The retail ecosystem thrives on relationships. While most businesses focus on customer loyalty programs, there’s a significant yet underappreciated group driving your bottom line—your channel partners and last-mile advocates.
Essentially, this cohort comprises your distributors, resellers, sales agents, and delivery teams, who are the backbone of your sales operations. So, brushing aside their importance in this otherwise competitive market is like planting the seeds in a garden but not watering them.
Opting for the best loyalty management software (LMS) is a gamechanger in the retail and B2B industry. It engages these key stakeholders, allowing your business to experience the growth and boost it deserves.
1. Strengthening Relationships: More Than Just Business
Consider your channel partners as an athlete that’s competing on an international level. They are doing the best they can, bringing in more medals from the race they participate in. You are the coach that keeps shouting profanities and bringing them down instead of cheering and motivating them.
A similar situation happens in the B2B landscape where channel partners and last mile advocates, who work day in and out to drive business growth and successful sales don’t feel appreciated for their work.
The need for a good loyalty management tool is to recognise their role in the business. An LMS allows you to reward their contributions, further motivating and empowering them in the process. Many people mistake the importance of an LMS thinking that its an interface that hands out vouchers and coupons. What we don’t see in hindsight is the emotional bonding it creates.
Here’s a quick anecdote for better understanding – Let’s take a tech company that implemented a loyalty program for their retailers. Instead of rewarding them with generic rewards, they personalised the loyalty programs to include rewards like exclusive training sessions, premium support access, and even invitations to annual conferences. The result? Better retailer retention in that year.
2. Boosting Performance: Turning Motivation into Action
Every car needs refuelling to take you places. The same is the case for channel partners and influencers. The integration of a comprehensive and customised loyalty management platform comes with an assurance.
For example, a channel partner and retailer that knows they will be handsomely rewarded for exceeding their targets will consciously (and even unconsciously) go an extra mile. Including unique elements like gamification and performance-based challenges further instills healthy competition, driving change and growth for the business.
Here’s an example to understand the importance of an LMS better – Consider two retailers – A and B. A knows that completing 100 successful sales will bring them an amazing reward through the loyalty program. On the other hand, B isn’t aware of it. Who do you think will hustle harder? Of course, A! Motivation is the magic sauce, and an LMS serves it up in abundance.
3. The Power of the "Inner Cheerleader": Boost Partner Advocacy
Selling your products and services require a separate marketing budget. But what if you could turn your channel partners and influencers to be your brand advocates?
That’s where the power of a good loyalty program management software comes into the picture. Having someone that genuinely believes in your products and promoting them is the best way to garner a sustainable customer base for your B2B enterprise.
Let’s take an example with a sneaker brand. This is a business niche that involves a lot of marketing to bring in customers that love and return to buy more. When you use an LMS app like 1Channel’s to reward your channel partners with unique and exclusive rewards like early access to limited-edition releases or exclusive discounts for their customers, it incentivises them to push your products more proactively.
In short, onboarding a customised and holistic loyalty management tool for your business helps you create an army of advocates who work tirelessly to spread the word about your brand (and it benefits them in the process too). So, it is a win-win situation for every party involved.
4. Aligning Goals: Ensuring Everyone’s on the Same Page
An often less talked about benefit of loyalty cloud salesforce tool for your business is ensuring that everyone is on the same page. It takes away the guessing game from the equation, which ensures clear communication and eliminates unnecessary confusion among the channel partners and influencers.
In short, the best loyalty management software will ensure that your business goals align with that of the channel partner and retailers too. When partners understand that their efforts directly contribute to mutual success, they’re more likely to perform in ways that benefit both parties.
Here’s a quick example – Let’s say that your business is all set to launch a new product and your goal is achieving certain market penetration and promoting the newly launched product. The retailers that aid and contribute towards that goal automatically qualify for tailored rewards. With an LMS, this entire process is automated and tracked and it ensures that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
5. Customising Rewards: One Size Does Not Fit All
One of the biggest challenges businesses face with channel partner loyalty programs is the standarised rewards don’t yield the desired loyalty.
To be fair, we can’t expect a high-performing retailer to be happy with a discount coupon when they are a major driving force behind the business’ sales and success. This is why choosing a customised loyalty management program translates to better motivation among the channel partners and influencers.
Put yourself in their shoes and think. Aren’t you more likely to work harder when the rewards you get from the loyalty programs cater to your best interest? There are instances where some channel partners prefer monetary incentives while other retailers might prefer non-monetary rewards like exclusive access to events or premium products. Providing them with that “choice” is what drives the success of a great loyalty program.
Start Your LMS Journey Today with 1Channel
Integrating the best loyalty management software for your business can directly elevate your retail game. Platforms like 1Channel make this transition easier with customised solutions that help you value, motivate and empower your channel partners and last mile advocates.
If you are ready to scale your user base to 80,000+ member base and 20,000+ retailers like one of our clients did, it is time to make tangible changes today.
A robust LMS like 1Channel’s is your ultimate ally in this loyalty journey, so don’t let your thoughts linger further.
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