YOU CAN’T MAKE ME SELL!

These days, dealer and reseller sales reps are in a very powerful position. They help educate your customers on which brands and products will help them most. And they are frequently the tie-breaker in situations where customers can’t decide. They can make or break the sale. And they can make or break your product’s reputation. But what is really going on inside their heads?

In a recent study, we sought to answer that question.

Here’s what we asked:

Imagine you’re a salesperson at a national retailer. You can sell three products offered by different manufacturers. You receive news that one of the manufacturers is offering an incentive for salespersons like you to promote their product. How do you respond to this incentive if you have a personal opinion, perhaps even a bias, about the product? Do you set aside your own preferences and proceed to sell what is promoted in the incentive or do your personal feelings impact how engaged you are with the incentive?

The answers to these questions can teach us how the personal preferences of sales associates in a channel environment affect their engagement with an incentive as well as how the incentive impacts their perception of the company who employs them.

THE METRICS:

• INCENTIVE ENGAGEMENT. Measured the level of excitement about the incentive, including a desire to promote the product even after the incentive period ends.
• EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT. Measured how the incentive program impacted engagement with their employer, including a commitment to stay.
• THE ADVOCATE. Is a current owner of the product or intends to purchase the product in the future. Refers family and friends to purchase the product.
• THE FENCE SITTER. Does not currently own the product but is willing to consider purchasing the product in the future. Doesn’t influence family or friends either way.
• THE DETRACTOR. Does not currently own the product and has no intention of purchasing it in the future. Actively advises family and friends to choose other products.

How would these three groups perceive the incentive?

According to our researchⁱ, Advocates and Fence Sitters have similar, generally positive, perceptions about the incentive. They’ll likely receive news of the incentive favorably.

Detractors, however, are far less engaged with an incentive that asks them to sell a product they don’t prefer:

The same trend holds true regarding how channel sales associates feel about their employer. Again, Advocates and Fence Sitters are similarly engaged with their employer, but Detractors feel far less positive about their employer in the face of an incentive that asks them to sell a product they don’t prefer:

Comments from participants highlight the differences in how each group feels about the incentive and their employer.

From ADVOCATES:

“I think this would be a good incentive to reward workers for hard work.”

“Incentives make a person more attached towards the company and they motivate the person’s hard work.”

“Incentives are the best way for a company to get their employees to better understand the product and to feel motivated to promote it.”

FENCE SITTERS are also ready and willing to engage in the incentive:

“Although I do not have any strong feelings about the product, incentives definitely motivate me and generate enthusiasm.”

“I would be a bit skeptical, but I’ve had jobs where incentives were involved and this isn’t much different than those jobs. And I liked working those jobs for the most part.”

DETRACTORS, on the other hand, feel very differently about the whole affair. For them, being offered an incentive to sell a product they don’t prefer takes on a different tone:

“I would feel unethical if I tried to push for sales on a product I didn’t believe in.”

“The incentives failed to overcome my convictions.”

“I’ve been in this situation. I won’t ‘push’ a product I truly dislike.”

Based on these results, what is a manufacturer to do? We strongly encourage manufacturers who sell through a competitive channel to consider:

1. A “move the middle” strategy that will push Advocates and Fence Sitters to higher performance. Incentives that offer a realistic opportunity for sales associates across the performance spectrum to achieve should engage the majority of a channel audience. In addition, frequent communications about an individual’s progress-to-goal will help drive competition among reps to improve – and achieve bragging rights for their performance.
2. Segmenting your audience when designing incentives. For example, early onboarding with new reps can pay huge dividends down the road. Also, make sure that whenever you try to motivate sales team members, be sure they feel like they have a chance to be rewarded – or they will check out immediately and turn into Detractors right before your eyes.
3. A different plan for Detractors. For every manufacturer, the degree to which Detractors are impacting incentive and employer engagement should be studied. Understanding current behaviors and biases can help you turn Detractors into Fence Sitters. Use data and information to tell the rational side of your story and know that dramatic examples and visuals often contain the nudge people need to change their opinion. Engage both sides of the brain to make your story compelling and convincing.

So the next time you run an incentive program, before you spend countless hours and your entire budget to engage your channel sales reps, segment your audience and understand the relative size and impact of Advocates, Fence Sitters and Detractors. Determine the role each of these groups play in your channel and what you can do to best reach them in a way to help them know you truly understand that their personal preferences play a role in their engagement.

Don’t let Detractors put a great brand at risk. Build a channel program that engages.

ⁱThe index is based on a series of survey questions we asked to several hundred panelists.

The differences between Advocates and Fence Sitters are not statistically significant. The results for Detractors are statistically significant in comparison to the other groups. For additional information about the survey, please contact BI WORLDWIDE.