When one of the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy equipment launched a new line of machines to a completely new target market, getting their reps up to speed, onboard, and excited to sell was critical.

Because this launch was anything but typical, the company’s typical structure of basic cash incentives wasn’t going to cut it. Their dealer-based sales force had never sold a product quite like this. They needed a fresh approach.

Inspire in multiple ways

Leveraging behavioural economics, we developed a competition-based promotion designed to engage reps on many levels, complete with leaderboards and grand-prize vacations. Instead of cash, reps earned rewards points—with 10 ways to earn and endless ways to spend those points.

We built the promotion to inspire reps with multiple ways to be rewarded and feel successful:

• To get them going, reps earned points for completing training on the new product line, both in person and online.
• Next, they earned points for every new machine sold—with bonus points for sales made to national accounts or new customers.
• The most powerful part of the promotion was the competition, which tapped into the competitive spirit that drives this high-performing sales force. The top-selling rep at each dealer location won a hefty point payout; top sellers nationwide won more than four times that much—enough points for a luxury vacation of their choice (or any other award they wanted instead); and the top dealerships won national bragging rights, highlighted by custom trophies that were sent for display at each winning dealership.
• To support the reps, we also gave merchandise award choices to any dealership marketing teams that hosted events to promote the new products.

A communications campaign kept reps informed and excited through a combination of email and print pieces that were strategically distributed throughout the promotion period.

Updated leaderboards drive results

Leaderboards were updated regularly so reps could see their current rankings.

The stakes were high for this new product line, and so were the goals. The company had invested millions in the new product line and wanted to sell at least 2,000 new machines in the first 12 months to ensure a profitable launch.

Our innovative promotion helped them blow past that goal—reaching 2,998 sales during the program period, exceeding sales goals by 150% with a record-breaking ROI of 34:1.