUCH, ROI NOW NEEDS TO INCLUDE THINGS LIKE FREQUENCY,

RECENCY, CUSTOMER SERVICE, REFERRALS, BUNDLE SOLUTION

SELLING, STEPS TO THE SALE, LEARNING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT,

AND OTHER FACTORS IN ADDITION TO SALES PERFORMANCE.”


Chapter 5Future Trends

As businesses and channels evolve and become more sophisticated, so too do employee expectations and desires. This is especially true with salespeople, who exhibit turnover rates nearly double that of the overall workforce. This number is even higher if you look at B2B businesses, where salespeople turnover rates can run as high as 55%.

What’s more, this attrition rate ends up having a direct correlation to sales productivity. According to the Bridge Group, companies with below 25% annual attrition employ 12% more reps who reach their quotas than those companies above the 25% rate.

One way to attack these problems is by implementing a dynamic and exciting sales incentive strategy. However, this strategy can only remain dynamic and exciting if it evolves with the times. In their 2020 Trends Report, Motivforce identifies a few key concepts to keep in mind for future sales incentive programs:

•corporate Social Responsibility: CSR is on the rise, and with Grand Challenges like climate change and mental health constantly in the forefront of the public’s mind, program participants are looking for ways to contribute in their own small ways, whether this is through a company sponsored event, donating program points to a good cause, or something else.

•wellness Strategies: People are becoming more health conscious, and businesses are taking notice. Wellness strategies that track (via devices like Apple Watches and Fitbits) and reward for improved health and wellbeing increasingly appeal to both employees and the companies who employ them.

•the Rise of Persuasion Mechanics: As machine-learning grows more adept, software that utilizes it will be able to better assist participants in making choices, with rewards for example, that they feel confident about (think Netflix’s highly tailored recommendations).

•omni-channel communications Strategies: More and more businesses are employing transmedia marketing initiatives that help promote their branded story across multiple platforms like mobile apps, microsites, social communities, and even offline events. An example of this 21st-century marketing strategy would be Toshiba and Intel’s “The Beauty Inside” campaign.

•Keeping everyone in the loop: Some channel partners often feel that they are undervalued compared to others. According to a Motivforce survey, 1 out of 3 channel partners feels left out when it comes to product introductions and updates, financing constructions, or sales contests. Making information more visible and accessible to all potential participants should ultimately lead to greater participation in sales incentives.


Sales Incentives: How, Why, and ROIConclusion

Clearly, there are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether or not to implement a sales incentive program. The structure and design require careful planning and ongoing management, and organizations must determine which type of program will fit best to help them achieve their unique sales objectives.

Additionally, while many companies still do not attempt to measure the ROI of their programs, more are seeking to establish clear metrics and analyses to serve as driving factors of program design and administration. There are various methods to evaluate program effectiveness, but however this measurement is executed, it’s important to account for disruptive variables like delayed sales as well as ancillary program benefits that might have an impact on your program’s overall ROI.

Of course, there is plenty more to be said about sales incentives, and as our industry becomes increasingly data-driven, this certainly won’t be the last word regarding the level of impact these programs can truly have on an organization. More research needs to be done in ROI measurement, particularly when it comes to comparing different types of sales incentives, different industries, and different audience segments. In addition, gaining a better understanding of how KPI achievement relates to program ROI will be key to producing more effective, targeted programs.

But with that being said, we hope this eBook has provided readers with some valuable insight into the broad scope of program design and administration. Should you want to take a deeper dive into sales incentives and what could be best for you company, contact us today!



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https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/bridge-group-2015/

https://www.motivforce.com/#what-we-do

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Documents

Sales Incentives: How, Why, and ROI - Motivforce