Fast Track To Fast Start Bonuses

You spent months planning and developing, budgeting and finally you launched your incentive program. You sent a beautiful announcement; a 100+ page, 1200 item award catalog; you followed up with mass e-mails; introduced participants to the sleek new program website; secured top management involvement and you even sent everyone a cute little tchatchka to help participants remember how great this program is going to be. Then you waited to see the flames of success from the fires you lit, and you waited and waited and waited.

All the big bang, bells and whistles of the incentive program announcement has yielded is a yawning, turtle-paced movement toward the ultimate goals. What might just be missing is a “Fast Start Bonus.”

There are several reasons why there might be such a huge void in activity immediately following a big incentive program launch. Three of the most common include:

• Sales cycle: If the sales cycle is measured in months, then award earnings are delayed and so is the motivational enthusiasm.
• Payout at Goal Achievement: Many programs reward participants only when they achieve goal. This might take months or even several quarters. Again, program enthusiasm and interest may suffer.
• Mind Share: Your incentive program may be directed at individuals with hundreds of daily distractions demanding their attention. Your incentive program may be just part of this mental clutter.

A Fast Start Bonus presents participants with an immediate opportunity to earn points or even awards will serve to overcome the performance criteria gap; or it may serve to highlight the program and bring it to the forefront of the minds of your targeted audience.


Fast Start Bonuses take many forms. Here are several popular options:

• Award points for first signs of life: Offer points for achieving “X” or more sales in the first “X” days.
• Offer fast start points for achieving steps to a long-term sale ie: making appointments, follow-ups, presentations or bid completions.
• Set a pre-goal benchmark objective. Award “X” points for achieving 25% of your program goal in the first 60 days.
• Award points for getting involved:

  Quizzes: Encourage participants to become familiar with the rules and the fabulous selection of awards by presenting them with quizzes on the rules or the catalog content. Fast start bonus points can be awarded for completion or in the form of a sweepstakes.
  
  Goal Setting: Encourage participants to set personal award goals. Have them create a list of their top 5 award choices and the points required to earn them. Award fast start points for submitting their list.
  
  Program Enrollment: If you need to enroll participants or obtain additional information about them, make it a fast start bonus element. Offer “X” point for completing an enrollment process within the first two weeks of the program.

These are some of the most common fast start bonus options. There are many more. Each incentive application is different and will uniquely provide some way in which you may include a fast start bonus.

Don’t launch your program and watch it flame out. Get on the fast start bonus wagon, put some fire to it, and get participants on the move.

 

Individual Incentive Travel Can Add The “Sizzle” To Your Award Mix

It’s unique, it’s personal, it’s flexible, and it’s one of the most powerful and motivating awards you can include in an incentive program. Individual travel has been growing in popularity for two decades and is a staple incentive award option. If you’re looking to motivate participants to go the extra “mile”, don’t leave individual travel out of the mix.

If you’re not convinced, check out these facts. According to the Marriott Corporation, 40% of all incentive planners include individual travel in their award mix. The Incentive Federation Study of 2000 found 47% of incentive users responding to their research study indicated they used individual travel as part of their award mix. By comparison, only 42% indicated they used group travel.

Individual Travel Advantages

• Individual travel is economical, with very few upfront costs.
• Individual travel equals choice—winners select award options to create their own personal vacation.
• Individual travel can include the whole family, which group travel may exclude.
• Individual travel presents a great solution for awarding top performance and works for sweepstakes and contests.
• Individual travel provides great budget flexibility.
• Has proven effective in both sales and non-sales incentive applications.

PFI IIT Solutions

Given the growth and success of Individual Incentive Travel (IIT), PFI is committed to providing you with first class individual travel award options. For 2004, PFI again has two IIT options:

• Vacation Points
  The 2004 VacationPoints individual travel award package continues the tradition of presenting premier destination getaways, airline ticket vouchers, car rental, individual hotels and cruise packages. This year Vacation Points now includes one of the most popular getaway destinations—Cancun, Mexico.
  
  Vacation Points truly allows participants maximum flexibility to create their own travel getaway or enhance a planned family vacation.
   
• VacationAMERICA
  Recently VacationMakers was combined with a new product, VacationAMERICA, to create an even broader, more flexible individual incentive plateau awards collection. The new VacationAMERICA features five unique collection levels with stays ranging from a weekend getaway to a 6-day/7-night vacation. Hundreds of the most popular properties in America are featured in this newly updated award promotion. VacationAMERICA 2004 puts the best of the U.S. at the doorstep of incentive program award winners.

Through VacationPoints and VacationAMERICA, PFI has combined our quality brand name merchandise with the demand for exciting and popular individual travel awards. This is a winning combination that allows you to offer the best of merchandise and travel in one reward system through ANY of PFI’s catalogs.

PFI Is Dedicated To Helping You Succeed!

Over the past four to six months this newsletter has presented you with many new products, services and upgrades, all in addition to what was already a powerful mix of product and support services. The extent to which we have gone to give you, our marketing partners, what you need to increase your business often gets lost when presented over a prolonged period of time. For your review here is a list of new products and product enhancements we have presented you over the last six months.

New Products and Services

• Rock and Run The Warehouse
• Online participant survey and quiz capabilities
• Online mass e-mail capability
• VacationAMERICA individual travel packages
• Online employee-to-employee recognition module

Product/Service Upgrades

• Completely redesigned and more flexible Awardlink web site
• 2004 Deluxe catalog of awards
• 2004-2006 Plateau award collection
• Updated VacationPoints
• Updated Reflections gift collection
• Updated Canadian award book
• Online tracking access for ALL participants
• Improved online reporting

And there is more on the way in 2004. Watch your mail, this newsletter or visit with us at one of the many trade shows we participate in throughout the year to learn how PFI is bringing you more value and more services to help you grow your business.

For more information about the new products and services listed here or if there is any other assistance PFI can provide, contact us at 1-800-292-7371 (ask for sales) or send us an e-mail at sales@spihq.com. You can also get more information about PFI, its products and services at our company website—www.pfi-awards.com.

PFI has what it takes to fill “The Performance Gap”

Most all of us who have worked in the incentive industry understand that commissions or wages alone are not enough to motivate employees to reach their full potential. What was realized about the American workforce over 80 years ago when this industry was just getting started is still the fuel behind today’s multi-billion dollar incentive industry.

Consider these facts: according to the Public Agenda Forum, fewer than one in four American employees is working at full potential, half of all workers do no more than directly asked, and an astounding 75% of workers say they could be more effective in their jobs. The Gallup organization further reports that seven of ten U.S. employees are not engaged in their work. We’re sure many of you recognize these symptoms within in your own organizations. How many meetings have you seen planned to focus on motivating a sales force, division or business unit?

The concept of intangible or non-cash incentives, first introduced to U.S. companies eight decades ago, presents today’s business management with a powerful solution for addressing these shortfalls in employee performance.

How Powerful Are Incentives?
Here are frequently cited statistics professional planners use to convince corporate executives that they should include incentives in their annual marketing plan. Incentive Magazine reported the average sales increase from active incentive program participants is 16%. A 2003 Society of Incentive and Travel Executives (SITE) study found that non-cash incentives increase performance an average of 22% and incentive programs exceeding 12 months in duration produce an average 44% gain.

Where Are All The Incentive Users?
With hundreds of companies and incentive planning professionals providing incentive design, implementation and management services, thousands of success stories and the research studies and statistics to back the industry’s claims of success, you would think that every major business in America would include incentives as part of their overall business plan. There is an enormous usage gap. Eight decades after company-wide non-cash incentive programs were first introduced, the majority of U.S. business executives still either doubt their effectiveness or don’t recognize the value of this important marketing strategy.

Again, Incentive Federation studies have shown just over half of all U.S. companies with 1,000 or more employees (53%) use non-cash incentives as part of their overall marketing mix. Only 40% of companies with 100-999 employees use incentives. The Incentive Federation further reported, based on its year 2000 industry study, 68% of all U.S. companies do not use non-cash incentives for any part of their business.

This gap is hard to imagine. The 32% of those companies that have embraced incentives have achieved impressive results. When asked, 96% of those incentive users surveyed said merchandise incentives were somewhat to extremely effective for attaining marketing goals, 94% said travel was somewhat to extremely effective, and 62% said individual travel was effective. Given this as well as other success statistics previously detailed, one has to ask the question, why would a company not invest in incentives in addition to advertising and direct mail—the mainstream marketing strategies?”

The enormity of this gap has not gone unrecognized in the industry. Last year, Northwestern University announced the formation of the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement, a unit in the Integrated Marketing Communications Department of the Medill School of Journalism. The Forum is an outgrowth of earlier efforts from groups within the incentive industry including those of the Incentive Performance Center and the Performance Improvement Council. The Forum's goals are to study the interdisciplinary elements of people performance management; to measure their impact on organizational success; and to create a curriculum based on research findings for academic and professional use. This marks the first time the use of performance incentives as a business strategy has been integrated into a course curriculum at a university.

What Does This Mean To You?
Well it’s all good news. The work that industry trade organizations are doing to raise the awareness of incentives and their effectiveness will, in the long run, help everyone. The real value is that 68% of all U.S. companies not using non-cash incentives presents an enormous opportunity to prospect this goldmine of potential new users. This is not to say it will be a cakewalk. We all know non-merchandise or travel users are often hard sells when it comes to convincing them it’s time to implement a non-cash incentive program. However, with so many of them out there the odds are in your favor of finding one who is ready to give merchandise or travel incentives a try.

Please take note…
PFI will be closed on Good Friday, April 9, 2004.


PFI Mission Statement
It's our mission to provide the highest quality merchandise fulfillment and administration services while emphasizing innovation and productivity to maximize profits, growth and client/employee satisfaction.

 

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