6 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning a B2B Rewards Program.
It's well-known that our motivation to behave in a certain way has to do with the incentive we receive in return. Even with the most common things, rewards shape our decisions.
This is the principle that brands exploit when they encourage consumers to participate in their loyalty programs. Your recurring purchases or visits generate miles or points that accumulate and eventually turn into benefits, giving you an additional reason to prefer or lean towards that particular brand.
In addition to mechanics for customers, companies are developing programs for their distribution channels and/or sales forces (B2B). However, they often model them after programs directed at the end consumer (B2C), which leads to a series of design flaws that negatively impact the results that can be expected from that effort. Below, based on my experience in dozens of sales incentive projects, I will share the six most common mistakes we encounter when brands try to build a B2B rewards program inspired by a B2C one.
Considering that the goal is loyalty. Programs aimed at the end consumer seek to build loyalty among participants, establish a long-term relationship with benefits designed to make the customer feel special, pampered, and provide them with status through differentiated treatment, earning their preference. However, a B2B incentive program should have a commercial, sales-oriented approach, with rewards understood as 'if you achieve X, you receive Y,' clear, simple, and without the inherent romanticism of a recognition and loyalty program. This will influence all design decisions of the project to focus on achieving what it should.
Focusing on the long term. Programs for end consumers are designed for participants to spend years accumulating points or miles in anticipation of achieving the best rewards. In a B2B program, it should have a promotional focus, with short-duration cycles, composed of two or three-month periods where goals are established and met, prizes are won or lost. This is because the sales to be incentivized are not long-term but quite the opposite; the program is launched with the intention of modifying behaviors and promoting immediate results, and the mechanics' horizon should always be close for the participant.
Presenting the program as a benefit. In a program for end consumers, it is positioned as a benefit for recurring customers and is taken for granted. In a B2B program, we don't want channel salespeople to take it for granted, let alone stop promoting it when the program is over. Therefore, the project is presented as an opportunity, never a benefit. It's more of a challenge that the brand proposes to you. You reach a goal, and you could win a prize, and like all opportunities, it's temporary and elusive.
Choosing rewards based on attractiveness first. Since consumer programs have a long-term focus, they first choose aspirational benefits, and then their cost is determined, calculated in a reverse engineering fashion, how many points should be required for them to ensure that the program is economically viable. In a business-to-business program, this process should be reversed. First, goals for different types of invited participants are determined (not everyone has the same potential or can be asked the same goals), and knowing how much would be sold if the goal is reached, a budget for rewards would be determined to work with to determine which gift of that price could be the most attractive for participants. This allows linking the type of rewards to be offered to the fulfillment of sales objectives and avoids offering prizes that cannot be achieved or, worse, consuming the incremental income in the incentive purchase, which would cause the program to lose its purpose and meaning.
Interacting with participants only to inform them of their account status. In B2C programs, the emphasis is almost always on logistics. Ensuring that rewards are available and delivered on time is one of the activities that consume the most energy and resources. The B2B program should have a communication focus. Take advantage of the information that the program itself generates to educate, remind, and set challenges within the mechanics, such as boosting the sale of less popular products. All of this, apart from the points, rewards, and the main mechanics of the promotion. A communication strategy is definitely the primary tool for behavior modification.
Trying to do all the work in-house. A rewards program is a complex task. It involves technology, communication, logistics, training, coordination, and measurement. Companies with B2C programs usually have teams to handle all these details. However, for B2B efforts, these details are usually managed in-house by one or two people. The recommendation in this regard is to seek advice from an expert who offers a comprehensive team to simplify the implementation for the brand. This will make all the difference in being able to focus on the strategy and the results.
B2B rewards and incentive programs work and are a great strategy to lead in the sales of many industries. You just need to know how to approach them and not fall into the trap of equating them to all those loyalty programs that we, as consumers, are accustomed to."