If you’re dedicated to a particular soft drink, you know the buzzkill of hearing, “Sorry, we don’t serve your brand products here.” Particular brand fans want their favorite beverage everywhere. And of course the brand wants that too.

But with nearly 650,000 restaurants and hundreds of new restaurants opening every day—not to mention snack bars, cafeterias, convenience stores, and more—staying on top of every available sales opportunity is a challenge. Even for one of the world’s leading soft drink companies.

A soft drink manufacturer has always believed that if they could effectively turn their 60,000+ employees into brand scouts and ambassadors, they could open doors to thousands of new opportunities. Their vision is that each time an employee encounters a store without a beverage cooler or a restaurant with only competitors’ soft drinks, they ask a manager if they’d like to talk to a brand rep and, if so, they submit the lead.

Their leadership has long recognized the value in employees submitting warm, qualified leads, so when we brought an idea for a way to incent employees to act as ambassadors, they acted.

Revamp and reward

Within months, we helped this client launch LEADS—a reimagined, reinvigorated lead-generation program that awards employees with points for every qualified lead they submit. Previously, the company had only provided gift card rewards and only for leads that turned into sales, to meager results. We revamped the program to reward every qualified lead, regardless of whether it turns into a new outlet or not, to create a habit of submitting referrals. And, on top of that, we provide expansive reward options. Employees can now redeem their points for brand-name merchandise, travel, event tickets, and more.

Keep it fresh and relevant

The results came fast and furious.

In year one of LEADS, the primary focus was to build awareness. We launched a robust communications campaign that introduced the new LEADS program to employees, touted the rewards, ignited excitement and—almost immediately—drove results. By the end of year one, we had generated four times the employee participation, five times as many leads, and 10 times as many new customer outlets.

In year two, we focused on making LEADS even easier and more fun. We simplified the submission process, kept communications going strong, and created a leaderboard to spotlight employees generating the most leads. By the end of the year, the number of submitted leads had doubled over year one—and this manufacturer had generated nine million dollars in incremental revenue.

Since then, results have continued to multiply.

This particular brand has received more than 34,000 qualified leads, generating over $30 million in incremental revenue over the first five years of the program.

Plus, the qualified leads submitted by employees have a close rate of approximately 43%—as opposed to a 10% close rate on cold calls. Not only that, but employee leads typically require only about three visits from a sales rep—compared to the twelve sales visits usually required on cold leads.

From every angle, this brand’s program has been successful and offers every employee the chance to spread the love—and reap the rewards.