How to Reach B2B Customers Through Your Incentive Program

Selling through a distribution offers the advantage of cooperating and collaborating with your channel partners on sales strategies. The problem for suppliers is trying to figure out how to reach B2B customers. No matter how well your channel partners represent your company, there’s nothing like directly connecting and building brand affinity with your customers. A channel incentive program can help you reach B2B customers in the following ways:

Use incentives to offer B2B customers value in exchange of their data.

You’ve probably run sales promotions, SPIFFS, rebate or discount deals to get a quick sales lift. By running a long-term channel incentive program that evolves with your business needs, you can use the program to do more than just increase sales directly. Reward customers—be they dealers, distributors, contractors, internal sales reps, or end-users—for providing customer data. When there’s something in it for them, 63% of customers are more open to sharing their data.

By using open enrollment functionality, your incentive program participants can sign-up for your program without needing an invitation. You can capture data about B2B customers you didn’t even know you had. This not only answers the riddle of how to reach B2B customers, you can request the data you need most in a customizable registration form.

This manufacturer used their incentive program to collect end-user data and increase channel visibility (Read more).

Gamification is another way to offer them rewards in exchange for data right out of the gate. Offer your incentive program participants the chance to earn an instant enrollment bonus through a virtual game of chance like Spin to Win or Scratch Off. This way, your program starts delivering value instantly and triggers engagement from the word “go.”

Run incentive marketing campaigns.

You should have an effective communication plan to keep up incentive program engagement and stay regularly connected to your B2B customers. Consistency, repetition, and multichannel messaging are key to ensuring you get in front of your participants at the right time, the right way.

Examples of successful incentive programs show that incentive marketing campaigns get more engagement and response than regular marketing efforts. Use this fact to your advantage. Piggyback other marketing messages or information requests onto these campaigns to reach B2B customers when they’re excited and engaged. The positive experience of reward-related marketing can make data submission a less intrusive process.

Be memorable by offering unforgettable incentive reward experiences.

Let me to get sentimental for a second: do you ever wonder how to reach B2B customers’ hearts and minds? It’s not always easy in B2B markets where your product lines consist of building necessities, industrial equipment, or machine components that play no part in your customers’ personal lives. With channel incentive programs, you can offer rewards and memories that live in your customers’ hearts for ages.

Perhaps the most memorable reward you can offer is an incentive group travel experience. On a one-of-a-kind trip to a tropical paradise, for example, you can share the memory of shark-fishing in the sun. The trip anticipation and the resulting memories create long-lasting bonds with your channel partners.

Memorable rewards can lead to multiple kinds of engagement! Check out this exciting reward story!

Unique rewards leave an indelible mark on your customers’ lives. Incentive Solutions offers a Uniquely Yours items outside our reward catalog, for instance, so suppliers can deliver extraordinary rewards to extraordinary customers. Some of these unique rewards have included a home renovation, a paid-off college tuition, and a below-ground swimming pool? One client’s program participant even redeemed reward points for matching pick-up trucks for the whole family! What better way to connect with your customers and ensure they never forget the unique value your brought to their lives.

The question of how to reach B2B customers is one all companies with a distribution channel must face. There isn’t a single, perfect answer to this question. All channel ecosystems are unique and industry disruptions are ever changing. With a flexible incentive program, you can leverage the appeal of rewards to build stronger relationships and deliver more meaningful, effective communications with your customers.