This is certainly not an all-inclusive list of the incentive award solutions that PFI is prepared for and ready to help you with. Please let us know if you’d like more information about the solutions listed here or if you have a unique challenge for which you’d like us to provide a solution.

Merchandise awards continue to serve as one of the most effective award vehicles to motivate individuals and groups. One of the most powerful assets of merchandise is its ability to provide participants with tangible reminders of success, visible to peers, friends and family.

Merchandising is one of the most critical departments within PFI. Clients utilize our merchandising services as part of a broader goal to improve and enhance the performance of their employees, distribution channel partners and customers. Our ability to present and deliver awards that appeal to program participants and motivate and inspire them to perform to the level required for earning awards is what our merchandising effort is about.

Redemption popularity is the most important benchmark, however availability, manufacturer support, product quality and warranties all factor into the evaluation formula. Redemption usage reports allow PFI merchandising personnel to monitor award popularity; while Customer Service Expediters monitor vendor performance including delivery performance, back order frequency, delays and item replacement and return policies. Merchandise Buyers analyze vendor performance information and item popularity statistics in combination with merchandise research they gather directly from vendors and by attending major product trade shows.

Researching, sourcing and selecting merchandise is a daily challenge at which PFI excels. To assemble the most effective and motivating award selections, our professional buyers focus their efforts on:

• Redemption popularity

• Vendor performance

• Delivery performance

• Product availability

• Product lifespan

• Merchandising trends

• Participant demographics

ITEM POPULARITY: A Redemption Usage Reports allow merchandising personnel to monitor award popularity. In addition, buyers work closely with customer service personnel to review call logs and personal comments received in the course of their work with customers and program participants.

VENDOR PERFORMANCE: Customer Service Expediters monitor vendor performance including delivery performance, back order frequency, delays and item substitution and return policies.

DELIVERY PERFORMANCE: PFI monitors and measures the delivery time of all drop ship vendors.

Frequently, items are discontinued or new models introduced. PFI tracks a vendor’s ability to communicate and report new product information and its ability and policy for replacing discontinued items or models including:

Merchandise Buyers analyze vendor performance information and item popularity statistics in combination with merchandise research they gather directly from vendors and by attending major product trade shows. PFI buyers are expected to monitor merchandising trends and to be able to anticipate new products and their potential demand. Our buyers attend all major product shows including the electronics, sporting goods, housewares and appliance shows. In addition, PFI buyers are expected to research macro-merchandising trends through trade publications, retail research and seminar and forum attendance.

Although described last, participant demographics is far from the least important criteria used to select awards. PFI buyers work with the sales department, customer service and our marketing participants to construct a profile of the participants redeeming awards from each of the various catalogs. Demographics considered include:

• Participant income

• Average program earnings

• Sex

• Age

• Classification of worker

Finally, if any one of PFI’s eight major award collections does not fit your incentive program reward requirements, PFI buyers provide custom award selection and sourcing services.

Ok, so you’ve launched an incentive program featuring a customized version of www.awardlink.com, PFI’s online incentive program administration, award and redemption service. Now you can sit back and let the internet do its thing, right? Wrong. Now your work begins. Far too many incentive program websites are not used to effectively manage and promote the program they are set up to support. You really should take advantage of the power of this new and growing technology. Here are a few suggestions as to how you can maximize the value of your Awardlink website:

Update Communications: Don’t just set up the website and forget it. Every month or so you should refresh the welcome page copy or add additional information pages to motivate your participants to continuously log on and visit the website to see what is new.

Track Usage: One of the most important things you can do to manage your website is to track and monitor how many participants are using the website and what they are using once they are online. PFI can produce several reports that help you see who is accessing the site, who is ordering awards and how often the site is being used. By keeping tabs on site usage you can determine if additional communication or incentives are required to get participants online. Or, if you find usage is heavy, you can add links and other features to the website to take advantage of the time when your participants are online and focused on the program.

Reinforce Product Information/Training: If you know your participants are actively using the website, consider maximizing the value of their time online by creating additional pages that provide valuable selling tips, product selling features or reinforce important training information. You can even set up online quizzes and offer awards for participants who read the content and take the quiz. PFI can work with you to set up additional pages that can significantly enhance the power and value of the website.

Introduce Bonus Promotions
Draw participants back to the website, promote program activity or reinforce program goals by offering bonus opportunities online. Examples include:

Special Merchandise Selection: Present a featured merchandise section with awards not available through the online catalog.

Bonus Award: Present a monthly merchandise special and offer it for discount points to everyone who meet a specific during the previous month or quarter. Or offer a special gift for achieving the goal.

Online Quiz Promotion: Present product or process training information and quiz participants on their knowledge. Offer sweepstakes awards to all who take the quiz.

Online Sweepstakes: Encourage participants to qualify for an online sweepstakes or bonus game based on achieving defined program goals or milestones. The website can be used to validate performance, submit entries and announce winners.

Online Newsletter: Create and post an online newsletter promoting the program, sales tips, product information and award opportunities.

These are just a few recommendations to maximize the impact and value of your Awardlink website. PFI is ready to work with you to enhance your website and help your participants get the most from their online experience.

The PFI Incentive Planning Manual

The planning manual is a comprehensive 59 page primer on how to build effective, results-drive incentive and motivation programs. The manual clearly describes the differences between an incentive and recognition and between sales and employee incentives. You will find descriptions of a wide variety of programs and program applications. You will also see useful descriptions of the many types of incentive awards including their strengths and weaknesses.

Probably the most valuable aspect of the planning manual is the section that gives you a step-by-step guide to building an incentive program, budgeting an incentive program and writing a proposal to sell the program.

The Incentive Planning Manual also includes a helpful section that provides rationale for the use of merchandise incentives and the most frequently and successfully used arguments against cash incentives.

Contact PFI for Assistance

The PFI Incentive Planning Manual is available upon request by calling 1-800-292-7371 (ask for sales) or e-mail: sales@spihq.com. The planning manual is a great place to start, but please let us know how we can be of further assistance. PFI’s sales and marketing support staff has years of experience in designing incentive programs for companies throughout the United States and Canada. We will assist you in developing, budgeting and implementing an incentive program to meet any type of sales, marketing or recognition objective.