Introduction
In a world where communication is central to nearly every aspect of life, it’s easy to overlook some of the challenges that businesses may face when communicating with their audiences. For businesses that have physical dealerships with site staff, to those with call centre based resellers, it can prove particularly tricky to communicate to audiences that are in-direct or third-party employees.
When it comes to selling, we do know that sales staff will sell what they know. That can be the difference between selling your products and services, or your competitor’s. Making the need for communication from the business directly to the audience critical to overall business success.
From channel engagement programs to retail channel loyalty schemes FMI have devised screen optimised comms channels to suit the sales staff environment (desktop for call centres, mobile for site staff) to help overcome these barriers, and to ultimately support businesses to drive sales. Our brand engagement experts can help set up branded points-based websites, design effective communications and disseminate communications direct to sales, customer service and account management teams.
Communicating with an unknown audience
Nearly 8 years ago a global energy/utilities company engaged FMI to find a way to communicate to front line dealership and distributor sales staff. Their primary challenge was that they didn’t know who their audience was, how many there were, or how best to contact them without email addresses and phone numbers.
So, when you don’t know the audience, and can’t speak with them directly, how do you communicate with them?
Use a fully branded trade engagement website, tailored to your business brand’s specific product and services sales cycle, to create a way of communicating directly. Incentivise the audience to sign up and come directly to you, rather than the business having to find them. Cascade instructions on how to register on your trade engagement website and take control of your communications to help drive sales.
Adopting a ‘One-to-Many’ Communication Model
By creating a centralised digital destination, dealers and call centres can encourage both existing and new staff to register on the website, providing confidence in continuous and centralised communications. Use this platform to tell them what you want them to share with and tell your customers. Cascade levels of communication from business information, product and services detail, to competitions, quizzes and training. Keep them on-message and on-brand.
Reward audience participation, repeat website visits and overall sales achievements through a points-based loyalty programme that will put your business above your competitors. Overlay tactical, seasonal incentives, and be strategic with your initiatives through this smart, cost-effective and easy to manage “one-to-many” communication model.
Building a Channel Partner Loyalty Program
Working in conjunction with your marketing team, FMI can offer an actionable engagement plan that includes:
- Developing clear messaging that dealers and managers can easily communicate and disseminate to sales staff.
- Audience segmentation for targeted communications and engagement.
- Providing consistent, high-quality content for account teams and marketing to share.
- Training partners on brand, service and product specifics.
- Incentivising engagement with rewards and/or recognition plus performance metrics to ensure active participation.
Channel Loyalty From FMI
If you are struggling to communicate with an audience that you don’t know, we can help. With investment in a communication strategy, the right technology and effective rewards your sales can increase exponentially.
We have helped brands such as Sony, bp, Targus and Huawei to increase channel loyalty and drive sales performance through improved communications and dedicated brand engagement websites. Quick, simple and cost-effective to implement, our leading channel loyalty solutions are designed to flex with your business’s specific needs, objectives and budget.
Beginning with a consultation phase, our engagement experts will propose loyalty and engagement solutions that are tailored to your requirements. We can help at all stages of program roll-out from stakeholder buy-in, budget planning and communication plans to distributor and reseller launches and ongoing reporting metrics.
Contact us to improve your channel sales and loyalty programmes.
