Selling senior execs on the benefits of online incentives: show senior managers how a Web-based, noncash incentive program triggers elevated profits and productivity in their area of responsibility

HR Magazine, Sept, 2004 by Dave Dermer

You've just come back from a seminar where you learned how an online, noncash incentive program could help your company. Your excitement builds as you image being involved with its design and implementation.

But, all of a sudden, the air is let out of your sail as you think about presenting the idea to other members of senior management and the skepticism you will encounter. You're tired of bringing up new ideas that get shot down because the organization seems to operate on the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" school of management, or on the "if it's broke, hopefully it will fix itself with time" practice.

Map Out The Game Plan

It is easier to overcome the objections of people in positions of power one-on-one instead of in a group. Increase your chances of securing their buy-in by following these two "more for less" rules:

1. The More They Know, The Less They'll No: Provide senior managers with quantifiable information from surveys, research reports and case studies in order for them to better understand the benefits of an online, noncash incentive program. Telling the vice president of sales and marketing, "Loyalty programs must result in an increase in customer spending or why would companies use them," won't get you very far.

Instead, provide research data, such as: "A study by Frequency Marketing (www.frequencymarketing.com) found that once a customer joins a loyalty program, he or she tends to increase spending by an average of 27 percent." Similarly, you won't get far with the chief financial officer if you say: "I'm sure our employees have ideas that could save us money." You'll get his or her attention with numbers-oriented research such as, "The Employee Involvement Association reported the results of implementing an idea management system resulted in an average net savings of $6,680 per suggestion adopted."

When gathering research, the best place to start is industry association Web sites such as www.incentivemarketing.org (The Incentive Marketing Association), www.performanceforum.org (The Forum for People Performance and Management) and www.siteintl.org (The Society of Incentive & Travel Executives). Also, there are a number of industry-specific magazines that conduct annual studies on incentive programs.

2. The More They Win, The Less They Whine: Help each senior manager understand the benefits of an online, noncash incentive program to the organization as a whole and to their area of responsibility. Due to strong reporting and communication tools, online incentive programs are not only designed to increase behaviors and results, but also identify underperformers.

Understand Every Angle of an Online, Noncash Incentive Program

The Incentive Marketing Association defines an incentive program as an "internal or external marketing campaign designed to promote specific actions on the part of a specific audience to produce measurable outcomes through integrated motivational strategies." Let's break down this description into five sections and further explain how it relates to an online, noncash incentive program.

1. An internal or external marketing campaign -- One of the best attributes of an online incentive program is its cost-effective and time-effective communications tools.

2. Designed to promote specific actions -- Let your audience know in detail what behaviors you believe will result in the outcomes you desire.

3. On the part of a specific audience -- There should never be any confusion who is and isn't eligible to be included in an incentive program. Most online incentive systems use e-mails to send passwords and instructions to the target audience to get individuals logged onto the incentive program's Web site.

4. To produce measurable outcomes--Let your audience know in detail what outcomes are desired. Incentive programs can be designed to reward and/or recognize actions, outcomes or both. It must be clear exactly what you will be rewarding and/or recognizing. For example, based solely on the following descriptions, think about what you could reward and/or recognize:

Action 1: To complete implementation of an online employee benefits system by the end of the fourth quarter 2004.

Outcome 1: To cut down administrative time, costs and errors by allowing employees to manage their benefits.

Action 2: Spend more time on current customers to increase business with them.

Outcome 2: For current customers to increase 2004 net purchases by 25 percent more than net purchases for 2003.

Action 3: To show up on or before 8:00 a.m. every day for the third quarter of 2004.

Outcome 3: To increase output in third quarter of 2004 over the second quarter of 2004.

If your answer was to reward and/or recognize action 1, outcome 2, action 3 and outcome 3, then you understand the importance of defining specific actions and/or outcomes. Your decision what to reward and/or recognize needs to be based on a number of factors including budget, measurability and the likelihood that the action will produce the desired outcome.

5. Through integrated motivational strategies -- Strategies include feedback, recognition and rewards. Feedback and recognition will be covered by the many communication tools that come with an online incentive program. Noncash rewards like travel and merchandise have proven to be extremely effective at increasing current and future performance.