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Planning an Incentive Campaign

Your first step will be to look at what you want to accomplish with this incentive program. Only then can you design and implement a program that will be effective. The key question to answer in Step One is "What are my goals, and just how do they fit into the confines of my business reality?" Brainstorm Your Answers With pad and pen in hand, have a mini-brainstorm session. Make sure that you include others in the process, because their input is invaluable. People in your own department or in a complementary department may be aware of aspects in the market, or in the target audience, that you aren't aware of, and will surely provide a fresh perspective. During the brainstorming session, keep in mind how your desired objectives make sense in relation to current market conditions and to your company's overall goals. First, answer these questions: · What is the corporate/industrial environment today? · How do/will world events and economic factors affect my business? · Who are my customers? · Who are my competitors? · What are my competitors' strengths and weaknesses? · What are my product/service's strengths and weaknesses? · How do their marketing strategies affect my sales? Next, focus on the specific challenges and objectives of your organization. Does it want to: · Enlarge the customer base · Promote a specific product · Stay productive in a slow economy · Generate new accounts · Improve productivity or safety · Offset the effects of a competitor's promotion · Increase product/service quality · Sustain sales during a slow season The ultimate intention of the brainstorming session is to identify your most pressing needs. Prioritize your list, then focus on the exact nature of the top one or two needs. For instance, if your main problem is in customer relations, examine the reasons for the problem. (At this point it may be valuable to bring in the manager of that area and delve into the various aspects of running the department.) Some questions to ask: Are the phone systems or the workforce overstressed? Are service reps getting key information they need to deliver proper service? Are complaints being properly recorded? Are customers put off by the attitude or approach of the customer service reps? With detailed information like this, you can better target your incentive program. Turn Problems Into Goals Workable objectives have five basic characteristics. As you evaluate and hew problems into goals, use these five characteristics as your guide. Stay focused. Be specific in your objectives and keep them simple. Focus on one or two goals, so employees can effectively direct their efforts. If multiple goals are necessary, be certain they relate directly to each other. Bring your goal down from broad terms like increasing sales or improving customer loyalty to specific terms. For example, "Increase sales of VCR service contracts by 9 percent between September 1994 and January 1995." This goal is comprised of four components: the anticipated result (increase sales), the specific items (stereo service contracts), the desired increase (9 percent) and the time frame for reaching the goal (September 1994-January 1995). Think achievement. Ambitious goals may be exciting to contemplate, but are they achievable? By researching your goals before jumping into an incentive program, you can save yourself, your company and participants-a lot of heartache. This is the time to ask all the difficult questions, in order to find a proper balance between unchallenging and over inflated goals. Keeping in mind what is happening in your company and in the marketplace, ask these questions: · Are the goals attainable? By whom? · What work is involved for them? · What will be the repercussions if large numbers of participants don't attain their goals? · Has such a goal been met before either within this company or in the industry? · Are there factors in the industry that could hinder the desired result? Make it measurable. Are the activities that relate directly to your goals measurable? Or are they too expensive or difficult to measure? Quantifiable successes include tracking a sales-person's progress by how much sales have increased, for example, or tracking a plant's improved safety record by the reduction in number of accidents. Take care of timing. Take a look at the seasons and cycles of your business, incorporating highs and lows into your goal structure. Attune your objectives to these fluctuations. For instance, in a program planned for a slow period, you can never expect to receive increased sales equal to those of a peak period. See the synergy. How do your goals fold into the overall objectives of the company? Ask yourself not only if they are acceptable to the top brass, but how they fit into corporate goals. Observation of and feedback from the people involved in daily operations may help steer you away from goals that may be unrealistic because of the situation in the workplace. What may seem to be a great idea in the conference room for reducing the number of back orders in the shipping department may quickly go to pieces on the shipping floor, if the true nature of the problem is actually low morale and disgruntlement, and not what may appear as glitches in shipping logistics on the foreman's docket. An important aspect of this component is to consider company polices such as refunds, repair policies and rebates. Your incentive program to provide a $100 rebate with each television may backfire if your company also offers a full refund should the customer be dissatisfied with the product. The television could be purchased, the rebate sent and the purchase price refunded-leaving the company $100 poorer. Map The Strategy As you sit down to map out the strategy for your incentive campaign, first take a look at the goals you established in Step One. Why aren't they already being accomplished? This is the time to confirm that the goals you have defined are truly what you want to accomplish; and, if they are, deciding that indeed an incentive campaign is the solution. This is also the point at which you will decide who you need to motivate, and how you'll do it. Next, outline who the players involved in your product or service are and what they do. Note where they fall in the distribution channel and have a realistic view of how much attention you can expect form each group. As part of this evaluation, include factors such as distributorships where there are legal restrictions and state boundaries. With this list in hand, home in on your target: who needs to be motivated. Win/Win structure Then move on to how these people will be motivated. Calculate a balance between an award large enough to be a motivation and one that will fit comfortably within your budget constraints. Productivity ratios will help you establish that balance. The 80/20 rule-you get 80 percent of your volume from 20 percent of your work force-doesn't always apply. Find the numbers for your particular business. With that understanding, you can structure an effective incentive campaign. You may choose to reward a few tiered levels or to offer larger and more desirable rewards to your top 25 performers. Measuring Success. Now you have to figure out a fact-based method of measuring improvements. Translate the behavior or job into a simple, traceable formula, such as accounts opened, safety procedures kept each day, number of clients serviced or dollars in sales. Also decide how often the progress will be reported-whether daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly, or in increments of those periods. A short program of three months or so needs frequent announcements, such as every two weeks, while a longer program a year in length can stand for announcements every six weeks. In any case, be careful not to wait too long between reporting times. Excitement among participants can flag if they lose touch with their progress, if they don't know how they're doing compared to themselves or the people they're competing with. Pacing. As you decide when to run the program, take into account that each industry has its own seasons. Don't run a program that is shorter than a selling cycle. Although most successful programs run during the peak seasons in a business, don't rule out the slow seasons. An incentive program can help bridge the valleys. Writing the Rules Bear three things in mind when you write the rules for your program. One: Make your wording clear, specific and straightforward. When using a theme, be cautious about using jargon that part of your audience might not understand. Two: Expect surprises-such as two people in a tie for the last of 10 slots for a trip. Make a contingency plan and put it in the rules. Three: Get feedback from potential participants on how understandable and fair the rules are before releasing them. Rules for an incentive program are basically guided by two types of budgets: closed-ended and open-ended. A closed-ended program has a pre-set budget and a guaranteed number of losers. It is often presented in the form of a contest or sweepstakes. With an open-ended budget, there is no limit to the number of points or awards participants can earn, no limit to the number of winners and the expenses for running the program are tied to its performance. Here are some ways to phrase the rules for the two types of programs. Closed-ended budget · Make Your Own Odds: "You earn a sweepstakes entry for every case you sell, so those who sell the most have the best chance of having their ticket drawn." · Hit-and-Win or Buy-In: "The top 50 who make the objective get the award; those who reach at least 50 percent of their objectives can pay a premium and buy in." · Only the Top Win: "The top 50 achievers and their spouses win the award" or "The three people who submit the greatest number of accepted ideas win." · Lucky Squares: "Make a sale and write your name in a square. Winning squares will be determined at the end of the week." · Unequal Thirds: "Participants are divided into three groups (each accounting for one-third of the sponsor's total volume) and the top 20 participants in each group win." · Pick 10: "Every 10th sales claim earns an entry into a large sweepstakes drawing." · Scratch-Off Cards: "Participating dealers can buy scratch-off cards worth $500 in prices for just $200." · Take-One Board: "Sell X amount and you get to choose an envelope on the prize board that may be worth up to 100,000 points, plus serves as an entry in a 1,000,000-point sweepstakes." Open-ended budget · Basic: "Earn 100 points for every person you recruit" or "Earn 500 points per case plus 1,000 bonus points per month." · Qualifier: "You'll earn 1,000 points if the person you recruit stays on the job a year" or "you'll earn 1,000 points a sale, from your tenth sale on." · Escalator: "The more you sell, the more you earn." · Consistent Improvement Bonuses: "You earn double the awards if everybody exceeds 100 percent of the goal." · Two-for-One: "participating distributors can earn 10,000 points per $1,000 in incremental purchase increase, providing that they buy a certain number of points to pass along to their customers." · Retroactive: "You have to reach a minimum goal before earning any points, but payoff is retroactive to include all sales once the goal is passed." · Bid-and-Make: "Declare in advance the percentage of increase you think you'll make, and we'll give you a big reward when you reach the goal. If you fall short, you'll get less. · Team Bonus: "Along with the individual points, each person will be eligible for a 5,000-point bonus each quarter if all the people in the department meet the goal." Here are some options for the time when your program needs an extra push, or when you want to promote a secondary goal, such as consistency or training. Jump-Start Rules · Fast Start: "Every sale (purchase, display installation, etc.) made in the first two weeks earns double points" or "Earn a 10-percent reduction in your year-long goal by selling $15,000 (in seasonal items) the first month." · Sprint: "You earn bonus points on every deluxe-grade product purchased during the next six weeks." · Fast Finish: "Every sale made in the last two weeks of the program earns double points." Secondary Goal Rules · Beyond the Sale: "In addition to an award for making the sale, you'll earn bonus points for prospecting, demos, calls, and expense-control efforts." · Win Two Ways: "You earn 1,000 points (redeemable for merchandise) per case sold, plus the top 50 performances go on a trip and get special recognition awards." · On-Target Bonuses: "For every quarter that you meet your goal, you win an addition 5,000 points." · Percent Multiplier Ranking: "Your number of units sold will be multiplied by the goal you attained." If the goal is 1,000 units, and the person sells 1,125 units (112.5 percent), the score is 1,125 x 112.5% = 1,280. Crunch The Numbers Incentives aren't funded out of incremental increases in sales or performance, but they are justified by those increases. While a well-designed incentive campaign will pay for itself out of the profits or cost savings it generates, you probably won't know the exact results until the program ends. As you consider what your budget should entail, remember that all of its elements must balance each other out: How much you spend on an award, for example, will be affected by the number of possible winners. An open-ended incentive, which has no limit to the number of points a person can earn or the number of people who can win, appeals to across the board. Because participants are competing against themselves, they feel more control in their potential to win. Administrative costs on open-ended programs do tend to be costly and difficult, and the promotion strategy and rules writing tend to be complicated. While budgetary limits can be built into the program, you will only have an accurate estimate of your costs after the incentive has finished. With a closed-ended incentive, where only a percentage of the overall target audience wins awards, you have the luxury of being able to fix the budget. You can know the maximum costs up front, which makes accounting happy. On the down side, such programs are limited in their motivational appeal. Participants may feel that they have little change of qualifying, so why try? A closed-ended program works best with groups of top performers who have competitive track records. Counting the Costs The costs to plan for are administration, awards, promotion and research and training. Here are the basic percentages that each takes out of a budget. · Administration = 5-15 percent. This number will go up or down, depending on how much detailed analysis will be done on the results, and how many internal employees you have to handle the administration of the campaign. · Promotion = 20 percent. Spreading the word throughout the campaign is crucial to the incentive's success, so this number should stand firm. · Awards = 70-75 percent. As you determine that figure, consider a few factors: 1. In a short program, the prize should be of higher value to produce quick results. 2. The higher the participant's income, the higher the award required to spark outstanding performance. 3. The more experienced the participant is with incentives, the more enticing the reward needs to be. 4. For a sales/dealer incentive, the value of the award should be 2 to 5 percent of the participant's annual income. In a non-sales program, that number may be as low as 1 percent, depending on the work required. · Research/Training = the remainder of the budget. Don't make the mistake many do in overlooking this component. Employees need to know how to perform the desired function in order to improve their output next time-and that's done with research and training. Measure Progress The key elements in a workable measurement system are that it is simple and fair, and that progress is quantifiable. Begin by setting up your own mini-focus group and asking for feedback on how specific jobs should be measured. Include everyone from managers and supervisors, to members of your target audience and even a roundtable with your customers. Sales Incentives By far the easiest system to devise is for a sales incentive, where success can often be measured in cold hard cash. Cross-checking to ensure that the priorities and objectives are the same, look for three to six common criteria. Your list might include: · General profits from sales · Dollar volume increase over previous year · Amount purchased or sold within a specific product line · Number of new customers/sales calls · On-time submissive of paperwork Non-sales Incentives Non-sales incentives are becoming increasingly popular, used for everything from increasing "service with a smile" among bank tellers to improving a factory's safety record to getting product delivered on time. Because these jobs are often combined with other jobs in an informal fashion or are non-repetitive, output or improvement can sometimes be hard to quantify. Be flexible and keep your hand on the pulse as the incentive progresses, because you may need to refine the measurement system as you move through the program. Answering the following questions may help you devise an appropriate measurement system for tracking the progress of your non-sales incentive. 1. What are the product/services produced by the employees? Stay focused on the most important components of their job description. 2. What are the specific objectives? Is it improving productivity or quality? Productivity relates to the combination of what you put into a piece of work and what you get out. Quality goals are usually based on the number of errors made in work, although it is possible to measure quality goals by the number of complaints registered. 3. What are the measurements that best relate to my goals? In some cases, the answer is clear. If your objective is to improve a factory's safety record, you can keep track of the safety procedures each individual follows. The challenge comes in measuring less tangible results such as service, which must be handled by rate of complaints or returns. Choose the Awards Perhaps the most high profile of the components in an incentive program is what you choose to reward achievers. It's a complex issue. Lay aside any thought of what you might like to have, and focus instead on the fantasies of the future winners. What will prompt them to new heights of achievement? The choice of award should take into account these factors about participants: · Their relationship to your product or service, whether they're selling it as employees or distributors, or purchasing it as consumers-the groups have different levels of investment in seeing that your program is a success. · Their former experience with incentives and expectation for awards. Naturally, big-time winners year after year will expect the company to top itself with awards and make the rules structure consistent to previous campaigns. Non-sales employees, or employees who are included for the first time in a new, broader-based program may deliver just as much as the big winners-within the limits of their ability or territory-for relatively less reward. · The demographics of the target group. A group of sales agents who play in softball or basketball teams on the weekend s may be spurred by sports gear and sportswear; mostly young female customer service reps might be more interested in personal care appliances or products for the home; a family-oriented audience may prefer food gifts or audio/video goods to enhance the time spent with family and friends on the weekends. As you consider what award will entice and motivate your participants, keep in mind a number of factors: · People must feel they can attain the award, that it is something they can actually earn. Always have a mix in your awards of good/better/best so people have something to reach for. · Variety is important because everyone has different desires and needs. Be sure to offer choices, whether the awards are in the form of merchandise (actually goods or gift certificates) or travel (group travel will be fixed, but individual travel awards allow a range of destinations). · Choosing awards that can be delivered within 48 to 72 hours means your winners will remember they are being awarded for a particular behavior or achievement in relationship to your company-and it's always a good idea to reinforce the kind of behavior that wins incentive programs and keeps your company in the forefront. · Bargains usually turn out to be self-defeating. A second-rate or outmoded item will rarely work with any type of audience-even low-income people have TV's and know the kind of shoes, electronics and clothing that are in style. · Your own tastes should never be the guiding factor. That's what researching demographics, lifestyle and habits is for. Now is the time to actually pick the prizes. When it comes to deciding what is most appropriate for your winners, remember that there are certain categories that fit certain achievements. Incentive awards usually come in five basic styles: recognition awards, cash, cash substitutes (in the form of gift certificates), merchandise and travel. Recognition awards may include anything from a baseball jacket with the company logo, to special treatment like a prime parking space, to an ad in the local newspaper with the individual's photo and a caption proclaiming "Joe has the best on-time record in the state." Some form of recognition award should be included in every incentive program to supplement other awards. Cash is a very desirable, easy to handle choice. On the down side, it lacks the promotional possibilities of travel or merchandise, has no lasting trophy value, people are usually uncomfortable bragging about it and its perceived value is just its face value. Cash substitutes, such as gift certificates redeemable for merchandise or services, are an economical way to reward many people, and offer winners one of the most valuable features in any incentive program; freedom of choice. They are available in many styles-department store certificates and catalogue certificates being among the most common. Another form is the traveler's check, which is essentially an alternate form of cash. Merchandise is a highly promotable favorite, with almost 40 percent of planners choosing only these awards or always as part of the awards mix. Merchandise premiums can be purchased in enough styles, models and price ranges to reward many different levels and types of achievement. The down side to a merchandise program is that it requires detailed administration, a warehouse or other space for stocking the awards (if you're distributing them in-house) and a lot of supervision to make sure the items are shipped to winners in a timely fashion. A note on taxes: if you are running a safety or length-of-service program, items valued up to $400 are tax-deductible for the company and are excluded from employees' taxable income. Travel is the most glamorous and promotable of all the award options, with around 40 percent of incentive users choosing it. However, even more than merchandise, it's a challenge to plan and manage: There are site inspections to be made, travel logistics to arrange, and meals and entertainment to plan that will please everyone. The past combination of group travel for top winners and merchandise for lower-tier winners is being infiltrated by individual travel programs. There are good reasons for its growing popularity-it offers the lower price points and simple administration of merchandise, while packing the motivational appeal of travel. It also takes care of another factor: the changing priorities of winners. "You have to be much more targeted in your objectives and what you are offering these days, cognizant of people's changing lifestyles," says Dobbin of S & H Citadel Inc. "Dual-income households, where it's hard to budget time, and the back-to-nature trend are making individual travel programs more of a motivational tool than they were a few years ago." Frank Siegel, president of Maren & Associates, Northbrook, IL is more often seeing group and individual travel combined. For example, top earners are taken to Italy, while lower earners receive certificates for a local resort. "Still, it isn't widespread because some people don't understand how to use individual travel," he says. Another problem is that while some hotel companies handle individual travel well, many aren't yet set up to meet its special requirements. "The hotel can book one person as easily as twenty, but what the incentive planner really needs is on-site help," Siegel says. "Many suppliers close their ears to this because they don't want to deal with the trend, but individual travel is a strong motivational tool today and it is becoming a way of life," he says. "At some point, they'll have to deal with it." Group Travel Benefits Almost always a reward for salespeople or distributors, group travel casually brings managers together with their top sales performers. This allows for: · Loyalty-building and camaraderie · Relaxed interaction and communication, for valuable information about front-line sales issues · People from different branches getting to know each other. · Recognition in front of spouse and friends in the company Also, most corporate-business hotels and resorts are comfortable with the process of group travel, and there is high value per dollar for high-caliber resorts because of group rates. Individual Travel Benefits · Works with any type of incentive, as long as hotel room nights are considered motivating. · Winners travel with whom they want to-family or friends-rather than whom they have to-co-workers and bosses. · Winners can choose the time and place for travel. · Not just the top producers get to win the "sexy' travel awards. · Management can reach down into the organization and reward a larger number of the work force. In Conclusion All forms of reward have their place in an integrated program, when all is said and done. "Rewards very much need to be considered as part of an overall plan," says Siegel. "There needs to be a number of different options: It isn't about forsaking merchandise for travel," he says. "Everything has its place in a program's success. When You Need Cash There are several areas you can explore if you need help with start-up funds or unforeseen costs. Here are a few options: · Co-op funding: Your company's product may combine nicely with another company's product. · Meeting and training funds: If your program includes promotional meetings or training sessions, ask for funds to offset your costs. · Advertising or sales promotion budget: Because these aspects often dovetail with an incentive's, you may be able to garner support funds. · Price subsidies: you can raise the wholesale price of some products to directly fund the promotion, then lower them when the incentive is complete. · Partial buy-ins: If your program involves awards that can't be covered by contest results, or if an insufficient number of participants qualify, you could give people the option of paying a portion of the award, prorated to the levels of a performance they achieve. · Enrollment fees: These fees give you a financial boost up front, then are returned to those who reach their goals. An added benefit: you know who will be participating. Plan the Promotion Promotion is the keystone to a successful program. You can offer all the snazzy awards you want, but if you aren't communicating to the participants what you want them to do, how they can go about doing it, how they are progressing throughout the campaign and what they have won, it will damage your program. Always figure out in the beginning how you will communicate goals and rules to participants in clear and simple terms. With Step Six, it is time for another brainstorming session: this one to develop a program theme that sizzles and motivates. Include not only managers and representatives of your target audience, as you did in defining your objectives, but artists and anyone else who might have a fresh perspective. Take the suggestions for a theme from the session and test them against your program goals; make sure the message is cohesive and not just cute. A good theme is relevant to the program and consistent with the company's image. In developing a theme to carry the program you may want to use: · Short sentences that get to the point · Active verbs · Acronyms that suit your focus, such as T.E.A.M.: "Together Everyone Achieves More." · A logo that incorporates the company logo and/or ties into your award. Keep it simple and recognizable, such as a wave for a cruise award. Be sure the graphic is professionally produced. · Turns of phrase, incorporating your company image or name into a clever slogan. For instance, a company called Modern Programming might use "Get with the Program." What To Include As has already been said, communication is crucial throughout the incentive program. An effective campaign will include a teaser to tell your audience something is coming, a detailed announcement piece, kickoff materials and activities and promotional mailings throughout the program. The art or marketing department will be an invaluable ally in this step of the program. From them you'll get a logo graphic, mailing pieces and other promotional materials, all professionally produced and attractive-and the promotion phase should definitely be attractive. If there isn't an in-house art department to lean on, find a professional vendor. The materials should look great. The teaser could use the theme, such as mailing a palm- tree-shaped card for a program with a Caribbean trip as the award. Making it interactive makes it more fun-asking your audience to put together a puzzle or solve a riddle. The announcement piece must clearly outline for the potential winner what they can win and how they can win it. Include program goals, rules, structure, length, measurements system and what the awards should be. Including an enrollment card is a good way to get necessary administration information, and also encourages participants to read the rules and goals. While it doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive, the announcement piece should be creative. Use colored stock to make it stand out. Also consider sending a brochure that isn't standard in size or shape, because people are much more likely to open a tube or padded package than a #10 envelope. Kickoff materials and activities are the way to gather momentum. Energy and excitement are the key elements. For instance, surprise your sales reps with a Jerry Seinfeld look-alike arriving, at the office, making wry comments about life at work and handing out candy bars with wrappers celebrating the incentive. Or have the CEO announce the program at a sales meeting decorated with the campaign theme, to give participants the feeling of what it would be like to make it to the winner's circle. Promotional mailings are constant reminders to your audience of what they are working for. You budget-and the length of the program-will determine the frequency with which you send them. A good rule of thumb is the shorter the campaign, the greater the frequency of mailings should be. Mailings can take many forms: training on new products and sales strategies, banners and posters hanging in the workplace, letters from corporate VIPs or unusual teasers. Three-dimensional teasers, such a stylized letter opener or brass paper clip, can be sent to reward performance or build excitement. Standings mailings play an important role, updating the player's progress. They should be frequent-since they are the best-read piece of any promotional mailing-and understandable. Training materials throughout the program should tie in with the theme. And don't forget the congratulatory mailer, celebrating the winners and letting them know their final standings. The best ones are personal letters from top brass praising the individual's success and value to the company. Run The Program While administration of a program accounts for only about 15 percent of the budget, it typically takes up 50 percent of the administrator's time. Be realistic about the work involved in running a program and evaluate whether you have the necessary back-up. A basic program can be run in-house or in conjunction with the award supplier, but for complicated programs consider using professional assistance. Today's incentive companies have the equipment and staff to offer advanced business analysis, and have the on-line ability to access and analyze information quickly. If you choose to enlist the help of an incentive company, you can use their technology and expertise to compare the ongoing performance of program participants with those who aren't enrolled; to produce "snapshot" summaries of what's happening in the program in different regions at any given time; to play out "what if" scenarios, using that information to quickly adapt your campaign in process, and to extensively evaluate data after the program ends. Whether you choose to keep administration in-house or to bring in an incentive company or other professional service supplier to the premium and incentive industries, you will need to be certain the following areas are being taken care of. · Participant management begins with enrolling each person, sending out forms to gather relevant information. Using those enrollment cards, create a database of participants. This is the time to review any test data and prepare layouts of all the required reports. If any incentive company isn't handling it, be sure your company's data-processing personnel clearly understand the operation. · Mailings to promote the program must be designed, printed and mailed. Draw information from the participant database to generate the mailing labels. · Tracking progress is also done within the participant database, but someone will need to input information such as when each sales rep earns points or credits. A vital aspect of tracking progress is to periodically produce performance statements, which are mailed to individuals at regular intervals to let people know how they're doing and keep up the excitement. · Reporting progress to company executives will entail producing reports on a regular basis from the participant database. · Reporting earnings to the IRS using 1099 and / or W-2 forms must be done when the program is over, but don't wait until then to collect the information. · Evaluating program results will help you plan for future programs and also justify incentive programs to upper management. Devise a way to utilize all of the critical data available to you from the programs to show off the results. Evaluate Results Whew! The program is over and now you can relax. Don't get in your recliner yet. You still need to take the crucial Eighth Step of post-program evaluation. This is what establishes (to yourself and the top brass) that the incentive campaign was a success. It also alerts you to ways in which you need to refine future programs. Take an unflinching look at the entire program, using the following guidelines to help you in your evaluation. This kind of analysis will only make the next campaign that much more successful. Get feedback. You may want to first poll your participants on various aspects of the program and calculate their responses into the equation. Mail out a questionnaire or do phone surveys. Ask participants about the timelines and clarity of communication, whether or not they cared for the awards mix (or at least which awards they liked the best), whether your training efforts made a difference in their performance and what they perceived of the quality of the promotional materials and events. As part of this step, you may want to informally solicit information from those who administered the program. Ask for their feedback on any snags they observed, as well as the elements in the program they viewed as successful. Ask yourself some questions (some of them will be easier to answer once final tallies are in and accounted for). While making money or getting some other figures squared away is of vital importance, such achievement doesn't happen in a vacuum, as any business knows: Consider both tangible and intangible components to evaluate the true extent of the program's success. · What was the quantifiable affect of the incentive program on the bottom line it started with? · Did the company meet its less tangible goals-improving morale, fostering loyalty, inspiring ideas? · Did the program and its awards meet or exceed the expectations of the participants? If they fell short, why? · Were there any side benefits to the program you didn't expect, such as a new spirit of enthusiasm or good will gestures? · Did you achieve what you expected in all results, both the tangible and the intangible one? · How did the performance of the participants compare to that of any non-participants? On this point, before your company embarks on an incentive program, it's a good idea, if possible, to have a non-participant control group already established, and data generated from its activities filed for reference. Other Affecting Factors Influences completely outside the activities of participants can also affect the outcome of the program, negatively and positively, and should be taken into account in evaluating its success. Here are some questions to help you consider this aspect. · Has there been an increase or decrease in pricing? Either way it may reduce the effect on the bottom line-whether consumers or dealers buy less because the price went up, or whether sales do better because the price of the product went down. · Were you working with a new or repositioned product/service? If the people you're trying to reach have to warm up to something new, or are thrown off by a name change or prepackaging, brand awareness slips. On the other hand, it may have been just the thing needed to wake up and invigorate a complacent market. · Has the company changed its marketing strategy or image recently? If it has undergone a strategic makeover, it may have kicked up the distrust of change that most human beings instinctively have, even if your audience didn't consciously turn away. Or it might have caused your audience to see your company with fresh, appreciative eyes, and made them want to be part of something new and interesting. · Was there an increase/decrease in advertising expenditures? The effects either way on the bottom line are self-evident. The more people get timely exposure to your product or service, the more chances you have of selling it; while reducing advertising misses chances to gain new market share, and stagnated advertising bores the people who already know the campaign by heart. · Was there any other incentive program or promotion running simultaneously? It may have divided the attention of your audience, or boosted their recognition of your company and what it's up to. · Has your distribution channel changed in any way? "Kinks in the hose," as it were, might have slowed it down, while some new talent might have gotten things really moving. · Does your company have a new boss or policy? Word from on high can flatten the efforts of a company or its partners if it's negative, or give it some spark if it's encouraging. · How does your product/service quality match the competition's? If it's not as good, it won't sell as well. If it's better, it practically sells itself. Finally, it will be helpful to you to look a little deeper at the effectiveness of your original goal setting. What would you do differently next time? Review each component of the program-the budget, the measurement system, the awards, the promotion and the administration-and see what stands out, both negatively and positively. With this data in hand, your future programs can only get better.