Measure and review your
sales incentive program
The methods you adopt for measuring your incentive programs
should satisfy two requirements.
Firstly, the program must be legal and
permissible under existing regulations of each State, in which
the programs are being operated.
Secondly, your
method of measurement must be acceptable to the incentive
scheme participants, and be seen by them to be reasonable,
appropriate and obtainable.
The appropriateness of the terms and conditions is the key
element in the whole planning of the program. Even if they are
totally within the legal requirements, you will waste a great
deal of time and money unless you review your whole package of
activities and rewards through the eyes of the participants.
The need for participant co-operation and enthusiasm must also
include your desire to award the prizes in the most appealing
form. This includes recognising any tax implications
under tax law.
Assigning
responsibilities:
Your planning will reach a stage where you have identified
your objectives, who is going to participate and how you are
going to make it all happen. Delegating activities and
assigning responsibilities is as important in managing an
incentive program as it is in any other management
activity.
This scheduling is even more important when engaging the
services of outside agencies such as Ken MacKenzie
Communications, who may be helping with such things as the
production of printed material, trade release functions, travel
arrangements and purchase of prizes.
Even when you have allocated tasks and deadlines, you will
need to find sufficient time to brief clearly each member of
your team. Your cost estimates are often only as accurate
as your briefings to suppliers, and if your financial planning
is not sound at the outset, costs will run away from you. The
use of outside suppliers will depend on the in-house facilities
and whether these internal facilities can meet the standard of
creativity and production essential to your program.
The quality of the printed material which you release will
be the participants' first object of appraisal. It is false
economy to use in-house printing or design services that are
not equal to those available from printers or promotional
agencies.
Regular
Review:
Once you have chosen your team, assigned responsibilities
and time and cost deadlines, you must constantly monitor the
program and make adjustments as the need arises. During both
your planning period and the reviews after the event, you will
need to compare the costs of the incentive program with the
benefits to be returned to you. Although incentive
schemes based on clearly defined statistical criteria are much
easier to plan, you must still be sure that your past event
measurements are realistically accurate. You should review all
components of your program and note the comments from your
planning team's own experiences, the views of any agencies you
used during the campaign and, most importantly, your
participants.
Next
article: The Sales
Incentive Program's Rewards
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Measure and review your Incentive
Program.
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