6 Successful Sales Incentive Program Examples

6 Successful Sales Incentive Program Examples

Nichole Gunn

Five employees on the left clap while one employee on the right raises his hand - representing collaboration and success involved with sales incentive program examples

Sales incentive programs are strategic tools for achieving sales goals. Statistics show that when the long-term goal is to drive sales, companies turn to sales incentive programs to get the job done. Let’s take a look at six sales incentive program examples so see them at their best, and the variety of benefits they offer.

1. Sales Incentive Program Examples that Drive Sales Volume


Let’s start with the most obvious reason to offer sales incentives: sales incentive programs drive sales volume. Whether your sales numbers are dependent on an in-house sales team, or a variety of distributors and resellers within your industry channel, year-over-year volume gains are a high priority.

  • The first of our sales incentive program examples is a home building manufacturer using a sales incentive program to direct the purchase of its products for over 2,000 contractors. Having derived their program goal on the 20/60/20 theory, they aimed to shift their current sales paradigm. Through the help of an enticing online reward system with millions of personalized reward options, this company successfully increased both their order quantity and the number of top-selling sales participants.

2. Shaping Product Mix

Sales incentive programs are a great way to encourage specific behaviors around product inventory. With the right performance tracking technology, running simultaneous sales promotions is easy, allowing your sales team to earn rewards for clearing out older inventory while also promoting a newly released product.

  • Our first client example includes one of the world’s largest electric cooling and heating companies looking to increase the sale of ductless HVAC units over the more popular standard ducted systems. Participants were awarded company-branded reloadable debit cards with instant pay-outs after a product purchase was approved. The program saw a 45% increase in the number of eligible units claimed. Even better- the program’s success turned the original short-term, annual promotion into a seasonal event.
  • In a similar vein, a home products manufacturer for 700 contractors structured their promotions to increase sales through product bundling. Participants could join the program once a certain sales volume was met, and point values were pegged to purchases of two or more product categories.

3. Building Market Share

Today’s sales incentive programs are more than just a reward system- they act as a fully integrated sales and marketing tool. With the right program provider, your online platform provides digitally connected, omnichannel experiences, improving both communication and brand engagement. This is especially effective for programs targeting sales partners outside of your company, encouraging the sale of your product over your competitors.

  • A global lift truck manufacturer used an incentive-based marketing campaign to help announce the implementation of its dealer incentive program mobile app. With a set of strategic emails and push notifications, dealers were rewarded for both downloading and submitting claims through the app. Results showed a 205.9% increase in mobile adoption rates, with rates drastically increasing after each communication touchpoint. The incentive program marketing campaign also produced successful communication results, with email open rates at 43.69% higher than the industry average, and email click-through rates of 419.69% higher.
Sales Incentive Examples - Mobile app adoption increases incentive program users
  • When it comes to sales incentive program examples for insurance agents, this brand name insurance provider enrolled over 3000 independent insurance agents into their program, providing high-end rewards of travel and merchandise when preferentially recommending the brand to clients of specific profile criteria. Within 10 short months, policy quotes increased by 21%, and sales of new insurance policies increased by 19%.

4. Ensuring Profitable Growth

Sales incentives promotions should not only encourage a larger quantity of sales, but they should also push the quality of the sales being made to guarantee growth.

  • A global manufacturer of electrical controls and automation equipment targeted technicians in this sales incentive program example. By asking them to zero in on highly profitable jobs, product sales were compared against a three-tiered system before being awarded points. A friendly competition was encouraged through the use of an online leaderboard, showcasing top sales performers with a special prize for these high-achievers at the end of the promotion. The program enrolled 1,400 participants and has drastically increased profitability and market penetration in key sectors over the past 4 years.

5. Educating Salespeople

Sales reps sell what they know and providing sales enablement is a great way to build brand preference. With the help of interactive quizzes and training modules, your sales partners will be more knowledgeable and effective representatives of the brand.

  • For example, a leading chemical manufacturer enrolled 1,700 sales reps, increasing salves volume as well as product awareness and knowledge. Sales reps were more inclined to participate through the combined use of gamification techniques (trivia, spin-to-win) and point rewards for completing online training.

6. Dominating a Sector with Data Collection & CRM Integration

Channel data collection is a key differentiating factor for companies trying to stand out in an oversaturated marketplace. With reward earning opportunities, distributor and wholesaler reps are more inclined to share information that manufacturers would otherwise struggle to obtain. Be it contact information, buying habits, engagement metrics- this data is invaluable to sales and marketing teams, helping further personalize their sales and marketing strategies. This brings us to the last of our sales incentive program examples:

  • This sales incentive program example showcases one of our top client success stories. This wholesaler giant was an innovator in its industry, implementing one of the first e-commerce platforms for its products to result in a lower “cost to server” distribution model. With the help of our CRM integration services, contractors were awarded points for online purchases while the wholesaler was able to easily collect and organize data for a more accurate picture of the buyer experience.

Interested in becoming a successful sales incentive program example?

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