Back in 2019, following a successful digital-first customer cashback promotion, Kubota asked FMI Agency to look at ways to improve their dealer incentive programme. Whilst popular with the dealers (who doesn’t like getting rewarded for sales?), the long-established sales incentive was an admin burden for sales, marketing and finance.
It was a classic old school spreadsheet-based incentive, requiring manual consolidation and validation of sales and warranty data from multiple sources before the manual issuance of rewards – sometimes months after the initial sale. Difficult to track and therefore difficult to gauge or even measure success.
That September, we launched the digital dealer engagement programme Kubota Rewards Club, an online portal utilising our channel sales incentive platform and technology. For the first time, dealers could easily monitor their own personal performance, tracking sales, earning points and converting to rewards in an instant.
The powerful reporting functionality enabled Kubota to look at real time reporting and tracking, from global to individual performance.
Continuous improvement
Like the agricultural and ground care industry itself, the programme and platform has never stood still. APIs and better data has not only helped to reduce the time between action and reward for dealers but also improved all round reporting and analysis, two key factors that positively impact sales performance and quality brand interactions. Our technology ensures the incentive mechanic is flexible to support and improves the sales process, such as managing product demand during covid, or extending the dealer’s focus beyond acquisition to aftersales and excellent customer service.
Sowing the seeds of success
The success of Kubota Rewards Club means we are extending the programme into other areas of Kubota and its industries. Rewarding and engaging construction, parts and aftersales; our platform enabling sophisticated audience segmentation and targeted comms to support participants in each sector with the right messaging, tools and incentive mechanic.
With challenging and changing times ahead for the industries Kubota supports, Kubota Rewards Club will be key in generating dealer sales success in 2024.
