What is a Dealer Incentive Program?
A dealer incentive program is a strategic approach used by companies that rely on dealers or resellers to distribute their products. The goal of such a program is to motivate these external partners to achieve better results—whether that’s by increasing sales, offering rebates, engaging in more training, or aligning more closely with your brand’s goals.
Trimetal Dealer Incentives
But how do you ensure that these incentives effectively drive the desired behavior? This is where cooperative marketing, through merchandise, comes into play. A merchandise incentive program integrates branded items into your dealer strategy, using them as rewards that both encourage short-term actions and build long-term brand loyalty. By offering well-designed, high-quality merchandise as incentives, you create a system that motivates dealer employees to take actions that benefit your company while also fostering a stronger connection to your brand.
Why use merchandise in a Dealer Incentive Program?
Merchandise works on multiple levels:
- Immediate Incentive: High-quality merchandise serves as an immediate reward, making dealer employees feel appreciated and motivated to continue performing well.
- Long-Term Brand Ambassadorship: The more your dealers and their employees use and wear your branded merchandise, the more they internalize and promote your brand, both consciously and unconsciously.
- Local Brand Awareness: Dealers have their own local sphere of influence. When they wear your branded merchandise, they naturally extend your brand’s visibility within their local market, strengthening your brand presence in those areas.
With this triple impact—both immediate and long-term—merchandise becomes a powerful tool within your dealer incentive program.
Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Successful Dealer Merchandise and Incentive Program
Step 1: Define Your Goals and Metrics
Before you launch your program, you need to be crystal clear about what you want to achieve. Are you looking to increase sales? Improve training participation? Boost brand loyalty?
- Set a Baseline: Understand your current performance metrics. How many dealers are engaged in training? What are your current sales figures? This baseline will help you measure the effectiveness of your incentive program.
- Determine Key Metrics: Decide on the specific KPIs you will track, such as sales growth, training completion rates, and dealer engagement levels.
Tip: Start by conducting an internal audit of your existing dealer program. Identify areas that need improvement and define clear, measurable goals for your incentive program.
Step 2: Design an Effective Dealer Onboarding Process
Your onboarding process should make a strong first impression and set the tone for a successful partnership.
- Merchandise Onboarding Kit: Provide new dealers with a well-curated merch box containing branded caps, t-shirts, beanies, and other items. These should be shareable among the dealer’s employees to create a sense of inclusion and brand identity from the start.
- Educational Materials: Alongside the merchandise, include training materials or access to online training platforms. The goal is to educate the entire dealer team, not just the owner.
Great items for a dealer onboarding pack are: caps, socks, t-shirts, tote bags & water bottles.
Anydesk Partner Totebags
Step 3: Incentivize Training Participation
Well-trained dealers are more likely to recommend and successfully sell your products. Therefore, incentivizing training is crucial.
- Structured Incentives: Offer exclusive merchandise for completing certain training modules or achieving certifications. For example, a dealer might receive a high-quality jacket for completing advanced training.
- Milestone Rewards: Create a tiered reward system where dealers unlock increasingly valuable merchandise as they complete more training sessions or achieve higher certifications.
Tip: Map out your training modules and align them with specific merchandise rewards. Communicate these rewards clearly to encourage participation.
Step 4: Celebrate Milestones and Achievements
Celebrating milestones is a powerful way to reinforce positive behavior and encourage continued success among your dealers. Recognition not only motivates the dealer but also fosters a deeper connection with your brand.
- Personalized Recognition: When dealers or their employees reach significant milestones—whether it’s a sales target, a training completion, or a loyalty benchmark—celebrate these achievements with personalized merchandise. This could be a custom-designed item that highlights the milestone, such as a limited-edition jacket or a personalized plaque.
- Public Acknowledgment: Go beyond private recognition by publicly acknowledging these achievements. Feature top performers in your newsletters, on your dealer portal, or even through social media shoutouts. This not only rewards the individual or team but also sets a positive example for others to strive toward.
- Tiered Celebrations: For larger milestones, consider more substantial celebrations, such as hosting an exclusive event, offering a trip to your headquarters, or presenting high-value rewards like luxury branded items. These larger gestures show your dealers that their hard work is valued and appreciated.
Example of partner celebration
Tip: Establish a structured plan for recognizing and celebrating milestones. Determine which milestones will trigger recognition, what types of rewards or rebates will be offered, and how achievements will be communicated both privately and publicly. This structured approach ensures that every achievement is acknowledged and that your dealers remain motivated to reach the next level.
Step 5: Activations and Product Launches
To maintain enthusiasm and drive continued engagement, it’s important to regularly introduce new elements, including comprehensive training programs, to your dealer merchandise and incentive program. Innovations, activations, and product launches are key opportunities to energize your dealer network and encourage active participation.
Lamett collection activation
- Product Launch Kits: When introducing new products, provide your dealers with exclusive launch kits. These kits could include promotional merchandise, product samples, and marketing materials that help them showcase the new offerings to their customers. The excitement of a new product, combined with the exclusivity of the launch kit, can boost dealer engagement and sales.
- Activation Campaigns: Plan regular activation campaigns that encourage your dealers to take specific actions, such as promoting a seasonal sale or participating in a marketing challenge. Reward their participation with special incentives, like limited-edition merchandise or access to exclusive events. These activations can create a sense of urgency and excitement, driving immediate action.
- Innovative Merchandise: Periodically introduce new and innovative merchandise to keep the incentive program fresh and appealing. This could include tech gadgets, eco-friendly products, or lifestyle items that align with current trends. By staying ahead of the curve, you ensure that your program remains relevant and desirable.
- Co-Branded Product Launches: For top-performing dealers, offer the opportunity to participate in co-branded product launches. This could involve creating a special edition of a product with both your brand’s and the dealer’s logos, which they can promote within their local market. This not only enhances their sense of ownership but also strengthens your brand’s presence in new regions.
Step 6: Select the Right Merchandise
The success of your incentive program hinges on choosing merchandise that your dealers and their employees will value and use.
Big Green Egg Apparel
- Exclusive collections: Design a unique merchandise collection specifically for your dealers, making them feel special and valued.
- High-Quality wearables: Focus on items that are both stylish and practical, such as caps, backpacks, and hoodies. These items should be things that dealer employees are proud to wear, thereby reinforcing their connection to your brand.
Johnnie Walker Partner Collection
Tip: Work with a merchandise partner to design and produce items that align with your brand’s image and values. Ensure that these items are durable, stylish, and desirable.
Step 7: Consider Customization and Co-Branding
Customization can make your dealers feel even more connected to your brand.
- Standard Collection: Start with a base collection of merchandise that consistently represents your brand across all dealers.
- Co-Branded Items: For top-performing dealers, offer co-branded merchandise that features both your logo and theirs. This can be a powerful way to deepen their investment in your brand.
Guide: Develop a system for co-branding that allows for easy customization while maintaining brand consistency. Set criteria for which dealers qualify for co-branded merchandise.
Step 8: Plan Distribution and Ensure Scalability
As your program grows, so will the logistical challenges, but offering rebates could incentivize early adoption and ease initial hurdles. It’s essential to plan for scalability from the beginning.
- Use a Dedicated Platform: Leverage a platform like Sunday Wardrobe to manage inventory, track orders, and handle distribution.
- Outsource Logistics: Consider outsourcing the logistics to ensure that merchandise is delivered promptly and efficiently, no matter where your dealers are located.
- Set up a webshop: make it incredibly easy for your dealers to convert their points to merchandise. Remove every friction and your program will thrive. Here are some merchandise webshop examples.
AVR Dealer Platform
Set up your logistics infrastructure early, making sure it can handle both small-scale rollouts and large-scale expansions without sacrificing efficiency or accuracy.
Step 9: Keep Communication Fresh and Engaging
Regular communication is key to maintaining interest and engagement in your incentive program.
- Limited Edition Releases: Regularly update your merchandise collection with limited edition items to create a sense of urgency and excitement.
- Ongoing Updates: Use newsletters, emails, or a dedicated portal to keep your dealers informed about new incentives, upcoming releases, and success stories.
Tip: Develop a communication plan that includes regular updates and promotional materials to keep your dealers engaged with the program.
Step 10: Monitor Performance and Adapt
Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your program and be prepared to make adjustments as needed.
- Track Key Metrics: Regularly review the KPIs you established at the outset, such as training completion rates, sales increases, and dealer engagement levels.
- Feedback Loops: Collect feedback from dealers to identify any areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to the program.
Set up a regular review process where you analyze performance data and dealer feedback, making adjustments to keep the program effective and aligned with your goals. Leverage the experiences of others to refine your program.
- Case Study: Anydesk successfully used a two-tier dealer program to motivate performance. By offering different levels of rewards based on dealer achievements, they encouraged greater engagement and loyalty.
- Incorporate Best Practices: Identify what has worked well in similar programs and integrate those strategies into your own approach.
Conclusion
Building a successful dealer merchandise and incentive program requires careful planning, strategic thinking, and ongoing management. By following this step-by-step guide, you can create a program that not only incentivizes your dealers but also turns them into enthusiastic brand ambassadors who are invested in your success. If you’re ready to take the next step, the team at Sunday is here to help. We’ll work with you to design and implement a program that meets your goals and strengthens your brand’s presence in the market.
