Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008 - (Page 33)

in the award portfolio of many organizations. s Individual travel rewards have high appeal and perceived value among almost every demographic group. s Dozens of travel suppliers and incentive companies offer different types of individual travel programs— some including only the airline or the hotel, others including nearly complete packages. s Some programs offer special enhancements that add to the sense of personal touch, such as in-room amenities, notes from management, pillow gifts, etc. Some of the suppliers can offer personalized communications and gift certificate packaging to maximize presentation. Individual travel cons There is no real opportunity for team building and developing camaraderie. s After returning to the office, team members are less likely to talk about their individual experiences than they would be if they were shared with co-workers. This results in a shorter and less intense “buzz factor.” s Individual travel is more likely to be remembered as “vacation time,” and thus is less likely to evoke memories of the corporate and personal goals achieved. s through training and measuring the ROI of training.” This is an expense that can be mitigated if it is shared with a well-planned travel incentive program. “Fundamentally, training is a leading indicator of success, not a result,” Ozer adds. “Training leads to increased sales and more profit.” Since those are the main goals of any incentive program, you can reap double benefits from your efforts. On that subject, you may want to check out a report from the Incentive Research Foundation entitled “Determining the Return on Investment of Incentive Travel Programs.” It presents an excellent, easy-to-use calculating tool for measuring the ROI of incentive travel programs (for more information, visit www.theirf.org). “If designed and implemented with creativity and excellence, incentive trips provide memories that last for a long time,” Ozer says, “therefore delivering continuous performance improvement benefits for the sponsoring company well past the program earnings period—and thus, significantly boosting the returnon-investment of this type of incentive program.” —Izabella Iizuka The bottom line There are a variety of ways to determine the effectiveness of an incentive program, and many of them work for any type of program (even if they aren’t travel-oriented). But don’t wait until the end of the program to think about it; the key to calculating ROI is to establish objectives that are highly focused and can be measured. In other words, the program should be set up with an eventual ROI process in mind. “The more targeted the incentive travel program, the easier it will be to measure,” Dawson says. “It should be possible to develop specific goals for hard measures such as sales, revenue, market share and productivity. “It’s also important to support the incentive program on an ongoing basis if the effectiveness of the program is to be demonstrated. Programs that are in effect during a single sales cycle miss the opportunity to incentivize the middle for next time, and may result in the perception that the company is not serious about it.” One of the challenges of calculating ROI is placing a value on “soft returns” such as customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and employee loyalty and satisfaction. Even where ROI cannot be objectively measured, there are ways to guarantee that your investment will have a positive effect on your company. “Consider integrating training within the incentive program,” Ozer suggests. “Most companies have difficulty getting people to go www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 33 http://www.theirf.org http://www.cawineclub.com http://www.cawineclub.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008

Sales &�Marketing Management - September/October 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Smart Sales Sales Strategy Smart Marketing Marketing Strategy Smart Management Management Strategy The Low-Cost Sales Leader Why Sales Process Gets the Shaft Training Q&A Technology Making the Case for Travel (Part II) Travel/Meetings On the Road The Way I See It

Sales & Marketing Management - September/October 2008

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