You may have already thought of using online gift cards for lead generation — rewarding webinar attendees, maybe, or new blog subscribers. You may have already used them for customer advocacy, such as incentivizing feedback surveys or online reviews. But did you know that you can use digital rewards to help turn bottom-of-the-funnel leads into paying customers?
Rewards programs that help close deals can include a mix of internal and external incentives. Here are a few ideas.
When a prospective customer signs up for a demo but fails to attend, it doesn’t just mean that no sale was made. It also wastes the salesperson’s precious time, which could have been spent selling to someone else. Meeting no-shows at events are even worse, since there are limited slots for conversations during conferences, whether it’s virtual or in person.
By offering an incentive for attendance at a meeting or demo, you can help ensure that your time goes to good use. It also helps you get off on the right foot with the prospect, since you’re showing appreciation for their time. Plus, you can alter the incentive to personalize the experience. For instance, offer a coffee gift card for a morning meeting, or ask them to get on a call at lunchtime and send a DoorDash or Uber Eats reward.
Many sales teams are already compensated based on quotas and the deals they close. But by adding an extra competition or incentive, you can really motivate them to pull out all the stops. One of the most popular options has traditionally been sales incentive trips. But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, travel became more difficult, and many companies had to stop these trips. Even now, many salespeople may not feel comfortable traveling, especially in a large group of colleagues.
Online gift cards can offer an effective alternative. If you want to keep the idea of a sales incentive trip, use gift cards for accommodation sites, like Hotels.com and Airbnb, or airlines, such as Delta or Southwest. That way, your salespeople can keep dreaming about their next vacation. Run an internal sales blitz to reward team members who hit a certain amount of revenue or percentage of their quota, or opt instead to reward the top five or 10 performers in a given time period.
Sometimes, prospective customers just need a little extra encouragement to sign on the dotted line. An incentive can do the trick, but make sure to create some urgency. Tell those who are close to purchasing that the company is offering online gift cards to the next 20 customers who sign up or to anyone who places an order by the end of the week. You may want to adjust the value of the gift card based on the size of the purchase. Even a small incentive can be enough to push them over the edge.
It has always been true that you have to spend money to make money, and digital rewards can be an effective part of that strategy. Online gift cards can go a long way to close deals and build goodwill with those new customers. But delivering those rewards has to be a streamlined process — otherwise, it ends up just taking up too much of your sales team’s time. A digital rewards management platform can help you set up separate campaigns for each tactic and instantly deliver incentives so you can boost your bottom line.
BHN Rewards partner SmartBug Media used digital incentives to book more meetings and reduce no-shows — read our case study to find out how!
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
