Building Loyalty in the ICT Channel

Typically, 60% of sales in the comms/technology channel (ICT) go through the independent channel. This means that the vast majority of ICT sales go through third parties who are independent businesses, capable of making up their own minds – and capable of changing them on a whim. The benefits of such partner arrangements are speed to market, flexibility and a cost of sale considerably lower than a salaried, full-time salesforce. The downside is that the corresponding lack of control – of messaging, branding and ultimately sales pipeline – makes for uncertainty, particularly so in uncertain times.

Vendors are quick to point the finger at partners who they see as ‘playing the field’ and trading one partner against the other. Equally, the partners have long memories of vendors who took deals from them and went direct, reneging on an agreed channel arrangement.

Partners might think: If only the vendors could be more strategic, more joined-up in their programmes and more committed to their channel.

Vendors might think: If only partners could be better behaved, more compliant, more…loyal.

Historically, loyalty programmes in the ICT sector have been fairly basic. Deprived of the stick that can be used on a direct sales team, vendors have focused on carrots that incentivise sales behaviour and appeal to our baser instincts of personal recognition and reward. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the tried and trusted sales incentive trips – skiing in February or flights of fancy to remote, exotic locations. The problem is that this tactical approach is limited in its scope and tends to incentivise only current business that’s already in view, rather than new business. Also, it recognises only the sales person who closes the sale – not the wider team behind them who also toiled to land the deal.

The ideal loyalty programme should have the following characteristics:

First, it should be strategic, not tactical. Beginning with the end in mind, the programme should focus on the behaviour to be changed or established, not just a binary, yes/no, win/lose outcome.

Second, it should incentivise the partner organisation as a whole, not just one lucky individual.

Third, it should be sufficiently granular to reward various behaviours that strengthen the partner/vendor relationship, not just the ultimate sales win. This is particularly important in the ‘as-a-service’ world where rather than a big, single payment for a capital expenditure, clients are moving towards a monthly, operational cost.

Fourth, it should have clear goals, metrics and RoI measures. Sounds obvious, but how many loyalty programmes have you come across that exist simply because they always have done, without any tangible return (or metrics to prove that they work)?

This list is not exhaustive – I could go on. Stream has been delivering award-winning, measurable loyalty schemes to their B2B clients for over a decade. With experience across multiple industries, we have the capability to custom-build a programme that delivers tangible results, protects your brand and builds genuine loyalty across your partner community.

So, where to start? As with most journeys, this depends on where you are right now.

If you have an existing programme, it’s important to understand what’s working and what’s not. The Stream R&D survey package will research your current members to discover what they like about it and what they don’t. Using a mix of research, data analytics, customer research via surveys and telephone interviews and internal stakeholder interviews we can measure your programme against the alternatives on offer from your competitors - and compare this to best practice. The resulting report and feedback will be presented at a thought leadership session with your key stakeholders. Following the report presentation, Stream will facilitate a session to determine the next steps moving forward - what should remain in place, what could be amended to improve the customer experience and generate the behavioural changes required and what should be removed from the existing programme.

If you have no pre-existing loyalty programme in place, we can build an optimal loyalty and incentive scheme from the ground up. We can also help you with the following portfolio offerings:

·       Channel portal solutions

·       Digital communications

·       Data analytics

·       Strategy and consultancy

·       Event management

·       Concierge services and programme management

·       Chatbots and AI

Let’s connect and get the ball rolling today.