Rallyware Team Reveals How Smart Incentives & Recognition Drive 24X ROI

How can incentivizing the right behavior drive the right business results, and encourage lasting behavior change? What makes incentives & recognition programs drive ROI? This was the focus of a recent Rallyware webinar: Smart Incentives & Recognition for Distributors: How to Drive a 24X ROI. In this presentation, Rallyware’s incentives & recognition experts Dan O’Marra and Christina Olsen shared their insights – trends and best practices they have been seeing both in the industry and outside of the industry, as of late. Below are some of the key insights and top takeaways from the presentation. 

1. Incentivizing the baby steps by leaving a trail of breadcrumbs

It is crucial to concentrate on rewarding those “smaller breadcrumbs” of activity – incentivizing the baby steps and recognizing the daily activities of each distributor, no matter how small they may be. Taking a holistic approach by linking training, small to-do tasks and notifications to the end goal is critical. “This is where a lot of self-satisfaction and self-confidence comes from,” said Christina Olsen, Rallyware’s Customer Success Manager. “I did this thing, I saw this result and I am going to do it again….this is where you combine training and activities together to create success.” 

“A guided incentive program with automated recognition alerts to participants and leaders will drive more long-term behaviors than anything else.”

Dan O’Marra, Rallyware’s VP of Sales and Client Success

These ‘breadcrumbs’ (micro-activities) lead distributors towards their next sets of activities, taking into account their personal goals. For instance, if Mary aspires to be a sales leader, she will be provided with step-by-step tasks and activities to reach this ultimate goal. 

2. Cutting down on the clutter & visualizing only the key aspects

Only displaying the programs that are relevant to each distributor is important. For instance, leadership programs will not be applicable to brand new users, who may not be ready to take this on yet. Rather, these new users will only be provided with the basics, such as the weekly sales promotion and the ‘getting started’ program. Consider what matters to them in that moment, and how this will contribute to their success. 

In fact, visualization as a whole is crucial to have in incentives & recognition programs, and is extremely useful for distributors. Being provided with real-time visibility into their current performance, via leaderboards, serves as a visual roadmap to success. Such leaderboards help to answer questions such as: where am I today, what do I need to do tomorrow, and how long will it take me to reach my goal at this current rate? Where am I standing, in terms of my peers?

3. Prompting distributors with smart notifications is key

Smart notifications trigger the right activities at the right time, allowing distributors to achieve maximum growth and success. Such activities may consist of a wide range of different tasks, such as watching a video of encouragement from someone on the leadership team. Our research has revealed that, when users are provided with notifications that are relevant to them, they are much more likely to be engaged and interact with the platform. 

Our research findings also point to the power and efficiency of smart notifications – when individuals are provided with regular reminders of the next steps to take towards success, desired changes in behavior will follow. Those notifications are used to drive distributors back to the program, keep them on track, and drive more interactions between uplines and downlines. Our research discovered that the percentage of completed tasks among those who received but did not open notifications was only 0.1%, yet for those who viewed more than one notification, however, this indicator increased to 29.4%.

4. As for ideal program length, even short and sweet programs can make a big impact

While large prizes such as trips and cars are excellent to have for leaders – how do we reach, engage and move the majority of distributors – those who are in the middle? This is where strategic program design, with flexibility in mind, becomes key. 

To reach more individuals, companies today are looking to implement programs that are more agile – from as long as three months, to as short as one week. Companies could consider shortening current programs, Olsen pointed out, dividing a year-long program into quarterly programs, which give more people a chance to succeed. Yet generally, it is ideal to have programs that span between one to three months, “because it’s about giving people the opportunity to have repeating behaviors,” she said. Additionally, programs with a shorter focus also provide an opportunity for everyone to be recognized – opening the door for more individuals to be celebrated. 

More condensed programs with a flexible approach also allow for tweaks to easily be made. “Rather than being locked into a year-long program, having a shorter program provides you with a window of opportunity to run some analytics, see what is working, and switch it up,” Olsen pointed out. “We have seen [training leaders] change the benchmark, change the prize or add a new prize.”  

Watch the full recording of Smart Incentives & Recognition for Distributors: How to Drive a 24X ROI! 

Learn more about engaging and empowering distributors and driving ROI – request a demo to see Rallyware’s Incentives & Recognition solution in action!